Ft. Knox Clerk Kills Boss and 2 Co-Workers

A civilian supply clerk, whose temporary promotion to supervisor recently ended, killed his boss and two co-workers and severely wounded two others here Monday, authorities said.

Arthur Hill then drove 40 miles from Ft. Knox to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Louisville, walked to the bathroom and shot himself in the head with the .38-caliber weapon used in the slayings, authorities said.

Hill was in critical condition, VA hospital spokeswoman Marla Highbaugh said.

Hill, 53, and all five victims were civilian employees at Ft. Knox, which is home of the nation’s gold repository and an Army tank training center.

One of those killed was Paul W. Higdon, 49, of Louisville, chief of the Training Support Center, with 30 years’ civil service. His son, Jason, said Hill had just learned that he was passed up for a promotion.

“He found out, I believe, this morning when he got to work,” Jason Higdon said in a telephone interview from Louisville.

The other dead workers were identified as Deborah Glenn, 36, and Wanda M. Simmons, 45.

The wounded were both listed in critical condition with chest wounds at University Hospital in Louisville, said spokeswoman Gayle Jewitt.