TV Violence, ‘Rambo’ Films Assailed as British Killings Toll Rises to 17

Two more people gunned down in Britain’s worst mass murder died of their wounds, bringing the death toll Friday to 17. The toll includes the gunman, who killed himself when he was trapped by police in a school room.

Growing public outrage in Britain, meanwhile, chose television violence and “Rambo” movies as its first targets in the aftermath of the shootings Wednesday in this normally peaceful market town, 60 miles West of London.

The British Broadcasting Corp. said it canceled the broadcast of a violent television drama about gangsters in deference to Hungerford’s 5,000 residents.

Witnesses have said the gunman, 27-year-old Michael Ryan, was dressed and armed like John Rambo, the film warrior played by Sylvester Stallone, when he went on the rampage.

In the conservative Daily Telegraph, columnist Leslie Garner wrote that the Rambo character “is the current icon of human destructiveness. . . . In the aftermath of Hungerford, it is sheer intellectual cowardice to pretend that these images . . . have no effect on behavior.”

‘Video Nasties’ Blamed

Michael Stewart, a social worker helping Hungerford residents cope with the shock, blamed Ryan’s behavior on “video nasties”--violent video cassette movies readily available at rental shops, even to children.

An inquest began on 33-year-old Susan Godfrey, who was shot dead while picnicking with her children in a forest near Hungerford. Her death is believed to have been the start to a shooting spree in the town itself by Ryan, a gun fancier who had been viewed by the townspeople as a quiet loner. After formalities, the inquest was adjourned until October.

Myrtle Gibbs 63, died late Thursday night of multiple gunshot wounds in the abdomen, said a statement from Princess Margaret Hospital in nearby Swindon.

She was seated in her wheelchair when she was shot. She died unaware that her husband, Victor, 66, was killed trying to shield her when Ryan burst into the room with a semiautomatic AK-47 assault rifle.

Victim was Magistrate’s Clerk

Ian Playle, a 34-year-old magistrate’s clerk, died Friday of head injuries. He was married and had two children.

Thirteen other victims remained hospitalized, two in intensive-care wards.

Hungerford’s citizens prayed for the victims, cleared away the broken glass, shot-up cars and blood, and turned to the problems of the survivors. A wreath lay on the steps of town hall.

Ryan will be buried in Hungerford, where he lived with his mother. She was one of those he killed.

David Fairbrass, a cousin, said Ryan may be buried in the same cemetery as his victims, but that Ryan’s 60-year-old mother, Dorothy, would be interred 25 miles away at Calne, where she was born.

Ryan’s motive remained a mystery. Investigations of his past revealed scant evidence of mental instability.

Newspapers described him as a loner who was bullied at school, but people who knew him said there were no outward signs of abnormality. Recent photographs showed a round-faced man with a thin mustache wearing a camouflage-colored floppy hat.

Fairbrass said that his last conversation with Ryan came at a family wedding late last year and that “he was quite outgoing. He was there with his mother. He was enjoying the day. He seemed quite jovial.”

‘Never Saw Any Girlfriends’

He said of his cousin: “We never saw any girlfriends. He didn’t drink alcohol much, and he certainly didn’t take drugs or anything like that. He was quite articulate really, but a man of few words. You would not think he was strange.”

Ryan was licensed to own five guns, and Fairbrass said his cousin once showed him a collection of antique swords.

“He was generally interested in antiques,” Fairbrass said. “He had lots of books. That interest could have perhaps led to his interest in guns.”

‘Mother Doted on Him’

The cousin said Ryan got along well with his mother and with his father, who died several years ago, adding: “His mother doted on him.”

An aunt, Connie Ryan, recalled in an interview with Independent Television News that Ryan once told her he pulled a handgun on a man he encountered in a field.

She said the man was “much bigger than himself, so Michael took a gun out of his pocket and held it at him, and the chap ran away, he said, which just goes to prove the power of the gun.”

Douglas Hogg, a senior Home Office official, promised an immediate investigation into the licensing of semiautomatic weapons.

“Ministers are considering urgently how these matters can be tackled both by tightening the way in which the present law is operated and by changes in the law,” he said.