Episode Transcript
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0:02
When someone is hurt in a truck
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Colombo Law is the law firm people call
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to get answers heard by a truck. Call
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Columbo Law. Hello campers,
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grab your marshmallows and gather round. The
0:48
True Crime Can't fire. Where. Your
0:50
Camp Counselors I'm Katie and I'm Whitney.
0:53
And. We're here to tell you a true
0:55
story that has way stranger than fiction or
0:57
roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime
0:59
campfire. When
1:06
we left you at the end of
1:09
Part one, John Allen Mohamed and Leave
1:11
Boyd Malvo had begun a killing spree
1:13
that took them from Tacoma, Washington through
1:15
Arizona, Louisiana in Maryland. By.
1:17
October. two thousand and two. They
1:19
had killed or wounded ten people,
1:21
with Mohamad pointing his finger and
1:23
Malveaux pointing his gun. Malveaux.
1:26
Believed himself to be a soldier in the
1:28
fight to free the marginalized people of the
1:30
world. Muhammad. Made him
1:32
his acolyte traveling across the country,
1:34
playing him anti American propaganda through
1:37
headphones as he slept, putting him
1:39
through a grueling physical regimen, as
1:41
well as making him eat a
1:43
sparse vegetarian diet. Muhammad.
1:45
Told him that white people were devils and
1:47
that they had to prepare for the oncoming
1:50
race war. For. Thirty days.
1:52
they would kill six white people a day
1:54
until the Us government agreed to their terms
1:56
and paid them off to go away. Join.
1:59
us know for part two of The Magician
2:01
and the Fool, the story of the DC
2:04
Snipers. In
2:17
particular, Muhammad prepared Melvoh to target
2:19
pregnant white women. He
2:21
said American culture quote, is based on
2:23
death, and since that's the only language
2:25
they understand, that's the language we're going
2:27
to speak. I'm going to punish this nation
2:29
for what it did to me. What
2:32
Lee didn't know was that Muhammad's motive had
2:34
nothing to do with politics or social justice.
2:36
It was about as bog standard as they
2:39
come, revenge against his ex-wife
2:41
in custody of his kids. His
2:43
ex-wife Mildred had gained custody of the couple's
2:45
three children after Muhammad kidnapped them for 18
2:47
months. After the
2:50
court case, Mildred's lawyer insisted that she not
2:52
wait to take the kids back to her home
2:54
in Maryland because he was so convinced she was in
2:56
danger. At the beginning of
2:58
September 2001, Mildred brought
3:00
her babies home, finally. It
3:03
was lucky too because it was just like, I
3:05
think, five or six days
3:07
before 9-11 that she was able to leave.
3:10
If she would have waited, it's possible she
3:12
would have had to wait due to the
3:14
planes being grounded. That's so funny because, you
3:16
know, the last case we did was the
3:18
same on 9-11 also with Elisa McNabney. That's
3:20
wild. This
3:22
threw a wrench into Muhammad's quest for
3:25
revenge. He didn't know where his
3:27
ex-wife was. No problem, though.
3:29
Muhammad got in contact with a
3:31
Tacoma-based men's support group. His
3:34
ex-wife was crazy. She wouldn't let him see the
3:36
kids. He had no idea where his precious angels
3:38
were. Now, any kind of
3:41
responsible person would look into this, right? Right?
3:45
Make sure he hadn't like kidnapped his children
3:48
for a year and a half or abused his wife
3:50
or was stark raving mad. Right? Right? Not
3:55
so much. They immediately made themselves
3:57
helpful and tracked down Mildred's attention.
4:00
dress in Maryland. Oof.
4:05
So this is how we get to a small used
4:07
car dealership on September 11, 2002. Muhammad
4:11
and Malvo had been studying up on
4:13
the Irish Republican Army's Green Book for
4:16
tips on urban guerrilla warfare. Always
4:18
a solid plan, right? According
4:22
to Malvo, they had perfected shooting out
4:24
of cars, which was ideal for an
4:26
unassuming sniper's nest in a quick getaway.
4:29
But sure shot auto sales in Trenton, New Jersey,
4:31
they met with owner Chris Okupsky and told him
4:33
they were looking for a cheap car. In
4:36
particular, they wanted to look at the 1990 Blue Chevy Caprice
4:39
in the lot. To Chris, the
4:41
pair seemed kind of closed off like they didn't want
4:44
him in their business. When
4:46
he handed them the keys, they got right to
4:48
business being as weird as possible. They
4:50
kept getting in and out, laying down in
4:52
the back seat, lifting up the back seat,
4:55
scrutinizing the trunk a little more closely than
4:57
the standard. Did my gym bag fit back
4:59
here? Chris thought it was
5:01
kind of odd, but they had cash in hand and
5:03
purchased the car for $250. A
5:07
friend of Muhammad's, Nathaniel Osborn, agreed to
5:09
help Muhammad register the vehicle and allowed
5:11
Muhammad to register it at his address.
5:14
Osborn was a Jamaican citizen that had
5:16
met Muhammad during his time overseas. And
5:19
I want to be clear, there's no reason
5:22
to believe that this Osborn character had any
5:24
idea what Muhammad had planned. So just
5:26
a little TCC tip for y'all. Don't
5:29
let a friend ever use your name, address
5:31
social security number, or any other identifying info
5:33
on a government document. There's no
5:36
good and legal reason to do that, and it will
5:38
almost always end badly for you. Yeah,
5:40
we've seen that a bunch of times. If
5:43
somebody says, hey, can I just borrow your
5:45
social security number? No. Right.
5:48
No. And Osborn ended up
5:50
in neck deep and trouble.
5:52
He was questioned by Homeland Security. I'm
5:55
sure they crawled all the way up his ass for months. Lee
6:00
and John went about molding the vehicle to their
6:02
needs. They removed the metal separating the back seat
6:05
from the trunk so someone could crawl back to
6:07
the trunk, but now they needed a way to
6:09
fire a gun from there. They
6:11
sawed out a notch right above the license plate
6:13
that was just wide enough for a rifle's barrel.
6:16
Lee could lie flat on his stomach, look
6:19
through his sight, while John would act as
6:21
the spotter, giving him his targets via walkie-talkie.
6:24
The next thing to do was to test it out. On
6:27
October 2, 2002, 55-year-old
6:30
James Martin was heading to the
6:32
grocery store for a quick trip after work. His
6:35
church's youth group was meeting that night and he
6:37
was buying snacks for the kids. He
6:39
was a busy guy. He volunteered at
6:41
his 11-year-old son's elementary school as a
6:44
judge for science fairs and a representative
6:46
for the PTA. He helped get the
6:48
school new computers. He was a Boy
6:50
Scout leader and worked at the National
6:52
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He
6:54
was pretty much everything you could hope for in a citizen.
6:57
He made the world around him a better place.
