Crime Junkie - INFAMOUS: D.C. Sniper

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

For three weeks in October 2002, the nation's capital region was paralyzed with fear as a series of deadly sniper attacks killed innocent people across Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. This week, we partnered with the FBI to bring you this episode and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first African-American agent joining the Bureau. Together with a very special guest from the FBI, we delve into the case of the notorious DC Sniper. For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/infamous-dc-sniper/ 

Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers and the story I have for you today is a little different because Brit Isn't going to help me tell it But that's because I have a super special surprise for you a couple of months ago I got a call from the FBI. Yeah, like the FBI. It's a crime junkies dream, right? They wanted to partner on an extra special episode and yeah It feels like a trap But it was one that I was more than willing to walk into because how many times do you get invited to go to FBI? Headquarters and interview one of their agents. So without further ado, I have a special guest and together

We're gonna tell you about the biggest case of his career. My name is Kevin Lewis. Yeah, I was in the FBI for over 25 years and Doing that tenure I had the well at the time I was the Was called the special assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore office Baltimore field office and with that within that field office we have responsibility for the entire state of Maryland and Delaware and in a course of that in October of 2002 We had there was a series of shootings that took place over in Montgomery County, Maryland

Unusual in the sense that the first ones there was no victims then subsequently in the matter of a matter of several hours There were several victims Kevin Lewis, of course is talking about the case that is infamously known as the DC sniper case And the reason we're talking to retired special agent Kevin Lewis and telling you this story now is because there is a very monumentous event coming up on November 8th 2019 actually this year marks the 100th year since the first African-American came in as a As a special agent with the FBI now back in 1919 They weren't called special agents and they weren't called federal bureau investigation But that's that was the basis of what brought us here today

And it over the years it became the FBI and we became special agents James Warmley-Jones broke the color barrier for African-Americans at the highest level of American law enforcement And paved the way for generations to come the FBI is culminating their year-long celebration with a gala this month designed to celebrate the past and embrace a more diverse future and in doing so they asked for our help to Tell you just one of the many cases that were solved by the African-American agents on the ground So many times the people we see at the press conferences and on TV Don't reflect the true diversity of those who are working behind the scenes to bring justice Retired special agent Kevin Lewis was one of the key personnel responsible for solving the DC sniper case and today

He's going to help me tell you about how On October 2nd 2002 in Aspen Hill, Maryland Ann Chapman is standing at her register at a Michaels craft store in Montgomery County It's about 5 20 on a Wednesday afternoon And she's going about her normal duties bringing up customers chatting with her coworkers When suddenly a bullet comes barreling through the front window right into the store the shot barely misses hitting her and Eventually lodges itself into a picture frame now Ann is understandably shaken up But since no one is hurt she and her coworkers kind of just thank their lucky stars and pass the whole thing off as a terrifying accident a little over an hour later and just a few miles away from the Michaels

55 year old James Martin is on his way to an event at church He decides to stop off at a grocery store in Wheaton, Maryland to run some errands Another shot rings out and this time the bullet finds its target killing James now at the time No one made the connection to the bullet that just missed Ann over at Michaels But the next day though on the morning of Thursday October 3rd all hell breaks loose at 741 a.m. James Buchanan is shot and killed in Rockville while he's out landscaping at first Witnesses thought maybe it's just an accident like maybe something happened with his equipment that like backfired But then they see the gunshot wound and realize the horrible truth at 8 12 a.m.

Prem Kumar Wallacher is shot and killed in Aspen Hill while he fills up his taxi at a local gas station Then at 8 37 Sarah Ramos is shot and killed in Norbeck while she waits for her ride to work It's at this scene that a witness report seeing a white box van or truck fleeing the scene and they report that to police At 9 58 a.m. Lori Ann Lewis Rivera is shot and killed in Kensington with all of these shots in quick succession the small jurisdictions local law enforcement is Overwhelmed as the bodies pile up and their resources are stretched thin No one knows what's happening or who could be next in under 24 hours

Five ordinary people have been murdered in long-range killings with no obvious links to each other except for how they died law enforcement suspect a connection though and right away they go to work trying to tie the shootings together and Then subsequently we we realized there was a pattern of activity happening pretty quickly Over Montgomery County probably within the first five days they realized there was something that was going on that was unusual Because again at the time they were all isolated to Montgomery County, Maryland so one of our our Department of Justice partners the Bureau of Alcohol and Baccalaureate Firearms and explosive ATF they came in and were working in partnership with the with the Montgomery County Police Department and

