In 1980, Camper opened The Mercenary School near
Dolemite, Alabama. The training provided covered a variety of fields, including physical exercises, firearms, melee and hand-to-hand combat training. The school was opened under the parent organisation the Mercenary Association, along with gun and survivalist store Survival Shack National in nearby
Troy, Alabama. The school was advertised through military affairs magazines like
Soldier of Fortune, and charged $350 for a two-week course. Camper would later say he opened the school with two founding principles, to "enable the U.S. government to gain a great deal of intelligence and indeed initiate many operations that were successful to stop criminals and terrorists", and "to get and prove out possible foreigners who would work for the U.S. government in the future." From 1981 to 1986, Camper and the school received approximately from the U.S. government in connection with this work. The group was hiking through a private 13,000-acre ranch, wearing camouflage fatigues and carrying knives, bayonets, and automatic rifles. In April, Camper, along with his business partner and fellow camp instructor Robert Lisenby were arrested in Miami. and Camper had informed the FBI about Lisenby's plan before it went ahead. The charges against Camper were dropped, and he later served as a key witness in Lisenby's prosecution. Camper applied for a private school license with the
Alabama Department of Education in 1981. He announced he was restructuring the school into a self-defense club after the threat, but continued operating. Actor
Robert Duvall trained at the school in 1985 in preparation for his role in
Let's Get Harry, a 1986 action film where he played a mercenary assisting a group of plumbers in rescuing their friend from Colombian paramilitaries. Duvall received training in hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting at the school. At the school, Camper trained them in weapons and explosives, hand-to-hand combat, and assassination techniques. During their visit, Camper said he discussed the planning of multiple terror attacks inside of India with them, including poisoning the
Mumbai water supply. They hired Camper to firebomb the cars of Robyn Richoff and Harriet Russo, former employees of the pair who had complained to state agencies about their dismissals. In August, Camper and three other instructors drove out to California and both cars were firebombed, but no one was injured. On May 21, 1986, Camper and the three instructors involved in the bombings were arrested in
Hueytown, Alabama. After his arrest, the
Alabama Attorney General Charles Graddick submitted a lawsuit to close the school, claiming it was operating without a valid state private school license and training "mercenaries, terrorists, and guerrillas". While on bail awaiting trial, Camper announced his retirement as a mercenary, and opened a small computer business in Alabama named ABC Computers. ==Senate testimony==