John Leonard Orr was born on April 26, 1949, in California, United States. He pursued a career in firefighting and joined the Glendale Fire Department in 1974. Over the years, he gained recognition and was promoted to the rank of fire captain and arson investigator. Orr was known for his expertise in fire analysis and was often consulted in cases of suspicious blazes.

Despite his professional success, Orr harbored a dark secret. He was obsessed with fire and developed a compulsion for arson. He led a seemingly normal life, married with two daughters, Lori and Carrie. However, he used his position to manipulate investigations and hide his crimes, leaving a path of destruction across California.

On October 10, 1984, a deadly fire erupted at Ole’s Home Center, a hardware store in South Pasadena, California. The blaze claimed the lives of four victims: a two-year-old child, the child’s 50-year-old grandmother, a 26-year-old mother of two, and a 17-year-old employee. Initially, investigators believed faulty wiring was the cause, but Orr, serving as an arson investigator, insisted that it was deliberately set.

Between 1984 and 1991, a series of fires ravaged California, many displaying similar patterns. Investigators began suspecting that the arsonist was someone within the firefighting community. In 1991, a break in the case occurred when a fingerprint found on an incendiary device matched John Leonard Orr’s. He was arrested on December 4, 1991, and charged with multiple counts of arson.

Authorities later discovered a manuscript written by Orr, titled "Points of Origin," which eerily detailed the methods and motivations of an arsonist mirroring his own crimes. In 1992, he was convicted of three counts of arson and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Further investigations linked him to the deadly 1984 fire, leading to charges of first-degree murder.

In 1998, a California state court convicted Orr on four counts of first-degree murder and multiple counts of arson. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 21 years for arson. His fires are believed to have caused losses worth over $30 million and resulted in at least four deaths. Orr remains incarcerated at California State Prison, Centinela, as one of the most notorious serial arsonists in U.S. history.