1974 Olean High School shooting

Last updated
1974 Olean High School shooting
Location Olean, New York, United States
DateMonday, December 30, 1974
2:50 p.m. - 5:20 p.m. (EST)
Attack type
 School shooting, mass shooting
Weapons
Deaths4 (including an unborn child)
Injured11
PerpetratorAnthony F. Barbaro
Motive Suicidal Ideation
Charges (Charges dropped after perpetrator's death)

The Olean High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on December 30, 1974, at Olean High School in Olean, New York. The gunman, 17-year-old Anthony F. Barbaro, an honor student and member of the school's rifle team, indiscriminately shot at people on the street from windows at the third floor of the school building. Three people were killed and another 11 people were injured during the shooting. [1] [2]

Contents

On November 1, 1975, Barbaro hanged himself in his cell at the Cattaraugus County Jail. [3] [4] [5]

Details

The incident began during the afternoon of December 30, 1974, when Barbaro left his house with his mother's car. He told his brother, Chris, that he was going target shooting. Barbaro arrived at Olean High School at approximately 2:50 p.m. After leaving his car, he entered the school building through an opened side entrance and proceeded to the third floor where he set off a coke bottle filled with gasoline and a wick. Unable to open the locked door to the student council room, Barbaro shot off the lock, entered the student council room, and tied the door shut. A 12-man custodial crew was doing routine maintenance in the basement of the school at this time. When they heard a fire alarm sound, the superintendent dispatched Earl Metcalf to see what the problem was at the 3rd floor. He met Joe Kosidlo, the 3rd floor custodian, who asked him to vacate because he thought he heard gun shots. Mr. Metcalf did not listen and proceeded to where he heard the noise. Anthony Barbaro was then confronted by Earl Metcalf. Seeing Metcalf through the glass window of the student council room, he opened his door, shot and killed him. [2] Barbaro then positioned himself in the student council room on the third floor of the school. There, he began shooting at people outside of the school.

Fire trucks began to respond to the fire alarm, then local police and finally New York State troopers. At this time there were no students present and only Principal Louis Nicol, secretaries, business office, maintenance and custodians were at the school. All but the Supt. secretary immediately went to the boiler room at the rear of the school. By 5:20 p.m., local and State Police officers were surrounding the school building, [6] and a National Guard tank had arrived to remove the injured victims. [7] Before night fall, two New York State Police entered the school and threw tear gas grenades into the student council room, [8] [9] [10] [11] where Barbaro was found unconscious inside the room wearing a defective gas mask. [12] [13] Barbaro was laid onto a stretcher and transported by ambulance to the hospital, examined and, suffering no injuries, was then transferred to the Olean City Jail. [12] [14]

According to police Barbaro had fired 31 shots. [15] Three people were killed in the shooting, and eleven others were wounded. [1] [6] [12] Those killed were Earl Metcalf, Neal Pilon, and Carmen Wright Drayton, who was six months pregnant. [7] [15] [9] Earl Metcalf, 62, was killed inside the school building, while Columbia Gas Co. employee Neal Pilon, 58, was shot while crossing the street outside of the school. Carmen Wright, 25, was shot in the head inside her car while driving by the school. Both Pilon and Wright were pronounced "dead on arrival" at Olean General Hospital. Seven people survived the shooting with gunshot wounds, while four others sustained injuries from flying glass fragments. [13] Eight of the wounded victims were Olean city firemen responding to a fire complaint at the school. [16] At the time of the shooting the school was closed for the Christmas Break.

Perpetrator and motives

Still of Barbaro from The Killing of America Anthony Barbaro.png
Still of Barbaro from The Killing of America

The perpetrator of the shooting was 17-year-old Anthony F. Barbaro (September 9, 1957 — November 1, 1975), a lifelong Olean resident. He had attended Olean High School, [14] where he was an honor student and a star marksman on his school's rifle team. [1] [6] [13] [17] He ranked eighth highest academic score in his senior class, [2] [16] and was inducted into the National Honor Society in February 1974. [5] [7] He had also won a Regents Scholarship that December. [7] [13] [17] [18] Those who knew Barbaro remember him as being quiet, and his school principal described him as a "more of a loner than not." [11] Louis Nicol, former principal of Olean High School, and present in the building at the time of shooting, said that Barbaro excelled scholastically and caused no disciplinary problems at school. [10] [12] [14] [16] Barbaro lived in Olean, New York, with his parents and his three younger siblings – sister Cecile, brothers Steven and Chris. [17] His father was an executive of a successful manufacturing firm, [10] while Anthony worked with his mother at a local fast-food restaurant. Barbaro had also shown an interest in engineering, and had hoped to become a scientist.

Police have found no apparent motives as to why Barbaro committed his crimes. [2] [6] [10] [11] [13] [17] A teammate of Barbaro on the school's rifle team recalls Barbaro having spoken of wanting to "hold up" the Olean Armory and engage in a police standoff. [5] Barbaro had just tried out for the bowling team but did not qualify.

