Gary Brooks Faulkner

Gary Brooks Faulkner (born 1958) is an American former construction worker and landlord who was arrested in 2010 in Pakistan while attempting to cross into Afghanistan carrying a sword, pistol, night vision goggles, a map, and a Bible in an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda, and hand him over to Pakistani authorities. Faulkner, believing that he was on a mission from God, spent ten days in the custody of Peshawar police. Faulkner claims to have made several trips to Pakistan, and made various other impractical attempts to get there, having made it as far as airport customs in his penultimate voyage. The 2016 film Army of One starring Nicolas Cage is based on him.

Early life Faulkner was born in 1958 in Los Angeles, California. When he was ten years old, he and his family moved to Colorado where Faulkner lived in Denver and Greeley where he currently resides.

In 1981 and 1986, Faulkner served prison sentences on burglary and larceny convictions. In 1996, Faulkner was sentenced to one year in Denver County Jail for a domestic-violence assault conviction. In 2006, he was arrested on a misdemeanor for failing to appear on a warrant from Larimer County, Colorado for not having car insurance.

Faulkner maintained a living working in construction as a general contractor and carpenter. According to his brother Scott, after the attacks "it became his passion, his mission, to track down Osama and kill him or bring him back alive". Scott also said that Gary was trained in martial arts, particularly in the Korean martial art of hapkido, and that the sword and dagger were his "weapons of choice." According to Chris Heath of GQ, who interviewed Faulkner, it was Faulkner's belief that Al-Qaeda was going to detonate a nuclear device in Mecca unless Bin Laden was captured by a specific date. He also believed that upon the successful completion of his mission, he would become the king of a Central American country. Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, a senior official in the Peshawar police, told the Associated Press, "We initially laughed when he told us he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden." While in custody, American officials visited him with a doctor, finding that he needed dialysis but was otherwise in "good spirits." Faulkner spoke to KTLA after arriving at the airport saying, "This is not about me. What this is about is the American people and the world. We can't let people like this scare us. We don't get scared by people like this, we scare them and that's what this is about. We're going to take care of business." Faulkner told his brother that he was treated well by the authorities and that he did not have any media access making him completely unaware of the media attention.

Nearly a year after Faulkner's arrest, Bin Laden was confirmed to be in Abbottabad, just two hours from Pakistan's capital city of Islamabad, in a compound that was raided by SEAL Team Six resulting in his death on May 2, 2011. Faulkner was not paid the bounty nor was anyone else. Although, Faulkner said in his 2010 interview with Letterman that he was not interested in the bounty on Bin Laden. At the time of Faulkner's arrest, media reports alleged that Bin Laden also had the same condition,

On September 1, 2011, Weld County authorities issued an affidavit for Faulkner for possessing a weapon as a previous offender. The incident occurred as Faulkner was informing a tenant that she was going to be evicted. The woman and three of her friends broke into Faulkner's apartment to change his mind. Faulkner fired a warning shot that sent the four running away. The police came to his apartment and took the gun from him. Faulkner went to the police station on August 31, 2011, to retrieve his gun and a background check on Faulkner resulted in a felony summons. The affidavit states that when Faulkner learned he was going to be charged, he claimed that he was above the law. Faulkner allegedly told police officers that he would defend himself if he felt he had to, and threatened to shoot the officers if necessary. He was arrested on September 1, 2011, and was detained at the Weld County North Jail Complex in Greeley. Faulkner was awaiting trial for March 5, 2012, and was unable to post bond set at ten thousand dollars as he represented himself during the hearing.

In popular culture In 2011, a documentary film titled Binny Boy - One Man's Hunt for the World's Greatest Fugitive documents Faulkner's quest to capture Bin Laden was released.