Infamous Criminal Snipers in United States History

A criminal sniper is a killer who can strike without his victim ever knowing he was there. He can wreak havoc on communities and kill an alarmingly high number of people before he is taken down. These killers are typically spree killers and/or mass murderers. Alternatively, they may be assassins who wish to strike their target and leave without being seen. At least three of these frighteningly talented killers have stood out in United States history.

John Allan Muhammad

John Allan Muhammad is better known as one of the D.C. Snipers. He went on a killing spree in October of 2002 that left ten people dead. Three other people were wounded.

John Allan Muhammad was born in 1960 in Louisiana. He married right out of high school and joined the Army National Guard. He started his military career as a good soldier, but he soon got himself into trouble due to his insubordination. In 1985, he converted to Islam, left his wife and joined the regular Army. He later remarried, had three children and served in the Gulf War. He left the Army in 1994 and attempted to run two businesses.

The businesses that John Allan Muhammad started were an auto shop and a martial arts school. Neither business succeeded. Five years after he left the Army, he was directionless and his wife had left him. John's wife took out a restraining order on him as well. In retaliation, he kidnapped their children and fled to Antigua. This is where he met Lee Boyd Malvo - the other D.C. Sniper.

John eventually moved back the United States and Lee came with him. The police caught up with John and took the children to their mother. Without his children, John Allan Muhammad turned to 17-year-old Lee for someone to control. Both were homeless at one point, living in a shelter together. It is said that John controlled every aspect of Lee's life down to what he ate. Eventually, he taught Lee to use a firearm.

In October of 2002, the pair began shooting people in the Washington, D.C. area and Virginia. They carried out their crimes from a sniper's nest that John built in the back of his car. They were finally apprehended in the car on October 24. Both were found guilty of murder. John's sentence was execution, while Lee's was life in prison. Lee did not make it on to this list because he was not the mastermind behind the murders. It was Muhammad's deadly skill and his passing on of that skill that led to those ten deaths.

Charles Whitman

Charles Whitman was a criminal sniper who climbed the tower at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966 and killed 14 people. He wounded 32 more. Less than a day earlier, he killed his wife and mother by brutally stabbing them to death. He is the most successful mass murderer on this list.

Charles Whitman grew up in a well to do family, but there were dark undertones to his family life. His father abused both his wife and children. In order to escape his father, Charles Whitman enlisted in the United States Marine Corps when he was about 18-years-old.

It was quickly apparent that Charles Whitman was a talented rifleman. He could hit moving targets at long ranges quite accurately and quickly. He was also an obedient and attentive soldier. Because of his progress in the Marines, Charles was able to get into an education program, which would allow him to get a degree in engineering while the government paid his way. The school they chose to send him to was the University of Texas. He began in September of 1961.

Charles Whitman quickly found himself in trouble at school. He was reckless, selfish and he liked to gamble. He got married to a nice girl while he was in school, but family life did nothing to curb Whitman's new attitude. His free ride at school was revoked and he went back to life as a soldier, but he was a changed man. He wound up in serious trouble, but still managed to get an honorable discharge with the help of his father in December of 1964.

This series of failures ate away at Charles. He returned to the University of Texas to study architectural engineering. He kept a journal in which he wrote all of the things he needed to change about himself. It was obvious that a pattern of self-loathing had emerged. This, coupled with use of amphetamines, drove Charles Whitman over the edge.

On July 31, 1966, Charles Whitman began buying the supplies he would need to stage an assault from the University of Texas tower. He then wrote a letter. In it, he said that he planned to kill his wife and mother so they did not have to suffer in this world that he hated so much. Later that night, he went to his mother's house and killed her. He came home and did the same to his wife. He never expressed anything but love for either of them. His sick mind believed he was doing them a favor.

The following morning, Charles packed two rifles and three pistols. He then purchased a 30-caliber M1 carbine and a shotgun. These were packed as well. He brought along food, binoculars and other supplies one would need in a sniper's nest. That is exactly what the University of Texas tower became at about 11:00 a.m. It was the perfect vantage point for a man with the murderous intent and skill that Charles possessed.

On his way to set up his nest, Charles Whitman killed the tower receptionist and two visitors. He wounded two others, while two more ran for help. When he reached the observation deck, he began firing systematically and precisely. His first victim was a baby, still in it's mother's womb. He shot the baby in the head through it's mother's stomach. He continued firing for roughly one and a half hours. His killing spree ended when a police officer made it into the observation deck and killed Charles.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans in 1939. He went on to be the man who perpetrated one of the most significant assassinations in United States history. Some would say he went on to be the man who was framed for their sniper killing of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Despite identifying with Marxism and socialism, Lee Harvey Oswald joined the United States Marine Corps when he was 17-years-old. By 1959, he was out of the Marines, having served honorably. That very year, he applied to become a citizen of the Soviet Union. He was denied, at which time he attempted suicide. He moved back to the United States, got married, had children and developed a political agenda that would later help in labeling him an anti-American assassin.

In September of 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald got a job at the Texas School Book Depository. Two months later, on November 22, President John F. Kennedy and his motorcade crept past the building. Shots were fired, allegedly from a window at the Texas School Book Depository. The president was shot in the head. He died a few hours later. Governor John Connally was seriously wounded.

Police found a rifle and cartridges near a window on the sixth floor of Oswald's workplace. At about 1 p.m., a man shot and killed a police officer who attempted to stop him in the street. A witness later identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the shooter. He was apprehended that afternoon, before he could hurt anyone else. Once in custody, he denied having anything to do with either shooting. He said he was set up. Two days later, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a known gangster. Several bizarre facts make it difficult to tell if Ruby killed Oswald to shut him up. We may never know.

The above men changed America, if only for brief periods. Each of them perpetrated events (assuming Oswald was guilty) that brought the people of the United States together in grief and horror.

Sources

Charles Whitman: The Texas Tower Sniper, retrieved 12/7/10, trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/whitman/index_1.html

John Allan Muhammad, retrieved 12/7/10, biography.com