fireprints: Famous Arsonists and Why

John Orr
John Orr was a former fire captain and arson investigator for the Glendale Fire Department in Southern California, and to much surprise, a serial arsonist. During the ’80s and early ’90s, there were a series of fires around the Los Angeles area that were going unsolved. Investigators noticed that the fires were started in areas next to major highways and, ironically, while arson investigation conventions were going on nearby. During the investigation, police discovered an important piece of information —a fingerprint on a time-delay incendiary device from the 1987 fire in Fresno, California. The fingerprint was linked to arson investigator John Orr. In addition to the fingerprint evidence and seized accelerating devices belonging to Orr, there was an earlier incident that sparked suspicion. Orr was one of the arson investigators assigned to a 1984 South Pasadena fire that destroyed a hardware store, killing four people. All of the arson investigators agreed that the cause was an electrical fire, but Orr insisted that it was arson. Orr was convicted and charged with three accounts of arson and is currently serving life in prison.

fireprints