Murder Trial Opens for Ex-Glendale Fire Captain

The arson-murder trial of a former fire investigator began Thursday with prospective jurors answering written questions about whether they had personal experience with fires and how they viewed the death penalty.

The questionnaires asked whether their homes had ever been on fire or near a brush fire, and what they knew about the case against John L. Orr, a former Glendale Fire Department captain already convicted in other arson cases.

A twist in the case involves an unpublished manuscript written by Orr. It details a fictional series of blazes set by a firefighter that resembles fires Orr has been convicted of or is accused of setting.

Citing “substantial publicity” about the book and the case, Superior Court Judge Robert Perry issued a gag order preventing attorneys from speaking to reporters and reminded potential jurors that “it’s very important that this case be tried in the courts and not in the newspapers or on television.”

Orr, 49, who is serving a 30-year sentence after a federal arson trial, could face a death sentence if convicted in the state trial. He has pleaded innocent to four murder counts and 21 arson counts involving six fires in the South Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank and La Canada Flintridge areas between 1984 and 1991, including one that destroyed 67 hillside homes.

There is also a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders stemming from an Oct. 10, 1984, blaze at Ole’s Home Center in South Pasadena that killed two employees, a customer and her grandson.