This week, Gina covers one of the most prolific serial arsonists in history, Thomas A. Sweatt. Sweatt terrorized the Washington D.C. metropolitan area by setting over 350 fires over the course of 30 years. His fined tuned methods helped him evade capture, as communities grew more and more terrified. An expected piece of evidence helps lead to his eventual arrest.
In the Spring of 2003, Washington D.C. area residents were terrified and on high alert as a serial arsonist targeted seemingly random locations throughout the area. While investigating a house fire, investigators found remnants of a melted plastic container, a cloth, which they thought was consistent with a thick athletic sock. A gas chromatography test was performed where officials were able to determine the accelerant used had been gasoline. It had been the second fire in the area in less than a week, and officials began to identify many similarities between both of them, especially because it now appeared they had been set in the same way with an accelerant inside a plastic bottle using a homemade wick. It was clear the cloth was used so that the perpetrator had time to flee the scene. The fires were being set in early morning hours between 2:00 and 6:00 am, and were being set at single family residences, with the fire originating in either the front or back porches of the homes.
Investigators had never seen this type of device before, they were used to situations where perpetrators would throw some kind of Molotov cocktail against the building they were targeting. In these fires it was different, essentially Sweatt would light the wick and walk away. Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms also identified remnants of a plastic shopping bag at the scenes. They believed the perpetrator carried the jug with gasoline in a plastic bag when arriving at each scene, which explained how he avoided detection. With this new evidence, citizens were notified that there was a serial arsonist targeting the area, they were encouraged to be vigilant of their surroundings and keep their eyes peeled for any individual carrying a plastic shopping bag while out walking during the early morning hours. Unfortunately over the next month, four more fires were set, all with a plastic jug full of gasoline, lit on a front or back porch.
One June night in 2003, officials were called to a lot near RFK Stadium where a fire had been intentionally set, the exact same night only 50 minutes later they were called to the scene of a house fire on Evarts Street. When they arrived at the scene they learned that the fire had claimed the life of 86-year-old grandmother Lou Edna Jones. She was found in her bedroom which was located above the front porch where the fire had been set. She’d from asphyxiation and her feet were burned as she tried to escape. This was the night investigators knew with certainty that the offender they were after would never stop and he was becoming more and more dangerous.
Up until this point in the investigation, officials had believed the arsonist had set his first fire in March of 2003, but with the thought that the offender escalated to murder by June was too hard believe. Officials now knew that they needed to look at fires with similarly characteristics that had been set much further back than just in 2003. They went through log books from decades prior hoping for any clues leading to their offender. A task force was officially formed setting on identifying the individual responsible.
Officials brought in criminal profiler Ronald F. Tunkel to help provide some kind of insight into the type of person the arsonist was. Because the fires were mostly occurring in black neighborhoods, Funkel felt this indicated that the arsonist was a blank man in his late 20’s to early 40’s, mostly because he could have been familiar with the area and had he been another race he probably would have stood out more. Tunkel felt that the arsonist was an organized and seasoned offender. He was also most likely unmarried since the fires began in the early morning hours. Officials also felt that the man they were after most likely followed each fire in the news and was aware that victims had died in some of the fires. They were also certain that until they caught whoever this offender was, he wasn’t going to stop and the fires would continue.
In October, another house fire occurred. Over 50 agents were working on the task force, holding stake outs through all hours of the night, and followed every police and fire radio transmissions that they could. In November of 2003, the arsonist struck again, this time at a home in Alexandria, Virginia, then two more fires later in November, and another days before Christmas in New Carrollton, Maryland. Over the course of two months, a fire was set once a week. By this time over 30 fires total tied to the same offender.
In the spring of 2004, Arson investigators from Washington D.C and Prince George’s county attended an exam session when they began to share stories of suspicious fires both areas had been struggling to solve. Investigators realized that a series of fires with striking similarities were being set on their neighboring borders. The homes being targeted were most single family homes, the fires were being on porches or near doors, and they were all set during early morning hours. Official forensic testing performed at ATF labs concluded that all the fires had been set with the same type of incendiary device; a plastic jug filled with gasoline with a makeshift wick, and had been carried to the scene in a plastic bag. Because of this testing, ATF was able to tie four fires together with complete certainty, and an additional 15 fires had extreme similarities.
