Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Post Office Massacre: Patrick Sherrill and the "Going Postal" Tragedy (Podcast Exclusive)

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! You've probably heard the phrase "going postal" before... but where exactly did it originate? Well, back in 1986, Patrick Sherrill, a USPS worker, committed the deadliest lone-man mass shooting in Oklahoma's history. Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon. xo  Bailey Sarian I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND  Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail:  Bailey Sarian  4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300  Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Get your first visit for only five dollars at https://www.Apostrophe.com/MAKEUP when you use our code: MAKEUP.  Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://www.RocketMoney.com/MAKEUP today.  Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at https://www.SELECTQUOTE.com/MAKEUP. 

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get a pro at Tread Experts. Conquer rugged terrain with on-road comfort. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid MasterCard when you purchase Kumo Road Venture AT52 tires. Find a Kumo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca slash locations. Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to Murder, Mystery, and Makeup, the podcast. Today is a podcast exclusive story. Oh yes, this one's just for you, baby girl. Listen, today we're going to be talking about going postal. Have you ever heard that phrase? Well, back in the 90s, we had all sorts of fun, I guess. Some might say like cringy. There was phrases like, you go girl, or like talk to the

hand, or that's the bomb, you know. But looking back, by far the cringiest slang phrase was going postal, which was popularized in iconic movies like Clueless and TV shows like Seinfeld, because the reality is going postal has some pretty dark origins. Between 1986 and 2006, there were a rash of shootings that took place at US post offices, all carried out by postal workers. The first occurred on August 20, 1986, at the Edmond Post Office in Edmond, Oklahoma, at the hands of postal carrier Patrick Sherrill.

In a matter of 15 minutes, Sherrill killed 14 co-workers and injured an additional six before turning the gun on himself. What makes an already horrifying situation even worse is that the Postal Service's response was severely lacking. In fact, many believe the extreme stressful work environment and the hiring practices at USPS were major contributing factors to the situation and the hiring practices at USPS were major contributing factors like to the situation and the other shootings. And while the shootings have mostly ended, a lot of people fear USPS hasn't really changed. So let's investigate starting with Patrick Sherrill. Huh? Yeah, let's go. Patrick Sherrill was born in Wataunga, Oklahoma on November 13th, 1941. Now, there are definitely some major red flags littered all throughout Patrick's childhood.

For starters, he was known to steal bike parts off of like other kids' bikes, and he tried to breed female neighborhood dogs with his dogs. Or his dog, I should say. Yeah, I don't know what that was about, but he got bad grades in school and he was considered a loner. The only thing he seemed to excel in was sports. He even lettered in football, but he of course preferred solo sports like track and field rather than team sports where he had to like interact with people.

When he was a teenager, his father sadly died of a stroke. Now, Patrick once confided in someone that his father was mentally ill. And for that reason, Patrick said he never planned to marry because he was afraid of passing on those, quote, bad genes, end quote. He graduated high school in 1959 and went on to Oklahoma University on a wrestling scholarship, but he ended up dropping out after only one year. He worked a couple of random low-paying jobs on and off before entering the Marines in 1964. Patrick was a weapons expert in the Marine Corps from January 15, 1964 to December 30th, 1966. At bootcamp, he qualified as an expert shot

with an M14 rifle and a pistol, which is the highest possible rating. After leaving the Marine Corps in 1966, Patrick struggled to incorporate back in the general population, especially when it came to landing a job. So he re-enrolled in college, but this time at Edmonds Central State University in 1967.

Unfortunately, he got D's and F's and he dropped out again and he was like, oh shit. So he ended up living with his mom in Oklahoma City until she died in 1978. It was reported that Patrick had a temper and people even observed him yelling at his mom in Oklahoma City until she died in 1978. It was reported that Patrick had a temper and people even observed him yelling at his mom. Patrick stayed at the house, but you know, he didn't like take care of it. It was a hot mess. He cluttered the space with electronics, gadgets, wires, tubes. I don't know. He got like really into his ham radio. He even befriended another ham radio enthusiast who was

a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, which Patrick then joined in 1976. During that time, a female recruit said on numerous occasions that Patrick made her feel very uncomfortable. And then on top of that, Patrick's neighbors also said like they made them feel very uncomfortable. And then on top of that, Patrick's neighbors also said like, they made them feel very uneasy. He was a little weird. He was known to peer into his neighbor's windows at night, even going as far as to using a telescope. Yeah, I think that's called a peeping Tom.

