Casefile True Crime - Case 98: The Pillow Pyro

Episode Date: October 27, 2018

On the night of October 10 1984, a fire broke out at Ole’s Home Centre in South Pasadena that claimed the lives of four victims – Ada Deal, Matthew Troidl, Carolyn Kraus and Jimmy Cetina. Glendale arson investigator John Orr suspected the blaze had been deliberately lit, but his theory was dismissed and the fire was ruled a tragic accident. ---  Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Episode researched and written by Elsha McGill Additional editing by Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-98-the-pillow-pyro

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To you, the difference. Or on our website. It was relatively quiet on the night of October 10, 1984 at Oli's home center, a one-stop hardware shop located in South Pasadena, California. Oli's store consisted of an 18,000 square foot building situated in an outdoor shopping plaza on the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and State Street. The heavily trafficked intersection was in the northern neighborhood of Raymond Hill, a quiet suburb with panoramic views across Pasadena and nearby cities San Marino and Los Angeles.

The store was usually busy with a constant stream of customers shopping for building, gardening and home improvement supplies. But on that evening, the aisles were near empty as most people were home in front of the TV, eagerly waiting for the World Series baseball game between the Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres to begin. At around 7.30pm, Billy and Ada Deal arrived at Oli's with their two-and-a-half-year-old grandson, Matthew Troidel. They were stopping by the store to pick up a few things and had promised Matthew they would treat him to an ice cream just as soon as they finished shopping.

Upon entering Oli's, Ada placed Matthew into a shopping trolley and began navigating the large store interior. The shop was divided into multiple departments lined with aisles of floor-to-ceiling shelving, abundantly stocked with tools, paint, electrical items, homewares and other home hardware merchandise. Billy Deal gradually separated from his wife and grandson, venturing towards the other side of the store. At around 8.00pm, 18-year-old Oli's employee Jim Obdom was nearing the front of the shop when he noticed a pillar of dark smoke emanating from one of the display racks. He didn't notice any flames, but the smoke was quickly growing thicker and darker. Jim rushed down the aisles, alerting customers and advising everyone to make their way outside.

The handful of other staff members on shift that evening took Jim's lead and passed on the evacuation message to anyone lagging behind. Billy Deal was on the opposite side of the building to his wife and grandson when he first heard someone yell fire. He looked across the store and was shocked to see anonymous cloud of smoke fast approaching. Billy couldn't see Ada or young Matthew anywhere, and within moments the smoke became so thick and dark that he couldn't see a thing. Every time Billy yelled out Ada's name, the smoke filled his lungs, making it difficult for him to breathe. Billy had no choice but to make a break for the exit and desperately hope his wife and grandson had already made it safely outside. Across the other side of the store, Oli's employee Jim Obdom passed Ada Deal pushing Matthew in the shopping trolley and warned her they needed to leave. Jim headed towards the front exit, turning around to check if Ada and Matthew were behind him, when suddenly the black pillar of smoke transformed into a blazing wall of fire.

The steel doors designed to contain fire within certain departments of the store automatically dropped down from the ceiling until the electricity cut out, making it impossible to see a thing. Panicked, Jim ducked low to the ground, holding his breath and feeling his way along the walls until he finally located the fire exit in the back corner of the hardware department. He burst outside, desperately gasping for air. When the cool night air hit him, Jim felt the full force of what had just happened. His skin blazed raw with second and third degree burns. When he touched his wounded arm, skin fell off. As the fire intensified inside the store, the remaining employees and customers raced towards the emergency exit at the back of the electrical department. The wave of fire roared behind them at momentous speed. As they ran, a flash over occurred. Flashovers are widely regarded as one of the most dangerous and dreaded things that can occur during a fire of such magnitude. When certain organic materials are heated to extreme temperatures, they release flammable gases that can cause an entire room to instantly burst into flames.

Holy's home center was only three blocks away from the South Pasadena fire station, so the shopping plaza's surrounding parking lot was quick to fill with fire engines, desperately trying to get the blaze under control. As more firefighters arrived to attack the inferno, Billy Dill frantically searched the parking lot for his wife and grandson, hoping they made it out safely. Neighboring apartment complexes were evacuated as the billowing smoke filtered inside. A Red Cross shelter was established in the adjacent Pasadena War Memorial building, where the 100 evacuees were provided with emergency assistance. In the chaos, it was determined that four people, two Olly's employees, Caroline Kraus and Jimmy Satina, and two customers were unaccounted for. Billy Dill would soon learn that his wife Ada and grandson Matthew were the two customers missing. The Olly's home center fire took 125 Los Angeles firefighters until midnight to get it under control. They battled the dangerous conditions, exacerbated when nearly an acre of roofing collapsed, completely obstructing access to the store, and eliminating the possibility of entering to save anyone trapped inside.

The fire continued to burn out until the early hours of the morning, leaving nothing but a pile of ash and debris. The fire continued to burn out until the early hours of the morning. The fire continued to burn out until the early hours of the morning. California is ranked as the US state most prone to wildfire, with over 2 million households at extreme risk at any time. The state has seen some of the most devastating fires in American history. This risk is highest in the state's central and southern regions, where the brush that surrounds the Los Angeles countryside contains tough leathery leaves and volatile natural oils that are highly flammable. Combine this with a Mediterranean climate, dry landscape, drought resistant vegetation, as well as the hot and strong Santa Ana winds blowing from the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada desert, and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. In order to protect residents and property, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Still, each year, thousands of fires destroy hundreds of thousands of acres, with subsequent damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Wildfires can spark from a variety of sources, from lightning to power lines, but these accidental causes are only responsible for a very low percentage of fires. A large majority are generated by people. Some result from unattended campfires, erratic burning of debris, or negligently discarded cigarettes. However, many more turn out to be deliberate acts of arson. Throughout the early 1980s, a wave of wildfires swept through central and southern California, significantly increasing the need for stricter fire control. Fires numbered in the thousands, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres, and racking up monumental damage bills. Foothill brush fires within the Glendale region in the state's south were widespread, with investigators estimating that at least 80% were deliberately lit. A majority of the fires took place within the affluent area of Chevy Chase Canyon in the San Rafael Hills, a low cow that boasts impressive real estate on significant blocks of land.

Luckily, most burnt out or were contained before any significant damage occurred, but the problem was endemic enough for the Glendale Fire Department to realize higher precautions and greater resources were needed. At the time, local police handled all arson cases for the city of Glendale. But with this recent spade of deliberately lit fires, the fire department wanted to develop a specialized arson investigation unit and appoint a full-time investigator. Word got out that the department was looking to hire a dedicated arson investigator who would report directly to the head of the Fire Prevention Bureau. Despite being a great career move, the position didn't garner much interest amongst firefighters, as it sounded more like police work. However, there was one applicant in particular who stood out as a desirable candidate for the position, a member of Glendale's Fire Prevention Unit, named John Leonard Orr. John Orr was a determined and tenacious man who took fire control incredibly seriously. After serving in the United States Air Force, his dream was to join the Los Angeles Police Department, but after failing the entrance exam, he settled for a job as a department store security guard, where he thrived at detecting shoplifters.

