The Copycat Effect by Loren Coleman

Author:Loren Coleman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paraview Pocket Books
Published: 2004-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Going Postal

A micro-war of murder-suicides, fueled by the copycat effect, has been raging for years in the American workplace. Ever since 1986, this micro-war has been known by an all-too-familiar two-word phrase where the phenomenon got its start: going postal.

The episode that gave a name to such events involved Patrick Henry Sherrill. Neighbors described him as a strange man. He would ride around town, unaccompanied, on a “bicycle built for two.” A loner without friends, Sherrill lived with only his pit bull after his mother died in 1978. He wore battle fatigues most of the time and told people he had served in Vietnam, although he hadn’t. He had been in the Marines, however, and was a good marksman, reaching the level of “expert” with the M14 and the pistol. He continued in the Air National Guard, then the 507th Tactical Fighter Group, then returned to the National Guard. He even completed a nine-week-long firearms course to become a weapons instructor, fulfilling that role eventually. He liked weapons and seemed comfortable in quasimilitary settings. For three years Sherrill sought employment with the United States Postal Service (USPS). Finally, in 1985, he landed a job as a substitute letter carrier. Never one to mix well, Sherrill was a bomb waiting to go off.

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