Timesuck with Dan Cummins

301 - The DC Sniper Attacks: A Cult of Two

Episode Summary

In October of 2002, the DC Snipers terrorized residents of Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland for three weeks, killing ten, and wounding others after having killed seven in the weeks leading up to the DC attacks. We look into who they were and why today.

Episode Notes

In October of 2002, the DC Snipers terrorized residents of Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland for three weeks. During that time, people lived in constant fear that they’d be killed - shot down - while in the midst of doing normally safe and benign daily activities like pumping gas, waiting for the bus, or even just walking across a parking lot to do some shopping. In total, ten people would be murdered, three people were critically injured, and others would be randomly shot at. Hundreds of FBI agents and local police officers would work this case before it was over. They were desperate to catch the man who was dubbed the DC Sniper or Beltway Sniper by the media. Except it wasn’t one man.  Investigators were looking for a lone, white, male gunman. They had no idea how wrong their profile was. When it was all over, 41-year-old John Muhammad and 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo - both black - would be arrested. And now the authorities had to unravel the strange father-son relationship between the two, and uncover their motive for their shootings. And that is a lot of what we look into today. Their relationship, more akin to cult leader and cult follower than it was to the normal killing duo dynamic. Hope you find this story as interesting as I do! 

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