True Crime All The Time - Matthew Beck

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

On March 6th, 1998 Matthew Beck entered the Connecticut State Lottery headquarters and murdered four of his superiors. The newspapers called the incident "The Connecticut Lottery Killings." Matthew Beck took his life as police approached him and he didn't leave any type of communication that would have shed light on his actions.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the tragic murders committed by Matthew Beck. Matthew had been unhappy at work for months leading up to the shooting, but he gave no indication that he was planning such a horrific act. Many people affected by the murders were left asking why Matthew did what he did.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 270 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. How are you? Hey man, I'm doing okay. How about you? Well, you know, I'm down in my back. Yeah. A little bit.

You wanted to give me a couple of mystery pills. I did. And I was to say the least a little bit leery because you and I are down here by ourselves. I don't know if my wife would hear me if I screamed. Right. And so I'm just going to have to grit it through. I'm trying to take over the podcast and, you know. It liked the, the Seinfeld episode where they ate all the turkey so that they could play with that woman's vintage toys. Exactly. See, that's what worries me. And the next thing you know, you've done the whole episode. Right. And I wasn't even a part of it. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had

Constance Newbold. Hey, Constance. Neca Hutchinson jumped out of the highest level. What's going on, Neca? Rebecca Warren. Hey, Rebecca. Terry Lynn. Hey, what's going on, Terry Lynn?

Matt from Maine. Well, Matt from Maine, where all the lobsters are. Peace ransom. What's up, peace? Jen DeCimio. Oh, DeCimio. Grace, Wynne. Hey, Grace.

Julie Maples. What on, Maples? Anna Gonzalez jumped out of our highest level. Hey, thank you, Anna. Piongson, Kim, jumped out of the highest level. Well, thanks, Piong Song. We had Lori Krogan. Yeah, Krogan, huh?

Mm-hmm. There you go. Vanessa. What's up, Vanessa? And last but not least, Kimberly Deister. Deister in the house. And then if we go back into the vault. This week, we selected Aaron White.

Hey, thanks, Aaron. Appreciate that. Yeah, we appreciate the new support, the continued support. We had some great PayPal donations from Carl Schroeder. Hey, Carl. Janet Lamb. Appreciate that, Janet. And Mary Barcellos.

Ooh, Barcellos. So we appreciate it. everyone. We do. Gives, we just finished up our Patreon weekly episode. We talked about an unsolved case, the Durham family murders, that police are now calling solved. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that case. Yeah, if anybody wants to look it up, there's some good articles out there about how they did it and who came forward and why they now believe they know who was involved. Also, right now on true crime all the time unsolved. We have an episode out on the Sumter County Doze. This is a fascinating case. You know, it's a case that goes back, you know, many, many years. Yeah, it's like 40, almost 45 years old.

Yeah, I think it was in the 70s or give or take. But for a very long time, the Sumter County does were obviously unidentified. Right. And as often happens as we're seeing lately, more and more of advancements and DNA and just overall technology is allowing for some amazing things to happen. Right. Now, the case is still unsolved. It is. And obviously we'll get into all the details, but some things are known. Check it out. All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I am ready. We are talking about workplace murderer Matthew Beck. It was on March 6th, 1998, that Matthew Beck entered the Connecticut State Lottery headquarters and murdered four of his superiors.

This was a devastating incident of workplace gun violence, and it left the victim's families, the community, and even Matthew's own family with a lot of questions. But I think one in particular stood out among all the others. And this is the question Gibbs that. comes to the forefront in almost every case we do. Sure it is. It's the question of why. Yeah.

Why did you do that? Right. And I think it's a large part of what draws people to true crime, why they become fascinated with some of these cases. In some ways, it's a study in human behavior. Why do people make the decisions they do? Yeah. Why do they decide to act?

in a certain way, take a certain action. How does their past, you know, influence those decisions? We're all fascinated. Yeah. By those types of things. Now, Matthew had been unhappy at work for months leading up to the shooting, but by all accounts, he gave no indication that he was planning such a horrific act. I think that's something else you see quite a bit in many cases as well. Now, sometimes there are warning signs, and we talk about that in a lot of cases, but even through some of what we would later call warning signs, are they warning signs at the time? And even if they are, most often, I don't think anyone associated with these people believe that, okay, they're going to do X, right, whatever they ultimately end up doing.

Because number one, it's hard to believe that people could do some of these things that we talk about. Oh, yeah. Matthew Beck was the perpetrator of what newspapers called the Connecticut Lottery Killings. He was a disgruntled employee who murdered four of his bosses. His victims were 33-year-old Michael Logan and Information Services Manager, 38-year-old Linda Milnarchic, the chief financial officer, 40-year-old. Frederick Rubelman the third, vice president of operations, and 54-year-old Othrow Brown, who was the lottery president. So I think you can see just from that, you know, he targeted the higher ups. Sure, the top echelon of the company. And we've covered a number of workplace violence cases.

You know, sometimes it's a coworker with whom a person had a beef with or something like that. you know, sometimes it's a person who gets fired and wants to go after his boss. This guy was obviously unhappy and we're going to get into all the details. But there's no doubt that he targeted those people who were highest up in the organization. Matthew Beck was born on March 29th, 1962. He graduated from Ledyard High School, then graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology. Matthew's friends later described him to papers as quiet and diligent. Some said he was the all-American guy.

Some people called him Mr. Clean Cut. In 1984, Matthew got a job with the IRS as a taxpayer service representative. Hey, Mr. Clean Cut kind of goes along with that. Yeah. FBI, IRS, some other agency with three letters in the name. Yeah, but I'll talk about that. Like the one that you allegedly have ties to, and I'm using my air quotes. I can either deny or confirm.

As you've stated many times. And to your credit, you've stuck with it. I have. And I think you have to for fear of reprisals. Well, I like to start my vehicle without worrying. Yeah. In 1989, he was hired as a security officer for global security systems in Norfolk. Then he briefly worked in accounting for the State Department of Special Revenue.

So here's a guy, you know, graduated from high school, graduated from college, had a series of what sounds like, you know, pretty decent jobs. It also sounds like he was well thought of back in school, right? You had these people coming out saying, you know, he was just the all American guy. Yeah. You know, when I hear the words clean cut, I think of, you know, you know, all around nice guy, probably not too big into the party scene. Kind of clean cut goes with that. Now, sometimes it's misleading.

People might think you're clean cut, but you're, you know, at the bottom of the, uh, the beer bong. Oh yeah. On Fridays and Saturdays,

I'm not going to point any fingers, but, but you are, but I will. In his free time, Matthew enjoyed shooting guns, golfing, playing paintball,

and going to, to rock concerts. His friends and family described him as young at heart. Now, Matthew owned three assault rifles and two large caliber handguns. This was the way it was written in all of the different papers. You know, I've said it before Gibbs. I'll say it again. I think the term assault rifle is a little misleading. You know, I think modern sporting rifle is a much better definition. Because we, you say the word assault rifle. Right. I think people think military, you know, automatic, firing as many rounds as you can just

by holding down the trigger. Obviously, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a semi-automatic rifle. Now, we know those can do a lot of damage. Sure can. Probably the worst case is the Las Vegas shootings where that's. killer was using a semi-automatic rifle, but you can pull the trigger very, very quickly. Yeah, very rapidly. It was said that he'd like to go target practice shooting at a local

sportsman's club. Police did later find during a search of his home that Matthew did have a permit for his guns. Now, his father, Donald Beck, told the Hartford current that his son was not obsessed with guns, but he did concede this. He said, if he didn't have access to the gun, I'm sure he would have tried a knife or a baseball bat, but if he didn't have access to a firearm, the damage might have been less. I will regret that until my dying day. So obviously, this is a father talking about what happened later on with a lot of regret, a lot of remorse. I do think also gives this is an argument that you hear quite a bit, right? If we can limit guns, then we can limit the carnage.

Now, there are people that will say, okay, people who want to commit horrific acts will find another way, whether it's knives or baseball bats or pressure cooker bombs, as we saw in the Boston bombing. I don't want to get into a gun to be. because that never ends. No. Well, but what I want to highlight is what this father's going through, right? After the act, which we haven't talked about in detail yet, him saying, well, if he just didn't,

if he didn't have those guns, right. He wouldn't have been able to do what he did. He might have done something else, but it wouldn't have been maybe as damaging. Matthew suffered from severe depression. and had tried to take his own life before. I guess while he was in college, he cut his wrist, but it was reported that the wounds were superficial. And so his parents believed at the time

that he most likely had done this for attention, but that he wasn't really trying to end his life. Well, I think that happens a lot. I think people are very desperate for attention sometimes, and there go to some extreme methods to get it. It does happen. Yeah. But we also know people actually follow through on it too.

Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, they do too often. Yeah. In 1989, Matthew was hired as an accountant at the state lottery headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. He worked for the state lottery for eight years. According to the New York Times, he made $20 an hour or about $45,000, a year. It's not a bad salary in 1989. No. It's pretty good money.

And he was described as a good employee who was always willing to work overtime, never complained. Yeah, according to his supervisor, he was a skilled worker. I guess the only knack that his supervisor had about Matthew was that he lacked strong communication skills. There's something you never said about me at work. Well, how do you know I never said that? I went through all your files. so you never saw it in writing. In July 1996, Matthew's supervisors moved him from accounting to testing computer software in the data processing department. Matt was upset because he felt like he was working beyond the scope of his job description. And because of that, he felt as though he deserved more money. And he worked in data processing until October

in 1997. You know, there is a lot of folks that they don't like to vary what their job duties are. They're hired for this. They expect this is what I'm going to do and that's what I get paid for. You know, so, I mean, you can argue either side. You know, look, I decided to take the job because I just told all I had to do was this. The company is saying, you have a job. We expect you to do whatever we ask you to do. And I'll say this. I think over the years, that is happening more and more, right? Expanding the scope of someone's job. And a lot of times it does not come with more money or a title. It's just, we need you to do X. Right. And, you know, things are fluid. Things are ever evolving. But let's go back to your point, because you and I have both worked with a lot of people, both with and we've

both managed a lot of people. Yeah. And there are kind of two groups. I mean, there's a lot of different groups, but there is the, the group of people that they're very satisfied in their extremely well-defined role. And they could probably do that role for the rest of their time. Yeah. Keep me in my bubble. But once asked to step kind of beyond or outside of that role or given additional responsibilities, you often get pushback. Yeah, sure. From people like that. Now, there are other people that are like, yeah, I'll do whatever you want.

They're a little more easy going. I'm not saying one is better than the other. It's just you can tell by working with different people what kind of person you're dealing with. Right. Both types of individuals can be an amazing worker. Right. Exactly.

They're just different types of people. In July of 1996, Matthew approached Rick Rubelman about returning to accounting. Rubelman denied his request. So in January of 1997, Matthew was still working in data processing under a supervisor named Michael Logan. And it was reported Gibbs that it was really during this time that Matt became extremely depressed. The Cromwell police were called to his apartment for a welfare check at the request of a concerned party. This person told the police that Matthew was displaying depression.

The New York Times wrote that he may have held a knife to his throat. But Matthew wasn't home when the police arrived. He was out with a friend in Middletown. So there are reports that he's depressed. Obviously, at least one person was concerned enough to bring in the police. right i'm concerned about my friend can you go and do a welfare check on him on top of that matthew's father and sister were worried they encouraged him to see a counselor donald beck reported that matthew was zombie light and at times just kind of had this fixed stare he also said there was no inflection in his voice well as a family member you'd be really concerned yeah i mean i think types of things would be and should be very concerning.

Zombie like. Yeah. Fixed stare. Speaking with no inflection in your voice. Okay. I'm assuming this is much different from the Matthew that they had known before. Yeah. This was a stark contract to what they were used to.

A whole different guy. And so that's where it becomes very concerned. Matt started seeing a. therapist and taking medication at some point in January of 1997. He last tried to take his life later that year. Donald Beck called his son Matt and noticed right away that something was wrong. So he rushed to Matt's apartment and found him unconscious from a drug overdose. Donald rushed him to the hospital and saved his son's life.

