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John Orr (April 26th, 1949 - ) is a former fire captain turned arsonist. He was known for setting a series of arson fires in Southern California that lasted from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s.
Early life
John Orr was the youngest child of three boys who were raised by parents who fought a lot. Orr originally wanted to start his career as a police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department in the early 1970s, but failed the psychological test and did the same thing for the Los Angeles Fire Department, but failed the physical test. So, he decided to pursue his career as a firefighter for the Glendale, California Fire Department. Before he began his regular career in the fire department, John was an Air Force firefighter. John was known to crave praise from fellow co-workers and was deemed a widely respected investigator by his colleagues.
His crimes
On October 10th, 1984, a fire broke out in a crafts store in South Pasadena, California killing four people including a two year old child and his grandmother. The fire was at first deemed accidental, but Orr stated that it was set on purpose.
In order to set the fires, Orr used an incendiary device by using a sheet of paper and wrapping the paper around rubber bands, matches and a cigarette in order to make his way out before the fire broke out. He commonly started fires in fabric sections of stores, especially pillows thus earning the nickname The Pillow Pyro.
In 1987, Captain Marvin Casey of the Bakersfield, California Fire Department found an incendiary device at an arts and crafts store fire. Two years later in 1989, Casey found a similar looking device at a crafts supply store. During an arson investigator's conference in Fresno, Casey had a list of fifty five people who attended the conference. He asked for fingerprints of the people attending, but his request was ignored.
In 1991, Casey sent the evidence to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Head ATF Agent Michael Matassa headed the investigation. The fingerprint did not match any of the investigators who attended any of the conferences. However, a match was found when Casey obtained a copy of attendee fingerprints that were found in the Los Angeles Police Department's fingerprint database. Even more shocking, ATF agents found a manuscript for a book he was writing titled Points of Origin which is based somewhat on the real fires he had started including the fire that he started in 1984. John even shot videos of the fires he started and took photos at the 1984 fire in order to relive the events in the same way serial killers relive the events by photographing their crime victims or activities.
Arrest
In April of 1991, prosecutors put a tracking device under his car in order to find his whereabouts and arrest him. However, the first attempt failed when John found the device under his car after he noticed the wires of the tracker dropped out. Prosecutors tried again in late 1991 and on December 4th, 1991, John was finally arrested on multiple counts of murder and arson including for the fire he set in 1984 and was convicted in 1998. During his arrest, ATF agents found a manuscript for a book he was writing titled Points of Origin which is based somewhat on the real fires he had started including the fire that he started in 1984. John even shot videos of the fires he started and took photos at the 1984 fire in order to relive the events in the same way serial killers relive the events by photographing their crime victims or activities. He was sentenced to life in California State Prison with no chance of parole although he maintains his innocence. After his arrest, the number of brushfires in Southern California declined dramatically.
Trivia
- Crime author and former Los Angeles Police Department officer Joseph Wambaugh published a book about John Orr titled Fire Lover named after a quote from the book where a fictional firefighter arsonist named Aaron Stiles (which is an anagram for I set LA arson) in a book John was writing titled Points of Origin (mentioned earlier) where the character of Aaron Stiles referred to fire as a mistress and lover.
- Years after the fires he set broke out, HBO made a made for television film titled Point of Origin based on his true story starring Ray Liotta as John Orr. There have also been various documentaries about him featured on Nova in the episode Hunt for the Serial Arsonist (aired in November 1995), Forensic Files, Cold Case Files, Unusual Suspects, Deadly Secrets and most recently on Very Scary People.
Gallery
Videos
Quotes
"Typically, arson is more difficult to investigate, because The majority of your evidence is destroyed."
"I am not a serial arsonist."