The Lords of Chaos was a self-styled teen militia formed on April 13, 1996, in Fort Myers, Florida, United States. It was led by Kevin Donald Foster (born Kevin Donald Bates; June 16, 1977). The group gained notoriety for a crime spree that ended on April 30, 1996, with the murder of one of the boys' teachers, Mark Schwebes, the Riverdale High School's band director.
The case has been documented most extensively in Jim Greenhill's true crime book, Someone Has to Die Tonight. It is also the subject of a Dateline NBC special, When A Killer Calls, as well as being mentioned in Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan & Didrik Søderlind, with the book borrowing the group's name.
Formation of the Lords of Chaos
On April 12, 1996, in Fort Myers, Florida, Kevin Foster, Pete Magnotti, and Chris Black went on a vandalism and arson spree. Florida juvenile records show that only the group's ringleader, Kevin Foster, had any prior arrests or criminal history, consisting primarily of driving violations. The first spree was quickly followed by a second that included an attempt to burn a church bus and the burning of a bird cage containing two macaws, killing one.
After the night of destruction, Foster decided they should form a militia dedicated to terrorizing the community. The creation of the group's symbol ( (Ø) ) came from an in-joke involving a question Foster missed on a math test. The symbol for the null or empty set is either { } or Ø. On the test, Foster wrote ( Ø ) as the answer to a question whose answer was not set, marking it incorrect.
Kevin "God" Foster, Pete "Fried" Magnotti, Chris "Slim" Black, and Derek "Mob" Shields made up the core members of the Lords of Chaos. The group also included lesser associates, Chris "Red" Burnett, Thomas "Dog" Torrone, Brad Young, and Craig Lesh.
Escalation
In an East Lee Tribune article titled "Hell Raising in Buckingham," a local reporter lashed out at the unknown culprits, calling them "obviously pea-brained vandals" and "person(s) of less than average intelligence and a cretin's personality."
On April 17, 1996, the group wrote a document entitled "Declaration of War — Formal Introduction of Lords of Chaos," which they planned to mail to the Lee County Clerk/Traffic Violations Bureau but ultimately did not. The manifesto warned:
In the early morning hours of April 20, 1996, the group, aided by Lyle Rath, escalated their terror campaign by destroying a historic two-story brick Coca-Cola bottling plant in Fort Myers. Foster's original plan had been to destroy the building on April 19 to emulate the Oklahoma City bombing on its one year anniversary. Like Timothy McVeigh, he saw his actions as a retaliation against the government for the Waco Siege, which had occurred on April 19, 1993.
As a perverse joke, Foster used a Pepsi can filled with gunpowder and fitted with a 25-foot firework fuse to destroy the historic building. While the other boys arranged propane tanks around the building which they had previously stolen from a local Starvin' Marvin's, Foster ignited the fuse of the homemade bomb. The boys then retreated to a picnic table across the street where they could view the destruction. About 13 minutes later, an intense explosion ripped through the building, causing an estimated $100,000 damage.
On April 26, Kevin Foster and Peter Magnotti robbed and carjacked Emory Lewis, Derek Shields's landlord and the owner of the local Alva Country Diner. Shields had hated Lewis since he had heard him call his mother a "bitch" and "poor white trash." Lewis was uninjured in the attack.
Murder of Mark Schwebes
On April 30, the group decided to steal clothes at a local Dillard's store for an upcoming "Grad Nite" at Walt Disney World, where Foster planned to steal one of the character's costumes to use as a disguise to shoot minorities at the amusement park. As part of their diversion, Foster rigged a smoke grenade, which he had purchased at an Army-Navy store with fishing wire. The plan was to stack up the clothes they wanted and run out when the grenade went off, however the grenade proved to be a dud.
The boys decided to vandalize Riverdale High School's auditorium. They stole latex gloves, a fire extinguisher, two staplers, and a bag of canned peaches. Foster rigged a Clorox bleach bottle full of gasoline with a lit rag and threw it through the auditorium window.