He later told media outlets that might have. been a mistake. So let the gravity of that sink in. Yeah, it's a big statement to make, especially from his dad. A father. Yeah. Now, obviously, this is after the tragic events unfolded. And in his mind, he's thinking, if I had not done that, then these people would not have lost their lives. But that's tough to have that circling around in your mind that, you know, maybe I shouldn't have tried to save my son. Right. Because of what he later went on to do. When asked why he wanted to take his own life, Matthew said, everything seemed so hopeless. So he was hospitalized. And then he spent some time in a psychiatric hospital. Several colleagues and supervisors called to check on him, including Rick

Ruebleman. Matt didn't believe that anyone at work truly cared about him. Donald urged him to return the calls from, you know, his coworkers, his superiors. But he has said to various papers that he's not sure if Matt ever did. So it was after this incident that Matt's friends encouraged him to get a pet for companionship. Yeah, you can never go wrong with a nice pet. No, I agree. Pets can bring so much value to your life, right? They add happiness, joy. I mean, they're not. They add happiness, joy. I mean, They do so many things for us that a lot of times we don't even think about. Right. And they can calm you down.

They can calm you down. Yeah. I mean, you come home from a hard day's work and your dog or cat is there waiting on you. That's a cool feeling. It is. They want to see you. They're happy. So Matthew adopted a cat and named him Elsie for a little cat.

Apparently, he also owned a parent named captain. I would have thought it would have been. Captain Morgan, but this was just captain. In August 1997, Matthew filed a formal grievance about his demotion from accounting to data processing. He stated that he should receive an extra $2 an hour plus back pay for the work that he did in data processing. But both Michael Logan and Rick Rubelman sided with the state in Matthew's grievance. And I don't think, think that's unusual, right? As a company, someone files a grievance. They believe they should get X. Well, if you don't think they should, and obviously they didn't or they would have given it to him.

Right. Then you're probably going to fight that. Now, throughout the grievance process, Matthew did apply for some other accounting jobs, but he never got any of them. Doesn't surprise me that he wouldn't get any inside the company that he worked for. And when you file a grievance, okay, you're taking a stand, but you're also kind of putting a target on your back a little bit. I think he really are,

you know, you'd be careful. Now, I'm sure he was applying it at companies outside as well, but he didn't get those either. Matthew really changed dramatically. In the months leading up to the shootings, he shaved his head.

And he grew out a goateeaties. So obviously this was out of character for him. We talked about it. People called him Mr. Clean Cut. Yeah. Now all of a sudden he's got a shaved head. He's,

he's grown this goatee. One coworker told various outlets that they noticed that he became cold and bitter that summer. They said he became visibly withdrawn. He took on a severe look and angry look. He looked as though he had lost weight. and he was pale. So I take it from that, Gibbs, that it sounds as though he probably wasn't taking very good care of himself,

right, losing weight, looking pale. This is aside from just changing your appearance. A lot of people just change their appearance. They want to change it up, mix it up a little bit. Not me. I go with the goatee and have gone for many, many years. Very, very long time. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy.

Gibbs, we talk about Better Help a lot on this show. In this month, we're discussing some of the stigmas around mental health. You know, I think a lot of people believe that they should wait until things are unbearable to go to therapy. Well, that's simply not true. Therapy is a tool to utilize before things get worse, and it can help you avoid those lows. We've also been taught that mental health shouldn't be a part of normal life. Well, that's wrong, too. And we take care of our bodies by going to the gym.

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determined based on your credit income and certain other information provided in your loan application go to upstart.com slash teacat matthew returned to live with his parents in ledyard connecticut in september 1997 he began regular sessions with his psychologist and took three types of medication But Matthew assured his psychologist that he never felt any urges to hurt other people. In October of 1997, Matthew went on stress-related medical leave due to psychiatric problems. His psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Smith, recommended that he go on this leave. Dr. Smith was also the one who later recommended his return to work. So he's going to see professionals.

Right. And he's being evaluated. This professional said, hey, man, you need to take a break. Take some time off from work, take a leave. Now, it seemed like moving in with his family and going on leave resulted in a positive change. It was reported that Matthew was happier. And he kind of returned back to his old self. He started up some of his old hobbies again.

He played Canasta and went bowling with his father. Canasta. That's a game I've never played. I don't know how to play. Either do I, but I just like saying canasta. It's fun to say. It is fun to say. The problem is Matthew was still bitter about his work-related issues.

And he had been having an office romance with a woman at work. But when he took this leave, that romance kind of fell apart. And this woman started dating his replacement. Okay, that's not going to make you feel. good. On top of, you know, all the other things that you're dealing with, Matt also began complaining to newspapers that lottery players were being cheated. And it was alleged that the Connecticut Lottery Corporation exaggerated potential winnings to increase ticket sales. And store clerks checked the computer system to keep winning tickets for themselves.

Matthew also told the day of New London and the Hartford current about his unfair treatment at work. The current wrote that he was, quote, frothing at the mouth and had what they called wild eyes. The day described him as scruffy. So, you know, he's alleging a lot of things. He obviously did not come off very well to these reporters based on the descriptions of him that they put out in the paper. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like he didn't come across very well. well at all. Well, if somebody says you're frothing at the mouth and you have wild eyes, does that go hand in hand with, and I'm taking what you're saying to be very credible. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously it doesn't. No. Without saying it, they're basically, you know, describing him as a

stark raving lunatic. Like they thought he was out of his mind. Well, that's a big part of this case, because it seems like he was suffering from some type of mental illness. Well, he was seeing a psychiatrist. You know, we don't have all the details around those interactions. But if the current is willing to print that you're frothing at the mouth and have wild eyes, to me, that really says a lot about what he was going through, what he was experiencing at the time that he was talking to, whoever, you know, the reporter was. Yeah.