Investigators did not believe any of the victims were connected or that one group of people were being targeted in particular. Officials started to piece together a floor to ceiling map connecting every single location of a suspect fire committed by the arsonist. Now in most investigations when officials sort of perform a geographic profile of the arson sites they are often able to identify some kind of linear pattern that aids in identifying something about their offender. However, in this case all the fires were completely scattered, but officials did notice that the arsonists seemed to set the fires near homes that had a lot of greenery and were located in either low-income or middle class neighborhoods. By the summer of 2003, investigators had identified over 20 recent fires they believed were committed by the arsonists.
Investigators wanted to learn more about how exactly the fires occurred. They started by recreating models of the incendiary devices made by the arsonists, so they put together plastic jugs with cloth wicks filled with gasoline. They started by performing tests in the lab of the devices burning at various stages, as well as in a set to be demolished empty home. Surprisingly when they lit the wick, it didn’t immediately burst into flames like you would may expect. Upon being lit the device more so acted like a kerosene lantern where it slowly burnt for some time. After just over 20 minutes the plastic jug began to melt which then caused the gasoline and vapors to ignite and spread.
Investigators began to consider whether or not the offender they were after had left DNA behind at any of the crime scenes, though the chances of this were slim. However, during one of the fires a piece of the makeshift cloth wick survived; investigators sent the remaining wick to the lab to be swabbed for DNA. At the lab skin cells were detected on the sample, so they were able to collect a DNA profile. But the investigation faced another set back because the DNA profile did not match any known offenders in the DNA database.
Fortunately there was another break in the case, when in the early morning hours three men returned home after work when they saw a man sitting on their porch. They initially played it off as a burglar and chased him away from their home. After the stranger fled the scene, the men found a plastic shopping bag with a plastic jug filled with gasoline and a sock tied around the handle. The men contacted law enforcement officials, were they turned in the evidence they found and provided investigators with a description of the offender. They described the offender as a middle aged African American male, with short hair and around six feet tall. A composite sketch was drawn and released to the public and local media outlets. Investigators sent the bag and accelerate device to the lab to analyze every single inch. While they were not able to find any fingerprints, they were able to find a hair sticking to the plastic bag. Luckily the hair sample contained the root and DNA testing confirmed that it was an exact match to the DNA previously found on the burnt wick.
The fires continued and the offender began to change his patterns. Up until this point he had always used white plastic bags but for some reason switched to black plastic bags, which were more uncommon. When investigators found that a black plastic bag had survived one of the fires, the bottom of the bag read, “Made in China for the Cornelius Shop.” Investigators contacted the manufacturer and discovered that only two stores in the entire Washington D.C. area used these exact bags, and both stores were located in the vicinity of the fires. Both stores gave investigators access to their stores and products, and allowed 24 hour physical and video surveillance at their businesses. Officials developed a method so that they could characterize the bags that each store used. The investigative task force fastened a numbered steeled chip on the bottom of each bag. Each chip was equipped with the technology to survive high temperatures and a fire. The unique number would list the date, time, and store location. Surveillance would be able to show individuals that purchased large plastic bottles in the time frame that the bags were used.
Another fire occurred, this time one of the arson dogs at the scene detected the scent of gasoline that led investigators across the street, where they found a pair of pants that had been discarded. These pants, however, were the kind that the Marines wore. When the pants were brought to the lab, scientists detected human skin cells. The DNA profile matched the hair, and previous DNA sample. This led investigators to believe that the offender was either a former Marine or current Maine, or had some kind of connection with the Marine Corps. Officials reached out to the Naval Criminal Investigation Service or NCIS, while investigators thought that the chances of identifying the arsonist though the discarded pants would be slim, they were surprised by what NCIS investigators shared with them. NCIS officials told investigators that they were also investigating a serial arsonist who was responsible for several car fires that occurred in a parking lot that was used by military personnel. Surveillance cameras captured a man leaving the scene of one of the car fires, once the video was analyzed further, officials were able to identify the license plate of the car he left the scene in. Using this information, the man was officially identified as KFC night manager 50 year old Thomas Sweatt.
