KNOWLEDGE
IS POWER.
CONTEXT
IS OMNIPOTENCE.
JOHN THE
OBSCURE ™
By John Ruch
©
2009
Support
Our Troops or We’ll Run Out of Murderers
When I was growing up, many powerful adults were convinced that punk and metal albums and “Dungeons & Dragons” games were turning kids into murderers. As punk rock, at least, was smart enough to defend itself, I quickly learned that this form of paranoid insanity and profound stupidity was not unique to my era. Before my time, it was comic books and “jungle music.” And since my (teenage) time, it has been gangsta rap and video games. All have been the focus of censorship attempts at the very highest levels of our society (not mention the very lowest levels, too)—at least, until they got popular. At that point, these witch-hunters must move on to seek new marks of the devil.
Obviously, this urge to demonize is so full of nothing that it can apply to anything. But it is not random. As a society-wide blame game, the whole point is to deflect attention and anxiety about the society’s own obvious failings onto some marginal, minority target. Thus, something as inert as a CD, or something as peaceful as a night of “D&D” playing, will be labeled “violent,” while hundreds of youth sports programs ladle out broken bones, eating disorders, drug addictions, drunken fan riots and campus rapes without any criticism whatsoever—certainly not Congressional hearings or a rating system.
As John Denver told Al Gore’s music censorship witch trial in 1985: “I suggest that explicit lyrics and graphic videos are not so far removed from what is seen on television every day and night, whether it be in the soap operas or on the news, and that we should point our finger at the recording industry while watching the general public at a nationally televised baseball game chant in unison, ‘The Blue Jays suck!’ is ludicrous.”
We treasure our real violence. We’ll do anything to stay blind to it. When Ice-T sang, “Cop killer/Better you than me!”, Washington grumbled; the same Washington where tens of thousands people gather to cheer the gladiatorial combat of a football team with a racist name. That level of social hypocrisy is a tough nut to crack (emphasis on “nut”).
If you can’t beat ’em, laugh at ’em, that’s my motto. Several years ago, I got the inspiration for the perfect joke about this perfect joke. I had come across Christian Web sites that ghoulishly listed the names of rock musicians who have committed suicide, offered as iron-clad evidence that rock is Satanic. Around the same time, three particularly productive serial killers—including the infamous “Green River Killer”—were arrested and turned out to have bios that included successful military service. (Unsurprisingly, military service was always mentioned in passing with no significance; now, if they’d had an Ozzy album on them during the arrest, that would have been worth highlighting.)
I decided to make a list of my own, “proving” that that conservative bastion of hero-worship, the military, churns out murderers. I presumed—rightly—that I could find way more murderers associated with the military than with any form of pop culture. With this bit of militario ad absurdum, I would have a death list no more and no less ridiculous than those put out by youthophobic freaks—and a lot longer, too. Any kid in any small town could use it to out-crazy the crazies: “Fine, you can take away my Bart Simpson T-shirt. But the real danger is the ROTC program!”
Of course, there’s actually something to that. The strength of the joke was not just its audacity, but also its plausibility. The military, after all, actually trains people to kill other people. Not even the most gruesome “Saw” movie has that distinction.
And by the time I actually got to work on my project in 2005, originally in the form of a zine, the punchline wasn’t sounding so funny anymore. We were in the midst of a highly lethal war fought for no reason at all, a kill frenzy that was poised to generate maimed, burnt-out survivors by the tens of thousands and send them right back home to roost. In fact, the war had already given me cover art for my zine: the infamous photo of a soldier smiling over the corpse of a man who was tortured to death in Abu Ghraib. That piece of shit is still in prison himself, for now—but he’s coming back someday, maybe to a town near you. (He lived close to where I grew up.)
It’s pretty obvious to me that when you train killers, praise them for committing the right kind of murder, scramble their brains with life-endangering stress, and then plunk them back into civilian life, some of them will kill some of us. There’s no mystery to it, just inevitability. The question is, is the trade-off worth it?
