A Rage To Kill And Other True Cases

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    Bravely, the mother pulled the station wagon up to the back door, and the man with the gun backed out of the restaurant, keeping her husband and son with him. He signaled to the woman that he would drive. He placed the boy in the luggage area just inside the rear window so that no one would be able to shoot at him from behind without endangering the boy.
    Slowly, the wagon pulled away and headed toward Pittsburgh along Route 65, with unmarked cars waiting to fall in behind in a cautious caravan.
    Jimmy Laurie, Chief of the McKees Rocks Police Department, pulled a few cars behind the station wagon. He was driving an unmarked detective’s car. The gunman was unaware that Laurie was broadcasting his progress over all the police channels that linked the Pittsburgh Police Department with McKees Rocks.
    Pittsburgh Patrolmen Howard Landers and Lewis Rauhecker were working a two-man car out of the Number 8 Precinct on the P.M. shift that night. They prepared to set up a roadblock at the McKees Rocks Bridge with an assist from Patrolmen Fred Green and Walt Long. But, suddenly the station wagon, which had been moving behind them, sped up and passed them. As it did, the man with the gun leaned out and pegged a shot at Landers. The police car braked to a screeching halt, and the bullet missed Landers by inches.
    The station wagon stopped, too. Green and Long were out of their car and headed toward the wagon from the front as Rauhecker and Landers approached from the sides. The man with the gun had a bead on Green and Long and he raised his arm to fire at them. At that moment, the mother of the boy hostage realized that at least one of the patrolmen would be killed if she didn’t act. She reached from the back seat, and knocked the gunman’s arm off target. He swung his gun hand and pointed the .32 directly at Lewis Rauhecker’s heart.
    At the same instant, Rauhecker placed his gun at the gunman’s temple, and said quietly, “Drop it.”
    The officer was taking a desperate gamble. He had the suspect. But the gunman had him, too.
    They stood like that for what seemed like an hour. If one shot, the other might die—but reflex muscle spasms action would make a dead finger squeeze off one last shot. One second. Two seconds.
    Three seconds.
    Four seconds.
    Five seconds . . .
    Rauhecker could see the man’s eyes swiveling. “In his peripheral vision, he could see that he was urrounded,” he said later. “Green was coming up over the hood of the car, with Long beside him and Landers was aiming in through the open driver’s window. There were other police cars pulling up on every side.”
    The gunman blinked first and put his gun down on the seat. He was silent as he was cuffed and placed under arrest. They knew his name, but they didn’t
really
know who he was. He had told Konkiel on the phone earlier that his name was Michael Olds and that he’d killed before. The Pennsylvania officers did not realize until later just what a big fish they had caught. When they contacted Washington authorities, they realized how close they had come to being blown away.
    “He has killed before,” the Washington detective told them. “And it doesn’t bother him at all.”
    If Howard Landers hadn’t stood on his brakes as Olds fired at him when the station wagon drew abreast of the patrol car, he might well have been Olds’ fourth victim. He had felt the wind of the bullet as it whizzed by his face.
    A mother determined to protect her little boy had saved Fred Green and Walt Long when she knocked Olds’ gun hand off-target. Had Olds decided to take a policeman with him as he died, Rauhecker would never have lived to tell about the memorable capture.
    Michael Andrew Olds’s arrest pointed out the chance that a policeman takes when he begins each shift. Every one of the McKees Rocks and Pittsburgh officers involved was willing to exchange his life for those of the hostages. Many of them came close.
    Although Olds was docile at the time of his arrest, he became belligerent as he appeared at preliminary hearings in Allegheny County. He was charged with attempted kidnaping, simple assault and battery, violation of the uniform firearms act, and terrorist threats. He was held in lieu of a million dollars bail.
    He commented sullenly to Landers and Rauhecker that he had almost wanted to be caught. He felt he couldn’t survive outside of an institution; the real world was too much for him. If Michael Olds truly wanted the security of