Washington sniper left chilling tarot card and demanded cops call him ‘God’
A sniper gunning down strangers in Washington D.C. left police a tarot card and told them "call me God".
Panicked hysteria rippled through the American states of Maryland and Virginia in 2002, as Beltway sniper attacks killed 10 people and critically injured three more.
On November 10 2009, one half of the duo responsible for the murders John Allen Muhammad, was executed after six years on death row.
Lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Virginia, ended the serial killer's life at 9:11 pm local time.
His teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo remains behind bars since being punished with six consecutive life sentences.
The pair launched their bloody murder spree in February 2002, killing seven people across America's south from Arizona to Alabama before even turning on the capital.
Their total death toll amounted 17 people, wounding 10 others.
When still dodging arrest 41-year-old Muhammad and Malvo, taunted investigators with a note outside a Virginia steakhouse, demanding officers "Call me God" and handed over $10 million (£750,000) for "unlimited withdrawal" around the world.
The letter was wrapped in plastic and stuck to a tree where a sniper shot wounded a 37-year-old man leaving the Ponderosa restaurant after dinner with his wife.
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It read: "For you, Mr. Police. Call me God. Do not release to the press."
It was not the only message the killers left behind for police at the scene of a shooting.
A tarot card was placed in preparation for detectives responding to the sniper fire of a 13-year-old boy on October 7.
At 8:09 am Iran Brown was arriving at the Benjamin Tasker Middle School when he was shot from range in the chest which his nurse aunt, Tanya Brown who had just dropped him off, rushed to treat him.
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Hospital medics saved the teenager's life after he suffered damage to several major organs.
In their investigation into Brown's shooting, police found a tarot death card.
It had been left beside a bullet casing in patch of matted grass as though the sniper was lying in anticipation for a victim.
The card which is often illustrated with the grim reaper, means something is ending, whether that be a relationship or job.
More likely though was that the killer meant actual death by it in an attempt to strike terror into the hearts of most people, according to spiritual expert Ruth Urquhart.
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Every murder was caused by just one sniper bullet fired from some distance with the killers no where in sight.
In a press conference on October 3 2002, Chief of Police for Montgomery County, MD, Charles Moose announced that as a result of the threat posed by the sniper, schools had been told to keep children indoors at all times.
Over the next 19 days there were eight more shootings.
Muhammad and Malvo's sniper reign of terror was over when police found them asleep at 3:15am in their car near Myersville, Maryland.
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