Of course, no one wanted to ask questions or think ahead back then. “Support our troops!” was the rallying cry—code for, “I’m too scared and stupid to really care.” And thus, people are shocked, absolutely shocked, that a US soldier would go nuts and gun down a bunch of his fellows in Iraq—at a “stress clinic,” no less. Now that this truth is unavoidably obvious, military killers are sexy stuff. So what the heck, I might as well post my four-year-old scoop on the subject here.
Besides, it makes the list easier to update. It’s gotten longer since 2005. And it’ll keep getting longer. You think a mass murder in Iraq is exciting? Wait ’til they come home. Next time, it could be in your McDonald’s, your local bell tower or your bedroom. (Another little-noticed news item of that time was President Bush’s move to ban ex-military murderers from burial in Arlington National Cemetery; a law that will get a heck of a workout.) Senseless urban violence—it’s not just for Iraq anymore!
So I’ve got my list, and a shocking title I slapped on it, and I’m not sure what it means. It’s a back-at-ya parody of censorious fools that still has some truth to it. It’s chilling list of military veterans’ violence that has some absurdity to it. It’s a tribute to my difficulty in taking even my own jokes lightly.
It’s a reminder that wars have not just victors but also consequences; that bad apples grow in bad orchards; that our love for officially sanctioned killing has made us so blind that no one has ever written a military killer list before, even when military connections are a prominent part of a murder tale.
Most shocking of all, it demonstrates that before there was TV, comic books, video games and rock ’n’ roll, there was mass murder.
“The last people on earth we need to worry
about are our veterans. And by the way, after the Vietnam War, for years there
was this portrayal of the Vietnam veteran as crazed and committing—having
committed war crimes. There were all of these problems they were going to have.
Studies years later have proven that it’s totally false....Timothy McVeigh
didn't learn to make that huge bomb while he was in the military. He learned it
afterwards. So to point out one veteran who committed an act of atrocity I
think is outrageous.”
—US Sen. John McCain, exactly three weeks
before a US soldier went nuts and mass-murdered five comrades1
Bundy: “….How does a soldier deal with
war?”
Interviewer: “Well, he has the
justification built in, you see, there.”
Bundy: “So does the mass murderer.”
—serial killer Ted Bundy2
The Roll Call
AIR FORCE
William Andrews and
Dale Selby Pierre
Killed 3 people (1974)
Caught when they joined a group of fellow Airmen watching police pull evidence of the murders from a Dumpster near their Air Force base.
William Bonin (aka
“The Freeway Killer”)
Killed at least 21 people, possibly up to 43 (1979-80, some with accomplices)
Vietnam veteran gunner. Was awarded a good conduct medal.
James Michael DeBardelben
Killed at least 3 people, possibly 8 or more (1971-83)
Robert Garrow
Killed 4 people (1973)
During service, was ridiculed for bed-wetting.
Donald Harvey
Killed at least 40 people, possibly up to 70 (1970-87)
John Joseph Joubert IV
Killed 3 people (1982-85)
Committed some of his crimes while living on a base. Also attended military college.
Randy Kraft
Killed at least 16 people, possibly up to 67 (1970-83)
Was entrusted with a “secret” security clearance. A former ROTC member who demonstrated in favor of the Vietnam War.
Gary Lewingdon
Killed at least 10 people, possibly up to 11 (1977-78; with an accomplice)
Vietnam veteran.
Dennis Rader (aka
“BTK”)
Killed 10 people (1974-91)
Daniel Rolling
Killed at least 5 people, possibly up to 8 (1990-91)
ARMY
Joe Ball
Killed at least 2 people (1930s)
George Emil Banks
Killed 13 people (1982)
During his crimes, changed into military fatigues and a military T-shirt that read, “Kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.”
David Berkowitz (aka
“Son of Sam”)
Killed 6 people (1976-77)
During service, became an expert rifle shot.
Robert Charles Browne
Killed at least 2 people, possibly up to 49 (1987-95)
Claims his first victim was a fellow soldier.