In a note explaining his motives Barbaro wrote:

I guess I just wanted to kill the person I hate most -- myself, I just didn't have the courage. I wanted to die, but I couldn't do it, so I had to get someone to do it for me. It didn't work out. [18]

Aftermath

On December 31, 1974, Anthony Barbaro was arraigned on three counts of second-degree murder, six counts of first-degree assault, and five counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. [8] [11] [14] [19] Barbaro was then being held without bail at the Olean City Jail. [11] Following the shooting, police had found homemade smoke bombs, as well as gasoline and glass bottles, and empty propane canisters in Barbaro's bedroom. Police also found, in Barbaro's bedroom, bomb recipes and a journal that detailed his plans for the shooting. [5] [19] In April 1975, he had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, [8] however he was found competent to stand trial by two court-appointed psychiatrists. [19] Barbaro was soon transferred from the Olean City Jail to the Cattaraugus County Jail in Little Valley. [14] On October 21, 1975, a grand jury was seated for Barbaro's trial at the Olean Municipal Building. [14] [19]

On October 27, defense attorney Vincent E. Doyle Jr. presented his testimony at a preliminary hearing, [5] stating that Barbaro had a "serious, deep-rooted mental illness that precluded his [Barbaro's] conviction." [19] On November 1, 1975, Barbaro hanged himself with a bedsheet in his cell at the Cattaraugus County Jail. [4] [20] Cattaraugus County coroner Dr. Harry C. Law ruled the death a suicide. [5] [20] Barbaro had written three suicide notes that were found on his bed in his cell. [20] One note was addressed to his family, another note was addressed to a woman he corresponded with in prison, and the third note was addressed "to whom it may concern". [4] [5] [20]

The third note read:

People are not afraid to die; it's just how they die. I don't fear death, but rather the pain. But no more. I regret the foods I'll never taste, the music I'll never hear, the sites I'll never see, the accomplishments I'll never accomplish, in other words, I regret my life. Some will always ask, 'Why?' I don't know — no one will. What has been, can't be changed. I'm sorry. It ends like it began; in the middle of the night, someone might think it selfish or cowardly to take one's own life. Maybe so, but it's the only free choice I have. The way I figure, I lose either way. If I'm found not guilty, I won't survive the pain I've caused — my guilt. If I'm convicted, I won't survive the mental and physical punishment of my life in prison. [4]

Wounded victims

A total of eleven people survived the shooting with injuries. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cattaraugus County, New York</span> County in New York, United States

Cattaraugus County is a county in Western New York, with one side bordering Pennsylvania. As of the United States 2020 census, the population was 77,042. The county seat is Little Valley. The county was created in 1808 and later organized in 1817. The county is part of the Western New York region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D.C. sniper attacks</span> 2002 series of coordinated shootings in the Washington, D.C. area

The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and preliminary shootings, that consisted of murders and robberies in several states, and lasted for six months starting in February 2002. Seven people were killed, and seven others were injured in the preliminary shootings, and ten people were killed and three others were critically wounded in the October shootings. In total, the snipers killed 17 people and wounded 10 others in a 10-month span.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olean, New York</span> City in New York, United States

Olean is a city in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. Olean is the largest city in Cattaraugus County and serves as its financial, business, transportation and entertainment center. It is one of the principal cities of the Southern Tier region of Western New York.

<i>Rage</i> (King novel) 1977 Stephen King novel

Rage is a psychological thriller novel by American writer Stephen King, the first he published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was published in 1977 and was collected in the 1985 hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books. The novel describes a school shooting, and has been associated with actual high school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. In response, King allowed the novel to fall out of print. In 2013, King published the anti-firearms violence essay "Guns".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Essex</span> American mass murderer (1949–1973)

Mark James Robert Essex was an American serial sniper and black nationalist known as the "New Orleans Sniper" who killed a total of nine people, including five police officers, and wounded twelve others, in two separate attacks in New Orleans on December 31, 1972, and January 7, 1973. Essex was killed by police in the second armed confrontation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legs Diamond</span> American gangster (1897–1931)

Jack "Legs" Diamond, also known as John Nolan and Gentleman Jack, was an Irish-American gangster in Philadelphia and New York City during the Prohibition era. A bootlegger and close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein, Diamond survived a number of attempts on his life between 1916 and 1931, causing him to be known as the "clay pigeon of the underworld". In 1930, Diamond's nemesis Dutch Schultz remarked to his own gang, "Ain't there nobody that can shoot this guy so he don't bounce back?"

The Red Lake shootings were a spree killing that occurred on March 21, 2005, in two places on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. That afternoon, 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and bulletproof vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shootout</span> Combat between two parties using firearms

A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is an armed confrontation entailing firearms between armed parties using guns, always entailing intense disagreement(s) between the fighting parties. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.

This is a chronology of activities by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1970 to 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Tyler</span>

Gary Tyler, from St. Rose, Louisiana, is an African-American man who is a former prisoner at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana. He was convicted of the October 7, 1974 shooting death of a white 13-year-old boy and the wounding of another, on a day of violent protests by whites against black students at Destrehan High School in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. He was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder at age 17 by an all-white jury; he received the mandatory death sentence for that crime, according to state law. When he entered Louisiana State Prison (Angola), he was the youngest person on death row.

