Paul Kenneth Keller

“	When I knew I had done them, I was sad, not excited. No joy. Just confusion or remorse. I thought, 'There goes somebody's business'.	”
	— Keller

Paul Kenneth Keller was an American serial arsonist active in Seattle and surrounding areas between August 1992 and February 1993. Arrested, he admitted to setting 75 fires and pleaded guilty to 32 of them. His penalty was furtherly increased when he pleaded guilty to two murder charges, and entered an Alford plea to a third, related to another fire he confessed to set in September 1992.

Background[]

Keller was born in Everett, Washington, to staunch Lutherans George and Margaret Keller. At the moment of his birth, his umbilical cord had prematurely detached, causing a blood loss which nearly cost him his life. His diagnosed hyperactivity would later be blamed on this early traumatic event. Hyperactivity was just one of several behavioral problems Keller displayed from a young age. A shoplifter and convincing liar, he seemed to enjoy harassing and hurting both his younger siblings, Ruth and Ben, and other children. He was also impervious to discipline, to the point his parents sought counseling and admitted him to a farm program for troubled youths. On top of that, Keller seemed to be obsessed with fire-setting, beginning at the age of eight or nine. At school, he was an underachieving loner who never had any girlfriends.

Throughout his life, Keller cultivated a deep interest in firefighting (which, coupled with fire-setting, is a clear symptom of pyromania): he would listen to his emergency scanner and immediately rush to the fire sites, hang out with firefighters (he would later admit to have been molested by a firefighter in his youth), and even collect firefighters' paraphernalia, including a turnout coat and some flashing lights. At some point, he even applied for volunteer with the fire department, ending up dismissed twice. After high school, he was employed by a security company, however, he couldn't fit in with his colleagues and lost this job along with many subsequent others. While working as a bookkeeper for a local firm, his desk mysteriously caught fire, and he was fired as a result. In 1989, he met his future wife at church (he was part of the choir), but was divorced shortly afterwards.

Eventually, his father employed him at his advertising agency. Despite being a successful salesman, Keller was often subject to bursts of anger towards anyone that made him seem less than perfect, and appeared to be unable to accept fault. He was also constantly argumentative with his siblings, who worked at the advertising agency as well. Due to his everlasting sense of frustration, Keller began boozing, consuming drugs, visiting massage parlors, and also became addicted to pornography. In the summer of 1992, he reached a breaking point when he had to file for personal bankruptcy and his father threatened to fire him if he didn't seek help for his anger-management issues.

Arson Spree and Investigation[]

Keller's composite sketch — Keller (right) and the hypnotically-enhanced composite sketch based on a witness description.

As a means to relieve the stresses he was suffering and vent his frustration, in August 1992 Keller embarked on a six-months-long arson spree in Seattle and nearby areas, targeting retirement homes, trailers, houses, and businesses along his sales routes in Snohomish, King, Pierce and Kittitas counties. He also torched several churches, one of which was his own: the Trinity Lutheran. As soon as the arsons were linked together, the so-called Sno-King (Snohomish and King counties) Arson Task Force was formed, involving members of local police agencies and fire departments, as well as ATF agents. Meanwhile, Keller began openly taunting fire brigades through his deep knowledge of the fire stations' whereabouts, coverage area, and response time. Until early 1993, firefighters in the Seattle area were called in almost every night to face suspicious fires, and in the end nearly a hundred of them were attributed to "Specter", the codename the Sno-King Task Force had given to the serial arsonist they were hunting for. Neighborhood watch groups were also set during the entire period.

Despite its resources and its best efforts, the task force's only clues to the identity of the arsonist were a fingerprint found on a window screen, some urine found in the vicinity of one of the fire sites, footprints, and reports of a well-dressed, clean-cut man driving a new Chrysler-like vehicle with temporary tags and an advertising card in the window. Keller barely avoided identification when a task force member called his father, George, to ask if his advertising agency had rented a car with temporary plates and a window card: he answered yes, but since the card was actually different than the one that was described to him by the caller, the latter didn't consider it to be a valuable lead. Eventually, Sno-King managed to obtain a partial license plate number and a hypnotically-enhanced composite sketch of the arsonist from the recollection of a witness: Bonnie Spurrier. On January 27, 1993, the drawing was released to the public along with a behavioral profile. As soon as Ben and George Keller saw the composite and read the profile, they suspected their brother could be the arsonist, so they checked his gasoline charges receipts and discovered they matched some of the arsons locations.

Arrest and Guilty Pleas[]

George alerted the authorities soon after his discovery, and checks of Keller's cell phone records revealed he had been in the vicinity of some of the fires. At that point, the task force put Keller under round-the-clock surveillance. In the end, on the morning of February 6, soon after he had manifested his intention to leave the Seattle area, they decided to arrest him at his home. In order to make him feel important and obtain a confession, task force members escorted Keller to their headquarters in a police convoy with sirens blaring. They walked him through a room set up with bulletin boards containing his personal details, the composite sketch, and a photo of him with a sign that read "identified". His father waited for him in the interrogation room, told him it was "the end", and urged him to tell the truth. Fifteen minutes after the beginning of the questioning, Keller admitted setting 76 fires to ATF agent Dane Whetsel and Seattle Fire Department lieutenant Randy Lichtfield. He would later admit more.