Then subsequently I assigned a couple of my guys who had a responsibility for that territory They went over there and just to be around to be offered assistance would When need be like Lewis said federal agents from the FBI and ATF are involved from the very beginning on an unofficial level because it was again it was a state and local Series of events that we couldn't get involved right away not officially Panic is starting to seep into the community as the media starts to report on all of the murders The white box truck reported at the scene of Sarah's murder picks up a life of its own and according to Lewis Almost every white box truck in the area was stopped at one time or another

Local schools including Kensington Elementary, which was so close to the scene of Laurie Ann's death go on lock down The Montgomery County School District, which is the eighth largest in the country at the time Issues a code blue for all public schools under its jurisdiction and the area of private schools follow suit It seems like nowhere is safe like kids weren't going out for recess They weren't allowed to basically leave the school unless their parents were picking them up now There's a lull in the killings over the afternoon and evening, but the day's whore isn't over yet 72-year-old Pascal Charleau a guy known around his neighborhood for his vegetable garden and his extremely giving nature is Shot and killed at 9 20 p.m. While he's walking in Washington, DC

Now in this scene a witness reported seeing a blue Chevy Caprice in the area driving with its headlights off Which is completely different from this white box fan that we've been hearing about as the chaos is unfolding The coroner passes bullet fragments from the scene over to ATF for comparison. The results are terrifying Not only are the bullets all the same caliber They were also fired from the same gun, which was a rifle The type of bullets that were used were very light and fast and because they're so light They're known to shatter on impact which makes them even more destructive now keep in mind It's barely a year after September 11th at this time and the anthrax letters that came that fall now

All of a sudden there's these seemingly random shootings that are happening and they're being connected So the public panic is at an all-time high now though The public is fearful at first that this is some kind of terrorist attack the FBI classified this as a spree killer and to be clear The FBI differentiates between serial killers and spree killers Because unlike serial killers who have this like cooling off period between victims Spree killers don't rest and basically they keep going until they're stopped and true to the spree pattern This killer in DC strikes again the very next day on October 4th Shooting 43 year old Caroline Sewell in Virginia

Caroline is one of the lucky few though who survives her injuries and the next two days pass in fearful silence as the whole country waits And that was another challenge keep in the media informed and then that was just a media then you had the FBI director You know, we had to keep him apprised several times a day and then a White House We had to keep the White House surprised every morning yet I think it was six o'clock in the morning. We had to get a report an update to the FBI director who will go over to the White House To brief in it for then President Bush in terms of what was going on because he wouldn't know The nation was shocked by what was going on, but it wasn't just silent waiting for the FBI They had some serious challenges even on the days when the shooter wasn't active

One of which was keeping everyone abreast of what was happening as they continue to work the case No one not the media not the police not even the FBI was prepared for what happened next But there was a very defining moment in that series of incidents there was a young kid by the name of Iran Brown who was shot Going to middle school. Iran is only 13 years old It's a Monday morning and while the whole area is on edge with the sniper attacks He's not worried as he walks up to his middle school in Bowie, Maryland His mind is focused on the upcoming week Like we're all a little guilty at one point or another of thinking that bad things could never happen to us

But I remember being exceptionally oblivious when I was in middle school just so caught up in my own world Just 20 feet from his school door. Iran is struck by a bullet He told the Washington Neon a decade later quote. I got hit right under my left chest I fell to the ground a teacher came out to help me I had my hand over the wound, but it wasn't like in the movies with blood gushing out I explained that I'd been shot and needed help, but it didn't seem to register in her brain end quote. I Ran started fading fast by the time he was airlifted to the paramedics trauma unit at Children's National Medical Center in DC He'd lost 20% of his blood when they were able to like go in and surgery

They found that the bullet damaged his lung, spleen, stomach, pancreas, and diaphragm. So he was rushed in right away Bullet fragments are recovered from his stomach sent to ballistics, which of course they match and by some miracle after a grueling recovery Iran survives Now this attack in particular didn't quite seem to register anywhere at first because it was almost too horrific to Contemplate the sniper isn't just going after adults now. There are children involved Iran shooting galvanized law enforcement. So now you had a situation where Primarily adults were shot no particular race no particular agenda just randomly shot