The Dundee school shooting was a 1967 incident at St John's Roman Catholic High School in Dundee, Scotland.

The Malmö shootings were a string of attacks by Peter Mangs, a serial shooter lone wolf terrorist, also known as the Laser Man II, in the southern Swedish city of Malmö between December 2009 and October 2010. The shooter apparently targeted people with dark skin. As of 23 October 2010, as many as 15 shootings were linked to the same suspect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Kyle</span> American military sniper (1974–2013)

Christopher Scott Kyle was a United States Navy SEAL sniper. He served four tours in the Iraq War and was awarded several commendations for acts of heroism and meritorious service in combat. He had 160 confirmed kills and was awarded a Silver Star, three Bronze Star Medals with "V" devices for valor, 2x Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with "V" device, as well as numerous other unit and personal awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyrone Mitchell</span> 20th-century American mass shooter (1955–1984)

Tyrone Mitchell was an American spree killer who fatally shot a student and a passerby as well as wounding twelve others who were leaving 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles on February 24, 1984. Mitchell then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a double-barreled shotgun.

The Oakland Elementary School shooting was a school shooting in 1988 in Greenwood, South Carolina, United States, in which 19-year-old James William Wilson Jr. shot and killed two students and wounded seven other students, a teacher, and a gym coach at Oakland Elementary School. He shot people in the cafeteria and in a classroom. Wilson had a history of mental illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas tower shooting</span> Mass shooting in Austin, Texas

The University of Texas tower shooting was an act of mass murder that occurred on August 1, 1966, at the University of Texas at Austin. The perpetrator, 25-year-old Marine veteran Charles Whitman, indiscriminately fired at members of the public, both within the Main Building tower and from the tower's observation deck. He shot and killed 15 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 others before he was killed by two Austin Police Department officers approximately 96 minutes after first opening fire from the observation deck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield</span> Double murder in Texas in 2013

On February 2, 2013, Christopher Scott Kyle and his friend Chad Hutson Littlefield were shot to death at a shooting range near Chalk Mountain, Texas, by Eddie Ray Routh. The two were walking down range to set up targets when Routh opened fire with two handguns and hit both of them. Routh, a former Marine who was 25 years old at the time, had post-traumatic stress disorder. The case attracted national attention due to Kyle's fame as author of a bestselling autobiography, American Sniper, published in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 University of North Carolina at Charlotte shooting</span> Mass shooting in Charlotte, North Carolina

On April 30, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The shooting, which occurred on the last day of classes for the spring semester, sent six people to the hospital, two of whom were dead upon arrival, and left three others in critical condition. The shooting occurred inside a classroom in the Woodford A. Kennedy Building while students were giving a final presentation. The perpetrator, a former UNCC student named Trystan Andrew Terrell, was arrested shortly afterwards. In September 2019, he pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Usiak, Richard (December 31, 1974). "Sniper at high school kills 3 and wounds 11". St. Petersburg Times .
  2. 1 2 3 4 Usiak, Richard (December 31, 1974). "Teen sniper kills three, 11 wounded". The Bryan Times .
  3. ↑ "Upstate Youth in Sniper Trial a Suicide". The New York Times . November 2, 1975.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "He regretted his life". St. Petersburg Times . November 5, 1975.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Young man found dead in jail cell". The Register-Guard . November 2, 1975.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Schoolboy sniper kills 3". Ellensburg Daily Record . December 30, 1974.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Student kills 3 at school in sniper fire, Toledo Blade (December 31, 1974)
  8. 1 2 3 Honor student charged in Olean sniper deaths, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (January 1, 1975)
  9. 1 2 McFadden, Robert D. (December 31, 1974). "3 Killed and 9 Wounded By an Upstate Sniper, 18". The New York Times .
  10. 1 2 3 4 "New York youth faces charges in sniper deaths of 3 persons". The Free Lance–Star . December 31, 1974.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Honor student charged with sniper shooting in New York, Kingman Daily Miner (December 31, 1974)
  12. 1 2 3 4 "High school sniper kills three people". The Prescott Courier . December 31, 1974.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Young honor student held as sniper in death of three, Spokane Daily Chronicle (December 31, 1974)
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Quiet" 17-year-old sniper charged with murder of 3 Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine , Columbia Missourian (January 1, 1975)
  15. 1 2 "Funeral services for shooting victims" (PDF). Adirondack Daily Enterprise. January 3, 1975.
  16. 1 2 3 Honor student held as sniper, Ocala Star-Banner (December 31, 1974)
  17. 1 2 3 4 Sniper kills 3, hurts 11, Boca Raton News (December 31, 1974)
  18. 1 2 They Threaten, Seethe and Unhinge, Then Kill in Quantity, The New York Times (April 9, 2000)
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 3 killed by young sniper shooting from high school, The Spokesman-Review (December 31, 1974)
  20. 1 2 3 4 Sniper suspect found hanged in N.Y. jail cell, St. Petersburg Times (November 2, 1975)
  21. ↑ The Troopers Are Coming, Albert S. Kurek, pp.265-66

42°04′57″N78°26′05″W / 42.08250°N 78.43472°W / 42.08250; -78.43472

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.