This Arson Investigator Burned Down California
A passion for destruction. An impulse to burn. For nearly a decade, a mysterious figure strikes again and again, setting more than 2,000 fires across California. You had a broad range of targets. These were not by happen stance. >> The damage is in the millions. Entire communities are at stake. >> What kind of person would do this? It was be an arsonist.
Someone that knew what they were doing. and a sophisticated pattern of escalating violence has deadly returns. Whoever was starting the fire had a uh understanding of [music] fire progression. >> And he said, “Fire for power.” >> Following a wild hunch, one investigator joins forces with America’s leading fire forensic experts to try to stop the arsonist before he burns California to the ground.
Knock knock. [music] >> [screaming] >> January 1987, thick black smoke pours over Fresno, California. Local firefighters are shocked by the rapid spread of the downtown blaze. >> Well, the first 10 fire cabin saw that
the building was fully engulfed. Even though they had arrived only 4 minutes after the first alarm, the entire building appeared to be in flame. >> There was a large fabric drapery material store and because of the nature of the product in there, very flammable materials, that that building was a total loss.
No sooner do firefighters get the blaze under control when another serious fire is reported. This one is also in a fabric store in Fresno. As exhausted firefighters battle the flames, a third fire breaks out again. It’s a fabric store in downtown Fresno. Each fire is more destructive than the last. The third building is completely destroyed.
It burned the roof off about 3/4 of the structure and then completely gutted all of the contents. And there really was nothing salvageable from that portion of the building. >> Three fires in 3 hours. Desperate [snorts] for answers, fire investigators scour the charred building, searching for any possible signs of arson. >> Are they starting at the same time of day? Are they starting in the same type of material? Is this a unique uh MO motor operende? or is it coincidental? >> But before they can begin tackling these questions, a fourth fabric store goes up
in flames less than 60 mi away in the town of Bakersfield. Much like the Fresno fires, the Bakersfield blaze spreads quickly. The building is completely destroyed. I think what what happened when this fire took off so quickly that uh it raged through the building before the fire department had a chance to respond and get a handle on the on the fire itself.
Captain Marvin Casey responds to the scene. >> They called me out because the fire [music] was in in question when they can’t determine the cause of it. >> Casey’s first task is finding out how the fire started. Arson is particularly difficult crime to investigate because just by the nature of fire, the damage that fire does, it destroys most of the evidence.
And it’s crucial for an investigator to know what fire does, what it leaves behind, so they can search through and determine uh what actually caused the fire. What Casey does know is that 80% of structural arson fires are caused by gasoline. >> When people start using stuff, flammables and hydrocarbons and stuff like that to accelerate [music] the fire, then it’s easy to detect because it is accelerated with a hydrocarbon, which is an oilbased product.
In this case, there is no evidence of an accelerant at the scene. How could an arsonist start such a fast-spreading fire without using an accelerant? Casey digs deeper. You first have to find out where the fire originated, which is called the area of origin. You go by degree of destruction, path of flame travel, heat indicators, uh flame spread, [music] and uh different indicators like that that leads you down to it.
But you want to work your way from the less damaged to the most damaged >> fire. Typically, I mean, if it starts from a single point of origin, it’s going to burn up in what investigators call a V pattern. >> In structure fires, the the V pattern is usually pretty obvious. It will be on a wall, it could be on a uh appliance, or it could be on some furniture, but there will be a V pattern to every fire.
>> At the Bakersfield scene, Casey uncovers the V pattern. And at its base, he finds a clue. >> The V pattern, the depth of char, the degree of destruction, everything pointed right over to the foam rubber band. >> Polyurethane foam is one of the most highly flammable materials found in any retail store, guaranteeing the rapid spread of flames.
But a key piece of evidence is missing. >> There was no ignition sources at my point of origin that would have caused that fire to have erupted. >> Investigators know how it spread, but how did it start? Back in Fresno, [music] arson specialists revealed similar findings. The fires all originated from polyurethane foam material.
Whoever was starting the fire had a uh understanding of fire progression. And the material it was placed in uh usually foam products which are petroleum uh derivatives. So it’s like gasoline in a solid form. >> The four scenes reveal a repeating pattern. One could say there’s [music] a definite pattern, a definite mo because the fires were in stores with people and customers inside. That’s unusual.