On the morning of January 11th, 1985, 30 year old Thomas Sweatt, completed his shift at a Roy Rogers restaurant near NE Florida Avenue. He began his usual walk home as he always did. Suddenly he spotted a man headed in the opposite direction, the man, who appeared to be attractive and in his 30 years, said a cordial hello to Thomas and continued on his way. Thomas decided he wanted to meet this man, he decided to turn around and follow him. He followed the man for blocks and blocks, until the man walked inside a house. Thomas decided to head back to his home and as he did he grew more and more excited by the thought of seeing the man again. When he got home, Thomas changed out of his work clothes into casual clothing. He borrowed a car that belonged to sister, and headed to a gas station. He grabbed an empty 2-liter soda bottle and filled it with gasoline. He placed it in a bag he carried with him. He then drove back near the stranger's home. He parked a few blocks away. He walked on to the front porch where he poured gasoline at the base of the door, placed a towel down, and lit it with a match. Flames quickly engulfed the door and spread into the home. Thomas jumped back into his sister's car, as the fires in the home grew.
The stranger was on the second floor of the home with his wife, daughter, and stepdaughter when the fire broke out; his son and step son had both been in the basement. As the blaze grew, Sweatt drove around the block a few times, and even considered helping rescue some of the home's residents, but decided against it as firetrucks pulled up to the home; he then fled the scene. In total 85 firefighters reported to the scene and it took over 45 minutes for them to get the fire under control. Roy Picott had escaped through a window, but later suffered from asphyxia and had severe 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 60% of his body. His son and step-son had been able to get out of the house relatively unharmed, while his daughter and step-daughter escaped from the back of the house but suffered severe burns. After the file was contained and officials sorted through the debris, they found the body of Picott’s wife, Bessie Mae Duncan. She had died due to asphyxia and severe burns.
Initially officials determined the fire was accidental and, “started as a result of a carelessly dropped cigarette in the bedding of the 2nd floor bedroom.” Sweatt closely followed coverage of the fire in the news and kept a diary of fires, where he stowed away the many news reports he followed. He kept these because he knew that one day the ATF would ask for it. He’d learn the names of his victims. While he felt sad to learn that Picott’s wife died due to the fire, he felt it was all part of the necessary damage that happened in order for him to live out his fantasy. Though unknown to Sweatt at the time, just two months after the fire, Roy Piccott died as a result of his injuries.
While he wasn’t the type to strike up a conversation with anybody, he would also lend a helping hand to those that needed it. He was often seen keeping things in shape around his apartment building. He would collect trash from the alleys and sidewalks, and would often tend to the building's lawn. In his free time he enjoyed do it yourself projects and had a knack for interior design, and often got complimented on his apartment's appearance. Sweatt first began his arson activities by starting with vacant buildings, and a garage located next to his apartment building. He then escalated his activities towards house fires and local business, including a barber shop and a laundromat. Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s Sweat started dozens and dozens through the Eastern Washington D.C. area. While this may seem crazy that no one really had alarms going off about the number of fires he was starting, during this time investigators dealt with around 200 fires per year.
In 2001, Thomas Sweatt was able to purchase a used vehicle; this gave him new found access to expand upon his criminal activities. He set his sights on the middle class neighborhoods of Prince George’s County, which would become his favorite area for his fires. Every single fire he set was special in its own way, and the longer he was able to commit these crimes for the easier they became to commit. During his free time he would drive to military recruiter stations as far away as Richmond, Virginia. He would go in the early morning hours and watch officers as they arrived for work. Sometimes filming them from his car and masturbating. He would check any military cars and if they were unlocked he would collect whatever kind military items or clothing he could get his hands on. Later returning home and dressing up and pretending to be a Marine while in his own company. Then he began to set fires at the recruiter stations, or would report false fires so that he could watch the engines drive out to the scenes. He most often would set fires to the cars belonging to the officers when they arrived for duty.
