had threatened to fire him, and he decided he was going to get even. in the end, patrick sherrill killed 14 co-workers before killing himself. like patrick sherrill, mark barton was never formally diagnosed with a mental disorder. in hindsight, barton s personality fit clinical patterns of a man on the edge. the person that i started to work with and the person that he ended up were two different people. he was not the same person at all. secretary leigh ann burke saw mark barton s behavior change over time. she started working with him in 1984 in texarkana, texas, where he was employed as a chemist for tlc manufacturing, a company that made cleaners and solvents. he was always kidding around and laughing and making jokes in the beginning. like i said, he was like a 6-year-old in the body of a 35-year-old man. i mean, he was just a big dennis the menace at first. but then a new mark barton began to emerge. he would have temper tantrums
children with him, not because he hated them, not because he was angry, but he wanted to save them from the misery of this world. i don t want you growing up in a world without me. i m so important that you shouldn t live if i m not there for you. that s the height of self-centeredness to think the kids are better off dead than growing up without this depressed, suicidal father. depression and anger were also characteristics co-workers noticed in patrick sherrill, a mail carrier in edmond, oklahoma. many of patrick sherrill s co-workers called him crazy pat. but they certainly did not see him as a ticking time bomb. just after dawn on august 20th, 1986, sherrill reported as usual to the post office in uniform and carrying a mail bag filled with guns. two days earlier, his supervisor at the post office