7:00
And in the late afternoon that October, he
7:02
was shot dead outside of his car by
7:04
Lee Boyd Malvo. No
7:07
one at the scene had seen anything. That
7:09
first day was a trial run to make
7:11
sure they could shoot someone and escape without
7:14
catching attention. It worked, and
7:16
the next day they began their reign of terror
7:18
in earnest. The next morning
7:20
Jim Ross was heading to his local
7:22
YMCA for his morning workout. In
7:25
the parking lot, he noticed a blue Chevy Caprice
7:27
parked with two men inside. The older one
7:29
was sleeping in the driver's seat and the younger one was
7:31
sleeping in the back with his legs propped up on the
7:33
passenger seat. Something in his
7:35
gut pulled. He couldn't figure out why,
7:38
but he didn't like what he saw. Even
7:41
now, he can't articulate why he had
7:43
such a bad feeling. He just says, I've
7:45
never seen anyone do that. He
7:48
told himself to calm down, that people sleep in
7:50
their cars all the time. In
7:52
fact, when he checked at the Y, the other members
7:54
said, oh yeah, that's Lee and John. They work out
7:56
here with us. So there it was. Nothing
7:59
amiss. It's funny,
8:01
right? Who knows what Jim's subconscious picked up on that
8:03
made him question what Lee and John were doing, but
8:05
he talked himself out of it. Most
8:08
of us would, I suspect. There's nothing illegal about
8:10
sleeping in your car. A cop probably would have
8:12
just made them move. That
8:15
morning, John told Lee that he wanted 10 bodies.
8:18
They had already staked out about 15
8:20
places to target. Stores, parking lots, gas
8:22
stations, post offices. At
8:25
7.41 a.m., 39-year-old landscaper
8:27
James Sonny Buchanan was shot and killed while
8:29
mowing the grass at a car dealership. One
8:32
of Sonny Buchanan's coworkers, Al Briggs, found Sonny
8:34
on the ground next to his lawnmower surrounded
8:36
by witnesses. He knelt down next
8:39
to his friend and spoke to him as Sonny struggled to
8:41
breathe. Just lie down, Sonny. Help
8:43
is on the way. Al
8:46
held his hand, placed his hand on his
8:48
shoulder, and comforted him as his friend took his last breath.
8:51
To this day, Al shakes, recalling watching Sonny
8:53
die. Geez Louise.
8:57
30 minutes later, at 8.12, taxi driver
8:59
Prem Kumar Walakar was shot and killed outside of
9:01
a mobile gas station, five miles away and 15
9:03
minutes by car from the first killing. Dr.
9:06
Caroline Namro was sitting in her car at the
9:08
pump next to Prem Kumar, and she made eye
9:10
contact with him and smiled. The kind
9:12
of awkward eye contact where you didn't mean to do
9:15
it, but you grin anyway. She looked
9:17
down to grab her credit card and heard a loud
9:19
bang. When she looked up again,
9:21
Prem Kumar was on the ground. Dr.
9:24
Namro is an emergency pediatrician. As
9:27
terrified as she was, she did her best to stabilize Prem
9:29
Kumar, but it was too late. She
9:31
could tell the exact time when he started agonal breathing, the
9:34
desperate breaths right before someone dies. He
9:36
was gone. Prem
9:39
Kumar immigrated to the US from India when he was 18
9:41
so he could get an education and send money back home.
9:44
As the oldest son, he helped his younger
9:46
siblings save money to immigrate themselves. Finally,
9:49
he was getting ready to retire after a lifetime
9:52
of working. He was working earlier
9:54
than usual that morning because the weather was supposed to be
9:56
nice that day and he wanted to enjoy it. He
9:59
left behind his wife and she was children, a son and a daughter.
10:03
Another 20 minutes later, Lee shot and killed 34-year-old
10:05
Sarah Ramos as she sat at a bus stop
10:07
bench reading a book. This was
10:09
two miles from the mobile where Prem Kumar was shot. Lee
10:12
said that they decided to wait, watch the bus stop,
10:14
and shoot the first person who sat down there. Sarah
10:18
Ramos was an El Salvadoran immigrant who worked
10:20
as a babysitter and housekeeper. She
10:22
was an active member of her church and loved
10:24
by her friends, her husband, and her 7-year-old son.
10:28
The bullet was fired through her head. Witnesses
10:31
were so confused that they initially reported as a suicide
10:33
to 911, but at the scene the cops couldn't find
10:35
a gun. They realized pretty quickly
10:37
that it was a homicide. As
10:40
a canvas for witnesses, one told them that they
10:42
saw an Azuzu white box truck speeding away around
10:44
the same time they heard the gunshot. That
10:47
white truck would haunt the case until the very end.
10:51
By this point, the police started to realize
10:53
that something was happening in Maryland. The
10:56
media noticed it as well and started circling. The
10:59
media held onto the white truck lead
11:01
immediately. There was no wait
11:03
and see. There was no further canvassing. They
11:05
released the white truck without thinking twice. As
11:08
Lee Malvo would later say, this played right into their
11:11
hands. The message, he said,
11:13
was, these people are idiots. They
11:15
cannot protect you. Muhammad
11:17
told him, I want to make these people
11:20
feel helpless. I can't
11:22
help but wonder if that message was specifically
11:24
from Mildred Muhammad. You
11:26
can't run. You can't hide. The
11:28
people protecting you are incompetent. I
11:31
doubt you. Just like he
11:33
said at the courthouse that day a year ago. At
11:36
9.58, 25-year-old Lori Ann
11:39
Lewis Rivera was shot while she vacuumed
11:41
her minivan at a shell station 15
11:43
minutes away from where Sarah was killed. Lori's
11:47
husband, Nelson, said that he met Lori at
11:49
church and she had a really nice heart.
11:52
The couple had one daughter named Jocelyn. Nelson
11:56
remembers that the morning she died, Lori was
11:58
still asleep when he left for work. He
12:00
kissed her on the cheek before he slipped out of the room.
12:04
You never think that's going to be the last time you do that,
12:06
but for him it was. Lee
12:09
and Muhammad were parked waiting for the first person
12:11
to use the gas station vacuum. She
12:14
was shot in the back and an ICU
12:16
nurse heard her calling for help. She
12:19
found Lori on the ground bleeding from the mouth.
