Didn't these mass shootings start in Texas? Remember

[leftyladyfrommo]

the guy up in the clock tower on the university campus?

It was a huge deal when it happened.

Wasn't that the first one?

[dalton99a]

1. No. Philadelphia

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-first-mass-murder-us-history-180956927/

The Story of the First Mass Murder in U.S. History
Howard Unruh’s “Walk of Death” foretold an era in which such tragedies would become all too common
Patrick Sauer
October 14, 2015

On Labor Day, 1949, Howard Unruh decided to go to the movies. He left his Camden, New Jersey, apartment and headed to the Family Theatre in downtown Philadelphia. On the bill that night was a double feature, the double-crossing gangster movie I Cheated the Law and The Lady Gambles, in which Barbara Stanwyck plays a poker-and-dice-game addict. Unruh, however, wasn’t interested in the pictures. He was supposed to meet a man with whom he’d been having a weeks-long affair.

Unfortunately for Unruh, 28 years old at the time, traffic held him up and by the time he reached theater, a well-known gay pick up spot on Market St., his date was gone. Unruh sat in the dark until 2:20 a.m., bitterly stewing through multiple on-screen loops of the movies. At 3 a.m., he arrived home in New Jersey to find that the newly constructed fence at the rear end of his backyard—one he’d erected to quell an ongoing feud with the Cohens who lived next door and owned the drugstore below the apartment he shared with his mother—had been tampered with. The gate was missing.

It was the final straw. For a couple of years, Unruh had been contemplating killing several of his Cramer Hill neighbors over petty squabbles, perceived slights and name-calling, all which fed into his psychosis. Unruh thought the world was out to get him, so he decided to enact revenge on his little corner of it. He went into his apartment, uncased his German Luger P08, a 9mm pistol he’d purchased at a sporting goods store in Philadelphia for $37.50, and secured it with two clips and 33 loose cartridges. Unable to sleep, he made yet another mental list of his intended targets, a group of local shopkeepers one would find in a 1950s children’s book: the druggist, shoemaker, tailor and restaurant owner. Eventually, Unruh dozed off.

In a few hours, on the morning of Tuesday, September 6, Unruh would embark upon his “Walk of Death,” murdering 13 people and wounding three others in a 20-minute rampage before being hauled off by police after a dangerous firefight. A somewhat forgotten man outside of criminology circles and local old-timers, Unruh was an early chapter in the tragically-all-too-familiar American story of an angry man with a gun, inflicting carnage.

[Celerity]

22. Unruh's last public words, made during an interview with a psychologist, were, "I'd have killed a

thousand if I had enough bullets."

[Emile]

2. Was that before Kent State?

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Let me find a date.

[Wednesdays]

6. August 1 1966, four years before Kent State. nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. He killed his wife and mother first.

The families of these guys seem to be their first targets.

[milestogo]

10. At Kent State some antiwar protesters were shot by the Ohio National Guard (May 1970)

Not really the same genre.

[leftyladyfrommo]

14. That one made huge waves, too. I graduated that year.

Protesting students weren't expecting that kind of violent reaction.

[Chainfire]

3. It is the first one that I remember. Back then it was shocking.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. It was a huge deal. I graduated from HS that year.

There was another huge case where a man killed nursing students. That was equally shocking.

[XanaDUer2]

5. "I don't like Mondays"

Brenda Spencer, late 70s. Opened fire on a school, killing several, because she didn't want to go to school that day. Monday
Eta, California

[katusha]

7. Bath School Disaster May 18, 1927

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
The Bath School disaster, also known as the Bath School massacre,[Note 1] was a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Andrew Kehoe on May 18, 1927, in Bath Township, Michigan, United States. The attacks killed 38 elementary schoolchildren and 6 adults, and injured at least 58 other people. Prior to his timed explosives detonating at the Bath Consolidated School building, Kehoe had murdered his wife, Nellie Price Kehoe, and firebombed his farm. Arriving at the site of the school explosion, Kehoe died when he detonated explosives concealed in his truck.

Kehoe, the 55-year-old school board treasurer, was angered by increased taxes and his defeat in the April 5, 1926, election for township clerk. He was thought by locals to have planned his "murderous revenge" after that public defeat. Kehoe had a reputation for difficulty on the school board and in personal dealings. In addition, he was notified in June 1926 that his mortgage was going to be foreclosed upon. For much of the next year until May 1927, Kehoe purchased explosives. He secretly hid them on his property and under the school.

On May 18, 1927, Kehoe then set off almost simultaneous explosions at his farmstead and at the Bath Consolidated School. His devices destroyed the farm's buildings and ripped through the north wing of the Bath Consolidated School building. As rescuers began working at the school, Kehoe drove up to the schoolyard and detonated dynamite inside his shrapnel-filled truck. The truck explosion killed Kehoe plus four other people, and also injured bystanders. During the rescue and recovery efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol in the south wing of the school that had been set to go off at the same time as the initial explosions in the north wing; Kehoe had apparently intended to destroy the entire school and kill everyone in it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. Wow! That's a lot of anger. nt

[kairos12]

15. I was living in Houston, very young.

I remember listening to this even live broadcasted over the radio.

[Wounded Bear]

17. Probably goes back to the invention of repeating firearms...

so think mid 19th Century. We just report them now.

First came the 5 or 6 shot revolvers in rifle and pistol form, though the pistols are more commonly known. Then the multi-shot rifles like the Winchester and Henry which could be loaded with up to 16 rounds.

Some deep research will probably uncover some "mass killings" back in the good old days.

America has never really been a "peaceful" culture.

[LeftinOH]

19. Don't forget the Luby's restaurant massacre in Kileen, TX

back in 1991 - over 20 people killed while dining at a restaurant.

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. We used to have a mass shooting every few years.

Now we have over 200 in 4 months.