On October 30th, 1985, Sylvia Seegrist entered Springfield Mall armed with a .22 LR Ruger semi-automatic rifle, killing 3 customers and injuring 7 others.
About two hours before initiating her rampage, Sylvia Seegrist entered the Springfield Mall, where she was a frequent visitor whom employees frequently referred to as “Miss Rambo” due to her routinely aggressive demeanor and her habit of wearing military fatigues. Seegrist began her afternoon by purchasing Halloween decorations from a party store followed by a workout session at a fitness club in the mall. After completing these errands, she exited the building and returned to her parked car to prepare for the attack. Inside the vehicle, she changed into the same green military fatigues and retrieved her hunting rifle. Upon exiting the car, she immediately fired at two shoppers at an ATM. She then turned toward the entrance, fatally shooting two-year-old Recife Cosmen, who was waiting outside the mall with his parents. She then returned to the building where she shot and killed 64-year-old Augusto Ferrara and 67-year-old Earl Trout in front of a shoe store, who was hospitalized in a coma before ultimately succumbing to his injuries. Both victims were discovered at the scene by their wives, who had been shopping in other areas of the mall. As she continued, Seegrist approached 24-year-old volunteer firefighter John W. Laufer III with the intent to kill him, but Laufer tackled and disarmed her before she could continue the rampage. When a security guard apprehended her at the scene and questioned her about the crime, she replied, “My parents make me nervous,” Once in custody, she asked detectives how many people she had killed, and if any of her victims were children. She proceeded to express frustration that only two people had been confirmed dead at that time.
Seegrist had a documented history of erratic behavior, as previously noted in the description given by mall employees. Previous violent incidents include stabbing her guidance counselor in the back with a paring knife, attempting to strangle her mother, and throwing a lit cigarette directly into her psychiatrist's face. She heavily abused alcohol and street drugs, which significantly worsened her psychiatric symptoms and frequently caused violent interactions. She was known to blast loud music and shout threats to disturb her neighbors, and she spray painted her apartment walls with violent phrases. She was first hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia and anorexia at age 15, and she was involuntarily committed between 12 and 15 times in the years leading up to the rampage. She was known to harass customers at the mall and publicly praise figures such as James Huberty; she often described spree killings as “good”. An instructor at the fitness club said "she hated everyone and would often talk about shooting and killing people". After enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1984, Seegrist faced severe ostracization during basic training, where she was falsely accused of being a lesbian and became the laughingstock of her platoon. During this time, she developed an obsessive fixation on global conflict and political propaganda, leading her to aggressively study international affairs, teach herself Russian, and express a desire to fight as a guerrilla warrior in Iran. Her erratic behavior resulted in a discharge in early 1985 after only two months of service. Despite her troubled military record and past psychiatric history, she still managed to purchase a hunting rifle at a Best Products catalog showroom after initially being denied a weapon at Kmart.
Prior to the competency hearing, Seegrist was transferred to Norristown State Hospital for evaluation. On March 6th, 1986, she was deemed competent to stand trial and was charged with three counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder. The trial began on June 2nd, during which her erratic courtroom behavior took center stage; she screamed a string of random numbers when asked basic identifying questions, yelled defiance at the judge, burst out giggling when prosecutors read police accounts of her violent past, and periodically swayed from side to side in her chair, staring blankly at the jury box. On June 27th, she was found guilty but mentally ill, and she was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences and seven consecutive 10-year terms. She was sent to the psychiatric specialty hospital Mayview State Hospital for evaluation and was eventually moved to the State Correctional Institution in Muncy, Pennsylvania. Seegrist served her first 2 1/2 years of imprisonment at Norristown State Hospital, and then was transferred to Muncy State Prison for women. While remaining conservative on gun laws to this day, the attack exposed how Pennsylvania tracked gun buyers diagnosed with “psychiatric illnesses”, which is directly responsible for the creation of the Pennsylvania Instant Check System. Prior to the attack, gun buyers were merely required to fill out a paper application and manually select a box stating whether they had ever been committed to a mental institution, which is exactly what Seegrist did. Retailers had no way of verifying her answer, allowing her to easily walk out with a hunting rifle despite her 12 prior involuntary institutionalizations. Beyond firearm sales, the attack also triggered a thorough re-evaluation of Pennsylvania's involuntary commitment standards, forcing stricter treatment on patients with documented histories of violence.
