The Oxnard Rampage : Gunman’s Father Took His Own Life in ’84 Job Dispute

William Winterbourne felt that he was being forced out of his job as a ceramics teacher at Ventura College that summer of 1984, friends said. And the prospect of losing the position he had held since 1952 propelled him into a tailspin, they said.

So early on the morning of July 12, Winterbourne entered a small ceramics studio he had built in his family’s Ventura home and swallowed a fatal dose of a toxic liquid used to glaze pottery, said Jim Wingate of the Ventura County coroner’s office.

Nine years later, Winterbourne’s son, Alan Douglas Winterbourne, 33, turned his rage outward when his own job troubles apparently became overwhelming.

The younger Winterbourne armed himself Thursday with a cache of weapons and went on a rampage that ended with the deaths of five people, including himself and an Oxnard police officer.

Winterbourne was gunned down by police at a state unemployment office in Ventura after being chased from the carnage he inflicted at another jobs office in Oxnard.

On Friday, friends expressed shock that yet another tragedy had befallen the Winterbourne family. And they were at a loss to explain why Alan Winterbourne would follow his father to an untimely death.

Until the elder Winterbourne began to fall into a depression over his job troubles, there was no hint of problems within the family, said William McEnroe, a friend of the family for 30 years.

“He was a marvelous father, considerate, tolerant,” McEnroe said. “He sacrificed enormously to get those kids through school.”

William Winterbourne shared many traits with his son. Both have been described as shy and gentle, but friendly with those they knew.

And both apparently suffered enormous mental anguish when confronted with job-related problems.

For William Winterbourne, the troubles began in 1984, when he began to feel that he was being eased out of his job by new administrators at the college, McEnroe said. McEnroe had retired in 1982 and moved out of the area, but Winterbourne continued to confide in him, he said.

Winterbourne was angry because he had worked in the art department for more than 30 years, helping to get the crafts program at the then-tiny college on a solid footing, McEnroe said. He felt that the administrators’ actions demonstrated a lack of respect for his expertise and for his loyalty to the school.

The final blow came when the administrators demanded that Winterbourne turn over his keys to the department, McEnroe said.

“They took away the last vestige of responsibility from him, and that just shattered him,” McEnroe said. “Then he just went home and took his life.”

Officials at Ventura College did not return several phone calls asking for comment. But a clerk in the personnel office confirmed that William Winterbourne was employed as an instructor there until the time of his death.

The family tried to keep the cause of William Winterbourne’s death quiet, but many people figured it out, said Don Villeneuve, a former biology instructor at Ventura College and a friend of the family.

“The speculation was that he committed suicide,” Villeneuve said. “I don’t think the official cause of his death was ever released.”

Alan Winterbourne was a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at the time of his father’s death. McEnroe said he lost contact with the family after William Winterbourne’s death and does not know how the loss affected the son.

“When I knew him, he was a nice boy, very pleasant and decent,” McEnroe said.

Alan Winterbourne’s mother, Ila, was in seclusion Friday and refused an interview.

“I cannot make any statement,” she said. “It’s just too much right now.”