12:22
The nurse thought that maybe she was having a seizure
12:24
or something, or maybe something
12:26
had blown up in the vacuum and started
12:28
doing chest compressions. The
12:30
ambulance seemed to take too long, and so when
12:32
a nearby pregnant woman asked how she could help,
12:35
the nurse asked if she could find help,
12:37
and this heavily pregnant woman ran down the
12:39
street looking. Like
12:41
Mr. Rogers once said, in stories like this, I
12:44
think it's important to look for the helpers, because
12:46
it reminds you that for all the darkness out there,
12:49
there's still good, too. But
12:51
heartbreakingly, despite everybody's best efforts,
12:53
Lori was pronounced dead on
12:55
arrival at the hospital. When
12:58
Nelson Rivera was brought to the scene in
13:00
the days, he asked where his daughter was. Had
13:03
she seen her mother die? The
13:06
detectives kind of looked at each other confused and said
13:08
there was no baby in the car. Luckily,
13:11
Lori had dropped Dosseline at daycare a few minutes
13:13
before she stopped to vacuum out the car. After
13:17
Lori, Malvo and Mohammed took a break. They
13:20
drove 40 minutes to D.C. and grabbed some
13:22
food at a Jamaican restaurant. Then
13:25
they waited in their car at a busy intersection
13:27
to wait for a target. It
13:29
was nearly 12 hours after Lori Rivera's
13:32
murder when Lee aimed his gun toward
13:34
Pascal Charleau, a 72-year-old who
13:36
was walking down the road. He
13:39
had just called his wife and let her know he was on
13:41
his way home. Pascal
13:43
was a lovely man. He
13:45
loved gardening and helping his community. He
13:47
was a retired carpenter and handyman who would often
13:50
repair his neighbor's houses for free. He
13:52
and his wife had raised five children together and
13:54
were finally enjoying their retirement. D.C.
13:58
homicide detective Tony Patterson. had been aware
14:00
of what was happening in Maryland and felt
14:02
like they were probably in the clear until this shooting.
14:06
After talking to witnesses, though, he got a pretty
14:08
crucial clue. One guy said
14:10
he heard the gunshot and had seen a
14:12
dark colored Chevy Caprice driving slowly away from
14:14
the scene with its lights off, despite it
14:16
being quite dark outside, which is why he
14:18
remembered it. Detective Patterson thought
14:20
this was a good lead and sent out a
14:23
bolo. He did a write-up
14:25
and hand delivered a copy to the command center
14:27
in Montgomery County where the other shootings had happened.
14:30
The team there kind of dismissed him. After
14:33
all, now many witnesses were recalling the white
14:35
truck. Or was it a van? Either
14:38
way, a Chevy Caprice wasn't even close to
14:41
that. The media had taken
14:43
the white truck angle and ran with it,
14:45
and the misinformation was spread and fast. This
14:47
is a mistake a lot of investigators make
14:50
and media too. They limit the investigation by
14:52
putting it in a box. The
14:55
way killers are named can be a good example of this.
14:57
The media name for the culprit in this case,
14:59
the DC Sniper or the Beltway Sniper, not
15:02
only limited the number of killers, but
15:04
the geography too. I mean, these
15:06
two were actually killing people all over the country,
15:08
not just around DC. The
15:11
Green River Killer is another one. Gary Ridgway killed
15:13
women and dumped their bodies in several locations, especially
15:15
after the media started calling him the Green River
15:17
Killer. He was like, oh, well, I'll just change
15:20
the run. The
15:22
worst thing you can do is make these kinds
15:24
of assumptions. They're total case killers. Yeah,
15:27
it kills me that they could have had a huge
15:29
break in this case on the first day, day one,
15:31
but instead, you know, just, and now it's not white.
15:34
So it's not a white truck. It's
15:37
just, it's really unfortunate those investigators couldn't
15:39
see past their own assumptions. The
15:43
one thing the investigators knew for sure was that
15:45
the bullets found that each scene had been fired
15:47
from the same gun. Meanwhile,
15:49
Lee and John were jubilant. The
15:52
police were scrambling around overwhelmed. This was the
15:55
result they were hoping for. I
15:58
will say the cops were very quick about getting angry. ATF
16:00
and FBI assistance. I mean, not only did it
16:02
cross state lines, but they needed everyone they could
16:04
just to stay on top of the crime scenes.
16:08
The next day, Friday, October 4th, in
16:10
Spotsylvania, Pennsylvania, Carolyn Seewell was heading back
16:13
to her car after a trip to Michaels when
16:15
she was shot in the back. Two
16:17
witnesses called 911, and Caroline was transported
16:19
to the hospital in critical condition. That
16:22
morning, she and her husband had talked about the murder spree
16:24
from the day before. They'd seen it on the
16:26
news and talked about how scary it was. Then,
16:29
Caroline got their two kids to school and went about her day.
16:32
She was at Michaels for some new decor, but now she was
16:34
fighting for her life. She would
16:36
survive. Police
16:38
Chief Charles Moose was the public face for the
16:40
investigation. As the shootings continued, he'd
16:43
hold a conference every day, answering what questions
16:45
he could and updating the public about this
16:47
case. During active situations
16:49
like this one, police are especially aware of
16:51
two things. The public
16:53
is listening, and so are the culprits. After
16:58
the first day, Chief Moose put all the
17:00
Montgomery County schools on lockdown. Still
17:02
in session, but no recess or outdoor activities.
17:05
He insisted that it didn't appear that the killer or killers
17:07
would go after children, but it was better to have some
17:09
caution. Schools told parents that their
17:11
children would be safe. Lee
17:14
and John listened to the radio, switching back and
17:16
forth between coverage. They wanted to
17:18
make sure their message was getting across, that Americans
17:20
weren't safe. Lee
17:22
knew John had a plan in his head. He
17:25
had the whole thing mapped out. All Lee
17:27
had to do was trust the man he now called Dad. The
17:30
night after Caroline Seawell was shot, Muhammad took Lee to
17:32
a Barnes and Noble and told him to buy a
17:34
deck of tarot cards. The shootings
17:36
died down over the weekend. Chief Moose announced the
17:38
school would be in session on Monday, and the
17:41
school officials reassured parents that their kids' safety would
17:43
be their first priority. John
17:45
Muhammad took that personally. Content
17:47
warning for this next part. If you're not in the
17:49
right headspace to hear about violence against a child, you
17:52
can fast forward the next 30 seconds or so. He
17:54
chose Benjamin Tasker Middle School and Bowie, Maryland
17:56
as their next target. He
17:59
told Lee to shoot as many as kids as he could as they got
18:01
off the bus. Lee
18:03
said that Muhammad was really specific about the school
18:05
he picked, so we did a little digging on
18:07
Benjamin Tasker to find out if there was anything
18:10
that stuck out. Most likely
18:12
this school was named after Benjamin Tasker
18:14
Sr. who was a governor of Maryland
18:16
during colonial times in the mid-1750s. If
18:19
you've even breathed air next to an American
18:21
history book, you probably know what's coming next.