Determined to establish a respected career in any area of law enforcement or emergency services, John was accepted into the Glendale Fire Academy in 1974, where he successfully passed the training program to become a full-fledged fireman. By his early 30s, John had made a name for himself with the impassioned and sometimes unconventional approach he took towards catching residents who recklessly avoided their weed abatement responsibilities. He was a rare breed, a firefighter whose real passion seemed to lie with police work. During the Glendale Fire Spree, John was highly regarded for his dedication to his role within the Fire Prevention Unit. Diligent and hardworking, he always made the effort to attend and examine the scene of fires within his jurisdiction, regardless of whether or not he was officially on duty. It was at the side of one of the Glendale Hillside Fires, where John discovered an incendiary delay device made from cigarettes and a matchbook. An incendiary delay device is a contraption specifically designed to start a fire, while leaving enough time for the arsonists to flee the scene. John's discovery was impressive, as the Glendale Fire Department had failed to locate any evidence of arson at the Hillside Fires up until that point, earning John a big accolade.

When it came time to appoint a full-time arson investigator, John Orr was the obvious choice. John was thrilled with his promotion and took on his new responsibilities with gusto. He loved the problem-solving elements that came with investigative work, as it made him feel like the policeman he'd always longed to be. By 1982, an article in the American Fire Journal reported that since the inception of Glendale's arson investigation unit, arson cases in Glendale were being cleared at a rate 21% higher than the national average. This was great recognition of the work John was doing, and encouraged him to work even harder. The job of an arson investigator is particularly challenging. Arsonists are notoriously difficult to catch, as they typically act alone, and are quick to flee the scene of their crimes. Evidence that could be recovered from a crime scene is usually destroyed in the fire, and without a reliable witness or CCTV footage, the chances of identifying a suspect are slim. To succeed in an arson investigation role, one needs to profoundly understand the traits of an arsonist and the motivations behind their crimes.

To further his career, John Orr started conducting his own research into the mindset and behaviour of arsonists and pyromaniacs. As his credibility grew, he used his experience to educate others. His opinion became so widely respected that he had several articles published in esteemed industry publications, and his insight was often requested at the scene of arson fires outside of his jurisdiction. It was 7.45pm on October 10, 1984, when John Orr was requested to attend the aftermath of a small retail fire that had broken out at the Albertsons Market Store in Pasadena. Upon inspection, he determined the fire had been intentionally started in a rack of potato chip bags, with the vegetable oil and flammable packaging combined to create the perfect fuel. After finishing his investigation, John made his way home. His route took him through Raymond Hill in South Pasadena, where he noticed the chaos unfolding on Fair Oaks Avenue, where Olly's home centre was ablaze. Although John wasn't prepared with any of his firefighting equipment, he stopped to offer his assistance. The scene was a hive of activity, as over a hundred firefighters fought the monstrous inferno. John stood back as to not disrupt his colleagues and began taking photos at the scene. Imagery of live fires was a useful asset for training seminars to show just how quickly a fire can expand to engulf a building.

South Pasadena's fire chief, Gene Murray, was assuming command of the Olly's fire when he was notified that another retail fire was in progress at Von's Market, just three blocks away. The Olly's fire required Chief Murray's full attention, so after spotting John Orr, Murray asked the Glendale Arson Investigator to help him out by heading to Von's Market to conduct an investigation on his behalf. John obliged, and upon inspecting the scene at Von's Market, he determined that the fire had also been intentionally lit in a rack of potato chip bags, just like the fire earlier at Albertson's Market. Although both retail fires were contained before any serious damage occurred, their similarities and close proximity led John to suspect the serial arsonist was active in the area. Afterwards, John returned to the Olly's home centre blaze, which had by morning consumed the entire building. Fifty-year-old Ada Dill and her two-year-old grandson Matthew Troidel never made it out. The rapid and relentless fire had claimed their lives, along with the lives of two Olly's employees, 17-year-old high school student and talented baseball player Jimmy Satina and 26-year-old married mother of two, Caroline Krause. Investigators entered the remnants of the building to begin the difficult task of locating the bodies of the four victims and trying to determine what had caused the catastrophic blaze.

Sergeant Jack Palmer from the Arson and Explosives Unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was designated to lead the investigation. He interviewed Olly's employees to gain an understanding of the layout of the store and learn where the smoke had first been spotted. After just 90 minutes of investigation, Sergeant Palmer suspected that an electrical shorting in the building's attic was the likely source of the fire. He determined the combustible materials within the store had worked as powerful fuel, turning the blaze into a disaster. John Orr expressed concern that Sergeant Palmer's investigation was moving too fast and believed more time should be spent to consider all possible causes, including Arson. John spent seven hours conducting his own investigation of the scene, thoroughly examining the damage and considering the fire's possible point of origin. Unlike Sergeant Palmer's conclusion, John suspected the fire could have originated from a pile of highly combustible polyfarm products. He based this suspicion on several other Arson fires that had occurred in the greater Los Angeles area over the past few years.

Given the two market fires that had broken out nearby on the same night, John Orr expressed his opinion that the Olly's fire could have been started by a serial arsonist. Despite John Orr's theory that Sergeant Palmer was leading the investigation, he made the final call. Much to John's disappointment, Palmer ruled the fire as accidental and the case was closed. John Orr complained about the Olly's investigation ruling to Dennis Foote, an arson investigator from the Los Angeles Fire Department. John was not someone whose opinions on the matter could be easily dismissed. His career was spent conducting research into Arson profiling. He had a unique understanding of the mind of an arsonist, which he perceived to be far more complex than that of a simple vandal. In one article published in the American Fire Journal about the habits of serial arsonists, John wrote,

The fire becomes a friend they can relate to. Their fires bring attention, friends, admiration as heroes and self-esteem. Like a drug addict, one good score leads to the desire for another. John's work delivered innovative insights into the motivations of serial fire starters. His training sessions were popular amongst his peers, providing valuable information and techniques on how to identify this unique type of perpetrator and improve conduct when inspecting scenes of suspected arson. So when John Orr told Dennis Foote his belief that the Olly's home centre blaze could have been started by the same polyphoam arsonist that had struck throughout Los Angeles over the past four years, Foote had a little reason to doubt John's suspicions. Dennis Foote was familiar with the polyphoam arson fires John was referencing, as he had attended the scene of one of them.

There, he found the remnants of an incendiary delay device amongst the debris. The device consisted of a cigarette butt with three matches attached to it by a rubber band. This kind of device is designed to give the arsonist plenty of time to flee the scene, as the cigarette takes about 15 minutes to burn down before igniting the matches and setting fire to any flammable material in the vicinity. When such a device is recovered, it's rare to find a full fingerprint or any other information that can be used to identify the arsonist. A few days after the Olly's disaster, a minor fire erupted in the polyphoam section of a hardware store 17 miles away in North Hollywood. After learning of this fire, Dennis Foote became increasingly intrigued by John War's theory that a serial arsonist was still active in the community. Foote was interested in reinvestigating the Olly's incident, but the building's charge remains had since been almost completely cleared by a wrecking company.

