Survivors Recall 1st 'Postal' Massacre

Larry Chandler, the current postmaster at the post office in Edmond, Okla., is reflected in his desktop during an interview in his office in Edmond, Okla., Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006. (AP Photo) (AP)

EDMOND, Okla. -- Former letter carrier Michael Bigler remembers the terrified screams of his co-workers 20 years ago when a disgruntled postal worker went on a shooting rampage that would come to define the term "going postal."

On Aug. 20, 1986, Patrick Henry Sherrill tucked two .45-caliber pistols into his postal satchel, locked the doors of a post office in this Oklahoma City suburb and systematically killed 14 people, then committed suicide.

"The screams hurt me emotionally more than the bullet did when it hit my back," said Bigler, one of six people wounded in the attack. "They screamed in terror when they screamed their last breath. He wanted to slaughter us all."

In the two decades since Sherill's rampage, the U.S. Postal Service has tried to prevent worker violence, but there have been other attacks. Nearly 50 people have died in post office violence since the 1980s, including six postal workers who were shot in January at a mail-processing center in Santa Barbara, Calif., by a former postal worker who killed herself.

The massacre at Edmond's main post office, about 12 miles north of Oklahoma City, was the deadliest of the attacks and put a spotlight on the tensions faced by postal workers.

"Carrying mail, in and of itself, can be a stressful job," said Steve Riggs, president of the Oklahoma City branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Bad weather, irritable customers, heavy mail loads and unrealistic expectations from supervisors create on-the-job tension.

"We have disagreements," Riggs said.

Bigler said there were reports before the shootings that management was trying to fire Sherrill for poor work performance.

Afterward, the Postal Service examined management's relationship with letter carriers and postal clerks and tried "to take a deeper look at everything that we do _ and everything that we don't do," said Larry Flener, manager of consumer affairs for the Postal Service in Oklahoma.

In 1998, the Postal Service created an independent commission to assess workplace violence and make postal facilities safe and secure.

The commission found that postal workers were no more likely to resort to workplace violence than workers in other jobs. It found 0.26 workplace homicides per 100,000 postal workers from 1992 to 1998. By comparison the rate was 2.10 per 100,000 for retail workers, 1.66 in public administration, 1.32 for transportation and 0.50 for private delivery services.

"Violence is purely unpredictable. It is a part of our society," Flener said. "Terms 'going postal' and those things have taken on a life that is totally unfair."