Early Tragedy Touched Letter Carrier’s Life : Taylor’s Father, a Heavy Drinker, Was Shot to Death by Daughter After He Beat His Wife

John Merlin Taylor, the mail carrier who went on a shooting rampage Thursday at the Orange Glen postal station, was touched by another tragedy more than 30 years ago--the night his father reportedly came home drunk, beat the boy’s mother and then was shot to death by the boy’s sister.

Taylor, who was on life-support systems Friday night at Palomar Medical Center after being declared brain dead, was a teen-ager at the time his father was killed in the mid-1950s, in the family’s small farm home in central Missouri, according to several longtime family acquaintances.

But what effect, if any, the earlier tragedy may have had on his decision Thursday morning to shoot his wife, then kill two co-workers and wound a third is uncertain. Two of Taylor’s brothers and a sister declined to discuss the incident Friday.

Looking for Clues to Motive

Meanwhile, his relatives and co-workers here suggested in stronger terms Friday that the man who was described as a “model employee” was growing disillusioned with his work, and that stress, rather than personal problems, might be to blame for the Thursday morning bloodshed.

But Escondido Police Lt. Danny Starr said investigators may remain forever baffled by Taylor’s motive and may have to write it off as “a tragedy that can’t be explained.”

Starr said Taylor, 52, may have believed that he was under investigation by postal authorities for mail theft--even though there was no such inquiry.

“One of his co-workers told one of our investigators that Taylor thought they were trying to fire him for mail theft, but we checked with the Post Office, and they said there absolutely was no such investigation,” Starr said.

Starr said investigators continued Friday to talk to relatives and co-workers--and that, although all have offered speculation, there are no new leads.

“We’re getting little bits and pieces of what people think might have been the problem, but nothing has hit us in the face that would explain why he went off the deep end,” Starr said.

“Unfortunately, the person who could tell us is Taylor. . . . His close friends or his wife might have been privy to something, but he took them with him. That’s made it tough for us.”

Troubled First Marriage

Attention also focused on Taylor’s alleged violent behavior against his former wife, Mary, who divorced Taylor in 1977.

Documents filed in Vista Superior Court quoted Mary Taylor as saying she wanted to end her marriage because her husband was “extraordinarily violent, frequently drinks to excess, has threatened (her) life on many occasions and . . . physically struck, battered and beat (her) to the ground.”

But Ramon D. Asedo, the attorney who represented John Taylor in the divorce, disputed the allegations of drinking and beating.

“There was no showing of physical violence,” Asedo said Friday. “It was an extremely quiet, placid and pleasant separation. There was no real drinking or abuse, and that petition is just the kind of typical garbage we lawyers put in there.”

Father a Heavy Drinker

Taylor’s father, a farmer and heavy-machine operator, was a heavy drinker and wife abuser, according to several family acquaintances who live near the Taylor hometown of Mokane, Mo.

“I’ve known the Taylor boys all my life. It’s a big family,” said James St. George Tucker, past president of the Kingdom of Callaway Historical Society, which serves Mokane.

“It was a respected family. Joe (the father) was good size, but he started drinking. He started abusing his wife. And the daughter shot him and killed him at the house.”

The daughter, whose name was not known Friday, was exonerated in the shooting, Tucker said, mainly because Joseph Taylor had a “long history of abuse and drinking, of hitting his wife mainly, but the kids too.”

“The court found her innocent,” Tucker said.

Gene Maupin, the undertaker who buried Joseph Taylor, recalled that the killing was the last thing the community expected, despite the rumors of alcohol and wife abuse. “It was a large family and a well-known family, so it was a shock,” he said.

Mokane Mayor Howard (Glen) Paul, who grew up down the block from the Taylors, said the shooting “had an effect here, and everybody here remembers it.”

It was not immediately known whether John Taylor was at home the night his father was killed, and two brothers and a sister still living in the Mokane area declined to talk about their brother or the shooting. But other sources in Mokane recalled that, soon after his father’s death, young John Taylor graduated from high school and joined the Marine Corps in 1955. He later settled in the San Diego area, the only member of his family to leave Missouri, and joined the Postal Service in March, 1964.

Ex-Wife Declines Comment

On Friday, his previous wife, Mary Taylor, and her five children by that marriage, declined comment. “We ask for your understanding, patience and empathy at this very difficult time for our family,” the family said in a prepared statement that was read at Palomar Medical Center. Thursday’s shooting rampage began five blocks from Mary Taylor’s home, where her former husband shot his wife, Liesbeth, twice in the head as she lay in bed.

One of John Taylor’s three stepchildren said Friday that the postal carrier had been complaining increasingly about the aches and pains from his job.

“He was complaining about his back, his heels, his shoulder hurting,” said Mike McMullen, 22.

After killing his wife, Taylor, dressed in his postal uniform, then drove to the Orange Glen postal station about half a mile away, where he shot and killed two co-workers with whom he would share a cup of coffee and a smoke most mornings before work at a loading-dock picnic table. Taylor then went inside and wounded a third employee before shooting himself in the head.