Two months after the tragic fire that claimed four lives, another Olly's home center located in nearby Pasadena had a scare of its own. A member of staff found a partially burned incendiary device in a pile of polyphoam. The device, which consisted of a cigarette and three matches bound together with a rubber band, had been lightly singed but failed to ignite. Given that the South Pasadena Olly's fire had officially been ruled accidental, the two Olly's fires were not linked. On January 13, 1987, arson investigators from all over the state made their way to Fresno, the city 220 miles north of Los Angeles, for the California Conference of Arson Investigators. A range of topics relating to different aspects of law enforcement and fire investigation would be covered during the three-day seminar. 242 attendees gathered for the event, including arson investigators, firefighters, insurance investigators, lawyers, and members of the police force. As the first evening of the conference was underway, an employee at a nearby pharmacy, Payless Drugs, noticed smoke rising from a pile of sleeping bags.

Within moments, the display burst into flames. The store's interior was fitted with overhead sprinklers which were quickly activated, promptly extinguishing the blaze. The following day, the Hancock Fabrics craft store located directly across the street from Payless Drugs experienced its own fire emergency. A customer noticed smoke rising up in the northwest corner of the building before it erupted into violent flames that quickly spread along the walls and ceiling. The store was evacuated, and shoppers and employees watched in shock as the building turned into a blazing inferno. No one was seriously hurt, but the shop was almost completely destroyed. The point of origin for the Hancock Fabrics fire was identified as a storage bin filled with Styrofoam pellets, typically used for stuffing pillows and beanbags. Investigators conducted a diligent search of the remains and discovered an incendiary delay device made from a partially burned cigarette with three matches attached to it by a rubber band.

As Fresno investigators pondered the link between the fires at Payless Drugs and Hancock Fabrics, a third fire was reported to authorities. This one occurred at another craft retail outlet, House of Fabrics, just a block away from the previous fires. A House of Fabrics employee noticed burn marks scorched into the wall behind a bin filled with foam pillows, and when they looked inside, found an incendiary device made from a cigarette, matches, and a rubber band. It was sheer luck that the fire had extinguished itself before causing any destruction. Then, on the final morning of the California Conference of Arson Investigators, a fourth fire broke out, this time in the town of Tulare about an hour's drive southeast of Fresno. At 10.45am, a fire arose in the display of sleeping bags at Outdoor Adventure Retail Store, Surplus City. Just 45 minutes later, at the family bargain center thrift store, also in Tulare, an employee noticed smoke coming from a wooden display bin filled with foam pillows. The store manager quickly extinguished the fire.

Found at the bottom of the bin was a partially burned cigarette tied to two matches and a yellow note paper with a rubber band. Despite the similarities, the fires in Tulare and Fresno were not immediately linked. Most Californian cities are equipped with their own fire department solely responsible for handling emergencies within their designated region. Therefore, they are not made immediately aware of fires occurring in differing jurisdictions. When a third Central Valley city was struck, the connection between the attacks continued to go unnoticed. Hours after the Tulare attacks, the fire department in Bakersfield, a city an hour's drive south, was summoned to the arts and crafts store, Craft Mart. At 2pm, a staff member noticed flames flickering in a display bin full of dry materials used for making floral arrangements. Due to the employee's prompt observation and the quick thinking of the store manager, the fire was swiftly put out with a fire extinguisher.

Bakersfield fire department captain Marvin Casey arrived to the Craft Mart scene and immediately examined the charred display bin. Hidden under the white powder left by the fire extinguisher, he found an incendiary device, a cigarette butt, three matches, rubber band, and a partially singed sheet of yellow notebook paper. It was a significant discovery as a large section of the notebook paper was still intact. Wearing gloves and using a pair of tweezers, Casey carefully placed each piece of the device into evidence envelopes and sealed them shut. Only 30 minutes after the Craft Mart blaze, the Bakersfield fire department was alerted to a second emergency at yet another hand-cocked fabric store. A staff member heard a hissing noise coming from a display bin filled with foam rubber batting. Almost immediately, the bin erupted into blue flames which quickly spread up the wall and triggered the overhead sprinklers. Captain Marvin Casey was in a state of disbelief when he arrived on the scene.

Two fires occurring in Bakersfield retail craft stores within an hour of one another was unheard of. He believed it was too unusual to be a mere coincidence. Suspecting the spree was the work of a serial Larsonist. It wasn't until Casey spoke to investigators in Fresno that he learned of the almost identical Larson attacks that had taken place days prior in Fresno and on the same day in Tulare. DMO of each attack was exactly the same. Retail stores were targeted, with the fires started by matching incendiary devices placed within highly flammable products, suggesting that all fires had been started by the same offender. Given the alleged crimes occurred over multiple Californian jurisdictions, the case was assigned to federal law enforcement, specifically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Like most Larson attacks, there was very little evidence and no suspects, so the case presented a challenge.

Although several incendiary devices were recovered, the only promising piece of evidence was the near-intact remains of the one found on the scene of the Bakersfield Craft Mart fire, as it was the only one that held hopes of returning a fingerprint. The incendiary device was sent to undergo testing. Surprisingly, a viable fingerprint was found on one of the pieces of yellow note paper attached to the device. The print was run through the criminal database, but failed to return a match, confirming the Larsonist didn't have a criminal record. With the unidentified fingerprint leading nowhere, the Larson investigation officers from Bakersfield, Fresno and Tulare started focusing on whether there could be any significance in the locations of the attacks. Each store targeted was along Highway 99, a major state highway that runs north to south, stretching almost the entire length of the central valley. Investigators considered the likely possibility the Larsonists to use Highway 99 as their route to each target, starting in Fresno, then travelling southward, striking at Tulare, then Bakersfield. The spree was made all the more remarkable, given its proximity to the California Conference of Larson Investigators occurring in Fresno at the time.

Captain Marvin Casey developed the theory that the Larsonist may have purposely targeted the area because of the conference. He suggested the offender could be someone with a personal vendetta against the firefighter, or someone with expert knowledge of fires and delay devices who wanted to play the investigators for fools. He even considered the chilling possibility the offender may have attended the conference in some capacity. Propelled by this theory, Casey contacted the Fresno Conference facilitator and obtained a list of all 242 attendees. He cross-referenced this list against each attendee's place of employment, determining those who would have had to drive southward down Highway 99 to return home from the conference, passing directly through Tulare and Bakersfield along the way. Knowing that Larsonists are solitary creatures, he also considered how many of those attendees were travelling alone. After crossing out the names of those who didn't fit this description, only 55 names remained. Casey presented his theory and the 55 names to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms team, but it was not well received.

The special agents assigned to the case were uncomfortable with the idea of viewing the well-respected conference attendees as suspected criminals and saw no merit in proceeding with an inquiry. The theory was dismissed, and with no other leads to follow, the investigation hit a dead end, and the case went cold. In March 1989, another Larson Investigation Conference took place in Pacific Grove, an Oceanside city in Monterey County on California's West Coast. Attendees looked forward to the conference, not just for the event itself, but because the route to Pacific Grove took travellers through areas of striking beauty, exclusive golf courses and a charming city. Many participants chose to extend their trip for a few extra days to make the most of the journey. On the evening of March 3, two days before the conference was scheduled to begin, a fire broke out in the back corner of Cornette Variety Store in More Bay, a coastal town 145 miles south of Pacific Grove. Flames emerged from a pile of foam pillows before being promptly extinguished by a quick-thinking sales clerk. The following day, in the city of Salinas, 19 miles east from Pacific Grove, a Woolworth's Five and Dime Variety Store was significantly damaged by a fire that had started in the store's bedding section.