The NCIS were never able to officially charge Sweatt with the military fires because there was a lack of sufficient evidence against him. However, the DC arson task force placed him under 24-hour surveillance. This is how they were able to discover that he resided near one of the stores that used the black shopping bags. Officials decided to bring Sweatt in for questioning. He completely denied any involvement in the fires, and was more than willing to provide investigators with a DNA sample. Testing showed that Sweatts DNA matched the hair sample and other DNA samples collected from the crime scenes. The reason Sweatt was so willing to provide a DNA sample was because he had been committing these arson undetected for so long that he really didn’t believe that DNA could be recovered from a fire. Once he was presented with the DNA evidence against him, he made a complete confession to investigators. He not only confessed to the recent series of fires, but he also confessed to setting fires that dated back over 25 years prior. Often throughout his confession he broke in tears, he claimed responsibility for over 350 fires in total, potentially making him the most prolific serial arsonist in the history of the United States. The fires he confessed to caused the deaths of two people, left dozens injured, and caused millions of dollars in damages. He agreed to plead guilty, in exchange for his motives being kept hidden from the general public. Sweatt signed a secret guilty plea within two weeks of his arrest. “The fastest we’d ever seen,” says Fulkerson. “He just wanted it over with.” With Sweatt’s help investigators closed out 353 fires—apparently all he could remember—stretching back into the ’80s.
His own attorney called him a classic example of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was a good person who suffered from undiagnosed mental illness. And there was hope that while in prison, Sweatt would receive proper treatment and attention towards his mental health. His attorney had argued during sentencing that undisclosed mental illness caused Sweatt to commit the fires, but Judge Chasanow stated that mental illness could not excuse killing two people and setting fire to more than 45 homes, as multiple cars. "Whatever you faced in terms of any problem cannot in any way justify the actions you took -- actions that terrorized a community."
Before U.S District Court Judge, Deborah K. Chasanow, Sweat officially plead guilty to the charges of: possession of destructive devices, destruction of buildings by fire resulting in personal injury, possession of destructive devices in furtherance of a crime of violence, second degree murder, and first-degree premeditated murder. On September 12th, 2005, Judge Chasanow sentenced Thomas A. Sweatt to a mandatory life sentence plus 136 years in Federal prison.
In 2007 Thomas Sweat participated in an extensive interview where he spoke on the fires he committed and what drove him to commit his crimes. In letters written to reporter Dave Jamieson where he made multiple confessions to various fires he had never been tied to or convicted for. He also finally revealed what the motive behind the fires was.He shared that his urges came out for various reasons, sometimes a sense of powerlessness, spite, but most often to fulfill some kind of sexual fantasy. Saying, “Fire is a tool to destroy and some house fires also become my fantasy of people scrambling to exit windows and sort of feel like they need my help so I stay and watch. Then I’d masterbate over the fire while driving away from the scene.”
As of 2021, Thomas Sweatt is 65 years old and is serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Dolan, Matthew. “D.C.-Area Serial Arsonist Is Sentenced to Life Term.” The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Sun Media Group, 13 Sept. 2005, www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2005-09-13-0509130034-story.html.
Gately, Gary. “D.C.-Area Arsonist Sentenced to Life in Prison.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 13 Sept. 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/us/dcarea-arsonist-sentenced-to-life-in-prison.html.
Jamieson, Dave. “Letters from an Arsonist.” Washington City Paper, CL Washington, Inc, 1 June 2007, archive.vn/20130209035333/www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/1641/letters-from-an-arsonist/full#selection-1261.0-2171.427.
“Thomas Sweatt.” Wikipedia, 25 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sweatt.
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