John Allen Muhammad & Lee Boyd Malvo

Created by Alba Ollero Cifuentes Criminal Psychology

Record # 1
Name: Name: John Allen Williams (Muhammad) Date of Birth: Dicember 31, 1960 Birth: Place of Birth: Batton Rouge, Louissiana Birth: Also known as: The Washington Sniper, The Beltway Sniper, as: DC Sniper, The Highway Serial Killer, The Tarot Muder. Victims: Victims: 10 people dead, 3 people wounded. Span of Killings: September 5 - October 23, 2002. Killings: Country: Country: USA (Alabama, Arizona, California, Louissiana, Maryland, Texas, Washington D.C., State of Washington and Virginia) Date apprehended: October 24, 2002. apprehended: Date of Death: November 10, 2009 (Jarrat, Virginia) Death: Cause of Death: Execution by lethal injection. Death:

John Allens Passport Allen

Record #2
Name: Name: Lee Boyd Malvo Date of Birth: February 18, 1985 Birth: Place of Birth: Kingston, Jamaica Birth: Also Known as: The Washington Sniper, The as: Beltway Sniper, DC Sniper, The Highway Serial Killer, The Tarot Muder. Victims: Victims: 10 dead people, 3 wounded. Span of the Killings: September 5 - October 23, 2002. Killings: Country: Country: USA (Alabama, Arizona, California, Louissiana, Maryland, Texas, Washington D.C. and State of Washington and Virginia) Date apprehended : October 24, 2002 Sentence: Sentence: Life imprisonment.

Biography
CHILDHOOD
John Allen Williams was born in New Orleans, Louissiana (USA) on December 31, 1960. He grew up in the overpopulated black suburbs of Baton Rouge, in a slum called The Avenues. According to several testimonies, He was well-known among his friends for a firm handshake, his skills in fast-cars mechanics and his bad temper. He joined the Louissiana National Guard in 1978, a few years after finishing highschool.

Biography
Lee Boyd Malvo, Muhammad s godson, was born in a working-class neighbourhood of Kingston, Jamaica, on February 18th, 1985. At the age of 14 he was described by his school instructor Malvo as a charming and amusing, though insecure, boy. Malvo moved in with Muhammad and his three children. Following the example of his personal hero, Malvo converted to Islam in the spring of 2001, began to carry to school a Coran book and to recite Islam prayers.

Biography
MATURITY
While in the National Guard, John Allen was problematic. After beating an officer, he was subjected to disciplinary action, deprived of his rank as a Sergeant and spent a week in a military prison. Although it remains unknown why he changed so radically, we know that after leaving his wife and son in 1985, he converted to Islam and joined the Army. He also changed his name to John Allen Muhammad. After completing a degree in Military Ingenieering, he was eventually stationed in Fort Lewis (Washington), Fort Ord (California) and Germany.

Biography
After taking part in the Operation Desert Storm, during the Persian Gulf War, Muhammad left the Army in 1994. He continued living in Tacoma, where he rejoined the National Guard.

Biography
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
John Allen married twice. He first married a girl he met in highschool, Carol Kaglear, who gave him a son. In 1988 he married for the second time and become a father to three children. His second wife eventually was granted a restraining order against him.

Characteristics
Physical Psychological

Research Events
On February 16, 2002, both men started in Tacoma, Washington, a dead-end journey The pair always carried with them Daniel Reids handbook The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity, an introduction to Tao philosophy that emphasized the importance of food, breathing, sex therapy and aphrodisiac herbs. Armed with spiritual and real guns as well, they were ready to accomplish their mission.

Victims
First Victim
James Martin, 55 years old. Murdered in a mall parking in Wheaton, Maryland at the 6.04 PM of October 2, 2002.

Second Victim
James Buchanan, 39 years old. He was murdered while doing the gardening of a car dealer building in Rockville, Maryland, at the 7.41 AM of October 3, 2002.

Victims
Third Victim
Premkumar Walekar, 54 years old, taxi driver. He was killed in front of a gas station in Aspen Hill, Maryland at the 08.12 Am of October 3, 2002.

Fourth Victim
Sarah Ramos, 34 years old. Murdered near a post office in Silver Spring, Maryland at the 08.37 AM of October 3, 2002.

Victims
Fifth Victim
Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25 years old. She was killed in front of a gas station in Kensington, Maryland, at the 09.58 AM of October 3, 2002.

Sixth Victim
Pascal Charlot, 72 years old. Murdered in the street in Washington, DC, at the 9.20 PM of October 3, 2002.

Victims
Seventh Victim
Dean Harold Meyers, 53 years old, a former marine. He was killed in front of a gas station in Manassas, Virginia at the 8.18 PM of October 9th 2002.

Eighth Victim
Kenneth Puentes, 53 years old. He was attacked in Fredericksburg, Virginia at the 09.40 AM of October 11, 2002. .

Victims
Ninth Victim
Linda Franklin, 47 years old, FBI analyst. She was killed at a furniture & home store in Falls Church, Virginia, at the 9.19 PM of October 14, 2002.