But it was when I ran Brown who was 13 years old at the time was shot Became a very seminal moment in terms of the that investigation the same day October 7th Montgomery County Sheriff of Police Charles Moose puts in a formal letter to the Department of Justice Seeking federal assistance now the Department of Justice handles federal law enforcement issues and basically is the umbrella agency that oversees the FBI The ATF US Marshals and like a ton more So if you want official involvement from any of them you have to go through the Department of Justice first Even though we had guys on the grounds of again ATF was there and some FBI folks were there But it was at that point that we we draft this letter and all the resources of the federal government was brought into it

While local law enforcement is collaborating with the FBI back at police headquarters Officers are still on the scene in Boogie searching for clues They traipse carefully through the wooded areas near Iran's middle school. We're specially trained explosive Sniffer dogs locate a shell casing and a new clue a strange clue They found a tarot card It was the card of death and inscribed on it were the words call me God Now call me God was on the front the three lines that were written on the back make it clear that this was No accident and that the sniper is actively trying to communicate with law enforcement

So again on the front is call me God when you flip it over on the back It said for you, mr. Police under that Code call me God under that Some very specific instructions do not release to the press But the press gets ahold of this information anyway and news of the card and its contents is all over the headlines in less than 24 hours FBI agent Gary Ball told the Washingtonian back in 2012 that there were leaks in the investigation that caused real problems Now meanwhile chief moose's request is granted and the Department of Justice approves official federal involvement

So one of the first things we did we set up a command post within the Montgomery County Police Department That first space is too small for all the people in the investigation that are coming and going 24 hours a day seven days a week So they quickly relocate to the top floor of a building next door This is a huge operation at this point with agents analysts investigators a call center people working in a call center like you name it And it was there and the local media wants a piece of all of it The media was there was a there was a thirst for information and they got very very aggressive We are up on the top level of of this building and there was one circumstance. We had One of the media outlets had one of the people scaling the building to try and get closer to get information

So well, I mean we took care of all this stuff This type of challenges that we had just trying to you know keep the media informed of what was going on Because if you don't tell them something, they'll hear certain things that'll make stuff up Because it's their urgency to get the story told as they try to find that balance between keeping people informed But also like warding off the media that's getting in their way They decide that one of the first things they need to do is like get to work on setting up a profile to help them find the shooter And put a stop to their crimes. They characterized as a somebody who probably had a military background Somebody who recently has some type of significant change in their life

audible recently released a new exclusive audio book called call me God and the profilers in that book got a little more In-depth about their initial profile saying that the suspect was probably a lone white male in his 30s Who possesses some kind of God complex? That's pretty frequently characteristic of snipers and this is because basically by being so far away The sniper gets to play God with their sense of control over their targets life and death and as I was listening I mean, it's a super interesting listen to hear them go into detail about this profile and how it evolves So if you want to check it out, you can go to audible.com slash untold story I highly recommend it, but having the profile is essential

I can get you one step closer, but it doesn't stop the crime in its tracks and it's not the end all be all I mean, we'll learn that this profile changes over time So on the evening of October 9th a man named Dean Myers is shot and killed while pumping gas in Prince William County, Virginia Then on the morning of October 11th Kenneth just like Dean Myers is shot and killed in Pennsylvania, Virginia while he's filling up his car These are two more people who are murdered while going about their perfectly ordinary activities Because of this terrified gas station owners start putting up tarps like all around the pump to start protecting their customers And local newspapers start publishing articles advising citizens to run in basically a zigzag

Like if they have to go out anywhere local schools remain under code blue alert like they're canceling Like I said recess they're covering windows anything to keep the children safe and inside Everyone is afraid because anyone could be next at this point The madness continues on October 14th. This is just three days later There's a woman named Linda Franklin that's murdered and quickly the FBI learned that the spree killer has taken one of their own One of the victims was an FBI employee who worked right here in this building And her and her husband went to a home depot over in Fairfax County And they were putting some merchandise you know into the trunk of the car so it was heavy and bulky

And she was shot and she was shot in the head and killed And we didn't know that and that just happened to be that was one of the few nights I was coming back a little from Virginia And I was coming back from Maryland. We hadn't had a shooting in a couple of three days and I've been sleeping over there in a hotel And I was coming home that night and as I was coming home I got the call So I quickly went to the scene over in Virginia and I was there when I got the word from Fairfax County Police Department That hey agent Lewis this is an FBI employee. We just talked to her husband And I got to tell you actually it was a pretty gruesome scene because she got shot in the head and it was a gruesome scene Initially there was an eyewitness at the scene of Linda's murder who was giving police a lot of what seemed like at the time great information

