Thank you Ronald Reagan, for initiating the policies that let such unfortunates out of institutions & into the streets, & for giving voice to the anti-abortion crap he (Or his illness; who am I to judge?) have fixated on.The tips started coming in shortly after authorities released surveillance photos of a man suspected of groping an 11-year-old girl at a Fred Meyer store in Snohomish.
The callers were certain the thin man in glasses was Curtis Anton Beseda, who once served 12 years in federal prison for setting fire to abortion clinics in Western Washington in the 1980s.
Fingers crossed that this sadly disturbed pyromaniac is on every last don't-let-him-have-a-gun list possible. Also too especially the never-ever-ever-sell-gas-to-him list.In an effort to identify the suspect, police last week released still photographs taken from the store’s surveillance video.
The person who knew Beseda from college described him as having “unique mannerisms” and a condition that apparently compels him to hover at doorways, entering and exiting several times, before finally going in or out, court documents indicate.
Prosecutors say the video obtained from the Fred Meyer store shows the suspect going partially in and out of the sliding door before exiting.
Police also heard from a woman who identified the suspect as her downstairs neighbor, court documents say.
The neighbor did not know Beseda’s name but told police she was sure he was the man in the pictures based on his “distinctive facial features and hairstyle,” prosecutors say in charging documents.
The neighbor told police Beseda had not returned to his Snohomish apartment since the day the surveillance photographs were released, according to prosecutors. She also provided police with Beseda’s license-plate number and a short video she’d taken of him walking to get his mail, according to prosecutors.
The woman told police she took the video because he “had an odd way of walking, counting his steps and avoiding cracks,” according to charging documents.
Beseda was convicted of arson and trespassing for setting three fires in Everett at the Feminist Women’s Health Center in 1983 and 1984 and setting a fire at a women’s health clinic in Bellingham where abortions were performed.
The Everett clinic never reopened after it was destroyed by the third arson.
At his trial in U.S. District Court, Beseda admitted to setting the fires, saying he did it for the “glory of God.” He also said he made sure there were no people inside because he didn’t want to hurt anyone.
He said he was unhappy he caused people emotional distress but was glad that he might have helped prevent some abortions.
He served 12 years of a 20-year sentence and was released in 1996, according to court documents.
While imprisoned, Beseda became a martyr for the anti-abortion movement and was honored at a national anti-abortion banquet in 1995, according to The Associated Press.
In 1997 he was taken back into custody on a parole violation and rereleased in 2003, court documents show.
Since then, he has accrued three misdemeanor convictions for criminal trespassing and fourth-degree assault, according to court documents.
The (Everett) Herald reported that Beseda was accused of attempted arson in Snohomish and ordered to undergo a mental-health evaluation in 2004, although he was ultimately acquitted of reckless burning.
Police also say that Beseda was banned from the church and school grounds of the Immaculate Conception Church in Everett after he was accused of trespassing and obstructing, according to The Herald.
Three years ago, he was arrested in a harassment case in Puyallup, convicted and sent to one of the state’s mental hospitals.
According to charging documents, police are attempting to track Beseda through his electronic food-stamp card*, which has shown no activity since his picture was publicized on Feb. 5.
*A-fucking-hem. (Or we could get all excited/paranoid about how the gov't. has made us all something or another, sort of slaves, or serfs, but not exactly & now Beseda can't eat because he dares to dissent.)