Dean Corll
Killed at least 27 people (1970-73; with accomplices)
Fred Cowan
Killed 6 people (1977)
Jeffrey Dahmer
Killed 17 people (1978-91)
Richard Allen Davis
Killed at least 1 person, suspected of another killing (1973-93)
Chose Army service over juvenile detention in a deal with a judge.
Albert DeSalvo (aka “The Boston Strangler”)
Killed 11 people (1962-64)
Kendall Francois
Killed 8 people (1997-98)
Ronald Adrin Gray
Killed 2 people (1986-87)
Committed his crimes while in the service. One victim was a fellow soldier.
Steven D. Green
Killed 4 people (2006; with accomplices)
Committed his crimes in Iraq during the war. In his court sentencing statement, blamed Iraq-induced insanity for causing him to think that only Americans were truly human: “Before I was in the Army, I never thought I’d kill anyone….I see now that war is intrinsically evil, because killing is intrinsically evil. And, I am sorry I ever had anything to do with either.”
William Henry Hance
Killed at least 3 people, possibly up to 4 (1978)
Killed while serving at a military, where he left one victim lying on a rifle range. One victim was a fellow soldier. Previously served in the Marines.
Robert Hansen
Killed at least 11 people (1980-83)
Army Reserves.
Gary Heidnik
Killed at least 2 people (1986)
During service, received high marks. Also attended military school.
Daryl Keith Holton
Killed 4 people (1997)
Gulf War veteran.
Phillip Carl Jablonski
Killed 5 people (1978-91)
While still in the service, attempted to drown his wife and raped another woman. Blamed his crimes in part on traumas from his service in Vietnam.
Steven Kazmierczak
Killed 5 people (2008)
Michael Leahy Jr.
Killed 4 people (2007)
Victims were military detainees in Iraq.
Edward Joseph Leonski (aka the “Brownout Strangler”)
Killed 3 people (1942)
Committed his crimes while serving in Australia during World War II.
John List
Killed 5 people (1971)
During service, was introduced to firearms and acquired the handgun used in his crimes.
Jeffrey MacDonald
Killed 3 people (1970)
Green Beret.
David Edward Maust
Killed at least 2 people, possibly up to 5 (1974-2003)
Committed his first crime while serving in Germany.
Timothy McVeigh
Killed 168 people (1995)
Gulf War veteran gunner, awarded the Bronze Star (for heroism or meritorious conduct), excellent marksman, invited to try out for the Special Forces. Met his future accomplice Terry Nichols on the Army rifle range. After his arrest, he initially confessed to only two killings—of Iraqis during the war.
“I think because I was sent off to war, I think that helped me prepare for facing that prospect with or possibility with an objective view. OK, let's step back and not overreact. What do we do about it? And that helped.”—McVeigh, before his trial, when asked about facing the death penalty if convicted.
“Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option. From this perspective, what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment. (The bombing of the Murrah building was not personal, no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy, or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against government installations and their personnel.)”—McVeigh in a post-conviction letter to FOX News.
John Allen Muhammad
(aka 1/2 of the “D.C. Snipers”)
Killed at least 10 people, possibly up to 13 (2002)
Gulf War veteran, where he became an expert marksman with the military rifle used in the crimes. Also served in the National Guard.
Darren Dee O’Neall
Killed at least 1 person, possibly up to 5 (1987-89)
Told lies about being in the Army’s Rangers and Green Berets programs.
Carl Panzram
Killed at least 22 people (1899-1929)
Recruited in a bar.
James Earl Ray
Killed Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
Eric Rudolph (aka
“Olympic Park Bomber”)
Killed 3 people (1996-98)
Arthur Shawcross
Killed 12 people (1972-90)
Vietnam veteran known for recounting violent murder and cannibalism fantasies set during the war.
Aaron Stanley
Killed 2 people (2004)
Iraq War vet. Victims were fellow soldiers killed while visiting his drug-lab farmhouse near the base where they served.
Howard Unruh
Killed 13 people (1949)
World War II veteran gunner, awarded several medals. Kept a detailed record of every man he killed during the war, including details of the corpse, if possible.
Russell Wayne Wagner
Killed 2 people (1994)
Marcus Wesson
Killed 9 people (2004)
Robert Lee Yates Jr.