No further fires were reported until March 9, the day after the conference. A retail fire spree hit several towns along Highway 101, a major north-to-south coastal road that links the San Francisco Bay Area to the greater Los Angeles region. The store's targeted included Pacific Home Improvements, Coast to Coast Hardware and a second Cornette Variety Store in the city of Atascadero, a two-hour drive south from Pacific Grove. Each of these fires were started within various foam, rubber and plastic products, but had been quickly extinguished. No consistent witness reports were provided, and only one piece of worthwhile evidence was recovered. The chart remains of an incendiary device found by an employee at Pacific Home Improvements. It consisted of a cigarette, three matches and a yellow note paper tied together with a rubber band. Soon after these events, a fire was reported a 20-minute drive south in San Luis Obispo at the party exchange, a retail store selling gifts, decorations and party supplies.

This blaze was far more destructive, completely destroying the building. Investigators suspected the fire had been deliberately lit inside a pile of packing material. When word of this Central Coast fire spree spread throughout the arson investigation community, Captain Marvin Casey couldn't believe what he was hearing. He immediately noticed the similarities between the current spree and the Central Valley spree from two years prior, where fires were deliberately lit inside retail stores in Fresno, Saleri and Bakersfield. Both fire sprees occurred within the vicinity of an arson investigation conference, leading Casey to return to his original theory that the perpetrator may have been an attendee at both. Discreetly, Casey contacted the Pacific Grove conference organizers to request a list of all attendees. He then cross-referenced it against the list of the Fresno conference attendees and narrowed the names down until only ten remained, belonging to persons who had attended both events. Casey then contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and once again presented his theory that the serial arsonist could be targeting the conference participants, or be involved with the events in some capacity.

Yet, just like in 1987, his speculation was not met with enthusiasm. However, with no other promising leads for the Central Coast fire spree, the Bureau agreed to quietly run the fingerprint obtained from the incendiary device found at the 1987 Bakersfield Craft Mart fire against the fingerprints of the ten participants on Casey's list. As each of Casey's ten suspects were public safety employees, their fingerprints were stored on file in a separate database as part of a standard employment requirement. Once again, the fingerprint comparison returned to zero matches, its owner remaining a mystery. Still having no evidence to back it up, Casey's theory was dismissed for the second time. In late June of 1990, another arson investigation convention was held in Fresno. Glendale's dedicated arson investigator John Orr usually looked forward to these events as a chance to share his knowledge and network with colleagues, but he had a lot of work on his plate as he had recently been promoted to Fire Captain, a position well earned after scoring 98% on the written exam.

John sent his partner Don Yeager to attend to the conference in his place, while he held down the fort in Glendale. It was one of the hottest, driest summers Glendale had experienced in a long time, and the strong winds were keeping everyone on high alert. Several deliberately lit fires had recently broken out amongst the foothills, and the arson investigation unit wasn't having luck identifying any suspects. John Orr wanted to remain in Glendale in case there were any developments in the case. On June 27, the temperature soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds blowing 35 miles per hour. It was the kind of day firefighters dread, where the elements align and a fire disaster seemed imminent. At 3.24pm, the Glendale Fire Department received an alert that a brush fire was making its way up the hill near North Vedugo Road in Glendale's College Hills neighborhood. Fire engines raced to the scene, but the conditions were too erratic, and the fire was already blazing out of control by the time they arrived.

Flames were jumping from the roof of one house to the next, making their way up the hillside as the smoke became so heavy it was impossible to see through. Due to the weather conditions and overgrowth of dry brush, the fire moved faster than most members of the fire department had ever seen before, with flames rapidly sweeping up before crossing the Glendale Freeway. Firefighters from every jurisdiction in the San Gabriel Valley rushed to the scene, their engines blocking every street as smoke and ash encased the sky. Sirens and airhorns echoed through the area as police established barricades and tried to keep frantic residents at a safe distance. The names of children and pets were yelled by distressed witnesses, watching as helicopters circled above, dropping gallons of water onto the inferno. As firefighters desperately tackled the flames, John Orr wasted no time kick-starting his investigation into the cause of the blaze. Straight away, he followed the charred path of the fire to locate the point of origin. When he identified the fire's starting point, he barricaded the area as a crime scene. Based on the burn patterns, it appeared the fire had been started at the bottom of a ravine, where the winds quickly drew the flames up the hill.

By the time the winds finally died down and firefighters extinguished the blaze, the College Hill's fires had completely destroyed 46 homes, damaged 20 others, and caused $50 million in damage. Given the extent of the fires, it was a miracle that nobody had been killed or seriously injured. The lack of any significant discoveries at the scene was not unusual for a fire of this magnitude, but without a breakthrough, this would be a tough case to crack. John Orr spoke about his investigations to the press, during which he revealed insider information about the fire's point of origin. This action drew ire from his colleagues who wished to treat that information sensitively. They were concerned that publicly revealing intimate details of the crime would alert the arsonist that the authorities were onto them. A detective from the Glendale Police Department joined John Orr in door-knocking the apartment building across from the fire's point of origin to question potential witnesses. One resident reported seeing a 5'10 dark-haired man in khaki pants standing across the street before the brush fires began.

This description was noted, but didn't lead anywhere. A telephone tip line was established for anyone who had any information, but nothing of great use came through. By August, the calls had dried up entirely. With no leads and no evidence, it seemed highly unlikely that the person responsible for starting the College Hill's fires would ever be identified. As there was no shortage of other fires under investigation, the Glendale arson unit had no choice but to focus its attention on other, more pressing matters. John Orr handed the job of interviewing locals over to Glendale Police and ended his active role in the investigation. His partner wasn't happy with this decision, but John dismissed his concerns, stating he had too much paperwork to focus on. Adamant the arson unit should continue an in-depth investigation.

John's partner brought this up to the Chief, but eventually, as with many suspected arson cases, the College Hill's fire was shelved amongst the many unsolved case files. A few months after the College Hill's catastrophe, a series of 19 arson attacks overwhelmed the Los Angeles area. Occurring between December 1990 and March 1991, most fires happened during the middle of the day within retail stores, in piles of highly combustible materials, including blankets, pillows, foam, and plastic products. Several buildings were destroyed, with the arson attacks racking up a significant damage bill and putting many employees out of work. The remains of incendiary devices consisting of cigarette butts, matches, rubber bands, and a yellow note paper were found on the scene at several of the fires. This arson spree was unprecedented in Los Angeles. Multiple attacks had occurred within the same day, and there had even been two attacks within one hour. Witnesses reported seeing people of varying descriptions on the scene before the blazers broke out, but none of their descriptions were consistent, and no suspects could be identified.

This spade of arson attacks was so extreme that a task force was formed to focus solely on the case. It was named the Pillow Pyro Task Force after the offender's proclivity for starting fires within displays of pillows and foam. The task force assembled a group of investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Los Angeles Fire Department, and other local agencies to brief them on the recent spade of arson attacks and the perpetrators' MO. A flyer was distributed to the meeting attendees, which listed 17 of the Los Angeles fires believed to be started by the Pillow Pyro, along with a detailed description of the arsonist's signature incendiary device. During the meeting, it was brought to the task force's attention that a series of similar attacks had taken place in Central California back in 1987 and 1989. The ones in Fresno, Tulare, Bakersfield, Morro Bay, Salinas, Atascadero, and San Luis Obispo. The MO and signature device for these attacks matched the elusive Pillow Pyro to a tee. The task force was informed that a traceable, though unidentified fingerprint had been recovered from an incendiary device found at one of the Bakersfield's doors.

