The Patriot Ledger
PLYMOUTH, Mass. — A former Holbrook man suspected of being the “God and country” arsonist who terrorized the South Shore more than 20 years ago started a fire in Plymouth so he would be sent back to jail, a prosecutor told a judge in Plymouth District Court.
James A. Dix, 63, of Brockton told Plymouth police who spotted the flames shooting out of the federal probation office at 116 Long Pond Road on Monday night, “I did this,” Plymouth County prosecutor David Belcher said in court.
Judge Brian Gilligan ordered Dix to undergo a mental health evaluation before he returns to court Friday for a hearing to determine whether he poses too much of risk to be set free before trial.
No one was injured in the blaze, which started at about 8:30 p.m. Monday, but the building was severely damaged. Police officers who spotted the fire found Dix waiting for them in a nearby parking lot.
He allegedly told police that he started the fire because he was angry after meeting with his federal probation officer on Monday, Belcher said.
"(Dix) demanded he be arrested and said: ‘Do I have to start a fire and be standing right there in order to get some attention?’” Belcher said.
Police were called to the probation office Monday afternoon and took Dix to a hospital to be evaluated. As soon as he was released, Belcher said, Dix drove to a gas station, bought $2.50 worth of gas and drove to the probation office and set it on fire.
Dix’s defense attorney, Charlotte Tilden, said her client has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and has not been taking his medications recently.
In 1993, Dix pleaded guilty in federal court to trying to set fire to a construction company in Brockton. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
Shortly after being released in 1996, he was sent back to prison for assaulting a 13-year-old boy. He believed the boy had thrown a crabapple at his Holbrook home, breaking a window.
According to Holbrook police, Dix ran out of his Juniper Street house with the crabapple, grabbed a boy riding by on a bike, and tried to force the boy to eat the apple, which had bits of glass in it. The boy managed to get away on his bike.
When Dix was arrested in 1993 for the Brockton fire, federal investigators revealed that he has been under suspicion since 1988 of being the so-called “God and country” arsonist responsible for more than 40 arsons, most of them in Plymouth and Norfolk counties.
The nickname was coined because churches and veterans organizations had been targeted. Three of the fires were at the Brockton VFW post, one was at the Hanover VFW hall and one was at Calvary Baptist Church in Hanson.
Dix was never charged in any of the cases, nor was anyone else.
Former Holbrook Fire Chief William Marble spent hours of his own time trailing Dix back in the late 1980s. Dix lived in Holbrook then and was suspected of setting five separate fires in that town.
“I remember years ago (Dix) always had to wear headphones because people were talking to him in his mind,” Marble said in an interview Tuesday.
Marble said he is glad Dix was finally spotted at the scene of a fire.
“He should be back in jail, and he should stay there,” Marble said. Otherwise, he added, “he’s going to hurt a firefighter or innocent person one of these days.”
Marble was a Holbrook firefighter for 34 years and retired as chief in 1993, the same year Dix pleaded guilty to the attempted constriction-company arson in Brockton. The former chief was part of a task force of federal and local authorities created in early 1989 to investigate the “God and country” arsons. It identified Dix as its one and only suspect.
Dix also was suspected of setting fire to Hanover Junior High School early on the morning on Jan. 24, 1988, but was never charged in that case.
Dix is a Boston College grad and Navy veteran.
Reporter Brian Benson contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Patriot Ledger