>> Less than an hour later, that pattern is repeated. >> I hadn’t yet completed the uh investigation for the fire at Craft Mart until I received another radio transmission from the comm center that I had another structure fire. You know, Bakersville is a community where we have fires, but to have two fires in large department store within an hour, it would have been unheard of.
I just figured that [music] these stores were related in some way, but didn’t know how. >> This time, the fire is quickly contained and again, miraculously, no one is hurt. So, [music] yeah, >> this was in a busy time of the day, customers coming and going, and so the uh employees couldn’t have a reason to look for anyone.
>> They really weren’t able to tie someone into saying, “I saw that person right at the point of origin just before the fire broke out.” Unlike the four previous fires, investigators find little damage to this latest fabric. >> Investigator Andy Schultz, store manager. Casey learns that the manager was in the back taking inventory when he first smelled smoke.
Some lady called on fire >> smoke over here. >> Seconds later, he managed to douse the flames before it could spread. >> Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. >> By catching the fire at an early stage, the manager may have preserved the most telling clue yet. I saw a rubber band and three matches and a uh cigarette butt. >> At first glance, it doesn’t look like much, but under closer inspection, [music] Casey recognizes it for what it is, a cleverly designed ignition device.
>> What kind of person would do this? It would be an arsonist. Someone that knew what they were doing. someone knowledgeable of setting fires. >> The genius of the device is its careful assembly. The placement of the [music] matches on the cigarette acts as a time delay. Allowing him to slip away without drawing witnesses.
He would have to light the cigarette. He would had to conceal this incendiary device in the yellow line paper, take it in there, and dropped it. And he would had to have done it [music] very quickly, too. Demonstrating his advanced knowledge of fire, the arsonist has once again planted the device near the store’s most flammable material, guaranteeing maximum impact.
Casey knows that even the yellow paper is part of a complex formula. When the cigarette ignites the matches, the matches in turn ignite the paper. >> Matches alone wouldn’t ignite that material. Cigarette alone wouldn’t light that material. But using the progression of the cigarette to the matches to the paper placed inside the uh foam material created enough heat in the right progression to actually get the fire going.
The device is then examined by arson investigator Glenn Lucero. It gave us the impression that the person setting the fire probably had a little more knowledge than the average person. Whoever was starting the fire was a thrillseker and very brazen because to start a fire to have the nerve to go into an open business in the middle of the day show someone who was really wanted to take a risk and wanted the thrill of the risk.
>> And like all thrill seekers, investigators know this arsonist will strike again, raising the stakes with every blaze. The question is how far will he go? before someone gets burned. Within hours, five fires tear through retail stores in downtown Fresno and Bakersfield, California. Suspecting foul play, fire investigators scour the crime scenes, desperate to learn something about the fire starter.
We realize that we had seemingly unrelated fires that in fact were related and that they started in middle of the day, open business hours and the same type of material. And we realized we had a serial arsonist that was on the loose. At the scene of the latest Bakersfield fire, Captain Marvin Casey recovers their first piece of evidence, a partially burned fire starting device.
Closer examination reveals that it’s not the only thing the arsonist has left behind. We saw what we thought was a fingerprint on the cigarette butt. So, we submitted the cigarette butt and the paper to the ATF uh lab. at the hands of ATF fingerprint experts. The device undergoes advanced ninhydrron analysis.
To Casey’s surprise, the cigarette butt comes back clean. But the yellow paper is another matter. >> I was amazed it was a it was on the paper. I thought I could see one on the cigarette butt. >> In my experience, this is the only case and in that I’ve had where a fingerprint was actually recovered from one of the fire scenes.
Investigators run the print through the state and federal database looking for a match. >> We immediately received a call back that they did not get a hit. >> With no criminal record, the arsonist is free to work under police radar, planning his next attack. Based on the sophisticated nature of the device, Casey suspects he’s chasing a consumate pro.
He revisits the crime scene, hoping to learn more before the arsonist strikes again. >> My assessment of it was a fire bug setting the fires. He he he does it because he likes it. He enjoys it. He could be your next door neighbor, a businessman, or anybody in the in the community.