Eager to follow this lead, the Pillow Pyro task force made its way to Bakersfield to meet with Captain Marvin Casey, the investigator who originally discovered the incendiary device at the Bakersfield Craft Mart fire in 1987. Marvin Casey relayed his long-standing theory to the task force that the arsonist may have been an attendee at the Fresno and Pacific Grove arson conventions. But like others before them, the Pillow Pyro task force wasn't buying it. The idea had been proven to be without merit when the fingerprint taken from the incendiary device failed to match with any of the ten names on Casey's potential suspect list. However, the task force figured it was worth running the fingerprint through the criminal database for a second time, in case the offender had since been busted for another crime and now had a criminal record. This time, the print was scanned through the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Laboratory, using the Los Angeles Hall of Justice computer, which not only held the fingerprints of criminals, but also the prints of all county law enforcement officers, including anyone who had ever applied for a job in law enforcement. The extensive database was much more comprehensive than the ones used previously. Coupled with major improvements in fingerprint matching technology, the chance of finding a match was far more likely than before, but the task force wasn't holding its breath.

A few days later, the Pillow Pyro task force received a call from the lab. They were warned that their arson investigators needed to be more careful when handling evidence. A technician had just tried to run the fingerprint through the database, only to discover that it belonged to a member of the Glendale Fire Department. It appeared a contamination had occurred during investigations, likely the result of the incendiary device being handled without proper precautions. The fingerprint belonged to highly regarded arson investigator, John Orr. Marvin Casey revealed that John Orr had not entered the Bakersfield scene in any official capacity. This ruled out the possibility that John touched the incendiary device during the initial investigation process. In another twist, John Orr's name was featured on Casey's thoroughly analyzed list of 10 potential suspects, having attended both the 1987 California Conference of Arson Investigators.

in Fresno and to the 1989 conference held in Pacific Grove. John Orr's workplace was in Glendale, a city north of central Los Angeles, and his family home was situated in the neighboring suburb of Eagle Rock. Both locations stemmed from highways 101 and 99. The routes Marvin Casey concluded the arsonist traveled when hitting the targets within the allocated timeframes. It was likely John would have driven these highways to and from both conferences. It was also known that he took both trips alone. This revelation was additionally surprising, as John Orr's partial fingerprint on the incendiary device had actually been tested against his employee print sheet back in 1989. However, the technician failed to make the connection due to limitations in fingerprint technology at the time.

Despite conducting complex analysis, he was limited to using a form of manual testing that involved visually comparing the samples and didn't notice the similarities between prints. This oversight would later be considered a grave human error. Investigators paused as the full weight of what they were considering sunk in. The incendiary device hadn't been mishandled by John Orr. It belonged to John Orr. The revelation that the Pillow Pyro could be a well-respected arson investigator and fire captain was an incredibly sensitive breakthrough. And the task force had to tread extremely carefully to ensure the information remained strictly confidential in case John was innocent. Those who were privileged to the information were in a deep state of shock at the possibility that the alleged arsonist was John Orr, a man they admired.

An esteemed member of the firefighting community who dedicated his life to catching firebugs and keeping the community safe. Many of them had attended his training seminars and found his insight into the minds and behaviors of pyro maniacs to be invaluable. John was widely regarded for his special ability to discover evidence at arson sites that other qualified fire officials were unable to detect. Colleagues reported that John had always been fast at determining the cause of a fire, often locating incendiary devices with ease. When a fire was blazing, John would hastily appear at the scene and was sometimes the first responder. Had also surprised to no one to see John present at fires even when he was off duty. Upon reflection, John's unique skills and peculiarities also spotlighted him as someone to view with suspicion. Nevertheless, without evidence, the task force knew there was every chance speculation against John Orr could boil down to mere coincidences.

For the Pillow Pyro Task Force, identifying their suspect was one thing, but putting a full scale investigation into place and making an arrest was a different challenge altogether. Given the severity of the accusations against John Orr, the United States Attorney's Office became involved. They wanted to establish a complete chain of evidence to build the most compelling case possible. Prosecuting a Californian fire official for committing the very crimes he was hired to prevent was a major criminal case, and they had to ensure the investigation was meticulous. John's fingerprint on the incendiary device was incriminating, but the Attorney's Office needed a lot more evidence to prove he was absolutely responsible for the amount of fires he was being accused of starting. The print only linked him to the 1987 Kraft Mart fire in Bakersfield, but the signature ammo meant he could have been responsible for a countless number of arson attacks, including the recent outbreak in Los Angeles, the Central Valley Spray in 1987, and the Central Coast Spray in 1989. The U.S. Attorney's Office arranged a confidential meeting with John Orr's immediate superior, Battalion Chief Christopher Gray, to break the news that his prized arson investigator was now the focus of the Pillow Pyro investigation. The Attorney's Office warned the Chief that there was still a lot of work to be done to build their case, and that an arrest was still quite some time away.

While he refused to believe the allegations at first, Chief Gray agreed to provide whatever assistance he could, including obtaining call-out sheets and phone records from the Glendale Fire Department. Gray also informed the Attorney's Office that John Orr planned to attend a five-day training course on peace officer safety in San Luis Obispo at the end of the month. This piece of information was of great interest to the Attorney's Office, as the fact that John would be attending a multi-day training course presented a golden opportunity to help build their case. If history was anything to go by, this was when the Pillow Pyro was most likely to strike. On the morning of April 28, 1991, the day before the training course was scheduled to begin, John Orr drove towards San Luis Obispo, a city roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He was unaware that a tracking device had been placed underneath his car, or the fact he was being tailed by six surveillance cars, a fixed-wing aircraft, and a team of undercover agents. The surveillance vehicles couldn't keep sight of him for long, as John hit the freeway at breakneck speed. Despite his recklessly fast driving, John Orr made his way towards his hotel, the tracking device revealing he made no suspicious stops along the way.

The following night, an undercover agent followed John into Thrifty's drugstore in San Luis Obispo and watched as he purchased what appeared to be a pack of cigarettes. When John left the store, the agent identified himself to the sales clerk and obtained a receipt for John's purchase. The receipt confirmed that John had bought two packs of Marlboro light cigarettes. This was a promising piece of evidence, as the task force knew that John was not a smoker. The task force maintained strong surveillance of John's actions over the following days, convinced they would catch their suspect in the act. But to their surprise, the rest of the training course went by without incident. Yet, undercover agents confirmed that John didn't take a cigarette break at any point during the five-day training course, and no cigarette butts were found in his hotel room, suggesting the Marlboro lights were still in John's possession.

The surveillance team was certain John would use the cigarettes to create his signature incendiary delay device to use as he made his way home to Eagle Rock. Anticipation was high on the final warning of the training seminar. Then, as John approached his vehicle to attend his last day of training, something caught his attention. A prickling sense of panic overwhelmed the surveillance team as they watched John squat down at the rear of his car to inspect something underneath. The antenna of the tracking device the surveillance team had attached had become visible, and their suspect had spotted it. Initially furious at themselves for not concealing the device more thoroughly, the surveillance team's anger quickly turned to astonishment as John or seemingly disregarded the discovery. He simply climbed into his car and drove off. But wielded, the team discreetly followed John to his destination, the San Luis Obispo Police Department.