18:24
His family likely owned slaves and his son
18:26
was a prominent slave trader. Now he
18:29
never said why he chose this school, but
18:31
is it possible he knew about that family
18:33
history? I don't know, but it's a compelling
18:35
motive. Yeah, the school was also
18:37
surrounded by a pretty thick copse of trees, so it
18:39
provided a lot of cover. So
18:42
it could be that, could be that the name of the
18:44
school drew his attention, it could be both. Yeah,
18:47
and really I don't think it was about, like we said
18:49
earlier, I think it was about Mildred 100%, but
18:51
yeah, I mean it could have just
18:54
been an extra little motivation
18:56
for sure. And if he's
18:59
lying to Lee about his
19:01
motive. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As
19:03
children started filing into the school, Lee, for the
19:05
first time in months, was feeling doubt. No
19:08
school bus appeared and Malvo said he
19:10
felt hopeful. Maybe Muhammad would call
19:12
it off. Through the walkie-talkie,
19:15
he asked for instructions. Instead,
19:17
Muhammad said, take what's available. Lee
19:20
didn't want to kill a kid. He'd shot 16 people
19:23
at this point, but never a child, and his
19:25
instincts were screaming at him, but
19:27
he couldn't disappoint Muhammad. So he
19:30
picked somebody out. Iron
19:32
Brown was a 13 year old boy. His
19:34
bus driver had suspended him because he'd been eating
19:36
a Twizzler on the bus, so his aunt, Tanya,
19:38
who was a nurse, had just dropped him off
19:41
at school and was starting to drive away. Lee
19:43
was waiting. As he caught
19:45
the kid in the crosshairs, he noticed something. Iron
19:48
looked like Same
19:50
build, same complexion, even
19:52
around the same height. He knew
19:55
this was wrong. He knew it. But
19:57
the stronger voice, Muhammad's voice, Dad
20:01
told him to squeeze the trigger. He
20:04
held Iron's head in his sights for a
20:06
long moment, and then he dropped
20:08
his aim to the kid's lower back. When
20:10
he told Muhammad later that he'd shot the kid, he asked
20:13
Lee if the kid was dead. Lee said,
20:15
maybe. Muhammad
20:18
accepted without much reprimand. The
20:20
message was the same. You aren't safe.
20:23
Your kids aren't safe. Your government can't
20:25
keep you safe. Only
20:27
for Iron Brown, his aunt hadn't left yet.
20:30
She lifted him into her car and rushed him to the
20:32
ER. As she drove, she
20:34
called 911 to let them know she was on her
20:36
way. The call is just horrific.
20:39
The whole time she's promising that he's not going
20:41
to die, to hold on to
20:43
his womb, to stem the bleeding. You can
20:45
hear this poor kid groaning, and his
20:48
aunt just desperately honking her horns, screaming at
20:50
other drivers to let her through. It's
20:52
awful. He told her
20:54
that he loved her, and he appreciated her. Just
20:57
in case. A kid facing death
20:59
telling his auntie he loved her. The
21:03
hospital prepared for the worst kind of injury.
21:06
Rifle bullets tend to cause what's called
21:08
a blast injury, which causes intense trauma
21:10
to the organs in a cone shape.
21:13
Iron's spleen, pancreas, liver,
21:15
and stomach were all severely damaged, on
21:18
top of losing incredible amounts of
21:20
blood. The doctors were
21:22
sure Iron was going to die. Fortunately,
21:24
thanks to Tonya's quick thinking and
21:26
the doctors' hard work, Iron survived.
21:31
Today he owns his own business, and
21:33
does inspirational speaking. To
21:36
the investigators, this was a terrible reminder that
21:38
they were two steps behind the shooter at
21:40
every stage. Chief
21:42
Moose was so angry that he cried at the press
21:45
conference. Someone is so
21:47
mean-spirited that they shot a child, he
21:49
said, his rage just barely masked.
21:53
Some of the public thought that his crying was a
21:55
sign of weakness, but even more acknowledged that it was
21:57
a sign that he cared. To
21:59
the public, the message was clear. No
22:02
one was safe, not even the most
22:04
vulnerable. To this killer there
22:06
were no rules and all bets were
22:08
off. When
22:25
someone is hurt in a truck accident,
22:27
the one question everyone has is why
22:29
did this terrible collision happen? To
22:32
answer that question takes an experienced team
22:34
of lawyers and experts. Not
22:36
everyone has this type of experience. At
22:39
Colombo Law we are truck injury
22:41
lawyers. It's what we do every
22:43
day. When someone is hurt
22:46
by a truck, Colombo Law is the law
22:48
firm people call to get answers. Hurt
22:50
by a truck? Call Colombo Law. The
23:06
feds and the ATF investigators combed the new
23:08
scene and brought in a canine to search
23:10
the woods that surrounded the school. His
23:13
name is Beacon and he's obviously a very
23:15
good boy. His
23:17
handler, US Marshal Mike Peele, started
23:19
by finding the best vantage point
23:21
if someone wanted to shoot somebody in front of the
23:23
school. He was looking for any
23:25
shell casings left behind. Shell
23:27
casings are some of the hardest things for a search
23:30
dog to find because there's very little sense.
23:33
Nobody really thought that Beacon would find anything so
23:35
they were just kind of going through the motions.
23:38
Then one of his colleagues said, hey pay attention
23:40
to your dog. Beacon
23:42
was paying really close attention to a
23:44
branch on the ground and drooling. Mike
23:47
told the searchers to focus on that area
23:49
and later that night he was informed that
23:51
he and Beacon hit pay dirt. There
23:54
was a shell casing and a note found at
23:56
the scene. Notes,
23:59
campers. Notes again. Some
24:02
killers can't really help
24:04
but brag. And it almost
24:06
always becomes their downfall. Yeah.
24:09
All you're doing leaving a note is just giving
24:11
us more evidence. So go for it. The
24:15
note. This is so fucking dorky. I can't understand
24:17
the process. The
24:20
note was written on a death tarot
24:22
card. On the
24:24
face of the card, it read, call me God.
24:27
On the back, it said for you,
24:29
Mr. Police code, call me God. Do
24:32
not release to the press. Each
24:35
separate line was surrounded by quotes,
24:37
which I don't know why I just find it annoying.
24:41
How are you quoting? Who are you quoting,
24:44
sir? Also, can we talk about
24:46
how the death tarot card is actually
24:48
about like, yeah, it's about change. I'm
24:51
so irritating. It's so clear. But see, again,
24:53
this is why when you when you do
24:55
this stuff, you give evidence. Because you're showing
24:57
that you're not that actually invested in this,
24:59
quote unquote, little signature that you're trying to
25:01
fake. Yeah. Because you don't know what you're talking
25:03
about. Right. I mean, people who are into tarot never
25:05
get tired of telling you that the death card doesn't
25:08
mean that it means change. Right. Anybody knows
25:10
that. Apparently not John Dipshit Muhammad.