After months of negotiations, the state agreed to return Matthew to accounting in January 1998 with a $2 an hour increase. An arbiter ruled that he had taken on responsibilities beyond his job description. However, the state didn't make a decision on his back pay. So there's some good things for him here, right? Yeah. They partly ruled in his favor. You know, he was a.

upset because, you know, in his mind, he was doing a lot more than he should have been doing. He wasn't receiving any additional compensation. So now he is, but they didn't give him his back pick. So Matthew returned to work on February 25th, 1998. Gibbs, he was only at work for eight days before the shooting. Two days later on the 27th, he met with Linda Milnarzik to discuss his new duties. Then on March 5th, Matthew met with union steward Joseph Mudry to complain about the demotion and his lack of compensation. So he's still upset about his job and money. Yeah, I mean, I think what he was calling a demotion, that must have been tough. But they had moved him back to accounting and they had given him a $2 an hour increase. So I get it. They did

rule on his back pay, but I'm not sure really what he had to complain about. He's back doing what he was doing before and he's making $2 an hour more. Now Joseph knew and liked Matthew. So he helped him file his grievance. He reported that they spoke about a basketball game. They talked about Matthew's back pay. Mudry reported the papers that there was no indication of anything being wrong. He tried to work with management and do whatever he could for them. But then Matthew became upset because he found out that during his absence, someone else was selected for an open supervisor position. He was angry. He wasn't chosen because he'd been there for nine years and had never received a promotion. And probably felt that it should have been

his job, right? Yeah, I get that. You know, drawing back on. on our experience working in the business world. Anytime there is an open position, you are going to have one person who is very happy. And then you are going to have a whole bunch of people who are unhappy and feel like they deserve that job more than the person that got it. Always. There's just no way around it.

Right. Yeah. You know, I've been in that position not getting a promotion and thinking, I'm better than that person. Yeah. I've been here longer than that person. I'll admit that.

But let's not forget, you know, he was on a leave of absence. He had also filed this grievance. So is he going to be the first choice given those circumstances? My first thought is no. No. You haven't been around for a while. And you're causing waves, right? You're filing grievances.

You're voicing your displeasure. Angela Bentley, a supervisor, told papers he was always angry about not being promoted. He used to talk about how they treated him unfairly. And Gibbs, there was a lot in the research about Matthew's coworkers being afraid of him. When he returned to work, lottery employee Karen Callendick said of Matthew, when he came back, he wasn't to say Matt. He was like talking to a stone. Some people were afraid of him.

I wasn't, but I guess I was wrong. Another coworker said, I had a feeling all week. His eyes weren't right. Again, these physical descriptions of him from the newspaper reporter to his coworkers. Now, they're not saying he's frothing at the mouth, but like you said, the eyes, wild eyes. His eyes weren't right. It's like talking to a stone. Okay, these are these are strange types of descriptions.

Matthew often talked about paintball and his gun collection at home. That concerned some of his coworkers, given, you know, the strange way that he was acting. I get it. You know, some people collect guns. Some people have guns at home for personal protection. I do think you need to be somewhat careful in an office environment. You got to know your audience.

Okay. If there's someone else that's into guns, they like to collect guns or they like to go target shooting. Okay, that's an easy conversation to have. A lot of people are anti-gun. They're afraid of guns or at the very least, they don't want to have a conversation about your gun collection at home. No, they don't want to hear anything about it.

No, because it may scare them somewhat. what. And I think definitely when you add on top the way that this guy was acting, right, if you're frothing at the mouth and you got some, some wild eyes and now you're telling me about your, your gun collection at home, okay, I'm going to keep my distance because, you know, when people are saying something's not right, the last thing you want to hear is someone talking about all the guns they own. Yeah. Richard Hecker from the accounting group reported that a few employees said that they wished Matt had never come back. But Richard also said he personally liked Matt.

He said they often talked about guns and paintball. They had even participated in a golf tournament together. He said he remembered two things from the tournament. Matt hit the ball as hard as he could every time. And he got drunk afterwards. That sounds like a lot of golf outings I've been to. That sounds like every golf outing I've ever been to. I always try to hit the ball as hard as I can.

It doesn't go where I want it to go. No. And there's usually a good amount of drinking after it's over and during. During and after. After. But despite all of these lingering problems at work, Matthew at this point still seemed pretty happy at home. On Wednesday, March 4th, he picked up a cake and a pair of pants for his father's 70th birthday.

he was reported to have been in a good mood and joke that he purchased the pants for his dad because he quote needed to be with it and I think a lot of us have been there yeah dad you need some new pants okay you can't keep wearing the pants that you wore in 1967 even though they're super comfortable there's holes in them they're a little bit behind the times let me get you a new pair of pants. Now this brings us up to March 6th, 1998. And it was a pretty normal day. It was casual Friday at the office. So Matt put on some jeans, a polo shirt, a tan leather jacket. It's been reported that he possibly had a sweatshirt with him. His father later said that Matt gave no indication of what he was going to do when he left home that morning. Matt was,

woke up, fed his cat, and said good morning to his parents. The last thing he said to them was, well, I'm off. Okay. That sounds like every day. Yeah. Just another day. Had it off the work. There was nothing that indicated that Matthew was going to murder four people and end his own life.

Now, Matt's behavior indicated that he was thinking ahead. He had just bought a large supply of yogurt. Gibbs, he made plans to see Titanic with a friend that evening. He had also called Lynn Bixby, a reporter for the Hartford Current, to ask for a meeting. Bixby later wrote, who knows what would have happened if I had been in the office, and if we had met in person, as he suggested. Would he have brought his knife and his gun? Would a conversation with a reporter have been enough of an outlet to diffuse the bomb that was about

to explode. So, I mean, already in this story, we're seeing a lot of the aftermath, right, the guilt, the remorse, not just from his dad. Now you see it from a reporter. What if I had just been there? Yeah. Would the outcome have been different? But I want to go back and talk about something that you bring up quite often, which is kind of this indication that you have long-term plans. beyond the day in question, right? Buying a bunch of groceries. We've talked about it before. A lot of times it comes up in unsolved cases where there's a disappearance.

And there's a question as to whether somebody just kind of laughed and voluntarily went off the grid. You asked that question a lot. Well, why would they stock up the refrigerator full of groceries? Yeah. If they knew ahead of time, they were leaving or why would they do this? Why would they do that? Why would you make plans to go see Titanic? And sometimes those questions are hard to answer. Maybe when he made the plans,

he hadn't yet made the final decision. Who knows? Maybe when he bought the yogurt, he was mulling things over. Right. Yeah. But obviously we know at a certain point, he made the faithful decision that he was going to kill because he headed to work with a Glock semi-automatic handgun, a butcher knife, and three additional clips containing at least 19 rounds each. Well, we know 115 employees worked at the state lottery headquarters, but what's not been reported was how many actually were working that day.