Last dead victim

Conrad Johnson, 35 years old. He was attacked while working as a bus driver in Aspen Hill, Maryland, at the 05.55 AM of October 22nd.

Victims
Wounded victims
Brian Holmes, a 13 years old kid. Shot on his way to school in Bowie, Maryland, on October 7, 2002. Jerry Taylor, 37 years old. He was shot near a restaurant in Ashland, Virginia, on October 19, 2002. As he was falling down, he told his wife: I ve been shot.

Geography Profile

Criminal Profile
John Allen Muhammad, 42, formed a sniper duo with a Jamaican 17 years old Lee Malvo, the son of a former lover of his. As a way to make easy-quick money, they comitted several murders. Their longer-term goal was to extort law enforcement into giving them money to stop the shootings. Otherwise, killings would continue. The highway killers launched a war against the police of several states, indiscriminately killing people with a precision rifle. The most terryfing fact about it was the shootings unpredictability: they could happen at anytime, anywhere within reach of a rifle. Child or adult, woman or man, everybody was at risk.

Modus Operandi
Muhammad and Malvo killed their victims using a semiautomatic Bushmaster XM-15 rifle. All victims were of different ages and sex and were randomly chosen. The killers shot people within a range of 50-100 meters, from the inside of John Allen Muhammads car.

Modus Operandi
To secure their impunity, the snipers drilled two holes in rear of the car, one for the rifle and one for the telescopic sight. They placed the rifle on a special platform. The car had a hinged rear seat that provided easy access to the trunk from the passenger compartment, so that a lying shooter could fire through a hole that had been cut into the trunk car lid. After shooting their victims, they escaped easily.

The Washington Snipers car

Modus Operandi
Muhammad and Malvo left in a crime scene a 3 pages letter. They demanded 10 million dollars to stop the killings and that the police chief in charge of the investigation read publicly a statment: We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose. Undoubtedly, the snipers duo did not mind showing up in the media: they left in another crime scene the Death Tarot Card inscribed with the phrase: I am God.

Letter

Letter

Letter

Crime Scene Photos

Arrest
At first, the police rightly searched for the car model used by the killers, an old Chevrolet, but they soon abandoned that line of investigation and started to search for a white van. Many witnesses remembered having seen a white van in several shooting places. Also, the investigators disagreed about the killers identity and motivation: no one guessed two people were involved. However, a neighbor and friend of Muhammads watched in the news a report on the attacks, realized Muhammad was responsible for them and called the police. Besides, the police found Malvo's fingerprints on a magazine near one of the crime scenes and identified the snipers identities. Thanks to that information they were able to trace Muhammads car and issued a detention order, which was widely spread by the media.

Arrest
At last, on October 24th, 2002, 22 days after the first shooting, a truck driver saw in Meyersville, Maryland, the car the police was looking for. The driver checked the cars license number and called the police. Very soon the helicopters, trucks and a SWAT team of the police arrived in the place and arrested Muhammad and Malvo while sleeping in their car in a rest area. .

Malvo Malvos police file

The Trial of Malvo

After being arrested, Malvo partially confessed in a written statement his crimes. Then, the police cleverly questioned him until he openly recognized the killings. Malvo involved Muhammad in the crimes by saying they were equal partners in the killings. Muhammad, according to Malvo, was the direct observer while he handled the rifle, although any of them had the right to bring to an end the shootings. Malvo admitted having made most of the shootings and showed no regrets. He stated: I like killing people, its funny. Although he elided the death sentence, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Muhammad Muhammads arrest file

The Trial of Muhammad

John Allen Muhammad was found guilty of murder on November 17, 2003. The jury considered he was responsible for 21 shootings and several murders. In 2004 he was sentenced to death. The sentence was appealed and in May 6, 2008, a judge decided that Muhammad was not capable of controlling his acts and make conscious decisions.

The sentence was postponed. .

Muhammad, on the Eve of His Execution

Muhammad, on the Eve of His Execution

Virginia State governor, Timothy Kaine, denied clemency to Allen, and said: I find no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was recommended by the jury and then imposed and affirmed by the courts. Accordingly, I decline to intervene.

Death penalty opponents protested in Virginia against the execution during many days. But John Allen Muhammad was finally executed.

Muhammad Muhammads Execution

Muhammad Muhammads Execution

Muhammad received the lethal injection at Virginia Greensville Correctional Center on the night of November 10, 2009. It is said he was expressionless, had no final word and was hardly curious about what was about to happen to him. The chemical substances of the injection has fixed functions: the first sedates the convict, the second obstructs the breathing and the third stops the heart. Muhammads execution took six minutes: he received the injection at 9.05 PM and was declared dead at 9.11 PM.

Psychological evaluation determined that the killers were conscious men and in full possession of their intellectual capacities. They were able to carefully design a modus operandi, to kill as many victims as possible facing few risks and to avoid being captured.