When The Terrorist Is Your Spouse

There are so many times we ask ourselves, why would he ... why would anybody ... do ... that?

Whatever that is.

Sometimes it's just something stupid. But other times, when we ask each other that question, it's about something so tragic, so meaningless, and so awful, that you just can't wrap your head around it.

... And you just want somebody to tell you, why?

That's what it was like here in the Washington, D.C., area in the fall of 2002. Our nerves were already on edge because it was only a little over a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax attacks. Nobody knew what to expect, or whether there was another shoe yet to drop.

Then, all of a sudden, people were dying. Getting shot. They were being struck in the morning, in the middle of the day, at dusk, while pumping gas, loading groceries, crossing the street — for reasons no one could fathom.

One man was the devoted caregiver to his elderly wife; one man was a loving father and husband, who was on his way home from a far-flung job assignment.

Perhaps most horrific of all was when a 13-year-old boy became a victim. He was shot walking into school.

Why? Why would anyone do that?

As it turns out now, we might have some answers.

The man behind the shootings was named John Allen Muhammad. His accomplice was a young man he recruited, Lee Boyd Malvo. Together, they killed 10 people and wounded three others in the Washington region. And now Muhammad has been sentenced to be executed November 10. (His accomplice is serving a sentence of life without parole.)

Muhammad's ex-wife, Mildred, was the first person he learned to terrorize. Now, she is telling her story. We talked to her for tomorrow's program. It is her first national broadcast interview.

It is very enlightening.