He had a knowledge of fires and he knew where to [music] set the fires to get the desired results or to get the the most damage. >> Most sterile arsonists are disorganized. We would talk about starting dumpster fires, carport fires, using available combustibles they find at the spare moment, but this was a very organized uh arsonist. >> An arsonist who does his homework.
>> He uh knew exactly where he was going to set it, the type of device he was going to use in it, his exit strategy. These fires were all close to freeway, so it was easy to get far from the scene within a short period of time. The choices this guy was using to set his fires made me believe the guy knew what he was doing.
And the fact that they did several in a row uh on a number of occasions showed that they really wanted to push the envelope. With every passing day, Casey grows more anxious. Where will the arsonist strike next? Desperate for clues, the WY investigator searches old case files, looking for those bearing similar patterns. >> I said, “Well, maybe there were other fires in other jurisdictions.
” And then I found out, yep, there was. He discovers that south of Bakersfield along California Route I9, two more unsolved fires had been started in polyurethane foam. Digging deeper, Casey comes across the worst case of all. A 1984 fire that destroyed the Olay hardware store in less than 12 minutes. It was a horrendous fire uh in a huge uh hardware store, which of course is uh packed full of inflammables.
to have a fire that large and that type of a building during normal business hours. It [music] was something that was unusual not only for uh South Pasadena but for Los Angeles. >> Fire grew so quickly and and put out so much smoke that it confused the uh people that were inside the building. >> My wife is in there.
My grandson’s in there. South Pasadena firefighters call eight more trucks to the scene after learning that 12 people are trapped inside. >> The victims became trapped in location because of the construction of the building. Uh the fact that the building did not have a sprinkler system as well as the location of rolled out fire doors.
>> Fear and panic overwhelmed the victims. They saw a wall of flame as high as 30 feet running at them like an ocean wave. Firefighters use every available resource to battle the blaze and take control of the fire. >> By the time they were finished, they were probably on scene close to 12 hours. >> An anxious crowd waits patiently while emergency response teams swarm the building.
Their number one priority, victim recovery. It was the kind of fire that terrified everyone because a pattern was being established. The search turns tragic when firefighters pull four dead bodies from the ashes, including a young boy. The South Pasadena community is left devastated. If Casey’s hunch is right, and they’re chasing the same person behind the fire at Olay’s hardware store, then their simple arson investigation just graduated to cold-blooded murder.
California fire investigators are chasing a dangerous serial arsonist suspected of starting five fires across Southern California. Determined to link their arsonist to a deadly blaze at a hardware store in South Pasadena that left four people dead, investigators dig deeper into their files and uncover an investigation ripe with controversy.
The original investigation in 1984 was was very chaotic. It’s my opinion. The focus of the investigation was body recovery and not determining what caused the fire. And because of that, uh, inappropriate techniques were used to get the building cleared in a hurry so the bodies could be found. There were many investigators from the local fire departments who felt that insufficient time was spent at the fire scene uh conducting an investigation and determining what caused that fire.
Many local investigators insisted that the fire was the work of an arsonist, but authorities quickly dropped the case and no one was ever held accountable for the murders. Buried in the paperwork, Casey discovers that his former teacher, arson specialist John our worked the case. He tracks down or at a fire conference in Glendale, California.
>> John. >> Wow. >> John our was a highly respected arson investigator for the Glendale Fire Department. >> He was a a fire investigator uh and instructor. He taught me fire investigation 2B. I attended his class, you know, and I got state certified through him. >> So, good to see you. >> Or confirms to Casey that he assisted in the Olay crime scene.
>> They had a pretty good understanding of where the fire started. The problem was they didn’t understand how the fire started on that night. >> Or tells Casey that much like in the recent string of fires, no trace of accelerant was found at the scene. giant Vmark. >> But the similarities do not end there. >> I thought that was point of origin.
>> The hardware store had likewise been housed in a large building selling fabrics and furniture. And at the fire’s point of origin, polyurethane foam pillows were found. Suspecting a connection, Casey adds the South Pasadena fire to the arsonist’s wrap sheet. But just as he’s starting to make headway, the arsonist strikes again.
