Thomas Sweatt: How a sexual obsession with men in uniform caused hundreds of fires
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you feel sexual attraction, then chances are you’re going to do something stupid under its influence. However, it’s probably not going to be arson, right?
However, for the vast majority of us, the worst we’ll do as a result of unaddressed horniness is send a few regrettable texts. Let’s be real here, though, the worst that some people are capable of when they’ve got the horn is essentially a laundry list of all the worst things that people are capable of. So much so, the actions of Thomas Sweatt probably won’t be among the top ten worst things you can think of inspired by that feeling.
Yet, the DC native did many genuine atrocities as a result of his sexual frustration. What’s more, he got away with hundreds of them before the cops ever cottoned onto his actions. In fact, it wasn’t until 2005, when Sweatt himself was 50 years old, that he was ever investigated for his actions.
His DNA was found at two sites of arson attacks, both of which had resulted in death. Sweatt was arrested, and after a lengthy interview period, finally confessed to the two attacks. Then, admitted to a whole lot more besides.
It turned out that he had been responsible for the last 20 years’ worth of arson attacks in the Washington DC area. With the jig well and truly up, Sweatt confessed with no small amount of pride to being responsible for well over 300 arson attacks that had claimed the lives of three people over that period. Yet, his actions had injured and traumatised scores more.
The even stranger thing about this was the nature of his confession. He confessed, but on one condition, which was for the motive of his attacks to be kept a complete secret. Obviously, there would be no way of enforcing this, so eventually, it came out that his attacks had all followed the same basic pattern as his original attack back in 1985.
It turned out that Sweatt had an obsessive sexual fixation on men in uniform, particularly Marines, and when he saw someone he was attracted to, he would often stalk them back home. Now, this is gross enough, but on January 11th, 1985, Sweatt took this a step further.
Sweatt wanted to feel power over this person, so after he saw where this man lived, he went home, filled up an empty, two-litre soda bottle with gasoline and poured it under the target’s front door. He then lit the gasoline and watched the fire consume the house, fantasising about saving the target of his attraction but not acting on it – it wasn’t until afterwards that he found out that the target had a family. A wife, a daughter and a stepdaughter in the house. The children survived, but the adults did not.
This did not stop this desire. Sweatt continued to stalk people he was attracted to and set fire to their homes or their places of work over the next twenty years until he was arrested. In fact, part of the case against him was his car being identified on CCTV footage near a Marine based in DC. One that had seen several cars belonging to its recruits burnt over the last few years.
He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to multiple life sentences in front of a court mainly made up of his family, who had no idea that the mild-mannered manager of a fast food restaurant had such a vile inner life.