It was reported that there was a security guard at the building, but he did not carry a weapon. Matthew arrived at work just before 8 a.m. And some of his coworkers later said that he appeared tormented. He sat at his desk and he refused to speak or take off his jacket. Another coworker reportedly saw him in a sweatshirt. She said hello to him as she got a cup of coffee and then went back to her office. What she didn't know Gibbs was that he was hiding a gun.

in that sweatshirt. At 8.15 a.m. Eleanor Simonides saw Matthew looking in a closet near Michael Logan's office. She told papers that he was hunched over looking for something. She said to him, why don't you turn on the light? And he said, I'm looking for something. And apparently he had this very serious look on his face. But about 30 minutes after being at work, Matthew left. You his personal office and made his way towards the executive suites. Matthew first entered Michael Logan's office. Remember, Michael was the one who had first denied his grievance. Matthew stabbed him in the chest and stomach with the butcher knife. He then went to Linda Milnarzik's office. This was a woman with whom Matthew had had repeated discussions with about his demotion.

Linda was sitting in a meeting. But Matthew entered the room, raised his gun, apparently said, bye, and shot her three times. Just like that. Just like that.

Karen, Callendick, and four others were in the meeting with Linda. Karen later said, he walked in, put his hand up with the gun, and said, bye,

to her, then shot her three times. He could have gotten any of us, but he, he knew who he wanted to get. He just lowered the gun and walked away. She said, I made eye contact with him. And his eyes were dead.

Again, going back to the eyes, man, zombie-like, wild eyes. We've had a lot of descriptions of Matthew's eyes at various times. I mean, sounds like he was as a man on a mission, extremely focused. Yeah, and, you know, to her point, it does seem as though he knew. He had a plan. He was going to go after very specific people. You know, he could have easily entered that office and just started firing shots at everyone, but he didn't. He specifically wanted to shoot and kill Linda. And you know everybody in that room was scared. I'm sure some of them probably, uh, made a little mess. I don't know if I wouldn't. That might cause me to mess my drawers. Yeah, a little bit. It would be scary. Yeah, it would be scary. Now, it was said that everyone else hit under the table. They were waiting to be shot, but no more shots were fired in that room. Matthew left and moved down the hallway. After he left, someone touched Linda to check on her,

but she was dead. And then someone in that room called the police at 846. A.m. Rick Rubelman then opened the door and asked if everyone was all right. Karen told him that Linda had been shot. Rick closed the door. Karen later told papers that she believed he was going to find the shooter. But Gibbs Matthew was looking for Rick Rubelman, who by that point was helping employees flee from the building. Matthew had once appealed to Rick for help with his grievance. He shot Rick as soon as he got close to him. So at this point, there's no doubt, right? Matthew Beck had a list, a hit list, if you want to call it that, that included people that he'd had dealings with over the years around what he called his demotion, his grievance, his lack of pay, his back pay. Basically, that whole situation is seemed as though everyone involved in that was on his list. Peter Donahue, who worked in accounting, told papers, I saw him come in and hang up his coat.

He didn't come in and just start blasting. He planned it. He was definitely after the managers. Yeah, I mean, really sounds like it was like clockwork. Yeah, I mean, so far as we've moved along in this day, and we're still very early on, sure. His plan is going the way that he probably thought it would. But you got to think about all these other employees, right, hearing gunshots.

You had employees trying to flee the building. Some people weren't quite sure what was going on. Some later reported that they thought part of the building had collapsed. A security guard encouraged everyone to run into the nearby woods. Otto Brown joined the security guard in helping others get out of the building. He shouted at employees, just get out and run. David Perlow from accounting told papers that he suspected Matt was the shooter. He said the thought had crossed my mind that it was him because he was strange and a little disgruntled.

You know, I think you could probably look in your own offices and think if somebody was going to do something like this, I think it might be this person or that person. Well, if they weren't before, people listening now are probably, you know, thinking about that. that a little bit. This is a very scary situation. It really is. You know, to me, Gibbs, anytime you're in a work environment, there are going to be people who are pissed off. Discrottled. Yes. Because, you know, the workplace can't always be fairy tale land. It just, it just can't. You're going to be told no. You're going to be asked to do things you don't want to do. you're going to be rejected for promotions and things like that. So there are going to be many,

many stressors, right? Throughout the years and pretty much any job. And I think if you're a person like Matthew Beck was and you're struggling. Yeah. Mentally. And these feelings of rage are just bubbling, bubbling, bubbling.

Eventually, it seems to me as though they just couldn't be contained. When Otho Brown exited the building, Matthew chased him all the way to the parking lot. At some point, Brown fell down, held out his hands and begged, don't kill me, don't kill me. Apparently Matthew responded, aw, shut up. And he shot him. Shannon O'Neill later told various outlets, we all took off for the, woods and that was it. We heard gunshots when we were halfway through the woods. Barbara Dutty told the Hartford current. I was screaming, Matthew don't, Matthew don't.

Then Otho put his hands up in the air. That's when Beck walked right up to him and pulled the trigger. She said there was no expression on Matthew's face, nothing. So again, we're back to Stone Cold. Yeah. Zombie like. Almost as if. you know he's in a trans i kind of think about it as terminator devoid of emotion right almost machine like in that he has this one purpose running through his mind he's got a job to do this is what he's going to do yeah now i can't know for certain but to me as we talk about the events as they unfolded it's it seems to me that it was like that he was held bent on killing these four people and he methodically, you know, went through that building,

hunted them down. Cold and calculated. Cold and calculated. The police arrived a few minutes after they received the call. Two officers ran towards Matthew and he turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger. He fell down right next to Otho Brown. One police officer who requested to remain anonymous, reported that he saw Matthew run past several employees while waving his gun. He said he didn't shoot them because it seemed as though he was specifically after Otho Brown. Yeah, I think he was focused on his list. Matt was transported to Hartford Hospital via helicopter, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival. He gives this entire ordeal only lasted a few minutes.

But five people were now dead. No one else in the building was severely injured. One man suffered a head injury from jumping onto a moving vehicle while trying to get away from Matthew. Most of the employees fled into the woods, but 20 hidden part of the building used by a paint distributor. Gary Peltzer, a guy who worked at the paint distribution center reported about five or six girls came running in our door, screaming hysterically. He's coming. He's coming. He's got a gun.

