Post Office Massacre

Have you watched TV lately? Gone to the movies? Read the comics? That's how you learn what to do when things don't go "your way." You SHOOT the guy. That's the way it's always done. Why, then, are we so surprised and shocked when a man in Edmond shoots 14 people and then himself? Gun control? Who wants it? ROSALIE HIGGS Long Beach

Survivors of the Edmond, Okla., post office massacre last summer suffered further pain from "an utterly cold and insensitive management," including a postmaster who banned reading of sympathy mail on the job, a House panel was told Wednesday. "At first we were attacked by Pat Sherrill and now we were under emotional attack from management," said Steve Brehm, a postal clerk at Edmond.

A disgruntled mailman, reprimanded for poor job performance, burst into a post office and opened fire with three pistols today, killing 15 people and injuring seven others before he shot himself to death, authorities said. The gunman, identified as former Marine Patrick Sherrill, 44, barged through the back door of the post office in a suburb north Oklahoma City at about 7 a.m., and employees "scattered like flies," when he began shooting, a witness said. Dist. Atty.

The tragedy at the Edmond Post Office in Oklahoma and at the Department of Employment Office in South Gate may just be the tip of the iceberg if present trends continue. To get out the work management presently assumes that employees should work harder (as the slave), be more committed (by being more loyal), or by asserting workers' dependence on management (by being more obsequious). To obtain this end, employers are trying to discourage employees from using mechanisms already in place such as grievance-arbitration by resorting to intimidation, discipline, suspension and removal.

Survivors of the Edmond, Okla., post office massacre last summer suffered further pain from "an utterly cold and insensitive management," including a postmaster who banned reading of sympathy mail on the job, a House panel was told Wednesday. "At first we were attacked by Pat Sherrill and now we were under emotional attack from management," said Steve Brehm, a postal clerk at Edmond.

Neighbors today said they began calling mailman Patrick Sherrill "Crazy Pat" years ago, when the strange, hulking man began prowling their yards at night in camouflage fatigues and peering wordlessly into their windows. He confirmed their worst fears Wednesday by coolly slaughtering 14 co-workers and himself in a post office massacre. (Story, Page 10.) Few people who knew him expressed genuine surprise at the massacre by the 44-year-old mail carrier.

They walk together down the street. They enter the courtroom together. When the judge asks a question, the three seasoned federal prosecutors simultaneously crane their necks to put their heads together. Attorneys prosecuting alleged Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski say their interaction, both publicly and privately, reflects a real collaboration. "It is very much a team here, a team effort," said Robert J.

A disgruntled mailman, reprimanded for poor job performance, burst into a post office and opened fire with three pistols today, killing 15 people and injuring seven others before he shot himself to death, authorities said. The gunman, identified as former Marine Patrick Sherrill, 44, barged through the back door of the post office in a suburb north Oklahoma City at about 7 a.m., and employees "scattered like flies," when he began shooting, a witness said. Dist. Atty.