25:14
I hate this guy so bad. So bad. ATF
25:17
criminal profiler Ronald Tunkel got quite
25:19
a bit of info from the note
25:22
from the phrase Mr. Police. He gleaned that the
25:24
speaker had beef with the police. From
25:26
Call Me God and Do Not Release to the
25:29
Press. He assumed that the killer was an older
25:31
male. The police decided
25:33
to hold this information back from the press. They
25:35
didn't want to egg on any more shootings, except
25:38
the press found out. Obviously,
25:41
somebody in the investigation leaked to the press
25:43
for some dumbass reason. It
25:46
ran on a local radio show. Good Morning
25:48
America and The Washington Post. Why
25:51
they thought it would be a good thing or an ethical
25:53
thing to release this information. I'm not sure, but they went
25:55
ahead and did it. Moose
25:57
was pissed at the press. conference
26:00
that day when a reporter asked him about the
26:02
tarot card he was like look I don't know
26:04
why you feel the need to ask that I
26:06
don't know why someone felt like they needed to
26:08
sell their soul to give the press that info
26:10
right now the people of Montgomery County
26:13
haven't told me that they'd like the media to take
26:15
up this case if they would like that
26:17
to change they can let me know and I can
26:19
put my people on other work while you all meaning
26:22
the press can work on this one I
26:24
mean I'm paraphrasing a little bit that was
26:26
the diss moose has an attitude he's honestly
26:28
he's the best I love like I love chief
26:30
I'm not having it his
26:33
favorite statement this whole time is it
26:36
would be inappropriate for me to release more that
26:38
info at this juncture that's his like
26:40
that's his catchphrase this whole time to the press in
26:44
this case I can totally see where he's
26:46
coming from look the media undoubtedly does important
26:48
work in all other cases
26:51
except crime I am good with them
26:53
releasing info to the public but during
26:55
an active investigation especially when the case
26:58
is currently ongoing and you've got unidentified
27:00
people shooting random civilians that just seems
27:02
irresponsible I
27:05
think they were just focused on getting a scoop before
27:07
their competitors not public safety in
27:10
the documentary series I sniper the reporters attitudes
27:12
were like well of course our work is
27:15
super important we have to keep the public informed I
27:18
don't know that just rubs me the wrong
27:20
way well yeah I mean what they what
27:22
did they do to protect the public exactly by
27:24
announcing this note especially since a lot of them
27:26
didn't even get the wording of it right they
27:29
reported that the note said I am God not
27:32
call me God which I think is a
27:34
pretty significant difference and actually points to a
27:36
pretty gross level of carelessness and a lack
27:38
of understanding of what criminal profilers do because
27:41
you know you're not paraphrasing when you're
27:43
like the wording is really important yeah
27:46
yeah I think it doesn't show
27:48
that he has a God complex it shows that he has
27:50
a God complex in this specific
27:52
case right like I am
27:54
God and call me God are two different things
27:56
I think they wanted yeah he wanted he wanted
27:59
the press and media to call him God.
28:01
He was naming himself as like a, he was like
28:03
BTK-ing it, you know? Ice
28:06
Sniper, by the way, is fantastic. It features
28:09
interviews with Lee Malvo, his father, his aunt,
28:11
Mildred Muhammad, surviving victims, victims' families, and the
28:13
police investigators. It's eight episodes and I had
28:15
to download a separate app to find it,
28:17
but if you want eight more hours of
28:20
content on this case, I fully recommend it.
28:22
It's really good. The
28:25
press took this little note and ran.
28:27
CNN, Fox, Good Morning America, MSNBC, all
28:29
ran specials about the sniper on the
28:31
loose. The media seemed frustrated that
28:33
the feds hadn't released any info on their profile,
28:35
which, uh, yeah,
28:38
of course not. It's probably not done yet. You
28:41
really can't keep a good reporter down, though, so they
28:44
hired their own profiles who came up with their own.
28:47
Like, it was most likely a middle-aged
28:49
male. Alrighty, right.
28:53
White. Wrong. Working
28:55
alone. Meh. Gone
28:59
through a nasty separation or divorce. Oh,
29:01
good, getting warmer. Significant substance
29:04
abuse. Wrong.
29:07
Military background or training in firearms. Oh,
29:10
ding ding ding. Driving a
29:12
white van or truck. No.
29:15
Loving the press attention. Hmm,
29:18
I wonder if you're contributing to the problem there,
29:21
Miss Katie Couric. So,
29:23
like, 50% accuracy from the news profiles, but
29:25
the thing is that most profilers will warn
29:27
investigators that the profile is a tool, not
29:30
a magic wand. You can use it as
29:32
framework for your search, but don't let it
29:34
blind you to other possibilities. Yeah,
29:37
everybody wants this stuff to be magic. It's
29:39
the same with, like, body language analysis. People
29:41
want to think this stuff is definitive and
29:43
it's just not. They're just tools in the
29:45
toolbox. Like, I remember years and years ago
29:47
when the Maddie McCann case was going on
29:49
and, you know, when everybody was really whipped up
29:51
about the Maddie McCann case and there were all
29:54
these, like, quote unquote body language experts on YouTube
29:56
like, oh, Kate McCann scratched your nose here, so
29:58
that means that the McCanns kill their daughter,
30:00
well guess what? Now we know they
30:02
didn't. Yeah. And maybe
30:05
she just had an itch for God's sakes. And
30:07
there is a place for that stuff. I mean,
30:09
you know, like I watched the behavior panels videos
30:11
and they're fascinating, but it's not magic. It's not
30:13
definitive. Even they will tell you over and over
30:15
again, you can't prove somebody's lying from this. Right.
30:18
It's just one thing to add to a lot
30:20
of other things and it is not a substitute
30:23
for, you know, the gumshoe just plotting
30:25
kind of more, less sexy detective
30:28
work that goes on in the background.
30:30
How many, how many cases do we cover that are
30:32
solved by that kind of analysis?
30:34
Like none, right? It's the boring
30:37
stuff. It's the paperwork. Absolutely. It's,
30:40
have you seen Psych? It's that box of
30:42
stuff that Detective Lassiter has where he's like,
30:44
the answer is always in the box. And
30:46
that's so true. The answer is always in
30:48
the box. Yeah, it's
30:50
just not that sexy. You can't just look at
30:53
somebody the way they're holding their shoulders and tell,
30:55
oh, she's definitely lying. Yeah. Maybe, maybe
30:58
BBC Sherlock, BBC Sherlock was
31:00
not a documentary. Usually
31:06
serial murderers go after a very specific type
31:08
of victim and that can
31:10
tell profiles a lot about who they are.
31:12
For example, serial killers very rarely murder people
31:14
outside their own race. If they do, that
31:16
can indicate another motive. Green River killers,
31:18
an example of that. Lee
31:21
would later say that he and Muhammad were just tickled
31:23
pink at how wrong the media assumptions were about them.