Don't let him get us. So, you know, we talked about the fact that it seemed as though he really had four people on his list. And he wanted to kill those four people. That is tragic that those four people lost their lives. but it's kind of amazing when you think about it with what he was packing right because we talked about it he had quite a few rounds with him you did three additional clips that held you know a lot of bullets in them he could have shot many many more people oh easily but he purposefully didn't and again i think it speaks to you know his mindset of i'm here to to get this person, this person, this person, and this person. They're to blame and they're going to take the punishment.

Yeah. They're to blame for not helping me. Yeah. For me continuing to be in this situation that I'm in. Now, I'm not giving him kudos for that. No. But I do think it's amazing that more people weren't killed because they certainly could have been if he had taken a different tact.

Matthew didn't leave any notes. He didn't leave any type of explanation for the shooting. His parents heard a report on the radio about a shooting by an employee who had filed a grievance. And I don't think it was that hard, Gibbs, for Donald Beck to realize that the description fit his son. Matthew's friends called a few minutes later to ask for information, but Donald had nothing to tell them. He told the Hartford current for an hour and a half. I was in limbo. We knew he was involved, but we didn't know if he was dead.

The police spent hours going through the home and the family's computer, and they didn't find anything. The Hartford Current reported, what Matthew Beck left behind was victims and bewildered parents whose grief is compounded by guilt. Well, I bet it is. You're going to say, why didn't I see this coming? As a parent, you have to.

Yeah. You're going to experience that whether you want to or not. Could I have stopped this? Could I have stopped this? I knew something was going on, but could they have possibly known that it was going to rise to this level? I would think that most parents would never think

their child would do something like that. Yeah. I think it would be really hard. Yeah. To think even when your child struggling. They're going through hard times that they're not going to make it through and come out on the other side. Because let's face it, most of us do. Right. Everybody goes through hard times, whether it's work, whether it's in your personal life, relationships. I can guarantee you there's not

a person listening to this right now who can't think of a time at some job where it was just horrible. Oh, yeah. Maybe not all the time, but a period of time, a stretch where they thought, okay, I hate this. They're mistreating me. I'm not getting this promotion. Whatever it is, the difference is they probably never thought about doing what Matthew Beck did. Governor John G. Rowland said in a press statement, most of us have picked up newspapers in the morning and read about these unnecessary tragedies

occurring, but it always seems to occur somewhere else, presumably a faraway place. This morning, we learn that these unnecessary tragedies can even occur in our own communities and in our state. The whole state mourns this unexplained act of violence. And I think what he said is kind of profound. You know, you read the paper, not as many people read the paper now. No. You look at your phone.

You watch the nightly news. You see a lot of stuff going on. Most of the time it's happening somewhere else. And so it doesn't maybe always hit home. You know, go back a few years ago when we had the shootings in Dayton. That hit home. It really did. Because it was where we lived.

Yeah. Not to say that, you know, I'm not always sympathetic and that I feel bad. when, you know, these mass shootings happen wherever they happen. But when they occurred here in Dayton, it did feel different. Sure did. There's just no way to deny that. It was in our backyard. Governor Roland attended all four of the victim's funerals.

Moriner showered the office with flowers. The New York Times published an article about each of the victims in their lives. Otho Brown was described as having a retiring demeanor. and sparse words. He was an important figure in the state lottery. In 1996, he transitioned the lottery from a government agency to a quasi-public entity transitioning from chief of the Connecticut lottery unit to president of the Connecticut Lottery Corporation. He said, we're a business that is intended to return profits to the shareholders who are the people of Connecticut. His goal was to grow the lottery revenue by 15% every year.

People who knew him said that he was a great boss. He was a really compassionate individual and that he was such a proud, happy father. His friends and family said that he never would have done anything bad enough to make someone want to hurt him. Well, sounds like he was a stand-up guy. Yeah, as I think we're going to find out all of these people were. But I want to go back to that comment. Right. He would never have done anything bad enough to make someone want to hurt him.

Gives, none of these people did. They were just there doing their job. They were doing what they felt was the right thing to do. Now, Matthew Beck didn't like it, right? He wanted things to go a different way. Sure. And he was upset that they had gone the way they had gone. Motho was an Army veteran and a graduate of the University of Delaware. He worked in real estate for years and began working for the lottery in 1987. He was married and a father to three children. Linda Milnarzik had a cheerful can-do spirit. She spent her lifetime doing community service like cleaning streets, volunteering at schools, and working with social services.

D. Lodi D. Lernia, her high school friend, told the New York Times, some people do it just because it helps them get to one place or another. she was always doing it from way back when she was genuine in 1993 linda was elected mayor of new britain connecticut linda was a member of the republican party the city had elected a democratic mayor for decades and had never elected a woman before she was praised for being a good accessible mayor linda married her husband peter in 1995 she began working for the lottery in 1996 she was at a high point in her life. She liked her job and she had a very happy marriage. The life was good until Matthew Beck decided to take it away. Yeah. Frederick Rubelman had spent

over 18 years in the gaming industry by July of 1996. He had worked his way up to the VP of operations for the lottery. He was a voted husband and a father to two children. He lived in Connecticut his entire life. Michael Logan had a wife and two small children. He spent most of his career as an electronic systems engineer before working for the state lottery. So again, you know, back to what you said. I think, you know, all of these four individuals were good people. Now, are you going to see a lot of bad things written about them? No. No, you're not.

But even if they had done some things. Right. That let's say their family wouldn't want to see maybe in print, none of it would have risen to the level. to the level of what happened to them. And certainly the things we know about, the things they did should have never gotten them killed. These are decisions that we all make every day in our jobs. Depending on what type of job you have.

And if you have some say in hiring, promoting, firing, things like that, most of us who are in those positions, I don't think we think about those things day in, day out that what I'm doing could lead to something like this. Right. Because if you did, you'd probably spend your entire day fill with fear. Yeah.

Because these are decisions that are made, you know, all the time. Yeah. All around the world. That have impacts. After the shooting, Matthew's father read a formal apology statement to the victim's families. he said, I brought him to the emergency room a year ago, and the doctor said, thank God that he lived. But maybe not thank God.