Four more retail stores are set ablaze just off Highway 101 in the string of fires. It started along the coastal corridor from St. Louis Abyispo at Tascadero Mororrow Bay. We again had the same signature device, same type of stores. The fires continue. Two more fabric stores are burned to the ground south of Pacific Grove.
There was several fires in along the coastline of Tascadero and then there was one in San Jose. >> The arsonist is hitting cities along California’s main north south corridor setting fires as he moves back and forth. He is wide ranging and unpredictable. >> We knew he had a serial arsonist, but we did not know to what extent at that point in time, but we knew he had a serious problem because of the the life hazard associated with these fires.
Casey decides to trace [music] back how he first learned of the Fresno fires. >> I received a radio message from two of the fire investigators that were attending the CCAI conference in Fresno. It’s attended by arson investigators, uh, adjusters, insurance people, policemen, anybody that’s interested in arson.
And they made me aware of that there was several structure fires in Fresno during their conference. Casey looks up the date and location of the last CCAI conference and discovers it was held in St. Louis Abyspo on the very same day a downtown fabric store was set ablaze. Was there a connection between the symposiums and the fires? >> So I said, “Well, you know, this may be a coincidence.
It may not be a coincidence.” Sensing he’s finally on to something, Captain Casey cross-references fire reports with every CCAI conference held in Southern California over the last 2 years. >> In 1989, I found out about a symposium that they were having in Monterey. During the conference, there was several large structure fires in that area.
There was several that happened the day before that were uh on Highway 101. There was several fires in along the coastline of Tascadero. I believe there was one in San Jose. >> If there is any truth to his theory, Casey suddenly gains the upper hand on the arsonist, able to predict where and when he will strike next.
>> Once I developed the theory, I found out about a symposium that they were having in Bakersville. With the latest symposium just weeks away, he places downtown stores under surveillance and waits for the arsonist to strike >> because it was just too coincidental. Way too coincidental. >> Ravaging fires do break out in Southern California, but as it turns out, not in Bakersfield.
Instead, they rage across the dry hills of Glendale, California, as Casey and millions of others watch in horror. >> The brush ignited during yesterday afternoon’s fire with absolutely no warning. This morning, several hotspots were still burning in Glendale. Fire crews worked on the ground and in the air. >> The College Hills fire uh was ignited just off of Verdugo Road in the city of Glendale.
It’s one of the main thorough affairs through the town. The fire then spread throughout the community causing the burning of approximately 64 homes either partially or totally. It actually jumped an eight-lane freeway. >> The community is devastated. The fire leaves hundreds homeless. Damage is in the millions of dollars. >> It was one of the windiest days of of the year.
The fire to spread throughout the community much faster than the fire department could ever respond to it. Even worse, the Glendale fires don’t appear to support Casey’s theory. >> The Glendale fires were the different scenario. They were brush fires opposed to mine was structure fire. >> More news. >> At the Glendale fire scene, arson specialist John our briefs the press.
>> Fumes generated by the fire itself were extremely toxic. [music] About a five block area had to be evacuated. knockdown was achieved after about 2 and 1/2 hours and full extinguishment after about 1:00 a.m. >> B or immediately suspects the fast-spreading fire is the work of an experienced arsonist. >> One of the things that our investigation discovered is there was roughly 10 arson [music] fires all set in the community surrounding uh college hills uh throughout that day.
It was one of the more active days uh for fire setting. Finding a fire starting device would confirm Orur’s theory of a highly skilled arsonist, but little has survived the fire. >> The fire spreads in a general V pattern up the hill. Uh, and also, as happens with most brush fires, it burns in all directions. Despite the odds, the veteran investigator finds the ignition source, a disposable lighter rigged with a clip jammed into the depressor that allows for the free flow of butane and a continuous flame.
In particular, the rubber bands to strike a chord with investigators. The devices were what we call in the business a signature device because [music] they were unique enough in that we felt the perpetrator was sort of bold and cocky enough to say, “I don’t care if you know [music] the device.
I would rather you give me credit for the fires that I’ve set.” This has to be a message that the arsonist is sending to us, saying in effect, “Now I’m going to give you my calling card and prove to you that this is arson.” But with no firm pattern, no evidence, and no suspects, investigators have no idea what the serial arsonist is planning and where he will strike next.
