Although many of us might like to claim “going postal” as an American phenomenon, the credit for the first postal attacks actually goes to Australian James Hannivan who, on December 17, 1926, shot and wounded two employees at Adelaide General Post Office, before shooting—and killing—himself. On October 30, 1934, former Canadian postal carrier, Rosaire Bilodeau, killed five of his family members in the woods before taking eight shots at Quebec’s postmaster, divisional superintendent, and senior mail clerk, killing the latter. It wasn’t until August 19, 1983, that Perry Smith, a resigned USPS employee from Johnston, South Carolina, entered a post office with a 12-gauge shotgun and killed the postmaster, that the U.S.A. made it onto the list.
But going postal isn’t just limited to postal workers. Just two weeks ago, on August 3, Omar Thurnton, an employee of Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Connecticut, shot and killed eight of his former co-workers after being fired from the beer distribution company. Before taking his own life, Thurnton called his mother on the phone and 911 claiming that the motive for his actions was the racism he had experienced while working at the warehouse. Never mind the fact that he was fired because he was caught on video stealing beer.
Regardless of motive, the aftermath of "going postal" is always the same: death, destruction and additional stress in the workplace. How long before the next shooter claims he or she was set-off by a previous workplace shooting that he or she was a victim of? We wouldn’t be surprised.
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