The D.C. sniper’s apprentice

last updated 8 January 2015

Lee Boyd Malvo is full of regret, said Josh White in The Washington Post. A decade ago, John Allen Muhammad, 41, and the then 17-year-old Malvo embarked on a shooting spree in the Washington area, ambushing 13 strangers and killing 10. He remembers each sniper shooting in detail, but specifically recalls the killing of Linda Franklin in a Virginia parking lot—and the look in her husband’s eyes. “It was the worst pain I have ever seen,” says Malvo, who watched through binoculars as Muhammad’s bullet hit Franklin in the head. “You feel like the worst piece of scum on the planet.” Malvo idolized Muhammad, who took him into his care at age 14. But he now views the older man—who was executed in 2009—as an “evil” figure, who manipulated a vulnerable, abused youth into becoming a killing machine. “It’s like what a pimp does to a woman,” says Malvo, who is serving a life sentence in a Virginia supermax prison. “He knew he could mold me.” But Malvo doesn’t shrink from his own actions. “I was a monster. A ghoul. I stole people’s lives.” He has a message for his victims’ family and friends. “There’s nothing I can say except don’t allow me to victimize you for the rest of your life. It’s the only sound thing I can offer.”