But unfortunately they quickly realized that he was making a lot of it up and he ends up being arrested for interfering with the investigation And basically nothing that this man said brought them any closer to the shooters As the days drag on after Linda is killed the profiler's view of the suspect begins to change Profiling is interesting because it's adaptable like this. It's this theoretical practice designed to evolve as more and more evidence comes to light In this case some of the most critical evidence comes from the sniper themselves when they telephone the police hotline on the 17th The call is short and to the point with a ransom demand of 10 million dollars in order to stop the carnage But according to the Guardian the caller also tells police to check with the people in Montgomery if they don't believe the caller's threat And initially police are confused. They're like we already are well aware of the murders in Montgomery County, Maryland

But they weren't talking about Maryland There was a crucial tip. We got a telephone call from the subjects in this case And they asked us for a ransom. Give us extra millions of dollars or else the shootings will continue And if you don't believe me take a look at what happened down in Alabama Up until now the police in the FBI had no reason to look beyond the tri-state region of the District of Columbia Now they turn to the other Montgomery in Alabama And it turns out back in September of 2002 there was an unsolved crime where two women were shot in a liquor store parking lot One of them died of her injuries while the other survived despite being shot in the neck

At the time police in Alabama had zero leads to go on But what they did have was one tiny piece of evidence that at the time was kind of useless Because it was a fingerprint taken off of a magazine dropped at the scene And yeah it's great to have fingerprints but they had no one to match it to Well now that the FBI was making this connection they had their task force back in Maryland run the print through their databases And they come back with a discovery that will change everything The Alabama fingerprint turns up with a match in the vast immigration and naturalization service database The fingerprint came back to Lee Voight Malville who was a kid who came in from across the Canada

And then we subsequently linked him to John Muhammad Again this changed everything because not only are there now two suspects in the sniper killings But one of them is a teenage boy and at the same time the task force is learning these names for the first time a call comes in on the tip line They're simultaneous with that we had because of the tremendous media coverage we had a concerned person called in and said hey look this sounds like somebody that I know And in fact you know the weapon that was used they were actually shooting it at a stump in the back of my house And it just happened that places out in Washington state so what we did we had the FBI lab fly an aircraft out to Washington state And we did some poor things out of the stump we took the whole stump and flew it back here to Washington DC It was huge it was huge but they can do their best analysis up there so we removed the whole stump and brought it up

And when they get this entire stump back to headquarters for testing agents finally get a really good break that they've been waiting for The ballistics tied all those shootings together that's why we knew we're on to the same person responsible for this Armed with the two names the task force begins to dig And we got to fill in all that gaps what's their story who are these people These people as we now know are John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo their story doesn't start in Maryland or even Washington DC Or even the United States at all it actually starts hundreds of miles away in the West Indies on the Caribbean island of Antigua And it's here where the two first met Neither John or Lee came to Antigua under happy circumstances

John was a Gulf War veteran and a single father in the midst of a bitter divorce from his ex-wife Mildred who had a restraining order against him She cited escalating domestic violence and fear for her life At some point John took his three children out of the United States to Antigua without warning or permission from Mildred or the courts Now he was never formally charged with kidnapping but he never told Mildred where he was going And she firmly believed that her son and two daughters had been lost to her forever Meanwhile Lee who was 15 at the time was a native of Jamaica but he'd been brought to Antigua by his mom Una Now Una moved Lee around a lot throughout his childhood like a lot a lot Lee was born in Kingston and initially had a really good relationship with his father Leslie

But Una severed ties between Lee and Leslie after they separated telling her son that his father was dead And she even was writing that on his school admission forms Now Lee did end up reuniting with Leslie briefly before he turned 10 But Leslie wouldn't allow his son to come live with him So Lee spent years being bounced between various relatives and boarding schools while Una left to work on these wealthier tourist islands throughout the region And her pattern went a little something like this Like Lee would be left for months at a time with someone else basically long enough to form connections and settle into somewhere new Only to have her like swoop back in right when he got settled and basically take him away to a new place