A series of deadly structural fires tear through Southern California, causing millions of dollars in damage and killing four people. Fire starting devices found at the scenes, coupled with a distinct crime signature, strongly suggests it’s the work of a serial arsonist. But with no leads, no suspects, and no regular pattern to go on, investigators are at a loss to predict when or where he will strike again.
And then in the winter of 1989, things go from bad to worse. The LA area is blitzed with a fresh series of retail fires. Those fires occurred during business hours and opened stores and they started in what was believed to be highly combustible available materials in those stores. >> Investigators immediately recognized the arsonist’s MMO only this time he’s targeting a much more populated area.
It was a great concern to us because the the lack of concern for for the safety of the people in the stores and the fact that they were set during business hours also showed a certain aggressiveness and lack of fear in the person setting the fires. >> A worried city government asks Mike Matassa and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for help.
A state task force is set up to capture the arsonist. Agencies across California come together to share information. Matassa’s lead investigators are Glenn Lucero, arson investigator for the LA Fire Department, and April Carroll, an ATF agent. >> We named the case Pillow Pyro, which was sort of corny, but it’s what we all came up with as a common factor for a serial arson investigation.
Yes, this was one that, you know, became pretty big pretty fast. >> But despite the work of the task force, the fire starter keeps rolling. In March 1990, firefighters respond to five three- alarm fires in less than 3 hours. Five stores with customers inside were set a light in a matter of a couple hours.
One of them was a fabric yardage store that was burned to the ground. Investigators once again recognized the pattern, but this time the arsonist has struck further north. It was in Lawndale, California, Roondo Beach, California, and Englewood, California, which are within about a 30 mile range of each other. >> But of greater concern than the range and frequency of the attacks is the people factor.
>> One of the fires was set in a fabric store. >> Oh my god. Hey, look. >> And by the time the fire was observed, the flames are already starting to shoot to the ceiling. They almost trapped two or three of the individuals that were in the store. We took a look at the fire with the sheriff’s deputies and uh it was our uh mutual understanding that the fire was intentionally set during business hours and the fire had spread so fast and so completely that the entire store was gutted out by fire.
>> Fear across the state of California rises with every blaze. It was disturbing because he had taken it to that level and yet kept going knowing the potential life-threatening situation not just to those victims but to the firefighters every time they responded to one of these fires. >> Faced with a statewide jigsaw puzzle, investigators revisit old clues, hoping new information might shed light on old leads.
>> Bakersfield Fire Captain Marvin Casey shares his research with the task force. He’s sharing what had occurred in 1987 and all the steps that he took um identifying that there had been fires in the central coast as well. Looking at the the coincidence uh not being a coincidence that there was an arson conference in Fresno and an arson conference in um along the coast at the same time as these fires occurred.
>> Casey shows the ATF agents the only piece of hard evidence he has, a lone fingerprint. In 1987 when Marvin Casey ran the the print, he ran it through the uh Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Unfortunately, there was there was no hit on that time. >> Do you mind if we run it one more time? >> No. >> That print we submitted to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Laboratory in downtown Los Angeles.
Uh they went ahead and analyzed it and computerenhanced it and submitted to Department of Justice. Investigators also bank on the fact that the California database has expanded since the print was last submitted. They had in their system not only criminals, but they also put in all sworn law enforcement in Los Angeles County had their fingerprints in the same database.
Lucero. >> And uh when we ran the print through them, they called us up and uh we heard something none of us on a task force ever expected we’d be hearing. >> You’re not going to believe this. >> What? >> That was a lab. They have a match for our [music] fingerprint. >> They called and says that uh the print belonged to Lindell Fire Captain John Ore.
And we said, “Wow, there’s got to be a logical explanation for this. A serial arsonist responsible for more than 60 fires and four killings across California continues to elude police. Desperate to find clues that may lead them to their killer, investigators turn to the only piece of concrete evidence in the case, a fingerprint found at the Bakersfield crime scene.
Running it for the second time through the federal database, they finally get a match. The only problem is it doesn’t belong to a convicted felon. It belongs to one of their own, arson investigator John our >> Glenn and I looked at each other [music] and immediately sort of froze processing those thoughts of, okay, well, this person is a colleague of ours.
we we kind of looked at each other and we we thought there’s probably a valid reason that his print was on that particular device. So, the focus of our investigation then was to backtrack through the investigation to see how he could have gotten his fingerprint on that device through [music] normal investigative means.
