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- <text id=91TT2612>
- <title>
- Nov. 25, 1991: American Notes:Murders
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Nov. 25, 1991 10 Ways to Cure The Health Care Mess
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 51
- American Notes
- MURDERS
- More Death in The Mailroom
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Fellow workers called Thomas McIlvane a "time bomb" after he
- was fired last year from the Royal Oak, Mich., post office for
- insubordination. "Everybody said if he didn't get his job back,
- he was going to come in and shoot," postal worker Bob Cibulka
- said. "Everyone was talking about it." Last week the 31-year-old
- former Marine proved them right. Armed with a sawed-off .22-cal.
- Ruger Rimfire rifle, he entered the back sorting room of the
- 1940s-style office and killed his supervisor and the labor
- arbitrator who had turned down his appeal for reinstatement. In
- all, he murdered four and wounded five others, fatally shooting
- himself in the head. The shooting spree prompted an urgent plea
- for blood donors throughout metropolitan Detroit.
- </p>
- <p> Royal Oak was the fifth multiple post-office murder in as
- many years. Last month in Paterson, N.J., an ex-postal employee
- wielding a sword and gun killed his supervisor and three others.
- Labor analysts struggled last week to explain why postal workers
- seem more prone to violence than workers in other high-stress
- fields, like coal mining or air-traffic control. One possible
- explanation: budget cuts that have reduced the screening and
- supervision of workers. Another could be the boot-camp
- conditions that exist for many workers. Delivering the mail is
- not necessarily a more dangerous profession than most, just an
- easier one for unstable workers to enter.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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