By the time Lee meets John he's gone to over 12 different schools both back in Jamaica and now here in Antigua He's never had a parent sustained presence or any real family stability and it hurts him John meanwhile he's like well known well liked around the island There was this woman who knew him during this time and she described him to Vanity Fair as quote One of those people who everyone walking down the street would say hi to end quote It's not just his personality that makes John so popular though He actually has a good business forging highly authentic US work pieces for people wanting to find work off the island And one of his clients is Lee's mom Una

Now it's believed that John and Lee met for the first time in October of 2000 while Lee was still living with his mom and her new boyfriend But Una leaves again in December and so now Lee is living alone in this one room shack without electricity, no running water And he's totally alone except for one person, John Muhammad John takes Lee into his home and according to John's youngest daughter who did an interview with Crime Watch Daily John introduces Lee to his kids as their new brother and right away becomes this like parental authority that Lee never had For a time everyone's happy, the Muhammad kids get a new sibling and Lee has what he's always wanted, a family Following occasions John Muhammad taught Lee Boyd Malibu and John Muhammad was the older subject And Lee Boyd Malibu was kind of his follower, mentee, and that his de facto son

John takes on the role of both father and teacher and before long Lee converts to John's version of Islam And he starts following a new diet, a new exercise regimen and learns everything John has to teach him about weapons Which is a decent amount considering he was a former expert marksman in the military Every night Lee would fall asleep listening to John's homemade cassette tapes full of these motivational books and self-improvement speeches sprinkled in with like nation of Islam teachings Eventually John's visa forging operation gets busted and he packs up and travels to the United States with Lee and his three children Now this is in late May 2001 and I'm not sure of the like agreement they had or the arrangement but John doesn't keep Lee with him He actually drops Lee off in Florida to be with his mom who if you'll remember got one of those forged visas from John And then John heads to Bellingham, Washington and you guys what is up with Bellingham?

I feel like every story comes back to the state of Washington and Bellingham and Puyallup in particular I don't know why stay out of Washington you guys So what John doesn't know is that in his absence his ex-wife Mildred took legal action to get her kids back Not only did she get like a no fault divorce and full custody but she also got a habeas corpus writ that said John had wrongfully detained their kids As soon as he registers them in school their name pop up on authorities radar and before long the kids are taken out of his care to be reunited with Mildred Now it's her turn to take them and vanish Around the same time Lee Malvo makes his way from Florida to Washington but when he reaches John it's a completely different man than he knew back in Antigua Losing his kids only made John's problems worse he is full of rage at Mildred and rage at the world that everything he believes is responsible for his suffering

He and Lee resume their training but now it escalates into something darker Gone are the recordings of like don't sweat the small stuff Now it's like violent race war rhetoric one meal a day for this growing 16 year old boy shooting practice grueling workouts Hunting each other like snipers across the forest and even Lee being chained to a tree in winter to toughen him up against interrogation is what John was trying to do Now during all of this they're living at a homeless shelter and so there are people around all the time but John keeps to himself and goes to great lengths to keep Lee isolated from their peers This man named Al Archer who worked at the shelter while John and Lee were there told Vanity Fair quote John never let Lee out of his sight they were always alone and together John was also now controlling everything that Lee did Lee wouldn't even speak unless John gave him a nod a signal that it was okay to talk And this grueling training doesn't end once the sun goes down John and Lee watched a lot of action movies and sniper documentaries and John also encourages Lee to play sniper video games in particular Tom Clancy's ghost recon

John's constant refrain is simple he and Lee are on a mission and there's no turning back Despite Una tracking down her son in Bellingham in December 2001 and both her and Lee getting picked up for deportation by INS Lee returns to John yet again and they end up leaving Bellingham together in early 2002 They stop in Tacoma Washington where just days before his 17th birthday Lee takes his first life shooting 21 year old Kenya Cook in the face when she answers the door John was right about one thing with Kenya's death there was no turning back they continue their way across the country killing others in their path But they were headed for the DC area all along because many most even believe that John's wife was the real target of all of this John Muhammad was who he went through a traumatic situation his wife had left him took his kids and relocated from Washington state over here to Maryland His mind is that if I shot these people randomly then she would draw her out and we'd get closer to her and then he can kill her Because that's one of several theories but what I can tell you what the nation needed to know that there was a concern about was this terrorism related and we did all the necessary checks and only to find out there wasn't

