JAMES SWANN: THE SHOTGUN STALKER

“They [the voices in my head] would just keep chastising me and chastising me…it felt like my head was going to explode”. James Swann Jr. was a serial killer that killed in Washington D.C. in 1993. Though guilty of committing the crimes with which he was charged, he was found not guilty by reason of mental illness.

Born in 1964 to James Swann Sr. and June Swann, he exhibited signs of mental illness in his early years. His family members noticed that he would talk to himself and burst into random fits of laughter with no provocation. Psychiatrists that examined Swann state that these outbursts were frequent and even occurred while he was at work or family reunions. His mother claimed that Swann Jr.’s mental illness escalated in the late 1980s. His family attempted to convince him to get help from a professional but he declined. Before this killing spree began, he relocated to cohabitate with his sister and even found sporadic work as a security guard. However, in early 1993, his sister evicted him due to an argument they’d had. He also lost his job as a security guard when he continuously walked backwards during the times he was keeping guard of a drugstore. After being kicked out of his sister’s apartment, he split his time living in New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia. According to a statement that Swann made, the voices in his head began to make their presence known one day in 1993 after Swann awoke in a Harlem Hotel.

Swann said that his need to kill was brought on by hearing people speaking to him in his head. Voices that included Malcolm X, who demanded that Swann murder people in the Northwest part of Washington D.C., which he referred to as the “civil rights part of town”. According to Swann, Malcolm X wanted the residents of Northwest Washington eliminated because he felt they were to blame for his assassination in 1965. Swann initially denied the voices’ murderous demands, but the “spirits” warned him that if he did not comply they would kill him. This threat initiated the eight-week killing spree that would prompt authorities to implore residents to remain in their homes during the night.

James Swann Jr.’s killings lasted from February 23 to April 19, 1993. Though the number of victims he claimed was not high by serial killer standards, the severity of panic that swept over Washington D.C. during his murderous rampage was historic.

Swann Jr. lived in New Jersey before the murders began. When he finally gave in to the urgings of the voices, he drove to Washington DC with only a 20-gauge shotgun. The attacks all adhered to his specific M.O. He would drive through Washington and, when he spotted his victim, he would bring his car to a crawl adjacent to his prey and fire his shotgun at them before fleeing the scene. On February 23, 1993, he executed his first drive-by shooting in a neighborhood of D.C. called Columbia Heights. His first victim was a woman that was shot at while walking on Holmead Place in D.C. The shot was fired at 8:45 PM through the driver side window of his small car. The shot missed the anonymous woman. After her close encounter with the serial killer that would later de dubbed “The Shotgun Stalker”, she called the police. The police, however, dismissed it as a prank being pulled by teenagers. Swann’s next target was not so lucky. Approximately fifteen minutes after the attack on the unknown woman, he shot at a twenty-two year old man walking the 1400 block of Oak Street. Swann’s shot made contact with the young man’s face. The man was badly wounded and left partially blind. Again, police overlooked this attempt at murder classifying it as a drug-related shooting since the victim was a young African American man. They thought no more of it since Columbia Heights was infested with crime, most commonly gangs that dealt drugs. Even the fact that the victim had no associations with any gangs did not deter the authorities from declining to investigate further.

Swann strayed from his M.O. only once. Three days after the first shootings, he killed his first victim. He walked into a barbershop and shot a client while he was still seated. Once again, the police ignored the crime. They called it yet another drug-related crime, although this victim did not keep the company of any gangs. Police also branded his next shooting as drug-related, just like the two prior shootings. On March 4, Swann shot and wounded a man of forty-three years old in a drive-by shooting. As the shootings continued, the Washington D.C. police started to see a pattern. On March 17, 1993, Swann targeted Hope Hallock, a twenty-three year old woman that lived in the neighborhood of Mount Pleasant. She was shot and wounded by Swann. Police were surprised when news of a shooting in Mount Pleasant reached them. Mount Pleasant had a low rate of crime and was a much wealthier neighborhood than Columbia Heights. His second murder was executed on March 23. Elizabeth “Bessie” Hutson, a twenty-eight year old woman, was taking her dogs for a walk between 19th Street and Park Road when Swann drove up and shot her. Since this attack occurred so far away from any drug or gang areas, police were now certain that the shooter’s motive was not drug related, as they had suspected. With this realization, one of the largest investigations in the history of the police department commenced. Legions of police detectives began tirelessly combing over evidence that had been recovered at the crime scenes while both uniformed and plain clothes officers scavenged Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods, hoping for the assailant to underestimate the man power behind the investigation and make a mistake that would give them a clue as to how to catch him. On April 4, Swann struck in Columbia Heights again. He targeted a woman walking alone and shot at her, but missed. Less than one week later, he began haphazardly shooting again, wounding two and killing one, a thirty-five year old man.

The majority of Swann’s attacks happened at night and almost all took place in a radius of ten blocks in the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant. Swann, an African American man, picked his victims disregarding their gender or their race. In all but one of his attacks, he shot from within his car and either aimed for or threatened men and women walking by themselves.  According to testimony given by Raymond Patterson, a forensic psychologist, Swann made it a habit to commute to Harlem after this shootings and stop for food and to pay for a prostitute. Police came to the conclusion that, because the attacks were completely random, everyone was a possible victim. This frightened citizens that had already grown accustomed to the intermittent shootings that occurred in Columbia Heights.

Washington, like any city with a high population of poverty, already had a high homicide rate. However, the police were accustomed to the arguments ending in gun violence of people that had a history with the victim, or at least a motive. Murders in which the victims were strangers was a shock to the police department. They were mystified by the crimes. There were no connections between the shooter and his victims, no witnesses, and no forensic evidence because shotgun shells carry no marks with which police could trace the weapon. All they knew was that the gunman focused on civilians that were innocent and walking on the streets alone. The Shotgun Killer was a danger of a totally different magnitude than they had seen before.

Swann’s last attack, and his fourth victim, was killed on April 19, 1993. He drove around in his small blue Toyota and locked in on several potential victims to sacrifice to the voice of Malcolm X. He missed all of his intended targets, except one. Nello Hughes, a man of sixty-one years old, was the last to die by the hands of James Swann Jr. Directly after murdering Nello Hughes, Swann was fleeing the crime scene when he sped through a red light and caught the attention of an off duty police officer, Officer Kenneth Stewart. Stewart, despite having been relieved of his duties that evening, tailed Swann to Florida Avenue. When Stewart caught up with the serial killer in a parking lot, Swann attempted to elude the officer and ran. He was caught by Stewart and arrested. Officer Stewart recovered a 20-gauge shotgun in the back seat of Swann’s car that was akin to the shotgun used to terrorize Washington.

James Swann Jr. was tried for his crimes, four counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder, and was found not guilty by reason of mental defect on September 27, 1994. In accordance with D.C. law, in order for Swann to have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, Swann would have had to prevail upon the jurors that he was incapable of perceiving that his actions were reprehensible due to his mental instability or, that if he did recognize that it was illegal, he was helpless to accommodate his behavior to the specifications of the law. Psychiatrists inferred that Swann was a paranoid schizophrenic forced to commit the crimes by shrieking, bodiless voices that only Swann could hear. After hearing the statement given by the psychiatrists, the judge presiding over his trial, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, decreed that Swann knew that his actions at the time of the attacks were immoral. However, she also declared that he was incapable of regulating himself because he was scared that the voices would kill him if he did not acquiesce with their demands. Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Swann indefinitely to the maximum-security unit of Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, a psychiatric facility. However, Swann is permitted to a hearing one time every six months during which he can request permission to be released. In order for his request to be granted, Swann must prove to the judge that his mental state has enhanced and that he is not a threat to society.

The United States Attorney’s office did not debate the argument presented by Swann’s lawyers that his mental affliction was so serious in 1993 that he could not be liable for the attacks. “He was plainly not guilty by reason of insanity under D.C. law,” stated Daniel S. Friedman, the prosecutor in Swann’s case. “All the doctor’s agreed. And we don’t disagree with that finding. When all the doctor’s agree, there’s no room for a trial, and justice is served by the fair application of the prevailing legal standard”.

 In an interview with a psychiatrist, Swann told him that he would “hear these voices, and I wouldn’t know where they were coming from, and they would command me to hurt people, to kill people”. When the voices ordered him to kill “in the name of Malcolm X”, he could not refuse. The voices shouted at him from within, “the chastisements”- as Swann said. Their fury would only subside for one or two days at a time only after he had wounded or killed someone. Swann disclosed that the beings within “squeezed my heart until I felt it would burst and pressured my rib cage until the pain was nearly unbearable”.

Swann’s father frequently visited his incarcerated son. However, on February 25, 2011, James Swann Jr. presented himself before the court and requested a single release for twelve hours so he could attend his father’s birthday. Upon examining the security of the release of Swann, witnesses disclosed that while in the psychiatric hospital he had acquired his Associate’s Degree in Computer Science. The psychologist that was brought before the court to provide testimony in Swann’s favor stated that he had analyzed Swann’s records which revealed that he “had not had a violent episode at the hospital since 2003, and his aggression with his psychosis was gone”. This psychologist believed that Swann was at a low threat level for violence. However, as lately as 2008, Swann was still battling hallucinations. Administrators at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital spoke out against the chance of a release. Also opposing the possibility of release were the victims that had been lucky enough to keep their lives. Attempted murder victim Hope Hallock testified against Swann’s release. Assistant United States Attorney, Colleen Kennedy, informed the court of Swann’s unhinged, devious, avaricious nature and disclosed that Swann had often been seen wearing a t-shirt gifted to him by his father that said THRILL TO KILL. He was also heard boasting about his killing spree to his fellow inmates, and tried to have movie producers make a film about his life.

Ultimately, Judge Fred B. Ugast denied Swann’s appeal for release, expressing that his schizophrenia and newly identified narcissistic personality disorder was cause to believe that he remained a danger to himself and other people. James Edward Swann Jr. is still institutionalized at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in a medium security ward.