Highlighted Crime
Story of the week -
On October 10. 1991, former U.S. postal worker Joseph
Harris shot two former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, New
Jersey. The night before, Harris had killed his former supervisor, Carol Ott,
with a three-foot samurai sword, and shot her fiancé, Cornelius Kasten, in
their home. After a four-hour standoff with police at the post office, Harris
was arrested. His violent outburst was one of several high-profile attacks by
postal workers that resulted in the addition of the phrase “going postal” to
the American dictionary.
Harris, who had a lifetime of psychiatric problems, was
fired from his job in April 1990. Harboring a grudge against his ex-employer,
he began to stockpile automatic weapons, grenades, and other weapons. Two years
later, he learned that he had lost as much as $10,000 by investing it with
broker Roy Edwards. Dressed in a black ninja costume, Harris entered Edwards’
Montville, New Jersey, home and handcuffed the family. After sexually
assaulting Edwards’ wife and two daughters, he shot Edwards to death. Since
hundreds of investors had lost money while dealing with Edwards, police never
even considered Harris a suspect in his death until after the Ridgewood tragedy.
Arguing that he was insane, Harris’ lawyers said that he
had told psychiatrists that he was driven by the “ninja spirit” to commit the
crimes. In 1992, Harris was convicted of both the Montville and Ridgewood
attacks and was sent to death row. But in September 1996, two days before a New
Jersey State Supreme Court battle to overturn its death-penalty law was to
start, he died of natural causes.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and the author of
six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California 1849-1949.
Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His book can be purchased from Amazon through the following
link:
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