Authorities Link Maryland Arsons to Racing Club

GREENBELT, Md. — The alleged ringleader of a street racing club "wanted to do something big" and so plotted the arson spree that ravaged a southern Maryland subdivision this month, authorities said Thursday.

Patrick S. Walsh -- a 20-year-old amusement park worker who reportedly had experience with pyrotechnics -- "came up with the idea and began approaching others about setting these fires," Assistant U.S. Atty. Donna Sanger said during a detention hearing. She said the goal was to make a name for Walsh's "Unseen Cavaliers," a group that collected and raced Chevrolet Cavaliers.

After searching Walsh's residence Wednesday night, federal officials disclosed allegations that he had identified the club's inner circle with the letter F -- for family -- in a digital directory on his cellphone.

Walsh and five other men have been charged with setting the Dec. 6 fires that destroyed 10 unoccupied houses and damaged 16 others in the Hunters Brooke subdivision near the town of Indian Head in rural Charles County. Investigators are seeking at least 10 others believed to have some knowledge of the case.

The only motive Sanger cited Thursday was Walsh's alleged desire for notoriety. Since the fires that caused $10 million in damage, federal affidavits have suggested that two of the accused may have been spurred by revenge for personal setbacks; officials also have alluded to the possibility of racial animosity toward the subdivision's high concentration of black customers. All of the accused are white.

But as the speculation that had surrounded the case gave way to more prosaic allegations, some of those with knowledge of the investigation questioned its high-profile handling and media coverage. "First we hear it's ecoterrorists, then racists. Now we see a bunch of car fanatics," said one lawyer involved in the proceedings. "Not exactly big-time stuff."

The construction of Hunters Brooke on the edge of an ecologically sensitive area had sparked opposition; some longtime Charles County residents also reportedly were bothered that a number of African American families wanted to move in.

But most of the prospective homeowners had not yet completed purchase agreements when the houses were set ablaze using propane torches and flammable chemicals. Now the burned-out families face uncertainty until their houses are rebuilt -- a limbo that could last six months or more.