31:25
And I mean, he was right. You
31:28
can't find a blue Chevy Caprice being driven by a
31:30
black man and his teenage trigger man when you're sifting
31:33
through the haystack of white trucks and vans. Yeah.
31:36
The FBI set about creating a tip line and
31:38
they were soon flooded with thousands of callers that
31:40
were convinced that their ex-husband or their friend's cousin's
31:42
dog center was guilty. As usual,
31:45
they got a fair amount of attention seekers that
31:47
admitted to being the sniper themselves. So
31:49
far, they weren't having much luck getting information from
31:52
the public. Back at
31:54
the YMCA, Jim Ross saw John Allen Muhammad
31:56
sitting in the locker room staring off into
31:58
the distance. Jim asked if he was
32:00
all right." Muhammad said, No,
32:02
I'm not. No, my
32:06
dude, you most certainly are not. There
32:09
was no shooting on the 8th of October, but at 8.18
32:11
p.m. on the 9th, 53-year-old Dean Harold
32:16
Miles was getting gas at a Cinoco when
32:18
he was shot. He
32:20
was a Vietnam vet who was awarded the
32:22
Purple Heart for injuries that left him permanently
32:24
disabled. He had no children of
32:26
his own, but he was an amazing uncle to his
32:28
nieces and nephews. He was a
32:30
frequent sponsor of children in poverty all over the
32:33
world, too. He died
32:35
at the scene, and police set up a perimeter
32:37
to question all the drivers in the area. Officer
32:40
Steve Bailey was in charge of questioning
32:42
drivers. As he approached
32:44
a blue Chevy Caprice, he observed that the
32:46
driver, a tall black male with short hair,
32:49
appeared to be the only occupant. He
32:51
asked the driver what he was doing in the
32:54
area, and he replied that he was returning home
32:56
after a vacation when the police directed him to
32:58
this area. To Bailey, he
33:00
seemed cool as a fridge full of
33:02
cucumbers, very polite and normal. Before
33:05
he let him go, the man asked Bailey, concerned,
33:07
screwing up his face, when are you going to
33:09
catch this guy? When is it going to stop?
33:11
Fuck you, John Mohammed, you
33:14
asshole. Meanwhile,
33:16
Lee Malvo laid quietly in the trunk
33:19
of the car listening to the muffled
33:21
conversation. Finally, the
33:23
car started moving again, and we
33:25
can't really blame Bailey here. Mohammed was
33:27
very clearly a master manipulator, and I'm
33:29
not sure there'd be any reason to
33:32
indicate anything off about his demeanor or anything
33:34
like that, but it just kills me to
33:36
think of how close the police had gotten
33:39
multiple times. This dude
33:41
was looking Mohammed in the face and didn't
33:43
suspect a thing. Just chills us so creepy.
33:45
But again, we've seen that a million times
33:47
in cases like this, where they're just that
33:49
smooth. Dahmer had a body in the back
33:51
of his car one time and talked his way
33:53
out of it. Another
33:56
two days later, at 9.30am on October 11th. Kenneth
34:00
Bridges was pumping gas at an exon
34:02
in Fredericksburg when he was shot and
34:05
killed. Kenneth,
34:07
a 53-year-old businessman, also founded a
34:09
community organization called MATA, which was
34:11
focused on uplifting the economic position
34:14
of African Americans. His
34:16
vision, according to his obituary, was,
34:18
quote, dedicated to the economic, spiritual,
34:21
and social upliftment of people of
34:23
African descent. It was
34:25
his fervent belief that people of African descent
34:27
are the only ones who can change the
34:29
terrible circumstances that exist in most of our
34:31
communities. All of the
34:33
resources to accomplish this seemingly impossible
34:36
task already exist within our community.
34:38
The skills, the knowledge, the creativity,
34:40
the money. Ken knew
34:42
that the key ingredient that prevents people of
34:44
African descent from taking control over
34:46
their individual and collective destiny was
34:48
and continues to be lack of
34:50
knowledge of self. Ken
34:53
dedicated his life to imparting this knowledge of self
34:55
into each and every person of
34:58
African descent within America and across
35:00
the planet. He
35:03
left behind a wife, Jocelyn, and five children, Asia,
35:06
April, Justin, Joshua, Alana,
35:08
and Alyssa. I
35:11
find it highly ironic that Muhammad claimed to
35:13
be fighting for the plight of Black Americans
35:15
and yet targeted somebody who genuinely put his
35:17
money where his mouth was, who
35:19
was genuinely passionate about making the world a better place
35:22
rather than somebody who was using the same, quote,
35:24
unquote, vision to create nothing but a place. Later,
35:27
Lee would say that the reason that Kenneth Bridges
35:29
and other Black people were killed during this spree is that
35:31
it's a cloak. If
35:34
you only kill white people, then they know something. Now,
35:39
remember, the original plan was to kill six white people
35:41
a day for 30 days. I'm
35:44
including a big old capital S speculation here,
35:46
but I think that Muhammad told Lee that
35:49
it was a cloak, and it was true. It wasn't to throw the
35:51
government off their motive, though. It was
35:53
to cloak Muhammad's true target, Mildred. At
35:57
this point, I'm not going
35:59
to be able to do that. Gas stations started putting
36:01
tarps up to block their pumps from the
36:03
street in an effort to protect their customers People
36:06
were crouching down behind their cars while they pumped
36:08
gas or sitting in their cars And
36:10
I was actually living in Baltimore at the time and
36:13
it scared six kinds of shit out of me Every
36:15
time I had to leave the house and I was teaching
36:17
high school and all the kids were
36:19
scared I mean it was just a feeling of not
36:22
being able to trust the world around
36:24
you that no rules thing that we
36:26
said earlier It's just this totally off-balance
36:31
Insecure awful feeling which is exactly how Muhammad
36:33
wanted everybody to feel like this or how
36:35
he wanted his ex-wife to feel anyway Yeah
36:37
for sure I was about 11
36:39
years old and living in the southwest when the
36:41
fall started and I remember being absolutely
36:43
fucking terrified Like it just seemed so
36:46
like close even though it wasn't you know
36:48
what I mean? Absolutely.
