Ep 3: The DC Snipers
Episode 3 follows the attacks of the DC Snipers. Guest co-host, Arianne Llerena, gives us a first hand account of what it was like to live in Washington, DC in 2002 during the attacks. And the third Detective Society dog makes his appearance.
Show Intro:
Everyone thinks this story starts October 2, 2002. With the murder of James Martin as he returned to his car after buying groceries.
but the Truth is, it started much much earlier when, in 1999, 38 year old John Allen Muhammad befriended THIRTEEN YEAR OLD Lee Boyd Malvo. RED FREAKING FLAG.
Malvo was born in Kingston Jamaica, but in 1998 moved to Antigua with his mother. A woman, who according to Malvo, was extremely physically abusive.
Muhammad had kidnapped his children from his second marriage and brought them to Antigua around 1999 after violating a restraining order.
In Antigua, Lee Malvo had been a student, where he was beloved by friends and teachers at his Seventh-Day Adventist school and was excelling academically. His achievements were all the more remarkable because at the time he was living alone in a single-room plywood shack without electricity or running water, by this time having been more or less abandoned by both his parents because eventually, Malvo's mother would enter the US illegally, leaving her son in Muhammad's care.
RED FLAG NUMBER 2 YALL.
Well it turns out this was not an uncommon practice for Malvo's mother who was known to leave him with just about anyone for months on end. Teachers, Cousins, and in this case, basically a stranger.
RED FLAG NUMBER 3
I want to take a minute to point out how insane this relationship is. This is a situation where one party is almost 3 times older than the other
For the next few years, Malvo would live with Muhammad full time. Until 2001, when he was reunited with his mother in Miami and then Washington State where he was allowed to attend school. He was described by classmates as a smart but isolated young man. ***Note: this is the year that John Allen changed his last name from williams to muhammad
Unfortunately, any sense of normalcy would always be short-lived for Malvo. The pair was soon arrested by immigration.
But by December of that year, Malvo (out on bond) was reunited with Muhammad.
While living in a homeless shelter together, Muhammad put Malvo on a very strict diet and exercise regimen.
"Muhammad had Malvo steal a 223-caliber Bushmaster AR 15 rifle from a local gun shop and began subjecting the boy to a rigorous training program: leopard-crawls across the forest floor, calisthenics, revolutionary literature, target practice, and military theory. Each night before he went to bed, Malvo was made to memorize passages from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Often the pair would drive deep into the stands of white oak and Douglas-fir to practice marksmanship, using makeshift targets with paper plates for heads. Other times Muhammad would tie Malvo up for hours in the brumous foothills of Mount Baker, where he would go without food, water, or sleep until the older man came back to free him."
On February 16, 2002, Keenya Cook was shot and killed at the front door of her home in Tacoma, Washington. Keenya was the first of 17 victims, on a killing spree that would hold the nation hostage and span 9 months.
These are the attacks of the DC Snipers. I'm natalie Levy, and ______, and this is detective society.