John Allen Muhammad, the D.C. Sniper, will die by lethal injection tomorrow.
John Allen Muhammad and his teenaged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized the Washington, D.C. area for three weeks in October 2002. In the end, 10 people were dead and three were wounded. The victims, selected at random, were shot while doing mundane chores like pumping gas and loading Halloween decorations into a car.
I’m sure you remember the terror of the killings. But you may not realize that the killing spree was an escalation of a child custody battle.
Psychological abuse
Mildred Muhammad, the ex-wife of John Allen Muhammad, spoke at the Battered Mothers Custody Conference in Albany last January. Her story was compelling—and heartbreaking.
Mildred was married to Muhammad for 12 years, and they had three children together. Muhammad served in the Gulf War and when he returned, he became abusive.
“His behavior turned to possessiveness,” Mildred said. “I couldn’t do anything right. He was trained in psychological warfare—he was a combat engineer—and he used me as his guinea pig.”
Muhammad didn’t hit her, but inflicted psychological abuse. “Every emotion I displayed, he used against me,” Mildred said. Finally, in 1999, she asked for a divorce.
Kidnapped children
Before, during and after their divorce, Muhammad threatened to kill Mildred. He drained their bank account and kidnapped the children, taking them to Antigua for 18 months. Mildred was forced to hide in a women’s shelter for eight months in the Tacoma, Washington area.
She could not afford legal representation. So while in the women’s shelter, Mildred taught herself the law so she could represent herself. Eventually the children were located. Mildred went to court, won her case and was awarded full custody. Then she fled across the country to Maryland.
Muhammad found her. And, Mildred says, that’s why he went on the killing spree. Muhammad planned to kill her, and the rest of the murders were an elaborate ruse to cover up her murder. She would just be another of the random victims, and he could show up as the grieving ex-husband, and claim the children.
Want to win
When John Allen Muhammad was brought to trial, the prosecutor put forth Mildred’s contention that the killing spree was intended cover up the eventual death of his ex-wife. The court, however, ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support the argument.
But after all the stories I’ve heard from Lovefraud readers, I think it’s totally plausible. Sociopaths want to win. Nothing else matters to them. I believe John Allen Muhammad was willing to kill 10 innocent people, at random, just to get his way.
If ever there was a case that demonstrated the lengths a sociopath will go to in order to win, this is it.
No conscience
According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Muhammad’s lawyers filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court last week, claiming that the killer is mentally ill and delusional.
But Paul Ebert, the Virginia prosecutor who won Muhammad’s death sentence, said, “This guy had absolutely no conscience. He killed people just like they were flies.”
Mildred also does not believe that her ex-husband is mentally ill.
Support for other victims
Mildred has written a book about her ordeal called Scared Silent. She has also founded an organization in Maryland to support survivors of domestic violence called After the Trauma.
“I started After the Trauma because of my own personal domestic violence experience and thought of all the other women in similar situations who need day-to-day assistance, as I did,” Mildred writes on her website. “After the Trauma is women who are transitioning from a domestic violence situation and are ready to take the next step into ”˜freedom.’”
Like many of us here at Lovefraud, Mildred Muhammad has been through an incredible ordeal. And like many of us, she emerged on the other side stronger, and willing to help others along the path to healing.
Oh, and there’s one more thing I’d like to share.
With my newly formed confidence, I no longer sweat the little things. I have retained my easy going, sunny disposition whether I’m mingling with folks are chillin in solitude.
I strive to take the long view, that my earthly time is not infinite and that I should appreciate and celebrate every wee minute I’m living.
Yeah, I have days where I’m less than stellar in mood but they are fleeting. I simply cannot suppress my inner joy and serenity for very long. Once you experience it, you don’t want to let it go. It feels too good.
I also don’t envy any person in the world. I have everything I need and want, my simple yet satisfying luxuries, my equanimity, my beloved tranquility. No melodrama, no unnecessary chaos, no involvements with toxic people.
True, I don’t have all the answers and sometimes not even aware of the questions. But they will come, in time if they are imperative to my continuing psychological and spiritual growth.
Just get to know yourself and to believe in yourself. Remove all self-doubts and unhealthy, negative thoughts and ideas most likely created by toxic parents and later people in your lives.
But you know what? I’m grateful for knowing such people in my life. By realizing the darkness, the total harm and suffering perpetrated by people, I most assuredly, emphatically appreciate the light. I can now discern what is harmful to me and what is and can be beneficial.
Janie, dear, you put things so clearly. I’m coming to the same conclusions, that we just have two choices—the “dark side” or the LIGHT.
May “the force” be with you, I too, choose to walk toward the light. I think in the past I let things distract me that are really not, in the big scheme of things, important. Learning to focus on the things that ARE important, it makes things much more simple in the end. Much easier to focus on what is right, what is good, and realize that you cannot compromise on some things, and those things are important. The things that are not important are easy to compromise on.
“don’t sweat the small stuff, and keep in mind that it is mostly small stuff.”
Thank you Janie for sharing your wisdom with us. (((hugs))))
Oxy Pooh,
Yes! We are moving in the same direction, on the same page with each other! Isn’t that awesome?
Both of us have been visiting LF for about the same time, but you, doll, have given a tremendous amount of care, time and energy to the sweethearts on here who truly needed a kind hand to hold and a shoulder to cry upon.
I really don’t know where you get the energy, sos all I can say is…YOU ROCK!!…haha.
Oh, and THANK YOU very much, dearest, for sharing your priceless wisdom and sweetness with me!
Big hugs and lotsa love
🙂
PS…thnxs for including a star wars reference. you know the nerd in me loves that stuff.
What a great thread!
So many people becoming their own authorities. We should do a calendar. Something like “Sayings from Chairman Mao,” but maybe “Sayings from Chairman Me.”
Kathleen Can we be naked on the calendar? Love Fraud Members Bare All?
Dear JaneSmith, yea, let us start the new week in the “sweat shop of small things” with your attitude! You rock! It was so heart lifting reading your empowering words, thank you so much!
Libelle,
I have received your thank you and would like to offer YOU my own thank you very much! The magic of reciprocity! Ta-da!…haha.
I know it’s much more involved that a simple, sincere sign of appreciation, but it’s all I can do sitting in front of a computer monitor.
If whatever I have written touches someone, helps them with their own healing, brings on a smile or some chuckles then I feel as if I have given something back in the process. That’s what matters to me.
You’re such a sweetie. You deserve so much of the good life. Don’t forget it, ya hear?
Hugs
🙂
Oh, I would concur with Kathleen about missing the invasion of a predator troll the other night.
You know what I’ve learned about internet predators? That they are insufferably BORING! Big time yawning material. I start counting sheep whenever I happen upon some of their dubious drivel.
I probably would have gone into protective hyper mode, like a mother goose gathering her chicks to her, if I’d been on LF when he/she infected this website. Not that anyone on here needs my protection but it’s part of my nature to try to protect others from any type of harm.
They can’t hurt me, offend me, and they certainly don’t terrify me. Hah, as if!
Hey, I’ve had plenty of real life experiences with predators so some slimoid on the internet seeking to cause chaos and self doubts within myself is sooo out of his/her league.
I have emerged victorious, the true winner, from stupid involvements with stupid, toxic people. So there ain’t no way in hell I’m going to let ANY predator affect me or even get near me.
We’re the complex, interesting, compelling people. They are basically trite, banal, and excruciatingly dull.
Ho hum…