warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

3: 30 A.M .  Akron Ohio. in the neighborhood  in the city of Akron CCTV  records a man in a jumpsuit  walking up to a house, seconds later, what could only be a nightmare begins….

as the  flames engulf the house,the mysterious man disappears into the night leaving a trail of  blood behind  him.

as authorities were called to investigate, they  had no idea what they were stepping  into , this would only be the beginning of a series of fatal fires.

set by a vicious coldblooded killer  and detectives would soon find themselves racing  against the clock as a serial killer arsonist hunts for his next victim.

  April 17 th, 2016

the night of april 17 th ,2016  was  nventful for 65 year old Lindell Lewis,he had just gone throud a hip replacement surgery.

and was resting at his home on 719 Fultz street.

being looked after by Gloria Jean Hart his girlfriend at the  time.

however,this night would be  different,this night would plunge the once peaceful city of Akron into   sheer terror…

in the early  hours of april 18th close 3:30 am. CCTV  footag  captre a man walking in the direction that led directly to Lindell’s  house and moment’s later tragedy  would strike the house of Lindel Lewis.

because he as in a  hurry to escape ,this first attempt ,setting  the house on fire had failed and th flames  died out  prompting the arsonist to make a  return for a second time to make sure he finished the job.

at around  3:40 a.m  at approximately 3 minutes after the second round of dousing the house with what appears to be gasoline a raging fire  would swallow up the entirety of  Lindell’s house.

This was  an early monday morning and most  people  in Lane Worcester neighborhood were asleep ,preparing for work.no one  would have been awake to  see who this masked arsonist was.

more importantly, whoever this was well aware of Lindell’s hip  suegery as it had made him wheelchair ridden and unable to move. this  meant  that the fire was started knowing that he would never be able to escape.

and soon enough 911  calls would begin pouring in as the fire raged on.

presumably Lindell and his girlfriend were sleeping in their bedroom in the upper floor  of the house when the fire initially began.

since the masked arsonist ensured that the fire spread from the ground floor , this meant that by te time they woke up because of the heat and crackling of the fire, they had no escape.

especially because  Lindell was unable to move by himself,Gloria most likely helped Lindell move from the bed and the couple retreated to their bathroom in an attempt to get away  as possible.but all this did was delay the inevitable.

as  firefighters and EMS  arrived at the scene, the elderly couple was heard scraming for help from inside their bathroom, even with desperate attempts to save them,it was far too late.

this gasoline fire was far too violent and the smoke was far to thick.

Gloria hart and  Lindell Lewis were pronounced dead by the time they were discovered.

a tragedy like this, was unheard of in Akron,not only because of the facts that there was now an arsonist on the loose but because no one knew who his next victim would be.

because as it turns out, Lindell and  Gloria were only two of his nine victims to come…

the hunt forthis masked murderer was on and soon enough detectives had a lead. during the night  this fire occured ,the suspect had fled in this direction immediately after his second attempt.

this meant that, who ever this was lived in this General vicinity and considering this.

the very first suspect  would be Stanley Ford.

Stanley was a peculiar man , he often claimed to be a guardian sent by god , and would spend his days sleeping so he could stay awake at night to watch over the neighborhood.

additionally,Stanley was also Lindell’s neighbor and the two had spent many years living next to each other. this is why officers were certain that Stanley would react with sorrow when informed of Lindell’s death.

but when a call was made telling him of the tragedy, something was off.susiciously not only  did stanley refuse a polygraph test but officers believed his reaction to be endorsing Lindell’s death rather than moruning it.

this was likely  because of a low in the two’s relationship that stemmed from their  arguments about property boundary in  maintenance. this was not limited to Lindell alone.

in fact,stanely was infamous  for often disputing with neighbors when it came to property boundaries, all things  considered  ,stanley was only seen as a  weird and obnoxious  neighbor.

rather then someone who would burn a house down .for now at least ,he was not the most prominent suspect.

as detectives began to believe that the one responsible for thisfire may  have been someone inside Lindell’s house.

the night  the fire occurred Lindell and Gloria were not the only ones in the house,Thomas Hugly an Garret  were two of Lindell’s friends who were going through tough times due to financial constraints.

Lindell was kind enough to offer the two of them a place in the basement of h is home,fortunately,Thomas escaped before the fire could swallow up the basement but Garrett on the other hand  just  so happened  tobe somewhere else that night.