Coworkers also complained Patrick was arrogant and rude and female coworkers reported that he constantly stared at them and he would like sexually harass them. For a time, he tried earning a living working at a radio store. But he quit after eight months because his coworkers pissed him off. Look, there's like one day where one of his coworkers told a customer like, oh, that guy over there is going to help you out. And he was referring to Patrick. And then Patrick was like, I have a name. It's Patrick Sherrill. You know, he got like really upset about it. And then Patrick stormed out. So after that, you know, he went on to apply to work at USPS. He got the job, but was required to pass a 90-day probation

period. And it was kind of, I don't know, because like, okay, listen, he did this. And then on day 89, he resigned. Make that make sense. I don't know. That was weird. I mean, I guess you could say it was a power move, but is it?

It's just kind of stupid. Anyhow, from there, Patrick signed up for a training course at the 507th Tactical Fighting Group to become a firearms instructor, but his own instructor remarked that he wasn't sure how Patrick passed the course, considering he was non-productive in class and people didn't want to associate with him. By October of 1984, Patrick became a combat instructor for the 137th Squadron and was invited to join a marksmanship team. Then in April of 1985,

Patrick was rehired by the Edmond Post Office as a letter carrier. This rehiring came with a few of its own red flags. Initially, the post office didn't want to rehire him, but because of his seeming veteran status, side note, he lied on his application that he served in Vietnam, the post office was forced to hire him by Oklahoma City. His time at the post office was, of course, rocky. He received poor feedback, but because he was considered a career employee,

he couldn't be fired without cause. Even so, Patrick started to worry that he would lose his job. In October of that year, he was suspended for seven days because he left a set of mail unattended overnight, which resulted in a 24-hour delay of 500 pieces of mail. You can't be doing that. So he got in trouble. He ended up getting suspended again in April for being rude to a resident at a building. He continued to commit infractions, including not delivering mail, changing his route, and even spraying a dog

with dog spray. He would also openly complain to customers about how he was being treated at the post office. He was suspicious that the post office was keeping close track of him so they could get rid of him. They started to get like paranoid. On April 5th of that year, he checked out a Colt.45 caliber pistol from the National Guard. Then in August, he checked out a Remington.45 semi-automatic and the following weekend,

he picked up 200 rounds of ammunition. This is just all red flags, huh? In mid-August, he was reprimanded, after which he told a coworker regarding management they'd be sorry and everyone else would know. On August 20th, 1986, around 6 a.m., Patrick arrived at the Edmond Post Office. A coworker named Mike Bigler followed him into the building, not realizing Patrick was

carrying two pistols in his carrier bag. There were two supervisors, 73 postal employees, 21 rural carriers, 30 city carriers, 19 clerks, and at least one maintenance person on duty that morning. Side note, rural, rural, I know, rural carriers. I know, that word, huh? Rural, rural. Not the point, Bailey. I know. At 6.50 a.m., Patrick walked into the supervisor's office looking for his supervisor, John Schiffers, or supervisor Bill Bland. It was kind of weird because like the office had glass windows so he could have just used his eyes and seen that the office was empty you know but okay. Anyway it turned out that John wasn't scheduled to work until later that day and Bill had overslept that day for the first time in his career. Now, lucky, lucky them.

Patrick proceeded to lock the east and south doors. Then he walked up to the postal carriers, Rick Esser and Mike Rockne, and fatally shot them both in the chest. Some of the other employees heard the gunshots, but assumed the sounds were something else. Popping firecrackers, balloons, dropping mail trays, you know, they just like didn't really think much about it. But then one

co-worker saw Patrick with his gun and screamed for everyone to get the fuck out. Some of the employees ran to the east door and Patrick proceeded to shoot at them. Senior carrier Jerry Pyle made it out of the building but Patrick followed him out of the building and then fatally shot him. Patrick returned to the building and headed to the P.O. boxes where he shot Patty Husband, Betty, Jared, and Thomas Shader, who had all been trying to hide behind the first P.O. Box Bay. Patrick then walked by P.O. Box Bay 2, where Patty Smith was hiding.

Then he walked over to Bay 3, where he shot another woman named Patty, Patty Chambers, and Judi Denny, and Patricia Gabbard, Patty Welch and Jonah Greger. Okay, look, side note, but there is a lot of women named Patty in this story and who work at the post office. So I'm going to say Patty a lot, okay? Because there was another woman, her name was Patty Gibson. She had escaped after Patrick shot a man named Gene Bray in front of her. And then a group of employees, they hid in a broom closet. Various carriers escaped and tried to get help. One person called across to a man sitting on his porch at a nearby house

and told the man to call the police and an ambulance. It's believed that person was the one to alert the police. Patrick also shot at a man named Bill, but Bill fought back and managed to push Patrick into a mail container as Patrick was like trying to reload. Patrick didn't stop though, he kept shooting. He shot another carrier, Mike Bilgo, in the back, and I guess Mike fell to the ground.

He didn't die, but he instead like played dead. Someone even asked him if he was hurt while he was down on the ground but Mike just continued to play dead. I guess according to him silently repeating bible scriptures to himself and then once he could no longer hear Patrick's footsteps he made a run for it and like managed to get outside. One of Patrick's victims, his name was Bill Miller. He was a hero in this situation. He told his fellow carriers to run for the east exit as he distracted Patrick. Bill tried to wrestle the gun away from Patrick,

which gave like everyone else a little bit more time to escape. And in the end, Patrick ultimately fatally shot him. But because of him so many of the people there like were able to get away. In the end Patrick ended up killing 14 people and injured six. And then at 7 18 a.m when Patrick couldn't find any more people to shoot, he turned off all the lights, sat at his supervisor's desk, and shot himself. After the shooting, police, the Edmund SWAT team, medical personnel, and an Oklahoma City postal inspector arrived on the scene.

The police initially assumed they were dealing with like a hostage situation because they had only heard one shot but once they entered the building and saw all the bodies they realized this was something else. So Patrick's own body was quickly identified and then when they're inside you know they're finding victims that are still alive like they had been lying in the post office for like 90 minutes before anyone was able to get to them. Patrick Sherrill's body was cremated and 20 people attended his funeral, mostly I guess

just relatives. But anonymous flowers were sent with a note that read, quote, from those who understand what he went through as a carrier, no one will ever know how far he was pushed to do what he did, end quote. Attributed to the letter carriers of Irving, Texas. Is USPS, is that like, is this a really dark job that we just like have no idea about? Meanwhile, a memorial service was held on August 24th for Patrick's 14 victims at the local football stadium and like over 5,000 people attended. So that concludes the Patrick Sherrill story, but heartbreakingly, nine other shootings occurred at the hands of postal workers

between the Edmond shooting and 2006. With these stories, we see a lot of similarities with them. Like they're overstressed workers. There's a bunch of warning signs and like red flags and all of it just like goes ignored. So like I said, there was a lot of USPS like shootings. There's a lot. There's so many. I have another one for you. The next shooting occurred on November 14th, 1991. The shooter, Thomas McIvan, was ex-military and was described as having an extreme temper.

He was even discharged from the military. I guess he had like multiple behavioral infractions, including crushing a car with an M60 tank. Yeah. But when Thomas was hired at the post office, he immediately started piling up infractions, including routinely telling his co-workers and supervisors to, quote, fuck off. He would also call his female supervisor a, quote, fucking whore and, quote, fucking cunt.