As soon as John left the police station, two members of the Pillow Pirate Task Force entered and identified themselves to the on-duty police lieutenant. They were relieved to learn that John had misidentified their tracking device, telling the lieutenant he believed a bomb was strapped underneath his car. The lieutenant offered to call the bomb disposal squad to investigate, but John simply asked for directions to the closest explosives disposal range. He explained that as a fireman, he understood these kinds of threats and could take care of it himself. The range was only two miles away, so the task force had to think quick. They called the range and spoke to the bomb sergeant on duty, hastily filling him in on their situation and requesting that he play along with John's theory that their tracking device was indeed a bomb. Upon John's arrival, the bomb sergeant removed the tracker and lied about it as requested, saying it was a harmless fake explosive, probably put there by hooligan kids in the area for a cheap thrill. The sergeant assured John the device couldn't hurt a fly, but advised he would be happy to send it through to the training institute for confirmation.

John agreed, but oddly, before he left the range, he stopped to take a few photos of the device, including a tracking number listed on it which linked back to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. This action suggested he didn't buy the lie about the bomb and perhaps suspected it was a tracker all along, adjusting his behavior accordingly. He then returned to his car and attended the final training session as planned. Any expectation that John would act had faded by the afternoon as his wife arrived to join him in San Luis Obispo. Nevertheless, the task force held surveillance on the holidaying couple over the following two days, but nothing suspicious occurred. The sting operation reached its disappointing conclusion when John and his wife made an uneventful journey home to Eagle Rock. Having failed to bust John Orr as their serial arsonist, the Pillow Pyro surveillance team went home defeated. Their efforts had been sabotaged by the misplaced tracker and it seemed to likely John was now aware he was being watched.

Surveillance continued in Glendale, but John's notoriously dangerous and unpredictable driving habits made him difficult to follow. Since the Pillow Pyro task force had been established, there hadn't been a single arson attempt at any retail store within Los Angeles County. The task force checked the Daily Fire reports diligently, hoping to find something they could link their suspect to, but nothing new came through. At a loss, the task force considered whether they should make an arrest now based on the little evidence they had in the hopes it was enough to build a case for the 1987 retail fires that were started in Fresno, Tulare and Bakersfield. As they deliberated over their next step, the task force managed to obtain a recent mugshot of John Orr. The Los Angeles Fire Department put out a phony request for members of the Fire Investigator's regional strike team, of which John was a member, to have headshots taken for publication purposes. John happily posed for the camera. His photograph was then used in a photo lineup and presented to a variety of witnesses from the multiple arson crime scenes, with several pointing out John Orr's photograph and identifying him as either a customer or as being on location shortly before a fire broke out.

Following this development, the Pillow Pyro task force was given permission to install a teletrack device in John Orr's car. The state-of-the-art tracking device used cutting-edge technology and wasn't yet widely known about within the law enforcement community, so there was no way for John to be aware or suspicious of it. The next time his car was put in for regular servicing, the unobtrusive device was fitted under John's dashboard where it couldn't be accidentally spotted. It provided the task force with a real-time record of his car's movements in 15-minute intervals. In the meantime, a year's worth of call-out sheets provided by the Glendale Fire Department were examined. The records confirmed that John had been unaccounted for or working alone during every date that a suspected Pillow Pyro fire occurred. By October 1991, the processors were in motion to get a federal grand jury to hand down an indictment to formally charge John Orr for the 1987 Central Valley fire spree. In the meantime, the US Attorney's Office was securing search warrants of John Orr's Eagle Rock property for when an eventual arrest was made.

Having been informed that John was in the process of writing a novel, members of the Pillow Pyro task force were shocked to learn that John's novel told the story of a firefighter who moonlights as a serial arsonist. The manuscript was near complete and John was in the final stages of sending it to literary agents for paid feedback. John's novel, titled Points of Origin, told the story of Aaron Stiles, a firefighter and serial arsonist in the Los Angeles area who becomes sexually aroused when starting fires. His colleague, arson investigator Phil Langtree, is desperate to catch the serial arsonist terrorizing the community. Throughout his investigation, Langtree starts theorizing that the perpetrator could be a fellow firefighter. Along with explicit and often violent sexual content, the manuscript contained detailed descriptions about the very fires the Pillow Pyro task force was investigating. When the task force compared the fictional movements of Points of Origin character Aaron Stiles to the real-life crimes John Orr was suspected of, the similarities between fact and fiction were barely distinguishable. Both men were firefighters, non-smokers, and used an incendiary delay device designed to give them 10-15 minutes getaway time.

They both started fires in hardware stores, fabric stores, and other retail stores within Styrofoam and other highly combustible products, sometimes hitting multiple targets within a short timeframe. Astonishingly, both men also started fires while they were travelling to and from an arson conference held in Fresno. When describing Aaron Stiles, John Orr wrote, quote, He was a loner and insecure. His fires gave him the much needed attention that he craved. He was, after all, the only one who knew how the fire started. To Aaron, the smoke was beautiful, causing his heart rate to quicken and his breathing to come in shallow gasps. He was trying to control his outward appearance and look normal to anyone around him. Although John Orr presented Points of Origin as a work of fiction, it was impossible for the task force not to read the manuscript as a confession. The similarities were just too uncanny, but the contents of a fictional novel could not be proven as an admission of guilt or used as concrete evidence of a real-life crime.

Regardless, the manuscript was picked apart for any information that could be useful to the investigation, including the potential motivation behind John Orr's alleged actions. By November 22, 1991, John Orr had been under surveillance for approximately seven months when a fire broke out on the set of a television show at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank. After the fire was extinguished, the city of Burbank's lead arson investigator Captain Steve Patterson called on John Orr for advice, oblivious to the fact his mentor was the main suspect in a major arson case. Captain Patterson had only been working as an investigator for 18 months and wanted the assistance and know-how of someone more experienced. John said he just so happened to be in the area and would be right over to help with the investigation. Struggling to give clear directions to the location of the fire, Patterson instead agreed to meet John outside the studio and personally escorted him through the massive lot to the damaged television set. Patterson waited at the meet-up point for 10 minutes, but John failed the show. When Patterson returned to the scene of the fire, he was surprised and somewhat confused to find John already there.

Regardless, Patterson was happy to have the help. After the two investigators examined the scene, they agreed the fire was a result of arson. The tele-track device in John's vehicle only recorded his movements in 15-minute intervals, so it didn't record his whereabouts at all times. That's data didn't place John at Warner Brothers Studio when the blaze broke out, but it did put him in the general vicinity, making it the first deliberately lit fire John Orr could be placed at since the Pillow Pirate Task Force had been established. Shortly after 2pm the following day, former Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Gary Seidel was driving down the Foothill Freeway in Glendale. Seidel was one of the few people who knew John Orr was the suspect of the Pillow Pirate investigation and spotted the man as they pulled up alongside one another at an intersection. The two acknowledged each other with a beep of their horns before turning their separate ways. Although it seemed unlikely John would attempt anything knowing Seidel had witnessed him in the area, Seidel was stunned when just 15 minutes after observing John's vehicle turn south, a column of smoke appeared in the sky, followed by another just minutes later.

