Crazy Pat

August 20, 1986 - It was on this day that a U.S. Postal worker named Patrick Sherrill shot and killed 14 of his fellow employees.

Amazingly, nobody was shocked when they heard the news. Sherrill had a long history of weird and creepy behavior. He was a loner who had a reputation for prowling around his neighborhood and peeping in windows. Kids called him "Crazy Pat."

Sherrill had been working part-time in the Edmond, Oklahoma Post Office for about a year and a half. During that time he had shown himself to be a lackluster mail man. Residents complained about misdirected mail and Sherrill's unpredictable delivery schedules.

On the day before the bloodbath, Sherrill was called in to speak with a pair of supervisors. They explained that his job performance was unacceptable and that he needed to make some major improvements if he wanted to keep his job.

The next day at 7AM, Sherrill showed up for work with 3 pistols. The first person he shot was Richard Esser, one of the supervisors who had reprimanded him the day before. The other supervisor was fortunate to have overslept. He wouldn't show up for work until an hour after the shooting started.

The second life that Sherrill claimed was a coworker named Mike Rockne, who happened to be the grandson of the legendary football coach, Knute Rockne.

A handful of workers managed to flee before Sherrill was able to bolt the door. Then began a terror-filled 45 minutes during which the killer methodically hunted down a dozen more victims. Workers hid under their desks, in closets and one even locked herself in a vault.

By the time a SWAT team finally entered the building, Sherrill was already dead from a self-inflicted shot to his head.

It was this Post Office massacre that most likely inspired the expression, "going postal."