May 1, 1992: Olivehurst, California - Eric Houston, 20, killed four people and wounded 10 in an armed siege at his former high school in Olivehurst, California. Prosecutors said the attack was in retribution for a failing grade. Houston was convicted and was given a death sentence.
December 16, 1988: Virginia Beach, Virginia - On Friday, Nicholas Elliott, 15, opened fire with a SWD Cobray M-11 semiautomatic pistol on teachers at his school (Atlantic Shores Christian School). His first shots struck Algebra teacher Karen Farley in the arm; when she went down he killed her at point blank range. Nicholas then injured Sam Marino. He turned the Cobray toward his classmates, but the gun jammed and he was quickly subdued by M. Hutchinson Matteson, a teacher, before he could fire another round. Nicholas is serving life in prison plus 114 years for this assault.
September 26, 1988: Greenwood, South Carolina - On Monday, 19 year-old James William Wilson Jr., killed Shequilla Bradley, 8, in the cafeteria (Oakland Elementary School) and wounded eight other children with a 9-round .22 caliber pistol. He went into the girls restroom to reload where he was attacked by Kat Finkbeiner, a Physical Education teacher. James shot her in the hand and mouth. He then entered 3rd grade teacher Paisy Higgenbothem's classroom and wounded six more students. He dropped the gun and surrendered to Kat until police arrived.
March 2, 1987: Nathan Ferris, 12 years old, was an honor student in Missouri, where he finally got tired of being teased. He brought a pistol to school and when a classmate made fun of him, he killed the other boy. Then he turned the gun on himself. He had warned a friend not to attend school that day, signaling his plans, but no one had listened to this overweight loner.
January 29, 1979: Using a new .22-caliber sniper rifle her dad gave her for Christmas, 5-foot-1 Brenda Spencer, 16, opens fire on the campus across the street from her home as students arrived for class. One of the first of the injured children was being helped by the school principal, Burton Wragg, who was killed by Brenda. Janitor Mike Suchar then went to aid the principal, but he too was shot down by the petite blonde girl. Monica Selug, Christy Burell, seven other students and Robert Robb, a police officer, were wounded. When asked by police why she started firing on the children, she replied "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." On Tuesday, April 17, 2001, Brenda was denied parole and continued serving her 25-years-to-life sentence for this school attack.
Sometime in 1978: Lansing, Michigan - Roger Needham, 15, killed a male classmate and wounded another boy at his high school. He served four years in a juvenile facility before going on to get a Ph.D. in mathematics and teaching at the City College of New York.
May 19, 1978: Austin, Texas - Former press secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson George Christian had an honor student in his son John, 13. John shot and killed a teacher at his school as the school year was coming to a close.
March 18, 1975: St. Louis, Missouri - A student quarrel in the hallway of the school led to the fatal shooting of Stephen Goods, 16. Stephen was not involved in the quarrel, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Three youths were convicted for the homicide.
December 30, 1974: Olean, New York - Honor student Anthony Barbaro, 18, brought guns and homemade bombs to his school this cold winter's day. He set off the fire alarm and fired at janitors and responding firemen. SWAT team found him asleep, listening to "Jesus Christ Superstar" on his headphones. He hanged himself while awaiting trial.
May 14, 1970: Jackson, Mississippi (Jackson State University) - Clashes between white motorists and black students ended with a barrage of police gunfire that left two young black men dead. Alexander Hall was the site of nightly clashes between black students and white motorists harassing them along Lynch Street. The student protest started over the Jackson Police Department refusal to shut down the busy street that cut through the campus. When students refused to disburse for the night, a police fusillade, set off by the sound of a bottle breaking, killed Phillip L. Gibbs, a student, and James Earl Green, a passer-by. The dormitory was riddled with 275 bullet holes. A dozen students were injured during the 29-second fusillade.
