It seems that way too frequently the news features stories of tragedy that affect a family or small town in some significant way. Just this morning, I was reading a story today about a British Columbia man who killed his five-year-old daughter and is claiming a bipolar disorder.
Many of us have been affected by tragedy - some directly and others not as much. Got me to thinking about such an occurence in my hometown when I was a teenager.
Just more than 30 years ago - June 22, 1980, to be exact - a high school buddy (John Lass) and I were playing tennis on a Sunday morning. It was just another average day in the sleepy little town of Daingerfield, Texas (pop. around 2,000).
Sometime during the morning, we noticed an ambulance rushing through town. Not a normal sight in such a small place. Then, we saw another. Then another and a fire truck... Something really big was happening.
We finished up quickly and headed home to see what we could find out. Back then, obviously, we didn't have cell phones, PDAs, the Internet, etc... So, we called around to see what we could find out.
Well, the news wasn't good. Alvin Lee King III, the husband of my eighth-grade history teacher, Gretchen King, burst into the First Baptist Church in Daingerfield (the most popular church in town) and opened fire. Afterward he ran out of the church and, unsuccessfully, attempted suicide. He was captured and hung himself in the Morris County Jail not long afterward.
Five people were killed and several others wounded that day in a tragedy that many people in that town still remember vividly.
The local newspaper, the Daingerfield Bee, recently published this story on the 30-year anniversary of this terrible event.
There is also a book published by Larry Linham (The Day the Angels Cried) that described the events from a first-hand point of view.
Here are a few other accounts of the event, in case you are interested
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