Two separate brushfires had broken out in nearby neighborhoods, one in Glendale and another a 9 minute drive away in the city of Larkin Yarder Flintridge. John Orr's voice broadcast over the emergency dispatch radio, informing all listening departments that he was heading to the Glendale Fire. Firefighters at the Larkin Yarder Flintridge scene were surprised when John Orr appeared moments later, despite having announced his position at the other fire scene. After the fires were extinguished, an arson investigator for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department determined that both fires were deliberately lit. He believed it possible that one was used as a diversionary tactic to allow the other more time to burn before firefighters arrived. It wasn't necessarily John Orr's presence at the Warner Brothers Studios, Glendale and the Larkin Yarder Flintridge fires that was unusual. He was an arson investigator after all. What did raise suspicions was the sheer speed in which John arrived to each location, giving the impression he was one step ahead of dispatchers and fire crews. Coupled with the fact he was tracked or witnessed in proximity of the scene of the crimes moments prior to or following the attacks.

The US Attorney's Office became increasingly nervous. Until now, John was only being accused of starting retail fires, but they couldn't rule out the possibility that he had escalated to outdoor fires, where the damage had higher potential to be truly catastrophic. They needed to make an arrest before John Orr put more lives at risk. On the early morning of December 4, 1991, John Orr walked towards his car on his Eagle Rock property when he was startled by multiple voices shouting at him to put his hands in the air. A team of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and members of the Los Angeles Fire Department arson unit swiftly encircled him. John was arrested immediately and taken to the Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast Division for interviewing. John denied any involvement with any arson attacks, but strangely asked how many fingerprints they had found. Thara searches were conducted of John Orr's home, car, and office. Several items of interest were found, including cigarettes, matches, rubber bands, yellow note paper, and a copy of the pillow pyroflyer that had been distributed by the task force. Photos and videos of some of the fires John Orr was accused of starting were also found.

Some footage even featured the properties prior to them being damaged by fire, so he had before and after shots. John insisted he had a genuine reason for possessing these items, which were all used for training purposes. He would use the cigarettes, matches, and paper to show students how arsonists can create an incendiary device out of common objects. The photos and video footage were used to show how quickly fire can spread. According to John, it was a mere coincidence that some of the locations featured in his videos were later set alight. He maintained he only filmed them for educational purposes, to exhibit properties that presented a fire hazard when weed abatement obligations weren't met. Also discovered amongst John's belongings were the photos of the tracking device he had spotted under his vehicle in San Luis Obispo, along with a post that note containing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms tracking number.

Most incriminating of all were copies of letters John had sent to literary agents to accompany his points of origin manuscript. They contained strictly classified details about arson investigations that John Orr had no way of knowing about without some level of involvement in the crimes. In one letter John wrote, My novel is a fact-based work that follows the pattern of an actual arsonist that has been setting serial fires in California over the past eight years. He has not been identified or apprehended, and probably will not be in the near future. As in the real case, the arsonist in my novel is a firefighter. He explained that an arsonist not only stays close by, but sometimes even participates in the discovery and extinguishment of their fire. In another letter, John revealed he was a suspect in an ongoing arson investigation, adding that at one point he even found a tracking device attached to his car.

John ended this letter with the comment, By the way, I'm not the arsonist. When the task force notified John's colleagues of his arrest, a friend and fellow arson investigator suggested they look into the deadly 1984 fire at Olly's Home Center in South Pasadena. According to this source, John had been obsessed with the case for years and still maintained the Olly's fire had been deliberately lit. The fact that the inferno had been deemed an accident was an ongoing source of annoyance for John. Upon hearing this information, Special Agent Michael Matassa, who had worked tirelessly on the Pillow Pyro case, was reminded of a chapter in points of origin where John wrote about a fire at a location named Cowles Hardware Store. During the fictional fire at Cowles, five people died in the inferno, including a little boy named Matthew.

In the novel, the arson investigators are deemed too stupid to realize the fire was deliberately lit. In the real Olly's Home Center fire, four people died, including a two-year-old boy named Matthew, and the fire was ruled an accident. Assistant US Attorneys Walter Brown and Stefan Stein would later say that the Cowles fire written in Orr's novel mirrored the fire at Olly's, quote, to the point of being macabre. John Orr's points of origin manuscript was meticulously examined for other real-life parallels, and many more of the book's fictional fires were linked to real incidents for which the Pillow Pyro was not yet a suspect. When call-out sheets were inspected, John Orr had been off duty or working alone during every one of those fires. The task force started receiving phone calls from firefighters and arson investigators throughout California, who believed John Orr could be linked to even more unresolved cases. This included the Glendale Brushfires of the early 1980s, which had only increased after John started working for the region's fire department. Even Don Yeager, John Orr's investigation partner, suspected something wasn't quite right with his colleague.

Yeager found John's disinterest in pursuing an in-depth investigation into the 1990 College Hills Inferno peculiar. John had publicly declared the catastrophic hillside fire was the work of an arsonist, but then abruptly shelved the case without conducting a worthwhile investigation. Given the extent of the blaze, which destroyed many homes in the area, Yeager pushed John to continue exploring the case, but John shut down the idea. This seemingly coincided with a witness informing police that she spotted a suspicious man in the area moments prior to the blaze, who, in hindsight, matched the physical description of John Orr. The exact number of fires started by the Pillow Pyro was unknown, and the list of potential attacks grew by the day. But on July 21, 1992, John Orr went on trial in a United States District Court for the 1987 Central Valley Retail Fire Spree that began in Fresno. John Orr was charged with five counts of arson, two in Fresno, two in Bakersfield, and one in Tulare. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury declared a John Orr guilty of three counts.

The Kraft mart and Hancock fabric fires in Bakersfield entered the family bargain fire in Tulare. Due to a lack of evidence, he was acquitted of all charges for the two Fresno fires. Upon sentencing on November 2, 1992, John's plea for leniency was read out to the court, where he maintained his innocence. Quote, And I feel helpless and frustrated because the person responsible remains at large. I have fought fires, performed rescues, and carried the bodies of men, women, and children who have died as a result of fire and smoke. Presiding Judge Wagner responded, quote, The evidence was substantial. You were guilty of each of these counts.

And what I must say to you, as a sworn law enforcement officer, is that the proof of your guilt then establishes that you betrayed the highest trust that was placed in you to protect the public from the terror you have described. John Orr was sentenced to 10 years in prison for each count to run consecutively. He was also awarded to pay restitution of $225,971 to the victims of those three fires. With the Central Valley Corps proceedings now complete, the Pillow-Pyro Task Force was busy putting together the next case against John Orr. He was charged with eight further counts of arson, the three that occurred in Atascadero during the Pacific Grove Arson Conference in 1989 and five in the Los Angeles Retail Spree of late 1990 and early 1991. By this point, John's lawyer convinced his client that offering a plea deal was in his best interest. He recommended that John plead guilty to the three Atascadero fires where no significant damage had occurred, and therefore no civil liability expenses would be applied. In exchange for this guilty plea, the attorney would request that the five Los Angeles fire charges be dropped.

