The Inestigation of an Arsonist

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The Investigation of an Arsonist During the 1980s and early 1990s there were a series of baffling Arson fires in and around the Los Angeles area. From the Ole’s Home Center in South Pasadena that took the lives of four people including a two-year-old boy, to numerous other fires in which millions of dollars worth of damage was caused. The causes of these were declared arson, but the perpetrator remained a mystery for many years. Until investigators from all around the Southern California area teamed up to put an end to the damage being done and to bring the culprit to justice. But in order to establish a successful Investigation they needed to follow the basics of crime investigation by establishing the crime, finding out who did it, and being able to prove they did in an effective way so that all the evidence could be used in court. John Orr was the main arson investigator for the Glendale fire department and the surrounding area. Since there were not very many arson investigators at that time John Orr would investigate many of the fires in the Southern California area. Everyone who worked with John Orr would be baffled at how good he was at his job. Most of the time he would just look at a fire and know exactly where the point of origin was. It wasn’t until later that they would realize that it wasn’t because he was a good arson investigator, but because he was the arsonist who had started them. The first trial for John was when he was being tried for five counts of arson. Two in Bakersfield, two in Fresno and one in Tulare. In almost every arson that occurred a delay device was found that had been used to start the fires. On one of the delay devices they found a latent fingerprint. They ran the latent fingerprint in 1989 but it came back with no match. It wasn’t until later on that he was called back for trial charged with four counts of murder for a fire

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