Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Smoke’ follows the story of arson investigator Dave Gudsen, who is joined by Detective Michelle Calderon in an investigation chasing two serial arsonists. The show begins as just another case, but soon turns into an exploration of the characters and their dark sides, which leads them to do some very questionable things. Dave, specifically, goes through an arc that is shocking and devastating, but what makes it all the more interesting is that his story is not spun out of thin air, but has concrete standing in reality.
Dave Gudsen is Loosely Based on a Real Arson Investigator
If there were one case proving reality is stranger than fiction, it would be John Leonard Orr’s, who serves as the inspiration for Dave Gudsen’s character. Born on April 26, 1949, Orr’s life seemed to be on the right track. He joined the Air Force following high school, after which he returned to LA with the intention of becoming a cop. However, he could not clear the psychological evaluation. He also applied for the Fire Department, but he wasn’t considered physically fit for the role of a fireman. Eventually, he found a job at the Glendale Fire Department as an arson investigator. And he seemed to excel at it as he quickly rose through the ranks to become captain.
His marriage to his high school sweetheart got him two daughters, Lori and Carrie. But as he excelled professionally, his marriage crumbled. Meanwhile, his keen observation and a preternatural ability to seek out the origin of fires built a reputation that made him a revered figure in the department. At one point, he talked about having caught more than 40 serial arsonists. He was teaching classes on the subject and even wrote articles for the American Fire Journal. He also decided to use his knowledge on the matter to pen a fiction novel, called ‘Points of Origin,’ in which he concocted a former firefighter named Aaron who becomes a serial arsonist who is sexually aroused by the fires he causes. Soon, however, it turned out that the novel wasn’t as fictional as he made it out to be.
John Orr’s Shocking Crime Spree Continued for About Three Decades
During John Orr’s time as the rising star of the Glendale Fire Department, a serial arsonist was active around the state. Several names were bestowed upon the mysterious arsonist. He was called the Pillow Pyro because of his preference for targeting shops with polyurethane bedding. He was called the Frito Bandito because he would sometimes use potato chips to start fires. The term Coin Tosser was also used because sometimes, his intricate incendiary devices would feature coins. The common thread in all these MOs was the use of a lit cigarette with three matches wrapped in a writing paper, held together by a rubber band. The arsonist would leave this device in stores and other areas, while also setting small fires in other parts of the town to split the forces of the fire department.
One of the most devastating fires caused by this mysterious man was in Ole’s Home Center hardware store, which resulted in the death of four people. He was also behind the College Hills Fire of 1990, which caused considerable loss of property. However, it was the fires caused at the arson investigator conferences that eventually caught the notice of the investigators, leading them to the conclusion that the arsonist was one of them. At one point, they found a half-print which they tried to match with ten suspects, one of whom was Orr. However, the prints didn’t match, and Orr walked free.
About two years later, the investigation yielded fruit when another fingerprint was found, and this time, it turned out to be a clear match for Orr, confirming that he was the arsonist they had been looking for. Despite the fingerprint, the investigators had to bide their time, watching Orr and tracking him by bugging his car with a device. By the time he was arrested in 1991, it was believed that he had set about 2000 fires in three decades of his career. What’s more is that he himself investigated most of these fires, which explains how he was able to escape the law for so long.
John Orr is Serving Time for His Crimes in California Today
76-year-old John Orr has been serving a life sentence, without the possibility of parole, in Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, since 1998. He was convicted of serial arson in 1992 and found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and 21 counts of arson in 1994, following testimonies from 100 witnesses, and with 40 videotapes and 70 audiotapes from the scenes of fire serving as crucial evidence against him, in addition to other statements and queries. Additionally, he pleaded guilty to three federal counts of arson, though he has since maintained his innocence in the entire matter.
Since his conviction and subsequent imprisonment, his family members have cut off ties with him. Notably, he has been married and divorced four times. While his case has been talked about over the years, Orr himself has managed to keep a distance from the media. In prison, he has continued his habit of writing by getting his articles, often autobiographical in nature and exploring his life in prison, published in the prison newspaper, the Mule Creek Post. During a recent interview, he told The LA Times that he has not “written fiction for quite a while.”
Speaking of his fictional writing, Orr also reiterated that his novel was fictional and Aaron, the pyromaniac described in the book, is not based on himself. Instead, he still claims that he based the villain on “two or three of the serial arsonists [he] apprehended” and “gathered as much intelligence as [he] could” while working on the cases. He claims that the manuscript was one of the many tools used to frame him and that he pleaded guilty to save his then-wife from bankruptcy. He claims that he had an alibi, but his lawyers didn’t listen to him and focused on portraying his image as a pyromaniac.
Read More: Smoke Episode 1 and 2 Recap