April 22 nd ,2016

by april 22nd, 2016 Akron detectives  would call in Garrett for an  interview to found out what really happened.

for detectives it is definitely odd that Garrett is taking so  long to remember the finer details but this is nothing conclusive as of now.

however thay are confident that  by poking deeper they might be able to  find some clues.

Stanley ‘s name  has once again crept  into the conversation,infact rumors about Lindell and Stanley’s conflicts had already spread  like wildfire and he was on his way to becoming suspect numer one.

but for  detectives,this could mean anything, Stanley  would  alternatively be the most  suitable for Garrettt to pin his crimes on.a neighbor with a god complex ,who had frequent  conflicts with Lindell.

furthermore, Garret has not given any details about his alibi, all we know is , that during the night of the fire he was at his aunt’s house  and was spending time with   his niece.

this is why  detectives would not let up putting pressure on Garrett.

for detectves,this was perplexing a suspect that was willing tocry for his  dead friend and housemate,yet had no solid  story for where   he was on that day created a contradicting  situation.

no  matter what, detectives cannot be certain that Garrett is the arsonist,  so they would slowly push him towards a  polygraph test  claiming it’s the  only way to prove his innocence.

usually  suspects are never legally obligated to undergo a polygraph even if they did ,these tests are not presentable in court due to a lack of acuracy and reliability since results are affected by several factors like  anxiety and  mental and physical  healt.

and with Garrett’s insistence that he is innocent  and was not at Lindell’s house often detectives are stuck with no othe suspects.

their only remaining choice was Stanly  Ford.the self-proclaimed neighborhood guardian.

but at this point, this was  more of a gut feeling for detectives as they couldnot put up a plausible case against him for an arrest.and in their eyes many many suspects were just as suspicious as  stanley if not more.

this meant  the Arkon arsonst was still on the  losse and maybe these investigations had scared him.

because things seemed to  settle  down for the entirety of 2016 there were no more fires  and most began to forget about the incident

however, this  piece would soon  come to an end.

January 23rd 2017

on january  23 rd  2017  someone  set fire to a vechicle on  723 Russel Avenue just a few blocks away from the first  fire.

the next two months would be another wave of  silence  from the arsonist  until may 15th 2017 when  close to 3:00 a.m Lane Wester  neighborhood was given another  rude awakening.

a fire on 693  fultz street had resulted in the death of seven people.

35 year old Dennis Huggins and 38 years old Angela Boggs .

along with their five children aged between 16 months  and 14 years

this was the second major fire  after the Lindell home was burned  to a crisp 13 months prior.

the fire had  started in trash cans placed at the front of the house  and spread quicly through the porch into the home. however, this was no accident.

according to a forensic analysis an accelerant  identifed as gasoline was dumped into the cans ,the flames were intense and enveloped the house within  seconds. there was no room for escape.

and just like the first fire, allseven victims were found huddled incorners of the home as they had been trapped by the smoking flames.

the bodies had been burnt so badly that the only way to identify them was through a DNA test.this was a tragedy.but  compared to the first fire finding the suspect this time wouldn’t be hard as there were only  two options.

the first was patrick Boggs  who had a bit of history with Angela  Boggs ,the mother of the children in this fire.Patrick  Boggs served 12  years in prison for  dousing  Angela in kerosene and  threatening to set her on fire in 2001.

he was a violet man and  had even tried to stab someone  making him a very plausible suspect.but even with his past , patrick  was quickly discarded as cameras provided  he had never left his home in Ohio.more importantly

an extensive polygraph test proved that Patrick was telling the truth about not being  involved in this crime. however, his role in these murders  wouldn’t end here as we’d later found out.

for now  ,the only remaining  suspect was  a familiar face , one that was a common  denominator in both fires. Stanley Ford.and this time officers were prepared to gather a mountain of evidence against him.

the first step was to obtain  a search warrant for Stanley’s home, which would result in a crucial piece of evidence being  found…

worn out tennis shoes that had been covered in an accelerant an accelerant that just so happened to be gasoline.but the evidence wouldn’t end here.

one of the detectives  would  decide to have  a one on one  conversation  with Stanly in his car and what he says would be nothing short of  disturbing.

yet another instance of Stanley Ford justifying not only the deaths of the couple but of their five innocent  little children too.

just like  in the murder of Lindell Lewis, there was a pattern, a pattern of pure hatred towards the victims. a pattern so disgusting  that Stanley felt it was his god -given right to purge anyone who upset the guardian of the neighborhood.

