JOHN ORR
FROM RESPECTED FIRE CAPTAIN TO SERIAL ARSONIST – JOHN ORR COMMITTED UP TO 2,000 ARSON ATTACKS, KILLING FOUR PEOPLE AND CAUSING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PROPERTY DAMAGE
John Orr didn’t set out to be a fire chief. His ambition was to be a police officer working for the LAPD, at that time the most prestigious force in the USA. His application was rejected, however, following psychological testing. Undeterred, Orr became a firefighter and satisfied his urge to fight crime by chasing down shoplifters and burglars in his fire truck. Although this made him something of a laughing stock among his colleagues, nobody could deny that he was an excellent fire investigator. He appeared to have a sixth sense where arson was concerned and had an uncanny ability for solving intractable cases. Usually the first on the scene, Orr could identify a fire’s point of origin and discover incendiary devices when other investigators were scratching their heads. So what was his secret?
‘HOTTER THAN 500 DEGREES’
His ‘secret’ was darker and more extraordinary than anyone could have imagined: Orr was a pyromaniac, addicted to the sexual frisson and feelings of power the blazes gave him. His expert knowledge meant that he could set devastating fires, both indoors and outside, exploiting environmental conditions and the volatility of the materials to achieve maximum damage.
As a highly trained professional, Orr knew that certain commonly found products could be extremely dangerous if ignited. This helped him to develop a unique incendiary device and MO, which would lead observers to dub the unknown arsonist ‘The Frito Bandito’ and ‘The Pillow Pyro’. Unlike other arsonists, who typically prefer to set fires under cover of darkness when no one else is around, Orr’s crimes took place in retail outlets during business hours. He favoured grocery stores, hardware stores and fabric outlets as places with high footfall and a rich repository of flammable materials. His earliest known crimes involved the ignition of bags of crisps: the high oil content in the snacks and their packaging meant that they could be relied upon to provide an impressive blaze. Such an innocuous item also carried the element of surprise – few people would expect a rack of crisps to burst into flames during a busy afternoon’s trading. Orr would later describe such items as “sack[s] of solid fuel”. Similarly, Orr enjoyed burning items containing polyurethane, a highly combustible plastic material used in cushions, mattresses and other everyday items. It burns with unparalleled ferocity, emitting an eerie hissing noise and producing green-tinged flames.
Orr was experienced enough to know that an arsonist cannot just hold a lighter to such items: the resulting blaze would take hold too quickly, leaving the perpetrator in danger of discovery or