Killed were Ron Williams, 56, of Escondido, and Richard Berni, 38, of San Marcos. Paul DeRisi was shot in the arm, and a fourth co-worker was injured when she fell while fleeing the building, in the 1700 block of East Valley Parkway.

McMullen discounted suggestions by neighbors that his mother and stepfather were experiencing marital difficulties. “They were very happy,” said McMullen, who lives nearby in Escondido. “They were going to be leaving soon for a vacation back to Missouri to visit his (Taylor’s) mom.”

McMullen said his stepfather was able to put on a happy face at work, and generally did not complain at home about his job but, nonetheless, said he was growing weary of it. He said that he, his brother and his sister were considering hiring an attorney, but declined to elaborate.

Postal Workers Return

Work at the post office on Friday returned to something close to normal, as three psychologists mingled with employees--and met privately with some--who returned to work, only to face a backlog of undelivered mail.

“It’s a somber attitude inside, but they seem to be working like they were before the shooting,” U.S. Postal Service spokesman Ken Boyd said.

Signs of Thursday morning’s onslaught were covered up with white paint by the time employees arrived for work Friday morning.

Boyd said that, of the 43 postal workers scheduled to work on Friday, two carriers and four clerks called in sick, and another worker showed up for work but then left. Workers from other stations were brought in to help with the mail that had gone undelivered Thursday.

Throughout the city, mailboxes were adorned with yellow ribbons. One resident erected a makeshift American flag at half-staff on his mailbox. At the post office, several small bouquets were placed at the flagpole, and inside the building, 300 helium-filled balloons--donated by a local businessman--added an unusual splash of color.

Taylor’s route on Friday was handled by one of his closest friends, Jonny Sims, who said he was still at a loss to explain Taylor’s outburst.

Heavy Mail Load Wednesday

“I know one thing--that there was an awful lot of pressure at work, but it never seemed to bother him,” Sims said. “But Wednesday night he was bombarded with so much mail it was unbelievable.

“I said before that I thought that maybe it was something at home that got to him, but then why did he bring it to the post office?” Sims asked. “I can’t figure it, and I hate to play amateur psychologist.”

Sims said Taylor was a homebody who regularly declined opportunities to go out with co-workers after work. “He’d never go out with the guys,” he said. “He always wanted to go home, and he’d only go out with his wife. I always thought that his wife was his best friend--along with his children. They were his life.”

Both Sims and Taylor’s stepson discounted notions that the shooting may have been brought on by financial problems. “His wife was very frugal with money. There were never any problems with her spending too much,” Sims said. “Besides, she had her own job and her own income. They kept it separate. He probably never knew how much money she had--and she probably never knew how much he had. He wasn’t cheap. If ever we had to pass the hat around for something, you could always count on John putting in the most.”

Danny McMullen, a 24-year-old stepson who lived with the couple, agreed that his mother and stepfather had no money problems. “He didn’t even want my mom to work, but she chose to,” he said.

Both Danny and Mike McMullen said Taylor did not drink, except for an occasional beer. “I doubt you’d even find a beer in the refrigerator right now,” Danny McMullen said.

Stress on the Job

Edward Dunne, vice president of the postal union local in Escondido, dismissed contentions that the shooting could be attributed solely to any personal problems Taylor was having. Dunne also countered arguments by postal officials that a recent series of suicides and shootings by postal employees are not the result of high stress on the job.

“I really take exception to that,” he said. “It may be true that something in their personal life triggers it. But the very fact that they go to the post office to do these terrible, tragic acts, where they take out other postal employees or a supervisor, or take their own lives, makes a very powerful statement.

“And that statement is that this job has produced a lot of my anxiety and a lot of my problems and a lot of my stress. These people are saying to us before they take their lives that maybe it’s time to enter the 20th Century and realize you can only push people so far,” Dunne said. “People have different stress levels and different breaking points.”

U. S. Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) said Friday that he had asked the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee to open an inquiry into the recent series of shootings and suicides and their relationship to work stress.

“I would hope there might be some recommendations on how to improve postal operations and reduce the stress,” he said.

But Mike Cannone, a spokesman at the main post office in San Diego, denied that postal workers are under any more stress than other groups of workers.

“The stress issue has been brought up by a lot of individuals. But there’s no evidence this (Taylor shooting) is related to any postal stress,” Cannone said.

“Secondly, people ask if there’s stress in the post office. And our answer is that we’re not going to deny that. But not to the degree that would cause a normal, level-headed person to do the kind of tragic things that were done” in Escondido.

San Diego Postmaster Margaret Sellers, who spent much of Friday visiting members of the victims’ families, declined comment on the issue.

“She’s pretty frustrated, and she’s really got her hands full,” said Cannone.

PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP--For traumatized survivors of the killings, counseling is quick to come. Page 1, Part II.