>> And we knew that he was very proactive and and very involved in the arson investigation. Our first thought was maybe somehow he helped Marvin Casey out in this case and innocently touched the the paper and got his print on there. Their review focuses on how the evidence was collected. >> The chain of custody for that particular fingerprint was ironclad.
Marvin Casey spotted it. He booked it into evidence and chain of custody remained intact from that point on. >> He had handled that evidence exactly the right way. So, there was no way that that fingerprint was uh placed on there accidentally by John or or by anyone. >> Investigators immediately turned to Casey for information.
>> We specifically asked him, “Did >> John or come by to uh assist you with your fire investigation?” >> And he said, “Absolutely not.” >> Casey confirms their worst fear. John Ore was never at the scene of the crime in an official capacity. How did John O’s print get on the fire starting device? Casey revisits his original theory, the possible connection between the arson conferences and the fire spree.
>> I got the attendance roster from CCAI and looked [music] at the roster and I had an idea. >> He starts with the Fresno Symposium. >> I developed 55 names from this attendance roster. He repeats the same exercise for the Monterey conference and highlights attendees appearing on both lists. >> And now I’ve narrowed my investigation down to 10 names.
John or was number five on the list. Not that they were in order of importance. The theory made sense. He attended the conference in Fresno. He attended the conference in Monterey. He lived down in the Glendale area. He lived south of Bakersville. It all fit. Yep. He would be the one. It made perfect sense.
>> Suddenly, simple, isolated pieces of information take on new significance. >> We had John traveling to uh arson investigators conferences back in 1987 in Fresno. >> The devices were sophisticated. The delay was unique and um well known by this particular person had been taught at symposiums and lectures and courses.
The evidence is simply too overwhelming to ignore. There just was no other explanation besides John or being our perpetrator. And the reality of that was um it was severe. It was severe for me as a relatively new agent. It was particularly harsh. I could tell for Glenn Lucero who was a colleague and um had worked with John on numerous things.
It became a very solemn investigation for us, especially all those of us that knew him. >> Like instantly the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I happened to think this is an individual well known. I knew him. He was my instructor for fire investigation 2B. Got me state certified. Wow.
I mean, this all just flashed through my mind at one time and I thought, well, okay, so it is. Let’s let’s get him off the street and let’s let’s get him. you want to go after someone that’s betrayed you even more of a desire to to get him and make sure that the case would stick because this was not okay. >> We only had his fingerprint on a small dollar loss fire in Bakersfield.
So, uh, we couldn’t jump the gun and arrest him on that and take the chance of, uh, of him getting a a small sentence when we realized that he had dozens upon dozens of fires that we were all convinced he was responsible for. Investigators put our under surveillance 24/7, waiting for him to slip up and make a mistake.
So we became aware that he was going to go to a seminar up in San Louis abyspo. It was at these types of seminars that some of the previous fires had been set at. We had to follow him from that point on and never really lose touch with him uh for fear that he may set a fire and and potentially have someone hurt.
Of course, we as the uh investigative team were anticipating that this would be a time where we would catch John in the act because it would be a difficult case to prove without that. Um it’s always better to have a smoking gun, so to speak. >> Carol and Lucero follow or to San Louis a Bispo. Surveillance on him was about as difficult as a surveillance can get.
We even had aerial support uh on the surveillance and uh once he got out onto the interstate, he drove so fast that if we didn’t have the aerial support, we wouldn’t have been able to surveill him. Sometimes he would go into the fast lane on the freeway and uh use his emergency equipment to clear the lanes. >> To hedge their bets, investigators had placed a tracking device underneath or’s vehicle.
>> Okay. Uh, two packs of cigarettes, [music] please, sir. >> His first stop of the day worries ATF agents. >> John wasn’t a smoker. If John had cigarettes, um, those would be part of a device. >> With the ATF hot on his trail, was John or about to set another fire? >> And when he came back out, he slowed down around his vehicle, and the surveillance team that had the eyeball at the time said, “John’s looking under the back of his car.
