Washington, D.C ? Authorities investigating four unsolved shootings around the country ranged from hopeful to skeptical over a report Friday that Washington-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo says he and his one-time mentor were responsible.

The four 2002 shootings, including three previously investigated for possible links to Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, were detailed Friday in the Washington Post.

Citing two people familiar with the case, the Post said Malvo told authorities this spring that months before the October 2002 sniper spree, he and Muhammad killed two men in California and Texas and wounded two others in Florida and Louisiana.

The four victims were: Albert Michalczyk, 76, of Oro Valley, Ariz., who was shot on a Clearwater, Fla., golf course; a man killed in Los Angeles during a robbery that February or March; a man shot to death May 27 while doing yard work in Denton, Texas; and John Gaeta, 54, who survived an Aug. 1 robbery and shooting outside a shopping mall in Hammond, La., near Baton Rouge.