in this case Stanley often accused the family of dealing drugs ,damaging his property and engaging in illegal activities which only fueled his hatred towards them.

several neighbors had witnessed heated exchanges between the couple and Stanley leading up to the fire.

not only that ,but the night of the fire,neighbors mentioned how they  saw  Stanley continuously patrolling the house.

this would be corroborated by CCTV footage  that would not only catch Stanley walking towards the house right before the fire but also running away from it after.

if all of this was not  compelling enough,there would be one last piece of evidence that would solve the mystery of the Akron arsonist.

take a look at this footage from the 2016 fire of Lindell’s home,now matching this footage from the 2017 fire and matching  both  with the footage  from when police spoke with Stanley  in the neighborhood there is one correlation.

the way the suspect walks  is exactly the same as  Stanley  strideStanley was the one responsible for the cold -blooded murders of nine people.

in the  face of these denials, detectives decided  that  enough is enough  no matter what they needed a confession out of Stanley and the best way to do that is to show him  all the evidence that points towards him being the arsonist.

often a  suspect will refute their crimes even in the presence of concrete evidence as this would still give them a fighting chance  in court .

in this case Stanley is doing exactly this and no matter what detectives say he won’t be cracking anytime soon.

however, this would be far from the end of  Stanley Saga,because he never   admitted  to anything and had a history of being mentally unstable.

there was a chance that he could get away completely scot-free in court due to  his mental status being absolved of all his crimes.

62 year old Stanley Ford’s trial would begin on monday 30th, 2021.

with the prosecutor  making his opening statements that focused on correlating the masked arsonist with  Stanley Ford.

Stanley’s defense on the other hand knew the kind of upheld battle that they were  facing  and decided that the best approach would be not to prove stanely’s innocence.but to disprove the suspicions of his identity.

on the surface this might like an open and  shut case.but Stanley’s defense planned for these hearings thoroughly and knew exactly who to blame.

because there was  one person who could turn the tides in Stanley’s favor.

Patrick Boggs,the same man who was the initial suspect for the second fire. when Patrick was arrested, the most conclusive evidence to dispel suspsions was his polygraph tests. but these tests are not admssible in court.

this meant when lead  detective Troy Looney was called to the  stand  he could do nothing but watch as the defense twisted this case.

this line of questioning puts the prosecution in a tough spot as detective Troy could not immediately dispel the doubts of Patrick being the suspect using the results of the polygraph test.

however,the defense would not lose momentum on this win, they would  play their final trumpcard…

bringing in Patrick Boggs himself  as a witness.

with him pleading the fifth the defense’s  case became much stronger because for the jury a suspect refusing to answer questions meant that he did not want to incriminate  himself in a crime that he may  have been involved in.

thus ,shifting some of the blame off of Stanley,fortunately there was one silver lining. a major step of the defense’s plan was to use Stanley’s extreme  beliefes to drive the case towards an evaluation of his mental health.

unluckily for them if  Stanley  didn’t hesitate to murder nine people ,he wouldn’t hesitate to fight his own defense team and admit in front of the jury that he had no mental issues.

at this point,the only thing left to do ,was for the jury to come to a decision

however, even with every single one of the defense’s attempts to save Stanley the decision would come out to be in favor  of the prosecution  due to the overwhelming  evidence they had.

the similar walks of the suspect…

recordings of stanley expression his hate towards his neighbors.

  and stanley running back to his home after the second fire.

but even though  he was found guilty of the fires , jurors were yet to conclude their decision about Stanley’s punishment.

this is when the defense decided to move forward with plan B. do anything to save Stanley from the death penalty.

there were a total of 12 jurors, and a unanimous vote was needed to give Stanley  the death penalty even if one of them disagreed,he would be given a life  sentence instead.

and  on  12th day of his trial,only 11 of the 12 would vote in favor of the death penalty.the defense was successful in theirattempts to save him as just one juror disagreed,feeling that he sohuld only be given life in jail.

but even his life sentence would not be kind to him,because for every single year of his life he would be reminded of his sick and disgusting  crimes..

Stanley Ford would receive nine consecutive life sentences for every  single one of his victims without the possibility of parole plus an additional 21 years.

and  to be reminded of his crimes for every single date of the fire and for every single birthday of the five  children he murdered,Stanley would be given solitary confinements- a punishment that he will have to endure for the rest of his life…..