1989 — Sep 14, Assault Rifle Workplace Mass Murder (8)/Suicide, Louisville, KY — 9

—  9  Kuzmits. “When employees kill other employees: the case of Joseph T. Wesbecker.”

—  9  Wikipedia. “Standard Gravure shooting.” 2-1-2013 modification.

—  8  Daily Herald, Chicago, IL. “Seven killed by angry employee.” 9-15-1989, p. 1.

—  8  Duwe, Grant.  Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 108.[1]

—  8  Kelleher, Michael D. von. Profiling the Lethal Employee. Greenwood, 1997, p. 55.

 

Narrative Information

 

Kuzmits abstract:  “On the morning of Sept 14, 1989, Joseph T. Wesbecker, an emotionally disturbed employee on long-term disability leave from the Standard Gravure Company in Louisville, KY entered the plant in downtown Louisville and killed eight coworkers and injured 12 others with a semiautomatic “assault” rifle before taking his own life with a pistol. In this paper, the facts surrounding Wesbecker’s life and the events leading up to the tragedy were examined to determine the degree of “fit” to Dr John Monahan’s model for the prediction of violent behavior. Although several of the 10 predictors identified by Monahan demonstrated validity, several others did not. The Wesbecker case underscores both the difficulty in predicting violence and the challenges that occupational mental health professionals face in minimizing acts of violence in the workplace.”  (Kuzmits, F. E. “When employees kill other employees: the case of Joseph T. Wesbecker.” Journal of Occupational Medicine, 32/10, Oct 1990, pp. 1014-20.)

 

Sep 14:  “Louisville, Ky. (AP) – A printing-company employee with an assault rifle and a handgun opened fire in the plant today, killing at least five people and wounding 14 before taking his own life, police said.  ‘It looks like a battle zone…with the blood and the people involved there,’ Mayor Jerry Abramson said after touring the building adjacent to The Courier-Journal newspaper offices…. ‘The gunman was randomly firing at people throughout the Standard-Gravure building,’ Dotson said [Police Chief].

 

“The chief described the 47-year-old gunman as a disgruntled employee of Standard-Gravure, which prints newspaper inserts and Sunday newspaper supplements.  The man was on permanent disability, although the nature of his disability was not immediately known.  The chief said an officer who knew the assailant told him the man had been ‘argumentative and confrontational for a number of years.’….

 

“The gunman entered the building with a duffel bag and appeared to be firing ‘half-banana clips’ of about 25 rounds each in an AK-47 assault rifle, Dotson said.  Afterward, the gunman lay face-down in a pool of blood on the floor of a pressroom.  A 9mm semi-automatic pistol was discovered under his body and the AK-47 was a few feet away.  The gunman apparently shot himself with his pistol….

 

“Two victims were discovered as police took the mayor on a tour of the building.

 

“It was the worst one-day mass killing since Jan. 17, when a 24-year-old drifter opened fire on a Stockton, Calif. Schoolyard with an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle and other weapons.  Five children were killed and 29 others and one teacher were wounded before the gunman killed himself.” (Pharos Tribune, Logansport IN. “Mad Employee Kills 5, Wounds 14…” 9-14-1989, 1)

 

Sep 15:  Louisville, Ky. – (Associated Press) — A man with an assault rifle mowed down co-workers as he went from floor to floor “looking for bosses” at a printing plant Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 13 before taking his own life.

 

“Police said Joseph T. Wesbecker, 47, had been on permanent disability, was being treated for mental disorders and reportedly had threatened the company. He carried several semiautomatic weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

 

“It was the worst one-day mass killing in the United States since Aug. 20, 1986, when a postal worker shot 14 people to death before killing himself at a post office in Edmond, Okla.

 

“John Tingle, an employee of Standard-Gravure Co., said the gunman approached him about 30 minutes before the rampage and made the threat: ‘I told them I’d be back. Get out of my way, John.’ ‘I said, ‘How are you. Rock?’…`He said Fine, John, Back off and get out of the way…all the way to the wall.’” Tingle and other employees nearby then ran into a bathroom and locked the door.

 

“Police searched every floor of the three-story Standard-Gravure building for victims….

 

“Five of the wounded were in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds, hospital officials said.  One person who was not wounded suffered a heart attack and was taken to a hospital….”

(Daily Herald, Chicago, IL. “Seven killed by angry employee.” 9-15-1989, p. 1.)

 

Wikipedia: “The Standard Gravure shooting occurred on September 14, 1989, when 47-year-old Joseph T. Wesbecker, a pressman on disability for mental illness, entered Standard Gravure, his former workplace, and killed eight people and injured twelve before committing suicide after a history of suicidal ideation. The murders and subsequent lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Company are covered in the book The Power to Harm: Mind, Murder, and Drugs on Trial (Allen Lane and Penguin 1996) by investigative journalist John Cornwell….

 

“Victims:

 

Richard O. Barger, 55             Sharon L. L. Needy 49

Kenneth Fentress, 45              Paul Sallee, 59

William Ganote, 46                Lloyd White, 42

James G. Husband, 47            James F. Wible Sr., 56”

 

(Wikipedia. “Standard Gravure shooting.” 2-1-2013 modification.)

 

Sources

 

Daily Herald, Chicago, IL. “Seven killed by angry employee.” 9-15-1989, p. 1. Accessed 3-2-2013 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=23703108&sterm=gravure

 

Kelleher, Michael D. von. Profiling the Lethal Employee: Case Studies of Violence in the Workplace. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997. Partially Google digitized; accessed 6-16-2016 at: http://books.google.de/books?id=JiQUkwBnzgYC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Kuzmits, F. E. “When employees kill other employees: the case of Joseph T. Wesbecker.” Journal of Occupational Medicine, Vol. 32, No. 10, Oct 1990, pp. 1014-20. Abstract accessed 3-2-2013 at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2262820

 

Pharos Tribune, Logansport IN. “Mad Employee Kills 5, Wounds 14 in Kentucky Plant, Shoots Himself.” 9-14-1989, p. 1. http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=109457279&sterm

 

Wikipedia. “Standard Gravure shooting.” 2-1-2013 mod. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Gravure_shooting

 

 

[1] Doesn’t mention the suicide.