Created by Dennis Lehane, the Apple TV+ crime thriller Smoke makes us think about what makes a person become a habitual criminal; how it happens that a few people get immediate gratification when they see others suffer; and why they experience that lack of control and give in to their impulses even when they have a fair idea of what would happen if they got caught. Smoke episode 1 introduced us to a character named Freddy Fasano, who happened to work at a fictional joint named Coop’s Fried Chicken. The character of Freddy Fasano is loosely based on a real-life arsonist named Thomas Anthony Sweatt, infamously known as Washington, DC’s most notorious arsonist. I have used the word loosely, as many creative liberties have been taken by the makers in portraying his character, and a few events have been altered or dramatized for the sake of making the narrative more engaging. For example, the show is set in the 2020s, while Sweatt operated from 1985 until his arrest in 2005, so with a major spoiler warning, allow me to point out all the potential similarities between Freddy Fasano and his real-life counterpart, based on what we saw in the first two episodes of Smoke.
Where Is Thomas Sweatt Now?
Real-life arsonist, Thomas Sweatt, worked as a fry cook at a food joint operated by a chain of fast food restaurants, Roy Rogers Restaurants. In 1993, he joined a KFC, where he worked for 12 years and went on to become the unit manager. In 2005, he was leaving a regional meeting for KFC employees when he was arrested by the police. Sweatt was given the nickname “Milk Jug” because that was his choice of incendiary device: a milk jar filled with gasoline, plugged with a piece of cloth or a towel to set fire.
The entire scene in Smoke episodes 1 and 2, where we saw Freddy following a young couple and then setting their house on fire, also happened in real life, though I don’t know if Freddy’s motivations were similar to that of the real-life arsonist. Back in 1985, Sweatt followed around a man named Roy Picott as he found him quite attractive. As per the media reports, it was Sweatt’s first fire. He may have wanted to stalk him or maybe have a chat with him. But then something snapped inside him; he had a change of heart and set his house on fire, which killed Roy’s wife, Bessie Mae Duncan. Roy, too, sustained fatal burn marks from which he never recovered, and took his last breath on March 5, 1985, some two months after his wife’s demise.
After his arrest on April 27, 2005, Sweatt confessed to more than 350 cases of arson, and he told the authorities that he had been doing it for the last 30 years. Sweatt pled guilty before the U.S. District Court, as he had realized that the DNA evidence discovered at multiple crime scenes linked him directly to the crime. He was charged for numerous violent crimes and four counts of murder, for which he was sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment. The 71-year-old serial arsonist is currently serving his sentence in FCI Petersburg Medium.
Why Did Thomas Sweatt Set Fires?
In real life, Sweatt always wanted to be a Marine. In 1976, at the age of 21, he even tried to enlist in the Navy, but he failed the physical examination. Since then, Sweatt had felt pretty conflicted about men in uniforms, especially cops and marines. He was physically attracted to young men in uniform, but he despised their authority, as he’d had brushes with D.C. officers on multiple occasions. His attraction mixed with resentment would often compel him to set fire to their vehicles or houses. It is said that the sight of a police squad car would make him feel powerless and slighted, and therefore he would set them on fire whenever he saw one.
These acts of arson were Sweatt’s way of expressing his emotions, adoration, sexual frustrations, and envy towards the men he was attracted to but couldn’t gather enough courage to initiate a conversation with. Many reports suggest Sweatt was sexually aroused by fire and kept a journal of all the fires he had set. It was the kind of intimacy he wanted to remember. I guess it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that Sweatt was a pyromaniac who didn’t have control over his desires and felt an overwhelming desire to set fires to release his anger and feelings that he had repressed.
Why Did Freddy Commit Arson?
Had people not known the kind of person he was, they would have assumed that he was perpetually suffering from some kind of physical pain. It was because his voice trembled, and it felt as if he was moaning in pain. At times it felt like the frustration of not being able to live a good life got to him. And why wouldn’t it? Freddy was not indolent, nor was he accustomed to a life of pleasure. He wasn’t afraid to toil hard, but the problem was that people like him were marginalized by the state itself, and they never got an opportunity that could help them build a better life.
I felt that Freddy used fire as a way of expressing his repressed feelings. Also, all the anger needed to be channeled somewhere, as otherwise it would eat him alive. I also felt that the man was suffering from some violent sexual behavioral disorder, as the suffering of others aroused him to a certain extent. The satisfaction that he felt when he heard those screams told us the kind of sadistic inclinations the man had. Also, when Freddy went back to his house after he was told that he would have to work on his day off, he sat down to watch some violent, explicit content. Though it wasn’t a crime to do that, it was proof of the fact that the man had an urge to wreak havoc on people and exploit positions of authority.
But why did a man like Freddy have to become the Milk Jug arsonist or adopt these twisted sensibilities? I believe that the answers lay in the kind of expectations he had. There was a scene in Smoke where Freddy told his colleague that if a person didn’t have any dreams, then what did they have? Freddy, even after being neglected by society, still sheltered his dreams deep within himself. It could be possible that not being able to fulfill them for various reasons led him to develop certain psychological disorders. Also, for somebody like Freddy, who came from an underprivileged background, there were things that he couldn’t attain, as there were structural barriers that created that kind of inequality.
We saw the deplorable conditions he lived in; he hadn’t had a haircut in months, it seemed, and he hadn’t even looked at his face in the mirror. When Brenda, one of the customers who often visited Coop’s, asked him to come to her salon so that she could give him a haircut, he was very hesitant. It was a surreal feeling when he saw his face in the mirror and observed his facial features. The man almost broke down when she washed his hair and gave him a massage. That scene told us how he bottled his feelings up inside him. He must have had so much anger at every aspect of society, more than anybody could have imagined. And obviously, employment being scarce and the existing gap between the rich and the poor led him to feel a sense of unease, as he couldn’t achieve what he wanted to. Till the end of Smoke Episode 2, Freddy wasn’t caught, but I don’t think that Dave will take much longer to connect the dots and take him into custody.