Our conclusion it was not terrorism related this was a man that was bent on trying to do other things and make other statements and he was trying to lure his wife out Frankly he got pretty close to her because she was living over in a county here in Maryland and he got real close to knowing exactly where she was at Days were long days were long and every time we had we'd have a command post and every agency was represented in the command post we had a table Okay Montgomery County was here Prince George's County was here Aslan Virginia was here Virginia State Police Maryland State Police and then we had another shooting had another chair to the table because we had it someplace else Everybody wanted to help all the federal agencies I mean we got offers from every place every place Five long days passed without any more shootings the public waits anxiously unwilling to believe that the terror has stopped The task force is on edge too and they work furiously to chase down new leads and find something anything to bring them closer to apprehending their suspects Like it or not the names John Muhammad and Lee Malville are leaked to the press before anyone on the case is ready and on top of that a big detail in the case has completely changed

We were on a white we were on the white band or white box truck and then as you look through the evidence is that we had a shooting down here in Washington D.C. where after the shot was taken and there was a dark colored capris that was seen with the lights out cruising away from the area So we had a piece of information but it didn't fit we had it there but it didn't fit at the time and it came from I came from Metropolitan D.C. Metropolitan Police Department So that was key and then we did was called an offline search in terms of that vehicle only to find out that the vehicle was also the same vehicle had been identified up in Baltimore So as pieces started coming together all came together quickly and then we started you know changing this jigsaw puzzle around okay this is what we got this is what we got Just like they did when they thought the white box truck was what they were looking for law enforcement asked the public to be on the lookout for a specific vehicle the Chevy Caprice and they have more information now they say it has a New Jersey license plate number NDA 21Z Now meanwhile while they're asking the public for this the snipers make contact again after shooting Jeffrey Hopper on October 19 at a Ponderosa in Ashton, Virginia Police and dogs find a four page handwritten letter left deliberately in the woods nearby and the letter repeats their demand for ten million dollars and it also makes a terrifying threat your children are not safe anywhere at any time That victim Jeffrey Hopper survives his injuries but Conrad Johnson who shot three days later in Aspen Hill, Maryland does not and at this point he is the snipers 10th known casualty

Finally early morning on October 24 police get a major break in the case the break that they have been waiting three long weeks for What happened is that they were they were here in Maryland they were out on interstate 70 out here in Maryland heads out west and there was a rest area and then in the wee morning hours there was a truck driver who was coming through who was who had been following the media and he followed the description of the vehicle and he's seen it in the in the rest area So he took his he's driving 18 wheeler he took it and he blocked the exit to us so they couldn't get out he called us he was able to get to get through to the command post and we quickly got the right people out there in the middle of the night We got there we got people on ground get some English folks out there okay yeah the car is there I've got it's occupied two times and then like to sleep so they were able to put a plan together we took the FBI's hostage rescue team and some other some other tactical teams they went in there and breached the car and made the arrest we knew that these guys are going to be armed and they already had 10 bodies under the belts and three other victims so we knew that they were going to be armed so we had had a right people just because we couldn't have been just a regular traffic times it can be at the quickly forcing these these teams were together all the time they know what to do so they do a quick quick assessment of what they got to isolate the area the cleared area because there was a truck truck stop you and the 18 wheeler blocked the other side we ended up blocking the other the other end so nobody came in to the rest area so we secured here and the name went in and did what they had to do

now if you're wondering like me if that truck driver got any kind of reward or recognition for being amazing I asked retired special agent Lewis the exact thing and yes yes he did so when these two are finally in custody they are filthy they've been living out of the Caprice they haven't showered or wash their clothes in weeks and when they actually take a look at the car the car has been transformed from this innocent sedan into what the FBI calls a rolling snipers nest John and Lee had modified it to their exact specifications they had cut a hole in the trunk to stick their rifle through painted the hole with a dark color to reduce the flash in the guns and anchored the latch with a bungee cord so that they could open the trunk easily enough to get the gun barrel and scope through the hole and according to the website the FBI also recovered the rifle the rifle scope this digital voice recorder that both of them use to make their extortion demands they also found a stolen laptop from one of the victims and on the laptop contained a map with all of their shooting sites and getaway routes they had maps and walkie talkies and so many more items John is 41 when he's arrested Lee at the time is still a minor only 17 years old that audio book call me God tells the story of both John and Lee being taken to the state police barracks in Maryland for interrogation where an improperly handcuffed Lee manages to escape and actually climb up into the ceiling before being retrieved after they bring him down that's when he starts to talk the admissions from Lee came but all the victims were shot pretty much by Lee just for the most part for the most did obviously leaves that was very candid with you guys did John speak to you guys at all no he didn't cooperate other violent crimes across the country going back to February of 2002 are eventually linked to John and Lee bringing their victim count up to 17 people killed and 10 more wounded their original case goes to trial in the fall of 2003

