Patrick Henry Sherrill lived in the town of Edmond, Oklahoma. His neighbors gave him the nickname Crazy Pat for the strange late night antic’s he got up to, including peeping through neighbors windows.

The young Pat was a quiet and withdrawn boy who preferred sports to studies. In his early twenties Pat enrolled with the Marine Corps and was based in North Carolina.

He proved to be an excellent marksman. After his discharge Pat moved back to Edmond to live with his mother. He had several jobs but was dismissed from most of them for rude behavior, he did not respond well to orders from his supervisors.

In 1978 his mother died and Pat remained alone in the family home. Details of his personal life are sketchy; he never married and didn’t appear to have friends. In 1985 Pat began work for the Postal Service delivering mail. He was an average employee who received numerous complaints from colleagues and customers alike.

This resulted in suspension from work and proved to be the catalyst for one of the worst mass shootings in the workplace.

On August 20th 1986 Pat Sherrill dressed for work, but this time he filled his mail bag with two .45 caliber pistols and a .22 caliber handgun, with a total of 300 rounds of ammunition. At 7.00am he walked into the post office in Edmond, locking the doors behind him and began shooting. His first encounter was with his supervisor Richard Esser Jn. whom he shot at point blank range in the chest.

He proceeded to chase his fellow employees throughout the offices firing at random. Police arrived shortly after shots were reported and attempted to make contact with the gunman.

After 45 minutes they entered the building to find 14 people dead, 6 wounded and Pat Sherrill dead from a self inflicted gun shot to the head. The massacre had taken only 10 minutes to perform and had used more than 50 rounds of ammunition.

At Sherrills home police found numerous firearms, ammunition, radios and other electrical equipment. No one will ever know what really drove him to commit such carnage; some speculated that he feared losing his job. Postal workers returned to work the next day shaken and trying to come to terms with what they had witnessed.