David Malcolm

**David Nathaniel Malcolm** is a serial killer, assassin, serial bomber, and homegrown terrorist.

## Background and Activism

Malcolm was born in Parma, Ohio, the son of a working-class couple who eventually divorced during David's teenage years. Afterwards, he and his distant father relocated to Pennsylvania, where he attended the University of Pittsburgh for some time, before dropping out. At the age of twenty-five, he joined the U.S. Army, undergoing basic combat training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. There, he cultivated his already deep-seated interests in weapons and the military. Nonetheless, just after enlisting the Air Defense Artillery School, he ended up being discharged for heavy drinking.

David had become developing right-wing, anti-government, and pro-life beliefs from his late teenage years. After his discharge, he approached both the Patriot Movement and the Christian Identity ideology, eventually turning away from the latters, claiming he didn't recognize himself in them, and that *"there was too much talking without doing"*. Working odd jobs, he began moving throughout the South and along the East Coast, attending gun shows and NRA conventions and meetings. He got enraged at the Ruby Ridge incident, later visiting Waco during the 1993 FBI-ATF-Branch Davidians standoff, whose outcome left him even more worried over increasing government presence, restrictive gun laws, and the "New World Order".

## Assassinations and Bombings

In mid-1995, inspired by the Oklahoma City bombing, Malcolm resolved embarking himself on a string of sniper-style assassinations targeting federal prosecutors and judges. He succeeded in killing two U.S. district court judges in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, two assistant U.S. attorneys in Kentucky and Tennessee, and one executive assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia. Intending to also hit pro-choice advocates, he committed one more long-distance assassination, targeting an abortion provider in North Carolina. All the while he sustained himself through bank robberies.

After relocating to Rayne City, Maryland, Malcolm bombed an abortion clinic, killing one person and injuring ten others. The very same day, he bombed another clinic, this time causing three fatalities and eight injuries. Soon, a multi-agency task force, including the ATF, FBI, Rayne City Police Department, and Maryland State Police, was formed and charged with the case. The authorities were able to link the license plate of a van, seen by a witness in the vicinity of the first explosion, to the agency where it was rented. Though the client had used a phony name, they obtained a composite sketch from one of the employees. Meanwhile, the investigation focused on a security guard employed at the first targeted clinic, Barry Powers, who discovered the bomb and steered away bystanders. Powers was briefly thought to have orchestrated the bombings, possibly along with an accomplice, in order to appear as a hero, but was later exonerated because of lack of evidence. A motel manager eventually recognized the man depicted in the sketch as one of his guests, who had signed with his real name: David Malcolm.

## Absconding, Selbysport Standoff, Arrest, and Trial

Now the subject of an interstate manhunt, Malcolm, who had, in the meanwhile, fled Rayne City, spent several days in the Appalachian wilderness near the Pennsylvania border, later turning to a Garrett County-based militia, the Maryland State Alliance, for refuge. They allowed him to hide and stay inside a secluded cabin outside their compound, near Selbysport, occasionally supplying him with food and other provisions. As soon as the multi-agency task force intercepted Malcolm, federal agencies and the state police engaged in a standoff with the MSA, urging the latters to deliver the refugee and turn themselves in. Thanks to civilian negotiators, the siege ended with the surrender of both Malcolm and the MSA members.

The latter was tried for both the assassinations and the bombings, and was finally condemned to five consecutive life sentences.

## Modus Operandi

Malcolm at first employed long-distance, sniper-style assassinations to murder his victims. He later turned to pipe bombs fitted with directional devices and shrapnels.

## Real-Life Inspiration

* Eric Rudolph: TBA
* Timothy McVeigh: TBA
* Joseph Paul Franklin: TBA
* The Selbysport standoff shares traits with other similar 1990s incidents involving federal authorities and extremist groups, including the Ruby Ridge standoff, the Waco siege, and the Montana Freemen standoff.