what they both were convicted and over in Virginia in the Commonwealth of Virginia that was the first charges and and John Muhammad was given death penalty and then Lee Boyd Malibu was given life John Allen Muhammad was put to death by lethal injection on November 10 2009 at the Greenville Correctional Facility in Virginia he declined to offer any last words in 2012 three years after John's death Lee Boyd Malibu told the Today show that John had sexually abused him over the course of several years from their early days in Antigua up to his arrest in Maryland in that same interview he also claimed that there were more murder victims never connected to the sniper attacks but law enforcement has never verified these claims as of right now Lee is 34 years old serving his sentence at the super max security red onion state prison in Virginia he spent as much of his life in prison as he ever spent out of it his request for resentencing is currently up before the United States Supreme Court but even if it's granted it's unlikely that Lee will ever see freedom again you know we tell these stories every week some solved some unsolved but we rarely get to talk to the men and women who were there who are working to solve them working tirelessly giving up sleep and time with their family to protect us and you'll probably never hear them tell you what they gave up unless you ask them

oh I know I didn't go home a lot that 21 days probably out of those 21 days I probably made a home maybe four times and for me it was equally compounded because at the time my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and she was back in Michigan so I found the day or two I can go back home and see her and then she knew what was going on and I'll never forget this she said hey look I know what you're doing don't worry about me I'll be okay and she had gone back so uh but that uh you know then she unfortunately we lost her a couple weeks later but she was supportive hey look uh you know do what you gotta do you know we are so lucky to have people like retired special agent Kevin Lewis serving our country giving up the things or moments that I'm not sure I could because they're committed to the job to the country and to us

you stick with it until it's done and we as a country so blessed we got committed men and women in law enforcement that step up time and time again and you see it they won't go home they will not go home I mean you got people being killed or shot or injured you know and they won't go home you gotta make them go home and I see it time and time again law enforcement folks are just committed to doing this stuff they realize it's their job and I can't tell you we can't pay them enough money you cannot pay them enough money when it was all said and done there was one moment that stood out to Lewis most we're back at the leadership and some of the key investigators were at the command post and we got a call and it was Andrew Cardt the chief of staff for the president

and I talked to him on the phone he said this is Andy Cardt who's this this is Kevin Lewis he said hey the president wants to talk to you but you can put this out into your command post so they had the tech people come in and they set it up and George Bush open bay it had to be a whole floor we had the mic set up he came on from Air Force One to thank all those men and women for everything they've done to put our country back at ease I mean I can tell you it wasn't a dry house but a president that called in here we just joined our jobs we just joined our jobs and that was another touching moment you look around you had all these season cops and FBI agents and you know I'm okay I'm okay I'm okay

but they had your president call and say thank you it was truly special hearing about all of the sacrifices that these agencies made the huge sacrifice that Kevin made after the loss of his mother I had one burning question did you at least get a vacation after that we went back to work we went back to work just hoping oh god hope I don't get another case like this again oh no please you were stretched out this was a case that changed how law enforcement responds and operates and I'm so

honored to have met retired special agent Kevin Lewis the man who helped make that change and who's helped capture two monsters and put a nation back at ease if you want to learn more about the FBI's initiative to honor the history of African American Special Agents visit FBI.gov and search our history our service we also have links up on our website that will take you right there and tell you everything you need to know thank you so much again to the FBI for inviting me down to headquarters to talk with them and help them tell this story it was such a wonderful opportunity and I was a hundred percent that person who bought all the things in the gift shop

so I can one day look back when I'm like a hundred and be like remember that time I was a podcaster and went to the FBI HQ so thank you for listening if you want to check out any of the other sources we use you can go to our website crimejunkiepodcast.com and you can follow us on social we're at crime junkie podcast and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode music crime junkie is an audio chuck production so what do you think Chuck do you approve