36:51
Well, they were killing people everywhere. Yeah, true
36:54
I was also super scared of anthrax, but that's
36:56
a different story. Oh me too. Yeah, that was
36:58
my guy. Oh Back
37:01
in the Pacific Northwest Robert Holmes was watching the
37:03
news at his buddy's house The DC sniper had
37:05
been dominating the news and every time he saw
37:07
a new story on it He had a horrible
37:09
twisting feeling in his gut. He
37:11
thought he knew who the sniper was He
37:14
had been friends with John Allen Muhammad for years since they
37:16
served in the military together In fact
37:18
Lee and John had stayed with him for a few days
37:21
before the spree started John
37:23
introduced Lee as a sniper which hit Robert wrong
37:25
because to him a sniper someone with a body
37:27
count Typically a good shot is just
37:29
called a merph man Finally
37:32
after watching news coverage on Kenneth Bridges, he knew
37:34
he had to report his hunch He
37:36
called the FBI office and didn't get
37:38
a call back But that doesn't
37:40
mean no one listened Throughout
37:43
all these shootings John Allen Muhammad consistently drove
37:46
around Mildred Muhammad's neighborhood likely keeping an eye
37:48
out for her his children They
37:50
followed her and even looked into her house Lee
37:53
knew that they were going to try to take his children
37:55
once they extorted the money from the government But I don't
37:57
think he understood that she was the true target of their
37:59
killings Once, Mildred saw
38:01
the car outside of her house. As
38:03
he passed by, she saw two men. One
38:06
in the driver's seat, a black
38:08
teenager, and the other was hiding his
38:10
face with a newspaper, which was
38:12
so smooth, John. Wait
38:15
for a suspicion. Mildred
38:19
knew it was only a matter of time before John found her
38:21
in the children. He was a good tracker.
38:24
She said that she was on high alert since the moment she
38:26
saw him at the courthouse. She knew
38:28
he would come for her. And she knew it would
38:31
be a headshot. On
38:34
October 14th, Linda Franklin was walking to her car
38:36
in the covered parking lot of Home Depot in
38:38
Falls Church, Virginia when she was shot and killed.
38:41
Linda worked as an FBI intelligence analyst.
38:44
There is no proof that Malvo and Muhammad had any idea
38:46
who she was. Her husband was with
38:48
her when she was shot, and Lee said that the pain in
38:50
his eyes was the worst kind of pain I've seen in my
38:52
life. Afterwards he said he felt
38:54
like the worst piece of scum on the planet. And
38:58
it is insane to me that it took him
39:00
this long to recognize the pain he was causing.
39:04
So far no one who had been shot was with
39:06
someone they knew. He had been causing those ripples of
39:08
grief and pain this whole time and it never occurred
39:10
to him. Wow. That's
39:12
just... Yeah. That's
39:15
incredible. Yeah. And
39:19
it's very like a very teenager thing, right? Like it
39:21
never occurred to him that people would be in pain
39:23
from what he did. Well
39:25
I think, you know, when you're... I
39:27
mean we could basically call... I mean,
39:29
Muhammad is using the same kind of tactics that
39:32
you use to torture people. He's using the
39:35
same kind of tactics that cult leaders use
39:38
to brainwash. I mean
39:40
literal brainwashing techniques. I think maybe he was just
39:42
so caught up in it that,
39:45
you know, reality seemed pretty
39:48
remote. And then when
39:50
something that intense slaps you in the face,
39:52
yeah, you know, maybe that is the first
39:54
time, but that is really scary. Yeah. That
39:57
it never occurred to him, well of course you're... devastating
40:01
lives. Right.
40:05
This was like a yeah, this is a two man cult or one
40:07
man cult if you don't count the cult leader as a member. Linda
40:12
was a wonderfully kind person. Her friends and co
40:14
workers adored her and said she didn't have a
40:16
mean bone in her body. And she'd
40:18
give a stranger the shirt off her back. Her
40:21
husband William and their two adult children were devastated
40:23
by their loss. As
40:26
the police were questioning witnesses, a man came forward who
40:28
said he saw the shooter of the gun. This
40:31
would be a huge break in the case. The
40:33
witness's name was Matthew Slim Doughty. He
40:36
said that he saw a Middle Eastern man with
40:38
an AK 47 shoot Linda and escape in a
40:40
cream colored van with a broken tail light. Right.
40:45
That'd be great. Except we know it's bullshit.
40:48
Why do people do this? Of
40:50
course, the cops didn't know that it was bullshit
40:52
at first. But eventually while reviewing the CCTV footage,
40:54
they saw that Doughty was inside the store at
40:56
the time of the shooting and couldn't have possibly
40:59
seen what he said he saw. He
41:02
was charged with making a false statement and sentenced
41:04
to six months in prison. At
41:06
trial, he said that he was reporting on behalf of his
41:09
friend who said he saw the shooter in the parking lot
41:11
across the street. Again, this couldn't
41:13
be true based on his description. Yeah,
41:16
and Doughty had a long history of run
41:18
ins with the cops. Three years later, he
41:20
was charged with the rape and murder of
41:22
a woman named Judy Cote and he was
41:24
sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison.
41:26
So clearly a real champ. Scumbag.
41:30
Muhammad and Malvo waited another five days
41:32
before attempting any further attacks. At
41:36
Ponderos the Steakhouse on October 19th in Ashland,
41:38
Virginia, Jeffrey and Stephanie Hopper had stopped for
41:40
dinner on a trip home from a family
41:42
visit. They were walking companionably
41:44
and arguing about who loved each other more.
41:46
You know, I love you more. No, I love
41:48
you more. Oh, Lee
41:51
Malvo had them both in his sights. He bounced
41:53
between them, but eventually settled on Jeffrey and made
41:56
the shot. He shot Jeffrey in
41:58
the stomach. As Jeff lay on
42:00
the ground bleeding, Stephanie asked somebody nearby to call 911
42:03
while she attended to stop the blood flow. When
42:05
police arrived, she was using a cloth to keep pressure on
42:07
his wound with his head in her lap. The
42:10
police officer asked to see the wound and then
42:12
told her to place the cloth back and apply
42:14
pressure. That it wasn't rocket
42:17
science. The hoppers laughed. Jeff
42:19
said, that's funny. My wife is
42:21
a rocket scientist. I
42:24
just find it like wonderful that in this moment of
42:27
pain and fear, he found a way to laugh and to
42:29
brag about his genius wife. It's very wife
42:31
guy. He's a wife guy. Jeffrey
42:34
would survive his injuries. And Lee
42:36
said later that he was still having severe doubts about his
42:38
crimes. I don't think that it
42:40
was an accident that Muhammad chose a restaurant where people
42:42
would be most likely going with their spouses and families.
42:45
I think this was a test. Malvo
42:47
said that he knew he couldn't go back without
42:49
having shot someone, but that his shot
42:51
to Jeff Hopper's stomach was a compromise. He
42:54
was trying to make it as non lethal as possible. Do
42:58
we believe him?
43:01
I don't know. And I'm not sure it matters. I
43:04
don't care. Yeah. I
43:06
don't care. Jeff Hopper lost 75%
43:09
of his stomach tissue as well as to staying severe
43:11
shrapnel injuries to his liver. He could have died if
43:13
his wife hadn't been as savvy as she was. He
43:15
could have died if the paramedics have been a little
43:18
slower. He could have died if he lost just a
43:20
little more blood. I don't actually think
43:22
Malvo's intentions matter when it comes to the end result, but
43:24
it certainly gives us a peek into his mindset. He
43:27
was unhappy. I don't know how you could convince yourself
43:29
that a gut shot wouldn't be devastating.