Killed at least 13 people (1975-98)
Gulf War and Somalia veteran helicopter pilot who had experienced enemy fire. Awarded at least 11 medals. Also served in the National Guard, rising high in the ranks. Bragged to a survivor of his crimes about his military service. Was introduced to prostitutes, his later favored group of victims, in the military.
MARINES
Vincent Brothers
Killed 5 people (2003)
James Colman III
Killed 2 people (2002)
Was promoted to sergeant at US Central Command.
Ronnie A. Curtis
Killed 2 people (1987)
Committed his crimes while in the service with a military knife.
Skylar Deleon
Killed 3 people (2003-04)
Robert Rubane Diaz
Killed 12 people (1981)
Zane Floyd
Killed 4 people (1999)
During his crimes, noted he had been trained to kill.
Wayne Adam Ford
Killed 4 people (1997-98)
Nathan Gale
Killed 4 people (2004)
The handgun he used in his crimes was a gift from his mother marking his military service.
Michael McLendon
Killed 10 people (2009)
Charles Ng and
Leonard Lake
Killed 12 people (1984-85)
Lake was a Vietnam veteran who earned two good conduct medals. Ng developed an early love of the military and was accepted by a recruiter despite not being a US citizen or resident.
Lee Harvey Oswald
Killed President John F. Kennedy (1963)
During service, qualifed as a sharpshooter.
Gerald Parker (aka
“The Bedroom Basher”)
Killed at least 6 people (1978-79)
Was in the service at the time of his crimes.
Pat Sherrill
Killed 14 people (1986)
During service, was rated “expert” with rifles and handguns. Also served in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, acting as a firearms instructor in the latter. Used borrowed military handguns in his crime. Known for wearing military camouflage and talking of fictitious Vietnam service.
Daniel Lee Siebert
Killed 3 people, possibly up to 12 (1979-86)
Michael Swango
Killed at least 4 people, possibly up to 60 (1983-97)
Joined the service after developing a combined fascination with the military and death.
Andrew Urdiales
Killed 8 people (c. 1987-96)
Was promoted to the rank of corporal. According to court psychiatrist, he joined the Marines out of interests in self-defense and destruction.
Charles Whitman
Killed 16 people (1966)
During service, earned a good conduct medal, mastered the rifle and was awarded a competitve Navy scholarship. A captain in his division said, “I was impressed with him. I was certain he’d make a good citizen.” Was killed by police during his crimes and was buried in a coffin draped with a flag to signify his military service.
NAVY
John Eric Armstrong
Killed about 30 people (1992-2000)
Killed at stops around the world while serving aboard the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. His chief petty officer said, “He was my sailor of the month at one time. This guy had an unblemished record aboard the ship when he was working for me.”
Hadden Clark
Killed at least 2 people, possibly more than 12 (1986-92)
During service, was repeatedly and severely beaten for enjoying crossdressing. He hid evidence of one of his crimes in a Navy duffel bag.
Carole Edward Cole
Killed 16 people (1971-80)
Daniel Conahan Jr.
Killed at least 1 person, possibly up to 5 (1994-96)
Charles Cullen
Killed at least 22 people, possibly up to 45 (1988-2003)
In the service, was on a submarine crew team that operated the sub’s nuclear missiles.
Westley Allan Dodd
Killed 3 people (1989)
Mark Essex
Killed 7 people (1973)
Richard Marc Evonitz
Killed at least 3 people (1996-97)
Began committing child sex crimes while in the service.
George Hennard
Killed 22 people (1991)
Michael Hughes
Killed at least 4 people, possibly 8 or more (1992-93)
Timothy Wayne Krajcir
Killed at least 7 people, possibly up to 9 (c. 1978-82)
Michael McDermott
Killed 7 people (2000)
Roy Lewis Norris
Killed 5 people (1979; with an accomplice)
Vietnam veteran.
Cleophus Prince Jr.
