Commuting With Killers

The Maundy Morning Newsletter - This Week in History September 26 - October 2.

I hope you had a restful and relaxing weekend. Thanks for continuing to support Okay History, and welcome back to Maundy Morning Newsletter.

I moved to Washington, DC, in May 1998. Some remarkable events in United States history took place in the first few years of my arrival.

President Bill Clinton was impeached. Then he was acquitted.  

2000 Election took place, and we learned about hanging chads.

9/11 Attacks occurred, and we can never, ever forget.

But it was one event that happened here locally, specifically on October 2, 2002, that I can never fail to recall.

At 6:30 p.m. that day, James Martin was shot and killed while sitting in a Shoppers Food Mart in Wheaton, Maryland, a suburb I had lived in for many years before moving into the District in 2001.

Not much was made of the murder. It was senseless, random, but nevertheless, confusing. We would find out later that it was the first killing in a continuing saga of mysterious serial killers.

The next day erupted with violence all over the Beltway, the highway that circles DC. Five more people were killed each by a single shot from a sniper, and by the 11:00 news, the area with filled with fear.

At the time, I lived around U Street, and I walked daily to my job at the Kennedy Center, which is straight south in Foggy Bottom. It’s about a 45 minute walk. There was nothing special about the path if you discounted the fact that it took me to Chandra Levy’s apartment building, which reminded me that Chandra was my age and had been missing for over a year at that point.

---

John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo drilled a hole out of the back of the blue Chevy and used a rifle to cowardly murder people for no reason other than they were sick human beings. They would shoot and kill someone, then drive away undetected because that’s what cowards do.

I remember being on high alert all the time, but in the days before ridesharing, I continued to walk to work. My mother was not particularly happy. 2022 me looks back on my actions, and I shake my head. Come on, Chris, use the Metro.  2002 me would have probably responded, “It takes too long.”

While I continued roaming Washington, DC streets, Muhammad and Malvo continued to kill. They shot people at gas stations and parking lots. They shot one poor soul simply because he was standing around the bus he drove.

Fortunately, both these jerks were caught a few weeks later, on October 24, at a rest area off Interstate 70 in Maryland. They were asleep in their car, and state troops and the local SWAT Team could apprehend them without further violence.

Both would be tried and convicted of their crimes, first in Virginia, because they killed in the Commonwealth before making the Beltway their finale. Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed in 2009. Malvo is still a guest of Virginia, where he will remain for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.

I still don’t take the Metro to work.

---

Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. Here's what I got:

1. Patriot Sam Adams was born on September 27, 1722. A central figure of the American Revolution and a Founding Father opposed basically everything the British Parliament tried to impose on the colonies. Now known for good beer.  

2. Babe Ruth hit his 60th Home Run on September 30, 1927. On the last day of the season, The Babe knocked a 2-1 pitch off a Washington Senator’s pitcher, setting the home run record that Barry Bonds would destroy many decades later.  

3. Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on October 2, 1967. Nominated in June of that year by President Lydon B. Johnson and confirmed 69-11 by the Senate in August, Marshall became the first person of color to sit on the High Court. He retired in 1991.

---

There is another impressive person to highlight this week. Serena Williams was born today in 1981. Simply put, she is the single greatest female athlete of all time. I can’t think of anyone who comes remarkably close to her achievements:

·       23 Grand Slams

·       14 Doubles Titles

·       319 weeks as the #1 ranked player in the world

·       186 weeks straight as the #1 ranked player in the world

·       2015 Sportsperson of the World by Sports Illustrated

·       Highest-earning female athlete of all time

Born in Michigan, but grew up in Compton, California, and coached by Will Smith, Serena and her sister Venus dominated tennis. Like whooped everyone. Sometimes I think if I had the chance to play her, I would enjoy how quickly it would end so I could shake her hand and meet her. Just get straight to the exciting part.

She recently completed her career, and I watched the first match of her final US Open while down in South Carolina for work. I was sitting at the bar, eating an incredibly healthy and cheap meal, watching Serena struggle with her opponent, whom I won’t bother naming because it doesn’t matter.

Williams defaulted five times in the first set, which I couldn’t believe. I thought for sure this was the end.

Then she just turned it on. Williams would win in straight sets relatively easily. She instantly became the Serena we knew.

Williams went to win the next match but fell in the third round to the person who would lose to the person who lost to the person who won.

Serena, however, remains on top forever.

Have a great week! We are back to ranking the states on Friday. Until then…

Okay,

Chris