So he doesn't seem very nice, okay? He then purchased a number of guns, including a sawed-off rifle that he ended up keeping near his bed. Now, the post office seemed to be onto Thomas to some extent. In fact, they started monitoring him intensely and even suspended him for 14 days. Now, things continued to escalate until he was fired. But then the union saved his job and he was simply given another suspension. But don't worry, a short while later, he called his supervisor a whore and then was terminated for good. Except

then his case was sent into arbitration. After his firing, Thomas made numerous threats against his former supervisor saying things like, you had better not turn your head because you'll be dead. Like I'm going gonna get you. I feel like that's enough. Like after that point, like just lock them up. So like the police get involved and they tried to warn postal employees, I guess. At one point, Thomas even turned himself in to the police, but he was eventually released.

Thomas's threats continued. And when they were reported to USPS, their response was simply that they were aware of the situation. So Thomas later went back to the police department saying that he was receiving threatening phone calls from an unknown man saying not to do it and that they were going to get him. The police informed the post office about like Thomas. They're like, look, red flag on this guy. Put a warning out to all officers, you know, and yes, this guy is concerning. And then after that, Thomas's right to conceal Carrie was revoked.

Thomas warned that if he lost his arbitration case, he'd make Edmund look like Disneyland. That's what he said. Sure enough, he ended up losing his case, at which point several attempts were made to the post inspector to secure protection for the post office. But the inspector said they lack or they lacked the manpower. On November 14th at 8 45 a.m right after Thomas found out he lost his arbitration case he entered the Royal Oak post office killed four people then shot himself. After the shooting USPS all of a sudden found the manpower to guard the post office. It's like it was too late. Postmaster General, his name is Anthony Frank, said that he would review background checks of all 750,000 postal employees

and set up a hotline where workers could report threats. But complaints from workers about the toxic environment at the post office continued. One worker was quoted as saying, "'They rode you all the time. You couldn't even use the bathroom unless it was your break. He also mentioned an incident where an employee was written up for, quote, disrupting the mailroom simply because he looked at a large pile of mail and began whistling, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Yeah, yeah. So I guess that was disrupting the mail room.

After the Royal Oak shooting, the US House of Representatives launched an investigation, which resulted in an extensive report on USPS that concluded USPS had an autocratic, authoritarian management style. The report also said there were ample signs that Thomas was a threat. The Postal Inspection Service acknowledged there had been warnings but shifted the blame saying there were not adequate local or federal laws in this area. So listen though that was only

like two little stories about post office shootings. There are so many. I could make this a 10 part series of people literally postal workers going into the office and shooting everyone. Like it's insanity, okay? And it had me thinking like, could there really be something about the post office as a work environment that like sends people off the deep end, right?

And you know that phrase, like someone is going postal, it's because of these psychotic stories. There are some things that are like common throughout these going postal stories. One, usually they're ex-military. Two, there really aren't any background checks when they're hired. Three, a lot of the times they mention the work environment at USPS, but like, I don't know.

I mean, I'm not saying they're wrong. We just don't get any insight on how it works. Do you know how it works? Because I don't. I never actually thought about it, but there's obviously something off here. I don't know. Well, listen, something's going on. We need to check in with the USPS workers and ask if they're okay.

Right? We need to check in. Are they okay? What can we help and prevent this from happening? I don't know. It's just wild. Let me know if you would like to hear more of these going postal stories. I've got many,

many more, unfortunately. And like, sure, postal shootings may have like died down, but I'm sure you're aware shootings in general are still a thing. Let me know your thoughts. Or maybe if you work in the USPS industry, maybe you can give some insight as to why do you think they just lose it one day? What is going on? Let me know. I need to know. I don't know. Well, I hope you have a good rest of your day. I know it's hard sometimes because these stories are so dark. And then it's like, well, all right, well, have a good day. Like I feel so stupid sometimes. But I do hope you have a good day. You make good choices. And next time you see your postal worker smile, tell them you appreciate them. Huh? Let's be kind. Well, I hope you have

a good day. You make good choices. And I will be seeing you later. Goodbye.