Montreal Killer Left Anti-Feminist Letter

A gunman who killed 14 women, wounded 13 other people and committed suicide in an anti-feminist rampage at the University of Montreal left behind a letter blaming feminists for his problems and detailing his intentions, police said today.

The slaughter Wednesday was described as the worst mass slaying in Canadian history. (Story, A1.)

The gunman, identified by police only as “Marc,” carried an anti-feminist letter in his pocket, Montreal Police Constable Jacques Morrisseau said today.

Morrisseau said the three-page letter was not addressed to anyone in particular. “It just told what he was going to do,” he said.

Montreal Police investigator Jacques Duscheneau said that in the handwritten letter, the man wrote that he was taking the action because feminists had always spoiled his life and he hadn’t been happy for seven years.

The letter said the man, whom police described as 22 to 25 years old, was refused entry in the army because he had anti-social tendencies. It also contained a reference to Canadian Forces Cpl. Denis Lortie, who burst into the Quebec Legislature with a submachine gun and killed three people in May, 1984.

Police would not give the exact wording of the statement or release a copy to reporters but they displayed the gunman’s weapon--a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle with bloody fingerprints on the stock.

Authorities also said the man carried a buck knife.

Witnesses said the gunman shouted, “You’re just a bunch of . . . feminists!” before he opened fire at women he had ordered to line up against a wall in a classroom.

Duscheneau said the gunman identified himself as a student during his rampage but did not specify a school.

Witnesses said the man was in his 20s and wore blue jeans, construction boots, a jacket and a white cap. Students reported they did not recognize him as a student at the university.

“All of Quebec is in mourning,” Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa told the provincial Legislature today before it observed a minute of silence.

Bourassa declared a three-day period of official mourning, during which flags on all government buildings will fly at half-staff.