However, John's attorney also advised his client that the district attorney's office was conducting an investigation into the 1990 College Hills Fire and the deadly Olly's Home Centre Blaze of 1984, hoping to build a case against John. John's lawyer warned him against taking the plea deal if there was any chance that such an inquiry had momentum. John vehemently maintained he had no involvement with those fires, and there was absolutely no evidence to prove otherwise. He reassured his attorney, telling him that they had nothing to fear. The US Attorney's Office agreed to the plea deal on the condition that John plead guilty to at least one of the Los Angeles Retail Fires. Hoping to save his wife from losing their house, John took the deal. On May 12, 1993, John Orr plead guilty to the three counts of arson that caused the least damage of the lot, two in Atascadero and one in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 96 months imprisonment for each count to be served concurrently alongside his 30-year sentence for the Central Valley fires.

During the extensive investigation into John Orr's potential crimes, it was discovered that the number of brushfires near Glendale and its surrounds had skyrocketed into the hundreds since John started work with the region's fire department. Investigators believed John Orr was responsible for a majority of fires in the Glendale region over the past decade. A suspicion supported by the statistic that arson fires in the area had dropped by more than 90% since his arrest. On November 21, 1994, the District Attorney presented a 25-count indictment against John Lennador to a Los Angeles grand jury. In relation to the 1984 Olly's Home Center blaze, the indictment charged John with one count of arson and four counts of murder for the deaths of Ada Dill, Matthew Troidel, Caroline Krause and Jimmy Satina. John was also charged with one count of arson for the 1991 Warner Bros. Studio Fire, 16 counts of arson for homes destroyed in the 1990 College Hills Fire and 3 counts of arson for brushfires that destroyed homes in Glendale and Larkin Yard of Flintridge in 1991. Due to the murder charges, John Orr was now facing the death penalty. The trial began four years later, in April 1998, after John Orr had already spent seven years in prison.

The prosecution presented key evidence, including the 350 page points of origin manuscript, 110 videos and audio tapes made by John at dozens of fires, communications with law enforcement authorities, the letters to literary agents that John authored, and testimony from over 100 witnesses. The fact that John had pled guilty to three other fires that used the same MO and signature incendiary device was strongly used against him. Although the points of origin manuscript was only intended to form a small part of the prosecution's case, attorneys argued it provided clear evidence of motive. During the trial, sections of the manuscript were read aloud, with a particular focus on a chapter where the main character of Aaron Stiles places a slow burning incendiary device made from a cigarette and rubber band into polyurethane foam cushions in Cal's hardware store. The resulting fire kills several employees and customers, including a woman and her toddler grandson named Matthew. The prosecution revealed overt and disturbing similarities between this scene and the real life Olly's home senate fire. In his novel, John Orr described the Cal's hardware store scene, quote,

The last thing she heard was a tremendous roar as the fire burned through the roof and vented to the outside. The smoke momentarily lifted but was then replaced by solid fire as the entire contents of the annex exploded into flames. Their last breaths were of 800 degree heat that seared their throats closed. The prosecution told the jury that John Orr intentionally lit the fires in the potato chip aisles at Von's Market and Albertson's Market shortly before the Olly's home senate fire to create a diversion. Ten minutes after the Olly's fire started, John Orr, who was off duty at the time, appeared on the scene with a camera around his neck and began taking photos of the blaze. Attending personnel assumed he was documenting the fire to reference in a future seminar, but upon reflection, it was likely John was collecting mementos of his crime. The day after the Olly's plays, John told a family member of one of the victims that the fire was a result of arson started from an incendiary device placed inside polyfoam products. This was despite Sergeant Jack Palmer's ruling that the fire was accidental and caused by an electrical fault.

The prosecution referenced this against an excerpt from the points of origin manuscript which stated, quote, Aaron wanted the cow's fire to be called arson. He loved the inadvertent attention he derived from the newspaper coverage and hated it when he wasn't properly recognized. The deaths were blotted out of his mind. It wasn't his fault. Just stupid people acting as stupid people do. On June 26, 1998, the jury found John Leonard Orr guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and all remaining arson charges, excluding the Warner Bros. studio fire due to a lack of evidence. In her victim impact statement, Kimberley, the daughter of Ada Deal and mother of two-year-old Matthew Troidel, who were both tragically killed in the Olly's plays, stated, quote, I lost the person who has held my hands when I learned to walk. I lost the person who put the veil on my head when I got married. The one person that I probably would have turned to, who could understand a mother's loss of a child, was my mum. But she wasn't there to comfort me. And in losing my child, I have lived with that guilt and the shame of it every single day because I know how afraid he was of dying in that horrible place.

I know he thought Mummy would come and save him because that's what mummies do. And I never came. During the closing argument in favour of giving John Orr the death penalty, prosecution lawyer Sandra Flannery said, quote, He was as much a killer as someone who shoots their victims face to face. Only how John Orr did it was with so much more terror and deception. Under the guise of being the protector of good, John Orr was in fact the perpetrator of evil. Under California state law, the decision to recommend the death penalty must be unanimous, with every member of the jury voting in favour. In September 1998, the jury spared John Orr's life when they were deadlocked 8-4 in favour of sentencing him to death. John Orr was instead sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the murders of Ada Dill, Matthew Troidel, Jimmy Satina and Caroline Krause. In addition to 21 years for the fires that damaged or destroyed dozens of homes around Glendale.

In handing down the maximum sentence, Judge Robert Perry said, quote, The enormity of the defendant's crimes should not be understated. He embarked on a campaign of setting arson fires that is remarkable in the number of fires he set and in the expert way he set them. After the sentencing, prosecuting attorney Mike Cabral said, quote, The lesson that this case teaches us is that no one should be above suspicion when it comes to criminal activity. There were many instances where other investigators felt that something wasn't right and for a long period of time overlooked it because of his position in fire service. John Orr is currently serving his life sentence in a California state prison where he maintains his innocence, including for the fires he pled guilty to. He claims to have accepted the plea bargain only because he was emotionally and financially drained and wanted to save his fire department the embarrassment and stress of another trial. In regards to his points of origin manuscript, John maintains the story is entirely a work of fiction.

FBI criminal profilers have deemed John Orr to be one of the worst American serial arsonists of the 20th century, with some law enforcement officials believing he could be responsible for in excess of 2000 fires over a 30 year period. John Orr's actions, behavior and writings have been used for research into the firefighter arsonist phenomenon, a marvel that has attracted considerable public interest in recent years. According to a 2016 report from the National Volunteer Fire Council, over 100 firefighters are arrested for arson annually. The perplexing behavior has been linked to a variety of motivators, such as hero complexes, boredom, attention seeking, financial gain, excitement and in some cases, sexual gratification. The unfortunate actions of these rare criminal few threaten to tarnish the positive reputation that respected courageous firefighters and fire service leaders have carefully crafted for centuries. When firefighters first begin service, they take an oath of office that differs among jurisdictions, with many using a poem of unknown origin, commonly referred to as the fireman's pledge. The emotional pledge states, I promise concern for others, a willingness to help all those in need.

I promise courage, courage to face and conquer my fears, courage to share and endure the ordeal of those who need me. I promise strength, strength of heart to bear whatever burdens might be placed upon me, strength of body to deliver to safety all those placed within my care. I promise the wisdom to lead, the compassion to comfort and to the love to serve unselfishly, whenever I am called. you