Trenton Lamont was a Excitement Serial Arsonist who was responsible for the deaths of at least three people. Upon their deaths, he went on to steal their identities and used the aliases of Ross Clayton McGowan and Adrian Gish.
Quick Answers
What led Trenton Lamont to become a serial arsonist?
How did Trenton Lamont manage to steal identities after his arson attacks?
What is the significance of the land Trenton Lamont owns where his family home once stood?
What is the connection between Trenton Lamont and the aliases Ross Clayton McGowan and Adrian Gish?
What is the story behind the fire in Trenton that involved Trenton Lamont?
Personal life[]
When Lamont was seven years old, his family home burnt down. He had only sustained burn injuries to his arm from this incident, but his father, mother and brother were killed in the fire. He still owned the land where the house was, but nothing remains there. He also owned and lived in the property next door.
The fire would eventually cause Trenton to have a psychotic break, turning him into a sadistic serial arsonist that would go on to claim many lives.
Career[]
Lamont had started the fire that would kill firefighters Ross McGowan and Henry Mills. After their deaths he stole the former's identity, and would later replace it with Adrian Gish's. He would then work for an insurance company for at least 11 years under Gish's identity.
Season Three[]
Lamont rented out a storage unit under the name John Johnson where he kept bulk supplies of materials arsonists use as well as multiple articles about the death of Leslie Shay in the building fire. It's this storage unit which Firehouse 51 is called to following it accidentally setting alight. Gabriela Dawson, Matthew Casey, and Kelly Severide see all of this and ask the Chicago Police Department to come and investigate, though there's little they can do since it's not a crime scene. (Let Him Die)
He sends a letter to Kevin Hadley, who's in prison. The message has an article about Leslie Shay's death with 'they shouldn't have used the word accident -an admirer' written over it. The return address is to the lot where Henry Mills died which Wallace Boden recognizes immediately.
Lamont comes to speak to Kelly Severide. He doesn't say much beyond asking if there are many tests involved in becoming a firefighter and offering condolences for Shay's death. (Three Bells)
Chicago P.D.[]
Gabriela Dawson asks her police officer brother Antonio Dawson to help her bring in Lamont. The siblings go to Lamont's office and try to talk to him, but he refuses to go with them. He wants to go back to work, but Dawson claims that he spat in his face and arrests him for assaulting an officer, despite his protests. They also tell his boss that he is a murderer. However, they aren't able to keep him for long as his lawyer comes in.
Patrol officers Kim Burgess and Sean Roman follow Lamont into a pizza restaurant where he orders a large pizza and disappears for a minute. The two believe they've been caught and so message Jay Halstead and Erin Lindsay who pull up outside in the car. Lamont stops in his tracks, turns around, and mockingly hands Jay the pizza. Seconds later, Burgess and Roman's car blows up as Lamont set a bomb in it the minute he disappeared.
In his home, the police find hundreds of photos of Gabriela Dawson as well as his laptop which sent out fake texts to Dawson from Sylvie Brett to tell her to meet him at a certain location. Other officers follow him into a grocery store where they attempt to make an arrest, but he sets a fire in the grocery store which he uses as a diversion to escape through the back. He traps Gabriela Dawson in the elevator and then pours gasoline into it, aiming to burn her alive and kill himself in the process. Holding a lighter in his hand, he talks to Dawson about fire. However, he's shot dead by Antonio before he's able to set it aflame, and Gabriela manages to catch his lighter before it could hit the gas.
Trivia[]
- He was born in 1967 or 1968, as he was 7 years old at the time his family home burnt down (1975).
- He was previously accused of arson twice, came in voluntarily to be questioned, and was later released without being charged.
- He's described as an excitement arsonist - he loves to burn buildings to cause chaos and although he doesn't intend to kill anyone (with the exception of Gabriela Dawson), he doesn't care if someone dies in the process. Only five of the fires they believe to be his has resulted in deaths.
- He knows a lot about the different fires in Chicago, managing to name the fire a girl was burnt in based on her saying that it was at her school.
- He lived right next to where his family's home burnt down.