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Over the years Muhammad would beawarded a chestful of decorations for hismilitary service. But, says an Army official after reviewing Muhammad's personnel file, "all but one of them are basically awarded for just showing up." The exception is the Army Achievement Medal. Army officials have so far not been able to detail what he did to merit that decoration.
But one of Muhammad's greatest talents was rewarded in the military: his aim. He advanced through three levels of Army marksmanship with the standard M-16 rifle, reaching the "expert" level. "You have to be pretty good," recalls Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam veteran, prizewinning writer and author of the novel July, July. "I didn't get one. There's a lot of tension, and there's pressure, and you're shaking. You have a drill sergeant yelling in your ear, 'Shoot straight!'" The Bushmaster .223 rifle, which was found in Muhammad's trunk and has been linked by police to 11 of the 13 victims, is a civilian version of the M-16.
Perhaps out of frustration with his middling career, Muhammad left the army in 1994. Without the anchor of the service, his pursuits drifted. He and Felix Strozier, a martial arts teacher, opened a karate school. Muhammad promised to draw legions of Muslims to the school, Strozier says. But the crowds never arrived. In what would come to be something of a pattern, Muhammad also embellished his profile, bragging that he had been a special-forces member in the military, Strozier says. And he took an inappropriate interest in a young female student, showing up unannounced at her doorstep multiple times, Strozier says.
Muhammad's aggressive behavior with women turned menacing when children became involved, court documents show. While many serial killers are plagued by dysfunctional sexual urges, Muhammad seemed to be shadowed by a need to control the children in his life. In 1995 Muhammad did not return his son to his first wife after a scheduled visit, Carol Williams and her relatives have told reporters. She engaged in a legal battle to retrieve him from Washington State.
In 1999 Muhammad's second family also began to fissure. Mildred filed for divorce, and in March 2000 she was granted a restraining order against her husband. Not only did she complain that Muhammad had physically intimidated her, but she also said he claimed to have tapped her phones and said he was collecting information with which to ruin her. "I have had my phone number changed three times in five days," she wrote on a court form. "I am afraid of John. He is behaving very, very irrational."
Ten days later, Muhammad picked up their three children and vanished, according to court documents filed by Mildred. In Bellingham, Wash., 120 miles away, Muhammad jump-started yet another life. He reportedly enrolled the kids, two of them age 8, one age 10, in school using false names. In June he went to Antigua and successfully applied for a passport, using a birth certificate that may have been falsified, according to a spokesman for the Antigua Prime Minister's office.
About a year later, he changed his last name from Williams to Muhammad, citing religious reasons. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Antigua for a brief period, reportedly with the children. It was there that Muhammad may have first encountered Malvo.