Maybe he would have been better off, not safe. Maybe I should not have done anything and left him there. If I had known what was going to happen, God forgive me, I would have done that. You know, that's a tough thing to say about your son. And it's a tough thing to live with, right? to think that this action that you did, which resulted in saving your son's life, may not have been the best thing to do. That's tough to think about because what father, given the chance, wouldn't save their child's life. But now he's looking back at it after the tragedy. And he's putting

some of that blame on himself saying, well, maybe if I hadn't done that, yeah, these four people wouldn't have died. That is a tremendous amount of guilt. Yeah, very, very huge. It's coming through so clearly to me, right, through this statement. He said, what our son Matthew did was terribly, terribly wrong. We love you, Matt, but why? Again, the big question, right, in so many of these cases. Why? The why. He went on to say, he was really a great guy. But what he did is, what everyone will remember him for. His murderous act was monstrous, but he was not a monster. We offer our sincerest sympathy to all the families and apologize for Matt.

I cannot ask you to forgive him, for we have not yet forgiven him for what he did. It's actually very well written, very well delivered. Yeah. Because by my way of thinking Gibbs, as a family, kind of tough to look at this son that you raised, this son that you knew and say, this guy was a monster. Well, he wasn't a monster to them. But what he did was monstrous. It was terrible. It was horrific. So, you know, I can see a mother, a father kind of grappling with the paradox. If I'm using that word correctly, you know, here's our little boy. We watched him grow up. We saw all the great things he did.

And then all of a sudden, something happened. And he did about the worst thing that you can do. And now he's gone and we have to live with this. Yeah. And it's not going to be easy. Matthew's mother also wrote apology letters to her family to apologize for Matthew's actions. His parents chose to keep his funeral a secret to avoid media coverage. I'm sure they needed to.

Yeah. It would have been a circus, right? this was a big deal. This was a, you know, a big happening and the media would have descended. The police requested to review Matthew's psychiatric records because Dr. Smith approved Matt to return to work. Donald Beck refused to share them. He obtained the records and hired his own psychiatrist to review them. The psychiatrist found no basis for a malpractice lawsuit. So we talked about, the parents having a tremendous amount of guilt. Right. You got to look at this Dr. Smith. Layered guilt. And think, okay, he reviewed this guy. He said, you know what? You're good to go back to work. Can you blame him? I don't know that you can because I don't know the interaction. I don't know what was in the records. And we do know that sometimes people can snow doctors. They put on a show.

Yeah, absolutely. But either way, my assumption is he carried or still carries quite a bit of guilt related to that decision, even if it was the correct decision at the time. Right. In 1999, Donald Beck made a request for his son's guns, jacket, and additional records. He wanted the gun so that he could sell them and donate the money to the victim's families. He claimed to have already sold his son's stocks and car, but his request was denied by the local court. Again, it sounds like he's trying to do something nice for the family. My thought is, Gibbs, if I'm the families of these victims, I'm not sure that I want the money that comes from the sale of the guns that killed my family members.

Be rough to take in. Yeah, that just seems a little off to me. on August 22nd, 2001, the Connecticut Superior Court announced their decision in Rubelman v. Connecticut Lottery, Mary Rubelman filed a complaint on October 16, 2000, alleging that the director of HR was negligent in hiring and retaining Matthew Beck. The suit stated, she permitted Matthew Beck to reenter the workplace at a time when she knew, or reasonably should have known that this placed a class of victims at an unreasonable risk of serious harm.

Additionally, she accused the Director of Security of Negligence and Misconduct. The Superior Court struck one count from her lawsuit, but the results of the suit were never made public. March 6, 2018 marked the 20-year anniversary of the tragic shooting. The New Haven Register published an article about changing. since the shooting in 1999, Connecticut became the first state to adopt a red flag law, which grants law enforcement the authority to take firearms from someone they have probable cause to believe will harm themselves or others. This law was adopted as a direct response to the shooting.

A 2016 Duke study found that red flag laws may have prevented several suicides, but only five states have adopted the law. Only five. At least as of 2016. I didn't really check, you know, as as of today, because that is a very controversial issue, right? This country was founded on the right to bear arms. It's one of the founding principles. So I think anytime you're talking about taking guns away from a citizen, there are going to be people that are opposed to it. Yeah, for sure here in the States, probably not going to go over very well. But at the same time, if you look at gun laws, there are things that prevent some citizens from owning guns,

possessing guns, right? I think, you know, being a felon, being convicted of things like domestic abuse. And this may vary by jurisdiction. I don't know. But I know there are certain things like that. Some of those may even center around mental health. But either way, it is a tricky conversation.

And I can see where not all states may jump on board, something like that, because it wouldn't be something that the majority of their constituents may want to happen. But you know, just like we talk about in a lot of episodes, sometimes it takes a tragedy for something to be put into place. Yeah. Now, this was put into place in Connecticut. kid. There were some other states that adopted it later, but it does seem like in the wake of these types of shootings, there are changes that are made or attempted to be made. Not all of them are met with enthusiasm or past or whatever. Yeah, but they're trying to make, but their intention was to make something better instead

of doing nothing. No, I think their intentions are benevolent. But again, it's, kind of the thing about our country, right? Not everyone is going to see it that way. Some people are going to see it as an infringement on their right. Sure. Governor Mallow released a statement on the anniversary, he said, we mourn still for the workers who lost their lives on that terrible day by a horrible act of gun violence. We pray for and remember the victims, their fellow employees and their families. Twenty years later, as we look back on the actions that occurred on this tragic day, we must recognize that our nation has not done enough to proactively work to stop the threat of situations such as the one we witnessed here. And, you know, break down that statement.

Yes, it was a horrible act of gun violence. But I feel like this statement is so much broader than just talking about guns, right? You can talk about the area of mental health. You can talk about guns, but I do think there's a lot of components to proactively working to stop the threat of these type of situations. So Gibbs, as we wrap up this case, obviously a horrible, tragic situation. And to me, there's no doubt that Matthew Beck was experiencing some sort of mental illness, right? He was seen by psychologists, by psychiatrists. I think the trouble. I think the trouble that we have in this case is that Matthew ended his life without really leaving anything behind. Right. That kind of explained why he did this or, you know, what spurred him on.

We know he was angry, right? He was upset about the way that he had been treated. He harbored a lot of ill will, especially towards these four individuals, for things that had gone down. but there's still that question of the why. You know, was it simply revenge for these slights that he felt these people had, you know, committed against him? Or was there a lot more to it? You know, was he experiencing some serious mental illness that kind of led these thoughts to really kind of get out of control?

