sNIPER CASE FROM THE DARK SIDE -- POLICE & MEDIA IGNORE VITAL ASPECT

Law enforcement authorities apparently have little real knowledge about the sniper. One thing they could know, but dont, is what its like to spend months on end, with murder on the mind, patiently stalking low-risk, easy-get-away opportunities to strike random individuals. That critical element of the snipers m.o. is something that police, federal agents and profilers may not have focused on, but its something well worth exploring. Frank Freudberg, an American journalist, while researching a novel, acquired that exact experience.

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CONTACT: Frank Freudberg / InforMedia
Phone: 610.989.8088 (Philadelphia)
Email: ff@freudberg.com / www.freudberg.com

A Novelist Attacked" 70 U.S. Locations and Was Never Caught, Never Questioned. How Did He Do It?

[Philadelphia -- October 23, 2002] Law enforcement authorities apparently have little real knowledge about the sniper. One thing they could know, but dont, is what its like to spend months on end, with murder on the mind, patiently stalking low-risk, easy-get-away opportunities to strike random individuals.

That critical element of the snipers m.o. is something that police, federal agents and profilers may not have focused on, but its something well worth exploring. An American journalist, while researching a novel, acquired that exact experience.

I once lived - for more than a year - as an invisible man, plotting in elaborate, detail how to kill innocent people without getting caught," says Philadelphia-based writer Frank Freudberg. The cops can study it with limitless resources, but I actually lived it."

Early in 1995, Freudberg began a road trip from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and back while writing Gasp!, a novel about a wire service editor dying of lung cancer who plots revenge on cigarette manufacturers.

The Washington area sniper is clearly proficient at getting away," says Freudberg, so that makes the art of predicting the time and place of his next attack essential."

In Freudbergs novel, the main character buys cigarette packs and spikes them with sodium cyanide. He finds ingenious ways to get them back into consumers hands and immediately the tobacco industry is crippled -- much like the way the sniper has crippled life in and around Washington, D.C. The root of the fictional killers success is his catlike approach in planning and pulling off each of his attacks.

Short of someone turning him in, or a sudden carelessness," says Freudberg, the authorities best bet is to worry less about white vans and .223 caliber ammo, and more about whats going on in his mind while hes out there searching for his next position."

In researching his novel, Freudberg drove across the country, planting more than 200 cigarette packs (marked with a red 'X on the bottom instead of containing cyanide) in about 70 bars, restaurants, vending machines and convenience stores.
I got away with some astonishingly fishy behavior and I never got caught," Freudberg says. I was never even questioned, and I know why. The challenge I gave myself was simply do not get observed. I succeeded by being patient, careful and attentive to the environment."

As a result of his on-the-road experience, Freudberg has one-of-a-kind insight into how the sniper may think -- at least when it comes to logistical considerations.

Someones using rifle and scope to fire on sitting ducks, from vantage points close to highway access ramps," says Freudberg. Does he have some subconscious wish to be arrested? I dont think so. Hes worrying about how to keep on firing without getting trapped."

Instead of waiting for the next horrible thud and hoping to grab the sniper while trying to escape, Freudberg says, the police should focus on learning what, exactly, the sniper is thinking and what he wants.

Freudberg believes that once authorities have a sense of what the sniper wants, they should use the media to negotiate with him.

Thats more logical than having four news conferences a day to make sure the criminal is current on police strategy," says Freudberg. The sniper may be crazy, but hes clearly not stupid. He has already punctured the illusion of domestic safety more profoundly than the September 11th terrorists. Authorities need to treat him with the respect anyone should show an intelligent adversary who is cunning, baffling and powerful. If we ask him what he wants and he doesnt reply, that tells us something. And if we ask and he does answer, we learn even more. Lets ask him. Maybe hell tell us."

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Frank Freudberg, a media relations consultant with InforMedia in Philadelphia, wrote the thriller Gasp! (Barricade Books, New York, 1996). His by-lines and credits include USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Reuters, Associated Press, UPI, Christian Science Monitor, Der Speigel, The Guardian, and others.