May 4, 1970: Kent, Ohio (Kent State University) - On Friday, May 1, an announcement to send US troops into Cambodia marked the start of a weekend of anti-war protests that began on campus, then moved to the downtown area. After substantial damage to a number of downtown business, the governor called for assistance. The Ohio National Guard arrived Saturday night. Some of the students helped with the cleanup, while others set fire to the campus headquarters of the Army Reserve Officer's Training Corps. An anti-war rally at noon on Monday brought 2,000 - 3,000 people to the university commons area. When the Guard gave the order to disperse, some in the crowd responded with verbal epithets and stone throwing. The Guard answered with tear gas, but after winds altered the gas' directions, they attempted to enforce the Ohio Riot Act with raised bayonets, forcing demonstrators to retreat. The 28 National Guardsmen regrouped and approached the crest of Blanket Hill, some turned toward the Taylor Hall parking lot and shot 61-67 rounds in 13 seconds into the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine others, permanently paralyzing one.
August 1, 1966: Austin, Texas (University of Texas) - Sometime between 9:30 p.m. July 31, and 3 a.m. August 1, Charles Whitman drove to his mother's home, Margaret, on West 13th and Guadalupe and stabbed her in the chest with a bayonet, then he shot and killed her. He then drove back to his home on Jewel and stabbed his sleeping wife, Kathy Whitman, with the same bayonet. In the morning, before 10:30 a.m., Charles bought a .30-calibur rifle, clips and ammunition from a nearby hardware store. Then he continued his shopping at Sears in the Hancock shopping center where he bought a 12-guage shotgun on credit. During the next 45 minutes, Charles packed up an alarm clock, Spam, cans of peaches and sausage, deodorant, a knife, a canteen of water, a machete, 700 rounds of ammunition, a rifle he had already owned, two handguns and his two new guns into his Marine issued footlocker. At 11:25 a.m. he arrived at the ground floor of the Tower at Texas University and told the guard that he needed to unload equipment at the Experimental Science Building. He got the parking permit. He carried his trunk to the elevator, road it up to the 27th floor, then carried up a flight of stairs to the 28th floor, where he killed his first campus victim, Edna Townsley, a secretary. He hid her body. When the Gabour and Lamport families arrived, he killed Marguerite Lamport and her nephew Mark Gabour, he wounded two others. At 11:45 a.m., Charles began shooting from atop the Tower. He killed a total of 13 more people and wounded 29 others in just over 90 minutes. Patrolmen Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy stormed the top of the Tower and Ramiro was able to end the shootings with a shot to Charles Whitman. On Monday, November 12, 2001, survivor David Gunby, 58, died in Fort Worth, Texas. He was shot in the back by Charles on August 1, 1966. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide in conjunction with the shootings on the UT campus.
September 15, 1959: Houston, Texas (Poe Elementary School) - A 49-year-old tile contractor, Paul Harold Orgeron, with a felony record in Texas and Louisiana, packed a suitcase full of dynamite and placed it on the playground of the school. The suitcase exploded in a fireball killing Paul, his 7-year-old son, two other children, a teacher and a custodial worker. The fireball injured the principal and 19 children, two of which needed their legs amputated to survive. Paul was upset over the enrollment of his son at the school.
May 18, 1927: Bath, Michigan (Consolidated School of Bath) - Farmer Andrew Kehoe went out for revenge when his farm mortgage was foreclosed upon and the taxes he was paying went to a new school building. Andrew was the treasurer on the school board, but he quickly became disgruntled and demented when his taxes started going to the school. This morning, he planted dynamite in the school's basement and left the doomed children and school behind. At 9:40 a.m., ten minutes after school had started for the day, school violence became a part of American history. The north wing of the school exploded, killing nearly 40 students and teachers. The fuses in the south wing were smoldering, but timely discovery of the dynamite allowed it to be defused, or else up to 260 students and all the teachers would have died. As parents rushed toward the blast, Andrew drove back into the school yard. He waved over Emory E. Huyk, the school superintendent, then fired a shot into the back seat of his car that was filled with more dynamite. By noon, the two explosions had killed 38 students; two teachers; Emory Huyk, the superintendent; Glenn Smith, the village postmaster; a retired farmer, Nelson McFarhen and the demented Andrew. 58 students and teachers were injured in the blast. The next morning, his wife's body was found in an outbuilding on their farm with her skull crushed. Andrew had dynamited his home, barn and wagon shed, all were still on fire when villagers arrived. Bath is eight miles northeast of Lansing.
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