“Recalling his teenage years on one internet forum, Adam Lanza referred to the therapist his mother had taken him to as ‘The Rapist,’ which sounds similar to the spelling of the profession. Adam wrote: ‘They are like a kind of priests who claim that they possess some sort of “truth,” and if your values do not correspond to it, then you are “abnormal.” Through brainwashing, they impose their views on you.’ The sessions did not help; in 2012, after shooting his mother, Adam went to a school where he killed 27 people and then took his own life. Four years later, attention would turn to his therapist, Dr. Paul Lewis Fox, who was arrested on charges of three counts of sexual misconduct.”
I have had the occasion, and pleasure, to work with Adam Lanza. Rare these days is a young man with such cordial, professional and expert attributes. He has the knowledge to work efficiently, without hesitation, to tackle the problem at hand.
I hired Adam as a independent contractor to help with numerous computer issues, some I did not know I had. Other industry professionals told me to throw in the towel and start over again from scratch. Adam resolved the problems, made valuable adjustments, and set up insurances to avoid future incidences.
Adam and I have a pending project to begin and I look forward to working with him in the coming months.
When Adam was 8 years-old, his older brother Ryan bought a pet hamster named Rick, which prompted Adam to beg his parents for one as well. Eventually they bought him a golden (or syrian) hamster named Skippy.
He first mentions them in his 3rd grade composition notebook, dated Sept 6, 2000:
"Once my brother wanted a hamster so I wanted one I keeped asking for one. Then my Mom or Dad promised I could have one. We went to the pet shop and bought a Brown and white hamter [sic]. Now I am really happy because my Mom or Dad made a promise and got a cute hamster. Now that promise turned into happyness [sic] for me and my Hamster."
Later on Oct 25, he wrote about dressing up as a hamster for Halloween:
"I am going to be a hamster this year for Halloween. Yesterday my Mom got material because no stores sell hamster costumes. The head of the hamster will be like a hood for my head. There is this Halloween group where you split up with a partner to get candy. My partner is going to be a police man so he may arrest me because I will not were [sic] a coller."
The two hamsters are brought up again in another entry on Dec 4 and described in more detail:
"Me and Ryan got new hamsters. My hamster is a teddy hamster or a golden hamster. Ryan's hamster is mixed between the two of them. My hamster is named Skippy. Ryan's is named Rick. I will be having Skippy's birthday in about 160 days. Skippy is older than Rick but those are when we got them. They are still zero years old. They use to like eachother but they fight eachother now."
On May 4, 2001, he writes a letter to girl named 'Calylah' where he mentions Skippy at the beginning:
"Dear Calylah,
My favorite color is silver. My favorite animals are hamsters, mice, rats, gerbals and any other small furry animals. I have one pet. It is a hamster. My hamter's name is Skippy. He is white on his belly, brown on the back and face, has black beedy eyes, and sharp nails."
On Sept 2, 2003, an 11 year-old Adam writes a letter to a teacher (I'm assuming) named Mrs. Strait for a school assignment, where he talks about his new pet hamsters:
"I have one hamster in my house, and two at my dad's apartment. The one in my house is a Panda Hamster, so I named it Panda. It is much larger than my last hamster. The other two are Dwarf Hamsters. Dwarf Hamsters are the only hamsters in general that can live together, probably because they are so small. Their names are Chibi and Cheeks."
Pictures from around 2004, most likely the hamsters mentioned above
Adam's love for hamsters continues well into adulthood, keeping a bookmark labeled "Bucky Brightaner'' for hamster photos and also continuing to mention them in his online posts
Apr 20, 2010: A deleted post made by Adam on the Shocked Beyond Belief forum, under the topic of 'what is fun?'
Also on Jan 31, 2011, he mentions them in a completely unrelated topic
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