Yeah. And I just don't think we know the answer to that. I don't think we ever will. No, at this point, no, we never will. But to me, that's the thing with these types of cases. Yeah, this is a case about gun violence, but it's also about much more than that. So much more. Right.

There's the mental health aspect to it. Could he have received treatment? Should he have received treatment? Should he have been allowed to go back to work? Was he in the right frame of mind to go back to work? Right. knowing how he felt he was being treated there. Yeah, because I do think you can make the argument that if this was a guy who didn't own guns,

but still wanted to do something, felt the urge to harm and kill individuals, maybe he could have gone another route. He could have built a bomb. He could have done this or done that. it's hard to boil everything down to just one thing. Right. Because I do think there's a lot of factors that come into play in a lot of these episodes. Because you can't go back and look at his childhood and say,

oh, this kid had a terrible childhood and he was headed down a bad path. He seemed to be doing very, very well. Yeah. Through high school, through college, something changed. His friends, his family, a lot of. of people said that. Something changed in Matt. And what was that? And did it have a mental health aspect to it? It seems to me as though it did. Yeah, most likely it did, right? But it's horrible that, you know, four innocent people lost their lives, their loved ones, right? Their wives, their parents.

Some of them had children. Some of them had small children. And, you know, it's just horrible to think about how one person's actions can affect so many people. Oh, yeah. It just goes so deep, you know. And, you know, let's not forget the people that work there. Yeah. Probably traumatized to this day to one degree or another. Some may be more than others.

Sure, yeah. Fearful at every job they've ever had that this is going to happen again. To the point they might have had to not work for a while. Yeah, I could definitely see that. But that's it for our case on Matthew Beck. We got some voicemails. You want to check those out, Gibbs? Yeah, let's hear them.

Hi, Mike and Gibby. It's Phoenix from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I listen to you guys, eight hours a day, five days a week. That's a good and a bad thing. Bad because I work in a basement by myself all day. So I get a little paranoid. I have a case suggestion. If you haven't done so already, I'd like to hear anything you can find about Ed Edwards.

Reason being because my mom, you said, tell me about. about a couple that went missing in the 80s, I believe it was, after a wedding. And it was Kelly Drew and Tim Hack. She knew the Hack family. And her sister actually dated Tim's younger brother. I think she tried to tell me as like a stranger danger warning. She also used to tell me about the, she used to tell me that somebody who put me in a pit in their basement in regards to talking to random people on the internet. Turns out that story was true. Yeah, my family's morbid. I am team Fergie because I'm engaged to

Ferguson, but I love you both. Keep your head on a syllable. Keep your own time ticking. Bye. And you're in the basement like Fergie. Yeah, I was going to say we have a lot in common because I work in my basement all day long. So, Stranger Danger, right? Parents have been using it for, gosh, ever. Yeah. But the thought of using real examples, right? So it's one thing. to say don't talk to strangers but another thing to say oh i knew so and so and this is what happened that would hit a little closer to home yeah than just saying you know beware of strangers don't talk to strangers we have not done ed edwards i don't believe we did ed we did edward adams so we'll definitely have to to check into that case good suggestion though yeah good suggestion

fascinated by people keeping other people in pits. You know, you've got Buffalo Bill and Sons of Lambs. You've got the ending to two and a half men where Charlie was kept in a pit. Yeah. To me, that's a very scary thought. There are a lot of scary thoughts.

But to think that you're in kind of this really deep hole pit that you can't climb out of and you're at the mercy of someone else. That really gives me the willies. You should come out to some land I buy. No, I will not. See my bunker. I will not. You keep talking about the bunker.

I'm not visiting the bunker. Hi, guys. Thank you again. I just finished listening. The George Tiafe, is that how you say it? I don't know. But you wanted to know what the inside of our truck was thought. Your closet is probably bigger than our truck.

And the upper part, we have bunk beds in the back. If y'all want to come out, hang out with us, I will follow it wherever you need me to. But y'all be safe. Thank you for all for them. All right. So you have a room for the night, Gibbs. Whenever you need it, she will roll through.

Yeah. Just got to give her a heads up. And you can sleep in the bunk bed. Yeah. See how big it is and kind of get that trucker, uh, fantasy island type deal that you've been wanting. That's exactly right. Good buddy breaker 1-9.

Yeah, she'll probably give you your own call sign. Hello, Mike's. My name is Cass. I'm calling from Michigan, go blue. I was wondering, does Gibby go by Gibby because you're both named Mike, or have you gone by Gibby for a while? That also, I just finished the Luca Magnata podcast, but I only finished part one. and I'm going to stop for a little bit because that story is so horrific.

Like, honestly, kudos to you guys for being able to, like, sit through that and explain these things. Like, all I'm doing is listening to it, and I'm sick to my stomach. I've only had one other story hit me like this, and it was David Parker Ray, which I think you guys also covered. I think I heard from you guys too. But, yeah, honestly, you guys are great for being able to share those stories and not, throw up. So yeah, I just want to say that you guys are great. You guys are my favorite podcasts.

I cannot stand listening to anyone else to do true crime because they are not Mike and Gibby. So, yeah, you guys seriously make my days better, even if some of the stuff makes me feel worse. So give me something to listen to, I guess. Something interesting. So, yeah. Go Blue. Go Blue.

And thank you. She had to get that go blue in three times. Dish, I wouldn't even listen to that part. Oh, you black that out? Yeah. Now, we appreciate that voicemail. I don't know how long you've been going by Gibby. I mean, you can tell me, I've been calling you that for ever since we've known each other.

Yeah, pretty long time. But my assumption is that was probably a nickname that you've had for a long time. People used to call me Fergie when I was young. Yeah. I don't know if it's, it's probably has something to do with the fact that, a lot of guys our age were named Mike that was a very popular name very popular and so the most popular name yeah and so I knew a lot of mics like on baseball teams and so it was just natural for me to kind go by Fergie and right and things like that but we definitely appreciate it we do we had no mail bag

no mail no mail this week all right so that's it buddy for another episode of true crime all the time so for Mike and get me stay safe and keep your your own time ticking.