In March 1993, despite the task force's speculation that he was responsible for over a hundred fires, Keller pleaded guilty to thirty-two counts of arson, and was sentenced to seventy-five years of imprisonment. Later that same year, he also confessed to one more fire for which he was not tried, as well as to the September 22, 1992 fire at the Four Freedoms Retirement Home. The latter caused three deaths and was initially deemed to have been accidental, although the task force always suspected their serial arsonist, "Specter", was involved. After he pleaded guilty to two first-degree murder charges and entered an Alford plea to the third, in March 1994 he was sentenced to ninety-nine years of imprisonment to be served concurrently with his first seventy-five years sentence. He would not be released before 2078. George Keller publicly sought forgiveness from his son's victims, and handed the reward money set up by Sno-King ($25.000) to the Trinity Lutheran Church. A 1995 CBS movie called Not Our Son, starring Neil Patrick Harris, recounted Keller's story.

Modus Operandi[]

Keller targeted both unoccupied and occupied buildings stationed along his sales routes, and set them on fire with a cigarette lighter. He would light whatever flammable material he could find (e.g. wood, trash, cardboard boxes, corrugated fiberglass on carports, rubber-hose covers, lawn chairs and straw mats), usually at chest level. He would sometimes build a tepee out of combustible material he found at the scene. Paul coordinated with fire brigades through an emergency scanner he brought with himself.

Profile[]

John Douglas' Investigative Support Unit was asked by the Sno-King task force to draft a behavioral profile of the arsonist, which was later included in a book Douglas wrote in conjunction with Mark Olshaker: The Anatomy of Motive. The serial arsonist was profiled as being a white male, in his late twenties to mid-thirties (based on witness reports and his sophistication as an arsonist), who would be an internalizer: he wants to strike out at society, but he's a coward who doesn't have the courage to do it in a confrontational way. He would have a long-standing interest in fires, going back to early childhood, where he set small fires close to home. He would also have displayed other elements of the so-called "homicidal triad", like cruelty to animals/other children and possibly late bed-wetting. He is a police or fire department buff who would have applied for volunteer or tried to become a professional (as a means to obtain identity and authority), but would have failed one way or another, compounding his frustration with his life. The arsonist would be an emotional loner, whose relationships with women have not worked out. This would also be reflected in his school years, where he had few friends, was considered an oddball by his classmates, was an underachiever who never lived up to his full potential, and had a disruptive influence. As a compensation for his low self-esteem, he would be obsessed with his appearance, always wanting to put up a good front. Those with whom he works or socialize would notice him going into a rage with little provocation, all the while being also incapable of admitting fault. His pornographic interests would be something related to bondage and other forms of control.

He was described as wearing nice clothes and driving a new car, so he would have a good job and is not a pathetic loser, the problem being his own self-perception: he only feels in control when he is marshaling the resources of an entire region and capturing the public fear. The organization and efficiency of the arsons suggest he probably scouts out the sites during the day, returning to set the fires later at night. This means he has a salesman-like job which would render him unaccountable for his daytime. A salesman job would also allow him to drive long distances on his own, which is typical of serial offenders. The arson spree is in all likelihood linked to a precipitating stressor in the life of the arsonist, such as loss of love or loss of job. As for current behavior, he would probably be interested in press reports of his crimes, which cause him stress he relieves through drugs and alcohol. He may also look for an excuse to leave town, as he has now realized the investigative heat is on.

Known Victims[]

All the fires occurred within Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Kittitas counties, in Washington.

1992:
- August 6: More than three victimless fires
- August 9: Three victimless fires, including two at the Lynnwood Alliance Church and at the Trinity Lutheran Church
- Two weeks after August 9 circa: Two victimless church fires in three days
- September 7: A victimless fire at an office building
- A few more fires between September 7-9, with targets ranging from a bakery to a lumber company
- September 9: Five victimless fires at occupied residences
- September 17: Freighthouse Square shopping mall, Tacoma: a victimless fire
- September 22:
  - Two victimless suspected arson cases (possibly, he denied setting one of them)
  - Seattle: The Four Freedoms Retirement Home fire:
    - Bertha Nelson, 93 (died of smoke inhalation)
    - Mary Harriet Dorris, 77 (died of smoke inhalation)
    - Adeline Gertrude Stockness, 70 (died of heart attack caused by the fire)
- September 28: A victimless fire at the Anderson Retirement Home
- Unspecified date in October: Lynnwood: Twelve victimless fires set at occupied residences, all in a four-hour span
- November 2: Three victimless fires set at a residence and two warehouses in Mountlake Terrance and Snohomish
- November 7: Southeast Seattle: A victimless fire set at a vacant building
- November 17: Cle Elum: A series of victimless fires
- Unspecified dates in November and December: More victimless fires, including one at a boat storage facility
1993:
- January 1: Everett: A victimless warehouse fire
- Unspecified dates in January: more victimless fires set almost exclusively in Everett
Keller admitted to setting 78 fires in total

On Criminal Minds[]

Season Two
- "Ashes and Dust" - Keller was mentioned in the episode when it was believed that the unsub, Vincent Stiles, used his job, as well as a company car, to select where he would commit his arsons, much like Keller. Also, Stiles seems to have been partially inspired by Keller: both were sociopathic serial arsonists who caused deaths, kept firefighting paraphernalia in their cars (Keller kept a firefighter coat, while Stiles kept a full uniform), and suffered a divorce at some point in their lives.

Sources[]

Wikipedia's article on Keller
Seattle Times:
John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker. The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals. New York: Scribner. 1999. ISBN: 978-0-684-84598-2
Forensic Files - 7x34 Fire Proof
Michael Lienau, Brian Halquist. Portrait of a Serial Arsonist: The Paul Keller Story. Global Net Productions, Halquist and Associates. 1993
John Liebert, William J. Birnes. Suicidal Mass Murderers: A Criminological Study of Why They Kill. Crc Press. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-420-07678-3