It was confirmed that Michael Robert Ryan had fatally shot himself at 6.52 pm on Wednesday, 19 August 1987, with a single gunshot to the head. At about 16:45, police entered the playground. The names of the 16 people who were killed are listed on a stone set into the wall of the town's war memorial garden, with no mention of how they died. As Mr Playle rounded a bend in Priory Street, Ryan fired a single shot. Whether or not these were completely accurate accounts, they certainly encapsulated the emotion of relief foremost in peoples minds immediately after the massacre that the carnage was finally over. The Hungerford Massacre on August 19, 1987, saw 16 people killed in a rampage by gunman Michael Ryan. Now, he added a new dimension. "Breaking in or shooting into a house and killing the inhabitants and then holding the position for a while before moving on, would have appealed to his military ideals and fantasies," says Prof Jackson. Moving up Fairview Road, Ryan found neighbour, