A daughter’s account of the “Pillowcase Pyro,” hero firefighter turned killer arsonist John Orr. “A red-hot true crime masterpiece.” —Burl Barer, Edgar Award–winning author of Betrayal in Blue and Murder in the Family
For years, Lori Orr believed her Los Angeles firefighter dad was a selfless hero. When Lori’s dad was arrested and charged with four murders and countless arson fires, it was her testimony that helped keep him from being sent to Death Row. Eventually, Lori’s search for the truth lead her to the dark secrets lurking in her family’s past—and to an inescapable conclusion about the remorseless killer and arsonist known as the “Pillowcase Pyro” and his reign of terror in sunny Southern California.
Together with award-winning journalist Frank C. Girardot, Jr., Orr looks back on the journey that took her from love to fear and the search for answers about how the father she loved could also be a thrill-seeking predator. A predator brought to justice by a dogged investigator no one wanted to believe. A master manipulator who participated in the writing of this memoir in hopes that it would redeem him in the eyes of his family and others who trusted and believed in him.
“A fiery tale . . . The text itself collates Girardot’s tying together of the investigative timeline with entries from Horvack Orr’s diaries.” —Pasadena Now