Some who kill may hark back to training from military days

WASHINGTON -- Timothy McVeigh turned to two old Army buddies as he plotted the Oklahoma City bombing. Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad allegedly did his killing with a civilian version of the rifle that the military had trained him to use.

Overall, those who have served in the military show no greater propensity toward violent crime that do people in the broader population, criminologists say. But they add that veterans who decide to kill may draw on their military background or expertise.

Charles Whitman, the 24-year-old sniper who killed 14 people and wounded dozens from atop the University of Texas clock tower in 1966, was a former Marine sharpshooter.

"He died while engaging in the only activity in which he truly excelled -- shooting," author Gary Lavergne wrote in "A Sniper in the Tower."

Patrick Sherrill, who killed 14 co-workers and himself at the Edmond Post Office in Oklahoma in 1986, wielded two pistols that had been issued to him by the Oklahoma National Guard for use in target competition.

Muhammad, a Persian Gulf War veteran who spent 17 years in the Army, received a Marksmanship Badge with an expert rating -- the highest of three categories -- in use of the M-16 rifle. The rifle pulled from Muhammad's car and allegedly linked to the Washington-area killings is the civilian version of that weapon.

Dr. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who worked for prosecutors on the Oklahoma City bombing cases, said research conducted for the trials of McVeigh and conspirator Terry Nichols found no relationship between military service and criminal behavior.

He said, however, the armed forces may unwittingly provide training to individuals with personality disorders who are predisposed to extremely violent behavior.

"In that situation, the training the person received in the military could be used to enhance the skill of the murderer," Meloy said.

"It's very important to say the training doesn't make the killer," he added. "But the training may increase the lethality risk for somebody who has the psychological and biological factors that will lead to this kind of behavior."

Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence at Northeastern University and author of a book on mass murderers, said a familiarity with and access to firearms often is part of the profile for mass killers. The military is one place to get such training, he said.

"Most veterans wouldn't hurt anyone," Levin said. "They don't like guns, and they wouldn't fire them at anyone."

Weeded out by military

But, he continued, for a number of mass killers, the military "is where they learn to use weapons that can do a lot of damage to a lot of people."

Dr. Jesse Harris, dean of the University of Maryland School of Social Work and a retired Army colonel, rejected even the notion that someone with a predisposition for violence would obtain military training ultimately to be used for nefarious purposes.

"The military weeds them out as soon as they are discovered," he said.

But Meloy said it would be difficult to cull out those who might go on to commit single or serial murders, because the crimes are "so rare that it's virtually impossible to predict."