Marc Taggart

Prosecutors have charged a Cody businessman with multiple felonies, alleging he threatened a local oil and gas producer with firearms and explosives.

Marc Taggart, 74, faces four counts of terroristic threats relating to letters he allegedly sent to a Powell company in August.

Charging documents indicate that Taggart believes the Powell firm is among several that collectively owe him a whopping $2 trillion in mineral royalty payments. Investigators say he tried taking his grievances to President Donald Trump and the FBI, along with the oil and gas producers themselves. 

In an Aug. 31 letter to Powell-based JJ Bunkirt Oil & Gas Corporation, Taggart allegedly demanded a “MINIMUM of $56,352,872.73 within 24 hours” and threatened to shut down one of the company’s wells.

“I am ready willing and able to use my rights as an American citizen, and my resources to remove this well from operation by the use of my second amendment rights, in the field or in your corporate building or by explosive means if I have to in the field or in your corporate office,” Taggart allegedly wrote. “I will reclaim MY property with any force I have to in order to recover my lost funds.”

The Park County Attorney’s Office alleges that by sending that and three similar letters to Bunkirt, Taggart “did knowingly threaten to commit a violent felony with the intent to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such inconvenience.”

Held on bond

Taggart was arrested at his home on Thursday; the longtime Cody resident and Western furniture maker said it was the first time he’d been arrested.

Taggart remained in custody on Monday, with bail set at $50,000 cash. If he posts that money, he must follow several conditions. Those include surrendering any firearms to law enforcement and staying away from Bunkirt, nine other oil and gas companies and six individuals, including District Court Judge Bill Simpson and his sister.

The cash-only bond and no contact orders were requested by Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Eichele, who did not detail the reasons behind his requests.

Taggart didn’t argue with Eichele’s bond recommendations, telling Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah that he didn’t know what to say.

“I can answer any question you have regarding the oil and gas and the oil wells and gas wells,” Taggart said, before Darrah cut him off.

“That’s not what we’re here today for, OK?” the judge said. “You can talk to your attorney about that.”

Grabbing the feds’ attention

Charging documents suggest the criminal investigation was kick-started by an Aug. 10 letter that Taggart reportedly sent to President Donald Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

According to authorities, the two-page letter asserts that a Denver-based energy company owes Taggart approximately $2 trillion, the former oil and gas giant Anadarko owes him $135 million and Bunkirt $56 million, with several other energy companies owing “billions.”

“I am ready, willing and able to go to the fields and recover my lost assets. l can and will shut down wells if l have to in order to claim my rights,” says a portion of the letter, which bears Taggart’s signature. “As the mineral right owner I can lock the people working those fields out of harvesting my minerals, I can and will chain off any access to those wells, I can and will pull down the pump jacks, and I will exercise my second amendment rights, and I can and will remove the entire field from production by use of explosive devices or pump trucks, or firearms if I have to.

“I have waited long enough,” the letter reportedly adds.

The letter was received by the federal government on Aug. 24 and eventually made its way through Secretary Burgum’s office and on to special agents with the Bureau of Land Management.

The agents interviewed Taggart on Aug. 31. In a later report, they wrote that Taggart told them he sent the letter “to gain attention and obtain assistance in recovering what he believes is money owed to him,” 

Cody police dig in

The report was passed on to Cody Police Det. Scott Burlingame, who conducted his own investigation.

In a sworn statement, Burlingame said he learned that Taggart had previously sent six similarly worded letters to JJ Bunkirt, which is based in rural Powell.

The detective said that the letter dated Aug. 31 — the same day Taggart was interviewed by the BLM agents — “appeared to elevate the previous threats.” It was in that document that Taggart demanded payment within 24 hours and talked about reclaiming his property “with any force I have to.”

A Bunkirt employee reported that Taggart had actually visited their office over the summer and that they’d discussed what to do if he showed up again, according to Burlingame’s affidavit.

The employee indicated that “the threatening letters were a source for concern with his company,” Burlingame wrote.

The detective looked at Taggart’s signature on the Aug. 31 letter and found it substantially matched other documents known to have come from Taggart.

Woman reportedly helped write letters

In his interview with BLM agents, Taggart reportedly said that he had his assistant craft the letters, which he then signed.

“Marc [Taggart] acknowledged reading some, but not all letters and stated that similar letters have been mailed to several different oil/energy companies,” Burlingame wrote.

Though not named in the court documents, Taggart’s assistant is Wendy Coe, a Cody woman who reportedly tried to hire someone to murder her daughter’s boyfriend in 2023. Court records say Coe was caught on tape speaking to a supposed hitman — actually an undercover agent — about ways the boyfriend could be killed and potential prices, though a deal was never reached.

Coe claimed she was entrapped by authorities, but on Sept. 21, she decided to plead no contest to a reduced felony count of attempted aggravated assault and battery. The 57-year-old is currently awaiting sentencing. 

The boundaries of free speech 

Court records say Coe has been working for Taggart over the past couple of years while out on bond, and he’s been a vocal defender of hers. In a pair of fall 2025 letters to prosecutors and Judge Simpson, Taggart implored them to help Coe and not lock her away. He said that Coe had pulled his business out of bankruptcy, lowered his personal debts and managed all his personal affairs. Taggart described her as “who and what keeps me balanced.”

“She may have said harsh things, and may have spoken in a manner that could be construed as threatening, [but] she would NEVER actually act on those things,” Taggart wrote in part.

In a more recent, five-page letter that Taggart sent to the Powell Tribune, he again made the case that Coe had been illegally entrapped by law enforcement and others. He contended that Coe lost her temper and simply said words in anger after her efforts to help her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend were repaid with mistreatment.

“Is saying WORDS not protected by the Constitution?” Taggart wrote in the Sept. 24-dated letter.

Coe’s sentencing date has yet to be scheduled; prosecutors have indicated that they intend to seek five to eight years of prison time, while the defense can request probation.

As for Taggart’s terroristic threats case, a preliminary hearing is tentatively set for Oct. 20. Judge Darrah appointed a public defender for Taggart, though the defendant said that, if he can afford it, he would like to eventually hire private counsel.