Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, workplace shootings carried out by post office workers across the United States led to the creation of the term “going postal.”
Oklahoma Highway Patrol CollectionFourteen employees of the post office in Edmond, Oklahoma, were killed in August 1986 when postman Patrick Sherrill “went postal.”
The phrase “going postal,” which means to become uncontrollably angry, appeared as a slang term in American English in the 1990s. It emerged after a spate of shootings at post offices carried out by employees who were angry about their working conditions.
The first recorded use of the term came in 1993, when a Florida newspaper printed an article about the post office murders. By that time, at least 11 such tragedies had occurred — but there were more to come.
These shootings became so commonplace that the United States Postal Service even created a new position, the Workplace Environment Analyst. The workers hired to fill these jobs were tasked with preventing violence and improving workplace conditions, though this was no easy task.
There was seemingly something about the culture of post offices that created such violent discord between employees and managers. One of the shooters even wrote a two-page letter detailing the unfair treatment he allegedly received while employed by the U.S. Postal Service.
In the end, the meaning of “going postal” is more than a way to describe anger — it’s a reminder of the vicious attacks carried out by post office employees across the country and the conditions that drove the workers to the edge.
Grisly Reports Of Employees Going Postal In The 1970s And 1980s
The events that spawned the term “going postal” were purportedly brought about by stressful work environments. Post office employees have historically worked long hours in physically demanding positions with stress-inducing quotas. This combination could lead to strain on employees’ mental health — sometimes to deadly results.
National Postal Museum, Curatorial Photographic CollectionPostal clerks sorting letters in the late 19th century. Although mail is largely sorted by machines today, post office employees often report toxic and stressful work environments.
One of the first reported instances of a postal worker turning violent occurred on August 12, 1970. Two days later, the Los Angeles Times ran a story titled “Post Office Supervisor Shot to Death; Co-Worker Arrested.” The supervisor in question was Harry Sendrow, 54, who was shot in the back three times as he attempted to flee from his killer. Hours after the shooting, 41-year-old Alfred Kellum was arrested when officers found him unconscious in his car.
The police noted that Kellum seemed drunk when they arrested him. Further investigation revealed that he had arrived at work inebriated, prompting Sendrow to send him home. When Kellum returned a few hours later, he had not sobered up, and he and Sendrow got into an altercation that ended with the shooting.
Nearly two decades later, on August 20, 1986, a postman named Patrick Sherrill “went postal” when he shot and killed 14 employees at the Edmond, Oklahoma, post office before taking his own life. After the incident, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Vincent Sombrotto, released a statement, as reported by United Press International at the time: “While we are shocked and dismayed by what happened and offer our prayers to those surviving victims now in the hospital, we cannot help but believe that Mr. Sherrill was pushed over the brink by irresponsible and coercive management policies by the Postal Services in the Oklahoma City region.”
Public DomainPatrick Sherrill, one of the U.S.P.S. employees who inspired the term “going postal.”
In August 1989, 52-year-old postman John Merlin Taylor murdered his wife and then drove to the Orange Glen Post Office in Escondido, California, where he shot and killed two co-workers and then himself.
Chillingly, some of the most disturbing instances of workers going postal were yet to come.
How Incidents In The 1990s Contributed To The Meaning Of ‘Going Postal’
MJCdetroit/Wikimedia CommonsThe post office in Royal Oak, Michigan, where a disgruntled former employee named Thomas McIlvane killed four people in 1991.
In October 1991, former postal worker Joseph Harris broke into the Ridgewood, New Jersey, home of Carol Ott, the woman who had been his supervisor. Harris had worked under Ott until April 1990, when he was fired from his position as a mail sorter after Ott reported that he’d threatened her. A year-and-a-half later, Harris murdered Ott with a samurai sword, shot her boyfriend, and then returned to the post office where he’d worked to kill two other employees. He also threw a handmade bomb at police officers before he was arrested and said a “ninja spirit” made him commit the crimes.
Just a month later, a postman named Thomas McIlvane shot and killed five people, including himself, at the Royal Oak Post Office in Michigan a year after he was fired for “insubordination” and fighting with customers on his delivery route.
Although these chillingly similar incidents were ramping up, it wouldn’t be until 1993 when two shootings occurred on the same day that the term “going postal” would first enter the cultural lexicon.
On May 6, 1993, Larry Jasion shot three co-workers at a post office in Dearborn, Michigan, killing one of them, before taking his own life. Hours later, in Dana Point, California, a man named Mark Richard Hilbun returned to the post office from which he’d recently been fired, killed one employee, and injured another.
YouTube/WDIV DetroitPostal workers mourn in the aftermath of the Royal Oak Post Office massacre.
That December, the Florida newspaper the St. Petersburg Times printed the term “going postal” for the first time, writing: “The symposium was sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, which has seen so many outbursts that in some circles excessive stress is known as ‘going postal.’ Thirty-five people have been killed in 11 post office shootings since 1983.”
Since then, at least three other major instances of employees “going postal” have occurred. On Jan. 30, 2006, former postal employee Jennifer San Marco — a highly paranoid and conspiratorial woman who believed nefarious forces were after her — killed six postal workers and then herself in Goleta, California. In April 2006, letter carrier Grant Gallaher shot and killed his supervisor in the parking lot. And on Dec. 23, 2017, postal employee DeShaune Stewart walked into a Dublin, Ohio, post office completely naked, shot and killed one of his supervisors, and then beat another supervisor to death in her apartment parking lot.
Because of these incidents that received widespread media attention, the term stuck in America vocabulary. The meaning of “going postal” also left a lasting impression that something about working in the postal service could potentially drive a person mad — but why?
Why The Post Office Can’t Shake The Violent Phrase
In the wake of these deadly post office shootings, many postal employees weren’t surprised by the incidents. One worker told the media after the Royal Oak massacre: “When I heard there was a shooter, in my mind it could have been anyone. I understand why he did it.”
Of course, not every mistreated or disgruntled worker turned to mass violence, but these extreme outliers should have highlighted a larger problem with employment by the post office. Many post office employees described their managers as “authoritarian” but felt they had to stay because the post office was one of the few opportunities that provided benefits to middle-class people without a trade skill or college degree.
Running with ScissorsA screenshot from the 1997 video game Postal.
Clearly, the U.S.P.S. had widespread management problems that went ignored for years. Some have even wondered if these issues would have been addressed at all had certain employees not “gone postal.”
As time went on, “going postal” became a common phrase in American vocabulary. It inspired the controversial video game Postal and was used in films like Clueless and television shows like Brooklyn 99. Even the author Terry Pratchett wrote a novel titled Going Postal for his long-running Discworld series. However, the original meaning of going postal also became obscured.
Today, the phrase is mostly used to describe an angry outburst — but the true meaning of “going postal” remains a dark stain on the nation’s past.
After learning about the meaning of “going postal” and its violent history, go inside the murky origins of the term “whipping boy.” Then learn about the shockingly literal origins of the term “Devil’s advocate.”