In the days and weeks following the capture of the Beltway snipers, the joint operations center and the SNIPMUR Task Force were officially wound down, as the team of more than one thousand agents, troopers, deputies, and officers returned to their normal assignments. The investigation would continue for several more months, however, as investigative teams traced the snipers’ movements and pieced together information, evidence, and intelligence in an attempt to determine what exactly these killers were responsible for, and also to understand what made them tick.
I don’t think any of us who worked on that task force for those twenty-three days will ever forget that case and the pressures we were all under, from the citizens we serve to the governments we work for. Every case takes its toll and a small chunk of our armor, but state troopers have been answering that call in Maryland since 1921 and will continue to do so far into the future. On my last business card before I retired was a saying that I believe to the bottom of my heart: “Maryland State Police, a solid tradition protecting lives and property.”
Follow-up investigation revealed that the afternoon before they were captured, Muhammad and Malvo had been spotted picking up cans in the woods across from Myersville Elementary School. The witnesses who saw them and their parked car thought they seemed suspicious, but didn’t think enough about it to call police.
I believe the snipers’ last bullet was meant for a child at Myersville Elementary School, a final “screw you, cops” before the killers moved on to parts unknown. These two were smart enough to know they were never going to get money from the government, so they needed to get out of the area, commit a few more robberies, and buy more ammunition. This wasn’t about money, and I seriously doubt they truly believed in the grandiose plan that Malvo confessed to. This was about killing. They got off on it, and they very much enjoyed the publicity they generated for themselves.
After months of investigation it was determined that they were connected to and responsible for seventeen killings and the wounding of ten other people in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington State. That doesn’t include their shootings in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Because of the wide geographic scope of their crimes, there was some political wrangling over where the snipers should be tried. Prosecutors everywhere they had been felt pressure to claim a piece of their asses and make them answer for their crimes.
Ultimately, they were tried first in Virginia. In September 2003, a Virginia court found Muhammad guilty of the murders committed in Virginia and sentenced him to death. In October, Malvo was tried as an adult and was given six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; Virginia couldn’t go after the death penalty because Malvo was seventeen when the murders occurred. Both Muhammad and Malvo were also tried in Maryland in 2006 and were also found guilty of their crimes.
On November 10, 2009, the state of Virginia executed John Allen Muhammad by lethal injection at the Greenville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Lee Boyd Malvo remains incarcerated in Virginia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Those twenty-three days in October became part of the most massive and intense criminal investigation and manhunt in American history. On the heels of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the uncertainty of the anthrax case (which at that time had not been solved), our nation was on edge. We all feared that sooner or later our country would come under attack again. To many people, the snipers running unchecked around Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., and killing at will, brought terror once again into American living rooms.
For law enforcement, this case became the ultimate test of our ability to maintain that thin blue line and keep people safe. Local, city, county, state, and federal agencies came together, setting aside egos (for the most part) to form a single focus and track down the snipers. This book was written to preserve the details of this extraordinary case.
I want to acknowledge the victims and their families who were devastated by the sniper attacks. Neither their tragic losses nor the losses of their families will ever be forgotten.
This book is also dedicated to the thousand or so police officers, detectives, deputies, troopers, civilian police employees, and agents who worked this case—none was more important than any other. They unselfishly set aside their lives and poured their hearts and souls into tracking down the killers and bringing them to justice.
I want to thank the National Law Enforcement Museum, which will soon open a new, first-of-its-kind facility on E Street NW in Washington, D.C. The museum curators permitted me extraordinary access to the case files, crime photos, and the physical evidence I needed in order to complete this book. The evidence from the Beltway sniper case, as well as from other infamous cases, will soon be on display to help track the history of law enforcement in this country.
For those who would like to better understand the lessons that law enforcement learned from the sniper investigation, you can go online to the Department of Justice website and review the white paper Managing a Multijurisdictional Case: Identifying the Lessons Learned from the Sniper Investigation, by Gerard R. Murphy and Chuck Wexler, with Heather J. Davies and Martha Plotkin. I used this document to assist me in re-creating the timeline.
I would also like to thank my collaborator, Lori Widmer, for her assistance in the writing of this story, and for the encouragement she provided. I couldn’t have done this without her. Lori gave me the best advice she could have ever given when, after several months of outlines and kicking around ideas, she said, “Dave, just write the story and stop sweating the details.”
I would also like to thank my kids for the sacrifices they made during my entire career, sacrifices shared by the families of every law enforcement officer: missed ball games, missed birthday parties and Christmas mornings, and for some, the dad or mom not coming home at the end of the shift. To those who paid the ultimate price to stand as part of the thin blue line, you are forever in our hearts and on our minds; you will never be forgotten.
Lastly to Jean. It takes a special kind of person to be married to a cop and put up with the job and the stresses. For more than thirty years, Jean has been there on those bad days to console me and dry my tears because of some of the things I’ve seen or had to do. She has also been there for the good days and the successes I have had, and has always welcomed those successes with the biggest smile. Most important, she has kept the family together. Without her, I’m not sure where my career would have taken me. I always made a point to kiss her as I was heading out the door for my next shift. Without saying a word, we both understood there was a possibility I wouldn’t come home. That took a special woman and a special kind of dedication and love. Thank you, Jean, for the sacrifices you have made to support your trooper.