We no longer live in a society where we know everyone on our street, but men like Ed Martinez make you wish we still did.
Martinez doesn’t know the meaning of boring, and an hour can easily be burned listening to him talk about the exploits of a life thoroughly experienced. A Vietnam Marine Corps veteran, a former gang member, a bounty hunter, a Master 200 Ton Captain in the United States Merchant Marines — Martinez is all of these things and more, including having a role in the ongoing Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
On April 20, 2010, an uncontrollable blowout caused an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig positioned offshore of Louisiana, killing 11 crewmen and igniting a fireball visible from 40 miles away. The fire proved inextinguishable and on April 22 the Horizon sank. The well continued gushing on the seabed, causing the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. On July 15, the well was finally capped at 5,000 feet, but the oil slicks stretched from Louisiana to Florida.
At the time of the disaster, Martinez lived along the bayous of Louisiana, operating a 120-foot utility boat. Requisitioned for the cleanup effort three weeks after the blowout, Martinez allowed his boat to be outfitted with surface oil extraction equipment. With his crew of six and assorted technicians, he then got to work for a full month, moving his boat at two knots, sucking up oil and unloading it onto a barge.
“The boats got eaten up by the dispersant they put in the water, and then we got eaten up by taxes,” Martinez said of the affair, pulling out picture after picture of his boat, his crew, the oil. He displays the letter proving he is part of a class action lawsuit against British Petroleum, suing them for loss of wages following the spill. “Afterward, everybody shut down …. I’ve got a buddy who still works in the marshes. All the business is gone for small boats.”
According to Martinez, balls of unprocessed oil are still washing up along the bayou. Sea life has been so impacted that to make any money a person must own a large boat — 300 tons or more — to reach the fishable waters 200 miles out. As a result, local seaside economies all along the Gulf Coast have been devastated.
“In my opinion, at least 80 percent of [the oil] is still out there,” Martinez said.
Five years ago, Martinez moved to Cottonwood, where he became involved in the Verde Valley Military Service Park, a proposed project at Garrison Park honoring military veterans of the Verde Valley. Martinez is one of the park’s principal fundraisers, working in his off time to get the project funded.
When he is not in Cottonwood, Martinez is more often than not on the road, pursuing criminals. For three decades, he has lived a fast and furious life hunting some of the nation’s most notorious bad guys. He founded the first stateside bounty-hunting academy and worked with famed bounty hunter Domino Harvey, memorialized by Keira Knightley in the 2005 film “Domino.” Martinez himself was played by Mickey Rourke.
“There’s no shortage of crime. I’ve arrested probably 1,200 people,” Martinez said. “Then again, I’ve been doing it for 30 years.”
Despite the big numbers — he’ll take no bounty less than $50,000; he’s been to 41 states and a dozen countries in pursuit of such bounty — there’s no arrogance in Martinez. Every statement is simply fact. He doesn’t pretend to be perfect, admitting to excesses and to occasional moral failings.
Martinez allowed that bounty hunting is a dangerous avocation, one that has resulted in a $100,000 contract on his head from enemies in California and narrow escapes from gun-wielding criminals, not to mention the risk of breaking the law himself. Eight of the men and women he’s worked with are now dead as the result of bounty hunting.
Regardless, he said that the reason for staying in the business is to make a difference in the world.
“It’s seeing the bad guys put away,” Martinez said with a smile. “So few people find their true calling in life. I found mine.”
