MURDERER: EVAN THOMAS THE PHANTOM SNIPER Although married, Evan always felt awkward around women and fantasized about hunting them. His weapon of choice was a .22. For eight months he terrorized the city, selecting victims at random until his ego got him caught.

PODCAST EXCERPT Long before the sniper attacks in Washington, D.C. by John Muhammad and Lee Malvo was another sniper, Evan Thomas born in Akron, Ohio in 1923. Evan enjoyed sports and liked school but at the age of ten was stricken with scarlet fever then typhoid fever. By grade eight he gave up on school and went to work on a celery farm. Evan didn’t have many friends and had no interest in finding a girlfriend. He preferred to spend his time working or reading about sports. At 19, Evan enrolled in the US Army Air Force and served throughout Europe before returning to California where he and his wife had two children. In 1951 Evan purchased a used Winchester .22-caliber rifle. Never comfortable being around women, he wondered what it would be like to hunt them. He didn’t intend to kill them, only to scare them.