Cops last night were examining the Psycho Sniper’s tarot death card with the mocking words, “Dear policeman, I am God” – amid fears they’re dealing with a deranged Vietnam War buff or veteran.
The chilling calling card – found in a wooded area 150 yards from where the sniper’s most recent victim, a 13-year-old boy, was critically wounded – bears a striking similarity to the ace-of-spades death cards American soldiers sometimes left on the bodies of slain Viet Cong.
And the sniper had other things to say on the card, The Washington Post reports. Besides the taunt, there was a handwritten request that the note not be revealed to the media. Sources said detectives had hoped that if they honored the request, the sniper might communicate with investigators again.
Vietnam vets say that snipers who led U.S. search-and-destroy missions, were said to be “taking God’s view” when they took up positions in high ground to keep an eye out for the enemy – which makes the God reference in the killer’s taunting note doubly suspicious.
A police source in Montgomery County, Md., where five of the eight known sniper attacks have taken place, said the killer could be a Vietnam buff or veteran, or someone who’s had military training.
Or, the source said, he could have left the card to taunt cops or to open a dialogue with them – as New York’s infamous Son of Sam killer, David Berkowitz, did by writing letters.
During the Vietnam War, some soldiers put death cards in the mouths of the slain enemy; others nailed the cards to the foreheads, and still others dropped them from the air.
Retired Lt. Col. Michael Lee, author of the book, “Inside the Crosshairs: A History of Snipers in Vietnam,” said many snipers in ‘Nam used the ace of spades as a calling card because the Vietnamese considered it a death card and symbol of bad luck.
He and Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North, of Iran-Contra infamy, both feel the Washington-area sniper is not a Vietnam vet.
“He would have to be close to 60 if he was any kind of a [Vietnam] sniper, and I seriously doubt that this killer is close to 60,” said North.
Meanwhile, anxious cops, fearing the sniper had struck yet again, last night rushed to the scene of a shooting in Prince William County, Va.
Officers later said there were similarities as well as differences to the previous shootings. There were preliminary reports that the weapon used last night was a shotgun, rather than the high-powered rifle favored by the sniper. Police said two men were seen driving away in a white vehicle.