What’s up with that?” And John had seen a wire that was hanging down from the tracking device. Unfortunately, it was the type where it had to have some wires, antennas, and um hitting bumps and speed bumps and and uh potholes and things can cause those wires to jar loose. And clearly that’s what happened in this case. And we figured from there, John being a seasoned investigator, he knew what was going on.
Suspecting he’s being watched or returns home, Matasses secretly sets up shop across the street from their suspect’s house, determined to see what his next move might be. A serial arsonist, particularly the organized serial arsonist, wants credit for their fires. This is part of what they do is to be recognized.
not to be identified, but to be recognized for their act. >> Matasa plays on Our’s greatest weakness, his need for recognition, and sets up a sting operation that will blow the case wide open. >> That’s so nice to see you. On the hunt for a California serial arsonist, investigators place veteran fire investigator John our under 24-hour surveillance.
When Orur holds up in his office for days, special agent [music] Matassa fears he may be planning his next attack. But instead, Matasa shockingly discovers he’s been writing a tell all manuscript. This is actually unbelievable cuz we wanted to take a look at that before we arrested him. and um concocted a plan to get a copy of that manuscript.
>> David, come in. >> Once again, Matassa plays into Orura’s need for recognition. Just by coincidence, uh we had known a retired LA city firefighter who had become a published writer. And we called him. He says, “You’re not going to believe it. He’s already called me and he wanted to talk.” >> All right, here you go.
posing as a helpful story editor sent over by the publisher. The novelist is eager to read Orur’s work. >> Well, >> the goal of the covert operation to walk away with a copy of the novel, but all wants to do is talk about his book. >> It’s um about these fires that have been happening in the Los Angeles area in the last 5 years, but uh [music] they haven’t caught the arsonist >> or get swept up in the idea of a potential book deal.
If you’d have a look and love some feedback, I’d be flattered. >> The novel is nothing more than a thinly veiled confession. >> Mike Matasa, Glenn Lucero, and I sat and we read it cover to cover. It wasn’t great reading from the perspective of a novel that might sell. In fact, it was rather amateur-ish, but you immediately put that out of your mind because we were sitting reading what [music] our suspect was doing step by step.
and why? And [music] that was very enlightening because that was the biggest question. >> We realized that that this is actually unbelievable. The uh accounts of what people were doing, what they were seeing was beyond what was in any uh of the public record. It was only in police interviews and it had to be from someone who was actually there when these fires were occurring.
And there was one particularly disturbing area of the the manuscript regarding a fire that occurred at a hardware store in South Pasadena which paralleled a real fire that had occurred uh in the Oie’s fire. >> Keep it till later. >> He matches the time exactly as well as the location.
The piece of evidence that the manuscript gave us that we felt was most significant to the case was a brief description of interaction that we believed uh only a person who was there could have known. Hi, John. Hi. >> Welcome, guys. >> At long last, ATF agents stamp out the fire starter. >> Anything you [music] say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
Well, we made a decision to arrest him because we felt that we had as much forensic and physical evidence. And during the course of times when we first identified him to the time we [music] actually arrested him, we had conducted a tremendous amount of follow-up investigation. In 1992, a federal court convicts Orur of three counts of arson.
In 1993, Orur pleads guilty to three counts of arson as part of a plea bargain. 5 years later, he is tried for the Olay hardware store fire, is convicted of four counts of firstdegree murder, and is sentenced to life plus 20 years with no possibility of parole. John um to this day uh has never showed any remorse or or admitted guilt.
He claims that the plea bargain, he felt it was in his best interest um to take the plea bargain and that’s the only reason he did it. In our life, I think people have three different lives they live. We have a a social life that we live out where our [music] cohorts know us and then we have a a u a family life that we live where our family knows us.
And then we have a private life. It’s a secret life with a life that nobody gets into. And I think John’s secret life was he was not the John Ore fire investigator of Glendale anymore. He was a a superman. He could do anything. He he was untouchable. And that’s his that’s his secret life. And I think it jumped up and bit him in the long run.
This type of arsonist uh is an attention getting or gets a sexual gratification from watching the fire and gaining an inadvertent attention from being in the crowd and the only one that knows how the fire started. He gathers attention from that. P