Killed 6 people (1990-91)
Gary Leon Ridgway
(aka “The Green River Killer”)
Killed at least 48 people (1982-2001)
Reinaldo Rivera
Killed at least 4 people (1999-2000)
Formerly employed in the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Was rewarded with a Navy college scholarship.
Henry Louis Wallace
Killed at least 10 people, possibly up to 20 (1992-94)
During service, was frequently promoted and reviewed very favorably. Arrested for US crimes, but claims to have committed many more while in the service at various ports of call.
1 “McCain demands White House apology” by
Alexander Mooney, CNN.com, April 21, 2009. Of course, it bears noting that
McCain is a veteran who survived unimaginable torture in the Hanoi Hilton and
became anything but a maniacal killer. To sum up the cynical brutality of G.W.
and Karl Rove, consider this: G.W. beats McCain in the presidential primary in
part by wrongly labeling McCain as a Vietnam flashback freak-out waiting to
happen; then G.W. for equally political purposes sends hundreds of thousands of
troops off to war, with little concern for their physical or mental health,
surely creating flashback freak-out veterans.
2 Clark County Prosecutor’s Office, Indiana, Web site at www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/bundy106.htm.
Principle of order for this project: to be listed, the
killer must have been convicted in a court of law or otherwise patently guilty
of at least two killings (or the assassination of a major political figure).
The project deliberately does not dwell on the crimes or the victims. A wide
variety of news sources over a number of years were and are used to create and
maintain this list. One particularly used for historical cases was the “Crime
Library” site at www.trutv.com/library/crime.
Posted May 14, 2009. Updated May 16
and 28, 2009.
N
N N N N N
Mantissas added
as fact and fancy warrant.
You asked for
it. Archives of the greatest answer-man column in history.
90
MINUTES CLOSER TO BEING DEAD
Movie Reviews
from
N
N N N N N
Get off the Internet and read
a book. John currently recommends:
“The
Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley
N
N N N N N
Collected columns and other
offerings so fresh they still smell like Kinko’s ozone.
LINKS
Cocktail
Party Physics // Allergic
Reaction
// Christopher Meloni (the
best slightly-annoyed-TV-star-answering-fan-questions section going) // This Godless
Endeavor
(the Iraq War
through the prism of heavy metal) // Female Science Professor // Wounded Warrior Project (your tax dollars are doing
the damage. pony up some more to help fix it.) // Wikidumper // Cerebral Wasabi (one of those magical people
with whom I think I probably have nothing and everything in common) // Emily Short’s Interactive Fiction (chatbot
deluxe) //
William Poundstone
(still telling
secrets)//
City on Fire (anarkiwi)
All
Web site contents copyright 1998-2009 by John Ruch. All
rights reserved.
John
the Obscure ™ and Stupid Question ™ are trademarks of John Ruch,
Web
assistance by He Who Shall Not Be Named.
Web
hosting by www.modwest.com.
Biographical
information: John Ruch is not the former prior of Inchmahome.
This Web site does not deliberately
collect, keep, transmit, sell or otherwise use personal viewer information in any
way. No mailing lists are compiled and no mass e-mails are sent out. Personal
communications to Mr. Ruch may be retained to stoke
Mr. Ruch’s ego and be fondly looked at in his old
age, unless they’re mean. Site traffic may be monitored, but any personal
information, including IP addresses, will be completely ignored and not
purposely recorded by Mr. Ruch in any way. The
hosting site, www.modwest.com,
does gather some site traffic information and maintains it for webmaster
convenience. Contact the hosting site for its privacy policy. Please report any apparent abuses both to Mr.
Ruch at the address above and to the hosting site.
Mr. Ruch is not responsible for the content and
policies of external sites, including the hosting site and sites reached
through advertising links. The appearance of paid advertisements on this site
does not constitute endorsement of advertised products. Secret government
surveillance of and intrusion into this and other
sites is possible under federal “anti-terrorism” legislation; Mr. Ruch will
immediately publicize and condemn such actions, if detected, on this site, and
quote the First Amendment before his military tribunal. Information is for
reference purposes only; readers are encouraged to think for themselves and act
at their own risk.