Unleash the Lone Wolves

Yep, that's what they are starting to say about the Texas prosecutor murders.

Law enforcement officials have been exploring the possibility that the three killings — of Mr. McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65, as well as the assistant district attorney, Mark E. Hasse, 57 — were the work of a local person seeking to avenge some case or investigation and to make a dramatic statement by attacking those at the center of the Kaufman County criminal justice system.

Investigators have been cooling to the notion that the shootings were the work of a prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, or of Mexican drug cartels, and focusing more on what officials described as “lone wolf” figures — defendants and those even closer to the victims, including current or former county employees who work or used to work within the local courts.

Since a lone wolf is always possible--especially some nut who might feel these law enforcement officers were out to get him/her, it must always be considered.  But in this case the precedent seems fairly small as to high level officers of the court being murdered in such a short period of time, especially when the Colorado case is considered.

Add to the above a mysterious package addressed to Sheriff Joe Arpaio found by an alert postal employee.  First reports said it was definitely an explosive device that could have killed whoever opened it; later reports are not only downplaying the threat (just one of many, ho hum) but questioning whether it was even an explosive.  Arpaio's office claimed it received a threat from a specific drug cartel just days ago.

If these are really a cover stories they certainly meet the kind of time frame used in the past to morph what initially seem like conspiracies into nothing to see, move alongs.  Consider the Oklahoma City bombing; for weeks after the attack the FBI was looking for John Doe Number Two, then suddenly he was disappeared. The two suspects eventually tried were unique in that both were called lone wolves, which sort of defies common sense.  In this case one has to wonder if the Mexican connection was either too scary or perhaps too politically inconvenient with a huge immigration bill looming.