43:32
I mean, that's, come on. Like I
43:34
don't buy that. I'm sorry. He
43:37
was just so right. Like his whole thing
43:39
is I need to please Muhammad, but it's
43:41
like, who cares? Take
43:44
that gun and shoot him. Yeah. She
43:46
hates that situation. Right. But that's what
43:48
brainwashing is. I guess. I mean, he
43:50
just, yeah.
43:52
Sucks. At the
43:54
scene, police found a four page letter from
43:56
the sniper demanding $10 million and it was
43:58
wild. In
44:02
it, they claimed to have called
44:04
the sniper tip line at least six times, named
44:07
the people they talked to, and said that their calls
44:09
were brushed off. The letter
44:11
reads in part, For you, Mr. Police, call me God.
44:13
Do not release to the press. We
44:15
have tried to contact you to start negotiation, but
44:18
your failure to respond has cost you five lives.
44:20
If stopping the killing is more important than catching us
44:23
now, then you will accept our demand, which is non-negotiable.
44:25
You will place $10 million in the
44:27
Bank of America account, and that includes the bank account info
44:29
from a stolen credit card, which could be linked back to
44:31
them, but I don't know, I'm just an idiot. We
44:35
will have an unlimited withdrawal at any ATM
44:37
worldwide, which is not possible. You
44:39
will activate the bank account, credit card, and PIN
44:41
number. We will contact you at 6 a.m. on
44:43
Monday morning. You will have until
44:46
9 a.m. Monday morning to complete transaction. Try
44:48
to catch us withdrawing. At least you
44:50
will have less body bags. If trying
44:53
to catch us now, more important than
44:55
prepare you body bags, purposeful misspellings, by
44:57
the way. If
44:59
you give your word, you are word. If
45:01
we give you our word, that this is what takes
45:03
place. Word is bond. P.S. Your
45:06
children are not safe anywhere at any time. On
45:10
the 21st, police in Richmond, Virginia arrested
45:12
two men in a white van at
45:14
a gas station. It turned
45:16
out they were just two guys, but were
45:18
undocumented immigrants and were subsequently deported.
45:21
God, that's got to suck, right? You
45:24
didn't do the thing they detained you for, but got
45:26
caught doing the other less serious thing? That
45:29
absolutely sucks. Two
45:32
days later, Conrad Johnson was shot and
45:34
killed at 5.56 a.m.
45:36
in Aspen Hill, Maryland. He
45:38
was preparing for his shift as a bus driver. At
45:41
this point, police were able to confirm that the
45:43
car they were looking for was actually the blue
45:45
Chevy Caprice. That
45:47
day, Chief Moose released info regarding the
45:49
four-page letter found at the steakhouse shooting.
45:52
At 3.15 a.m. on the 24th, police
45:55
were able to identify the Caprice parked at
45:57
a rest stop in Myersville, Maryland. Lee
46:00
boxed them in. When
46:02
they made contact, they noticed two occupants in the
46:04
vehicle, one middle-aged man and
46:06
one teenage boy. The
46:08
man looked calm and resigned. The
46:11
kid looked terrified and was sweating buckets
46:13
despite the cold air. Finally,
46:16
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo's
46:18
reign of terror was over. Everyone
46:21
in the area could breathe a sigh of relief. Lee
46:24
has said that John Muhammad sexually abused him
46:27
the entire time he knew him. There
46:29
is, of course, no evidence of this, but I sure as
46:31
hell wouldn't put it past the guy. Lee
46:34
didn't come out about it until about 10 years
46:36
after his arrest, and at this point Lee really
46:38
has nothing to gain from it. It
46:40
also fits with Muhammad's profile as
46:42
manipulative and controlling and a cult
46:45
leader. Lee said
46:47
that sex would be a reward and a
46:49
tool for Muhammad to get what he wanted.
46:52
The immigration officer that took Lee in for
46:55
deportation said that he had a terrible feeling
46:57
about their relationship. When
46:59
he brought Lee in, he caught them coming
47:01
out of the group shower together, strangely close.
47:05
The two were tried separately in the fall of 2003
47:07
in Maryland and Virginia. Both
47:11
were found guilty. Lee
47:13
Boyd Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive
47:15
life sentences in prison without parole in
47:17
exchange for his testimony against Muhammad. John
47:20
Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death. John
47:24
represented himself during the Virginia trials because,
47:27
of course, he did, and of course he
47:29
failed miserably. What
47:32
I find so infuriating about this case is that
47:34
John and Lee claimed to want to be making
47:36
the world a better place. They pretended to care
47:38
about uplifting the communities they lived in. It
47:41
was their victims, though, that exemplified the
47:43
best of us. They
47:46
were great parents, friends,
47:48
children, coworkers, upstanding citizens, people
47:50
who lived here their whole lives, people
47:52
who were immigrants, people who put a
47:54
mark on this world for being good,
47:57
lovely human beings. They took
47:59
these people's lives. lives, their peace, out of
48:01
the selfish need to make the world
48:03
look as dark as their own souls.
48:07
Lee is exactly where he should be, serving
48:09
life in prison. He seems
48:11
to have remorse for what he's done, but that doesn't
48:13
take away the destruction. On
48:17
November 9, 2009,
48:19
John Allen Muhammad was executed by lethal injection,
48:21
with members of the press and the families
48:24
of his victims watching. His
48:26
kids wanted to speak to him before his death, and
48:28
he refused. He hasn't spoken a
48:31
word to them since he lost custody. Mildred
48:35
Muhammad is still a domestic violence advocate.
48:38
She is an author and inspirational speaker.
48:41
John Allen Muhammad once told Lee, "...all
48:44
my defects are a reflection of the culture.
48:47
I am what they made me." And
48:49
doesn't that perfectly describe who he is? One
48:52
that can find the splinter in somebody
48:54
else's eye while missing the branch in
48:57
his. So
48:59
that was a wild one, right campers? You
49:01
know, we'll have another one for you next
49:03
week, but for now, lock your doors, light
49:06
your lights, and stay safe until we get
49:08
together again around the true grand campfire. And
49:10
this week we want to send a special happy
49:12
birthday shout out to our super fan Trish. Trish,
49:15
your husband Mike emailed us and asked us to
49:17
do this for you, so he seems like a
49:19
keeper. He says he loves you very much. Aww.
49:23
We hope you have an amazing birthday. Happy
49:25
birthday. And as always, we want
49:27
to send a grateful shout out to a few of our
49:29
lovely patrons. Thank you so much
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to Shannon, Kelly with an I, Danielle,
49:34
Rebecca, Talissa, or Talisa, it's really pretty
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either way, and Sherry. We
49:38
appreciate y'all to the moon and back. And
49:40
if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out. Patrons
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