We were good friends," he says. 6 were already dead.". Here he shot her 13 times, dropped the groundsheet and returned to parking area. Shotguns had to be registered and were required to be kept in secure storage. Read more: Amazing archive photos show the changing face of Reading in the 1960s, Read more: Caversham Park Village from the air 50 years ago. Driver, Linda Bright, immediately put the ambulance into reverse and retreated. At about 02:00 she looked out of the window and saw the bodies from South View being collected and driven away. "I just thought she was delirious from blood loss.". "It was a massacre," she says. ', "She told me to get my arse straight down there. At 6.45 pm he said, Its funny, I killed all those people but I havent got the guts to blow my own brains out. It's testament to her own strength of mind that she did. He told his wife to stay indoors with the little girl she was babysitting and headed off to Hungerford town centre, first to a newsagent to buy some maps and then to the police station. "The tourist buses would just park where they usually did and then people used to come up here on foot," Trevor Jackson says. Having created a fort for himself in the Gibbs home, Ryan fired at neighbouring houses, injuring a man at number 62 and a woman at number 67 Priory Road.Ian Playle, a 34-year-old clerk to the Justices at Newbury Magistrates Court, had brought his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young children, Richard and Sarah, to Hungerford on a shopping trip. Your dad's been shot. Prof Craig Jackson, a psychologist who specialises in spree killers, thinks there was also a sexual motive. After all, he was in the area and knew Mrs Dean. The Whitings' son Matthew, who was 11 at the time, was with his childminder in the playground and saw Mr Butler being shot. One man was injured. Access was blocked for the fire engine called to deal with the fire Ryan had started in his own home and which had already spread to three neighbouring properties. Sixteen people were killed and 15 more were seriously injured in what was the UK's worst mass. Ryan fired at them and Victor died instantly, whilst Myrtle died later in hospital. In a small village 60 miles west of London, at 12:30 in the afternoon, 27-year-old Michael Ryan shoots a mother dead. "He was going to set fire to his mother's house and drive away, leaving the police to believe he'd died in the fire.". Ron Tarry, Hungerfords Mayor, claimed that the locals were in shock and speaking in hushed tones and that it was the press and others who had flocked to the scene who were doing the drinking in pubs. 20th August 1987. The Hoddle Street massacre was committed by a former soldier who wore combat fatigues. I've never run so fast. Kahn died later of his wounds. LONDON (AP) _ Michael Ryan, the gun-loving loner who became Britain's worst mass murderer, won't be buried with the doting mother he killed and ''almost certainly'' won't be buried in the town he devastated, his family said Saturday. He says he was helped by a discovery made at the post-mortem examination - that his father had developed lung cancer. She seemed more concerned about her trousers than her wounds. He is still haunted, he says, by the photograph of his father dead in his car. "He was trapped and didn't have a viable way out of his situation.". "My daughter arranged it. But we've stuck by each other.". Its inhabitants refer to the shooting as "The Tragedy", almost as if it were a natural disaster. He survived the attack. "He was dead after all. Everyone remembers the silence. As he approached a playground near Bulpit Lane he shot and killed dog walker Francis Butler. It was following Alfred's death in 1985 that Mrs Ryan began appearing at work with visible bruises, Mrs Jackson says. The popular weekly market attracted many people and was an event enjoyed by locals and visitors alike. He told people he had served in the Second Parachute Regiment of the British armed forces, that he was getting married, and that he owned a gun shop. I saw Robert Clements hed been walking the dog with his dad, Ken, and just witnessed him shot dead in South View. Back at the police station, PC Wainwright was told his mother had been taken to hospital in Swindon. Sandra Hill, was shot while driving; Jack and Myrtle Gibbs, were shot in their home in Priory Road; and Ian Playle was shot while driving into Hungerford on a shopping trip with his wife and two children. Their younger son Trevor, who had been 18 in 1987, is being treated for PTSD while his older brother Peter, who was in the same year as Ryan at school, refuses to talk about that day. A few moths before the massacre, Ryan joined the Tunnel Rifle and Pistol Club, in Wiltshire. Moving closer, he noticed the rear window of the police car had been shot out. "He was a good man. Now, as his colleague, quantity surveyor George White, drove him home to check on his wife, they came across Ryan. Because Ryan burned down his home, any evidence of planning was destroyed. Even now Mr Jackson has not been back to South View. Alan Lepetit, Mrs Whiting's brother, was a neighbour of Ryan's, living in South View. Witnesses report that at this point, Ryan seemed disgusted with the rifle and threw it onto the ground. There was a terrible burning pain. When PC Wainwright, wearing his off-duty clothes of shorts and a Fred Perry polo shirt, was called into his superior's office, he thought he was going to be told to put his uniform on. "There was a picture of my dad, dead in a car with a blanket over him. "I just started to run. ", Several of Derek and Mary Whiting's relatives were shot. The press helicopters were in the way of police trying to track Ryan and this allowed him to get away again. Police were still hunting for the gunman in their midst. Armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and at least one. Eric Vardy, a carpenter and van driver for Norland Nursery College, was on his way with passenger, Steven Ball, to a builders supplier. When Michael Ryan went on a killing spree in Hungerford in 1987, the news - like last week's shootings in Cumbria - shocked the country. The final shooting took place at about 13:45. This had been Ryans first victim. They had heard the sounds of the shots being fired and were terrified. I couldnt move my legs. She had been to check on the building, which was just the other side of the street from her South View home, and was returning to her house for lunch when a springer spaniel ran past. Whenever they asked me where it all happened I'd say it was down the A4. The man, Douglas Wainwright, hit twice in the chest and once in the head, died instantly but his wounded wife, Kathleen Wainwright survived. "After what happened, lots of people split up," says Ivor Jackson. I believe Ryan had probably been fantasising about it on a low level, but the events that day - and his personality type - led to it. He sprayed their car with 11 bullets, Ivor Jackson was shot three times in the chest and once in the head and White was shot too, dying as their car smashed into the police car Ryan had shot at earlier. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of Terms and Conditions. He also had a more sinister motivation for visiting the woodland. "At the hospital, where my mum was, everyone who'd been shot had been put into the same ward. He can barely speak about his friend, George White. Then he shot at Mrs Dean and sped back to South View where he set fire to his home and shot dead his dog, Blackie. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the village on Thursday, August 20, 1987, the day after the shooting, to pay her condolences. After the murders, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed following a report commissioned by then-Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. I probably did three or four of these checks a week. George sped off on his motorcycle. Her children, who were 85 yards away from where her body was found, were later reunited with their father. "It was just routine. Sandra Hill, who'd moved away from the town, was visiting former school friends. At one point, he claimed to have an Israeli fragmentation type hand grenade, which seriously worried the police. Unfortunately, the bullet travelled up into Alisons lower back, leaving her permanently disabled. Ryan was 25 when his father died of cancer in 1985. Linda was hit in the shoulder and Alison in the right thigh. Whether or not these were completely accurate accounts, they certainly encapsulated the emotion of relief foremost in peoples minds immediately after the massacre that the carnage was finally over. I thought I was safe.". "If he had the choice - to die from a horrible disease like that, or be shot, I know he'd choose the bullet. He believes Ryan would get an illicit sexual thrill during his woodland trips and obtain pleasure and a sense of accomplishment from following and watching people unseen. While the physical injuries from that fateful day have long since healed, the emotional scars in Hungerford still run deep. Ryan hadnt stopped there, though. They lived a few doors from each other and their families were friends. At 17:25, Ryan threw a semi-automatic rifle from the classroom window. He used his semi-automatic rifle to strafe the front door and open it. Yet another vehicle drove into the area and once again, Ryan shot at it, hitting the driver, shattering his jaw, bursting his tongue and missing his spinal cord by two millimetres. This powerful mix of emotions is often later expressed in an inappropriately violent response. He returned to South View to find bodies on the ground and was asked by police to identify them. As they drove up Tarrants Hill, their windscreen was shattered by a spray of bullets and Vardy was hit twice, under the chin and in the torso. The names of the 16 people who were killed are listed on a stone set into the wall of the town's war memorial garden, with no mention of how they died. Ivor Jacksons wife, Marjorie, had called him whilst Ryan was aiming a gun at her. Police in action during a Gun siege in Hungerford, Berkshire. Marching her away from her two young children, he shot her 13 times in the back. Inside, PC Roger Brereton, a traffic officer who had volunteered to investigate, was slumped against the steering wheel, clearly dead. Ryan had killed 16 people, including his mother, and wounded 15 others. He was still labouring under the impression that there might have been a shooting accident. ", Kathleen Wainwright later moved to Hungerford to be near her son. It was a good day to spend in the garden - hot and sunny. Someone had shot at the cashier, Kakoub Dean. Lisa Mildenhall, 14, was shot and wounded by Ryan, who had smiled at her whilst she crouched on the ground at her front door, and then shot her four times in the legs and stomach. Knowing his way around the streets, he had tried to drive home by another route. Emerging from the house, dressed in a headband and sleeveless flak jacket, Ryan carried a bag filled with food and other supplies. Not able to stand by and idly watch people suffer, he had repeatedly risked his life to help a number of victims, giving first aid where he could and solace to those having lost loved ones. Trevor Wainwright, Hungerfords usual bobby on the beat, was on a day off. Policemen. 19th August 1987. In an unfortunate turn of events, the police at the roadblock actually sent some drivers directly towards Ryan.Police Constable Roger Brereton rushed to the danger area of South View and Ryan shot at his patrol car 23 times. It wasnt long before investigators discovered, via ballistics analysis, that her death was connected to those that happened subsequently in Hungerford that afternoon. hungerford massacre photos. He headed straight there and was greeted by a nurse who said Kathleen was fine and Douglas was in the operating theatre. She managed to drag herself into her house and survived. 14 - Myrtle Gibbs "I think he used to do it quite often, but then with him he used to say lots of things. 2 - Sheila Mason Sent them away.". There he announced that he had commissioned a report on the massacre from the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Colin Smith. It is known that he made her put her son and daughter, aged two and four, in her car. He took the firearms, packed the pockets of his flak jacket with ammunition and marched off down the road. Another witness reported that Ryan warned several children to get off the street and go inside. In contrast, Dorothy Ryans funeral service, held at St Marys Church in Calne, Wiltshire, was only attended by 40 mourners. The dog and its pursuer rounded a bend before disappearing from view. That summer afternoon Ryan, a 27-year-old unemployed labourer, killed 16 people . His favourite toy was Action Man, the commando-type plastic doll, kitted out with uniforms and weapons. Ryan then went to Froxtield petrol station, where he was watched by Mrs Kakoub Dean, wife of the owner, as he filled up his metallic silver Vauxhall Astra GTE, as well as a five-litre can. February 27, 2023 equitable estoppel california No Comments . Ian Playle, the last victim to be fatally shot, had in fact been warned of the danger in South View by police. Then the radio announced the names of some of the people whod been shot, but didn't say if they were dead or alive. The woman did not believe them at first but agreed to help them find her. As the brothers were cleaning up, a reporter burst in. As Mr White turned his Toyota Crown into South View, he was shot in the head and died instantly. "She asked me what my dad looked like," he says. It also transpired that there were several unfortunate incidents encumbering the response by the police and other emergency services to the events on 19 August 1987. 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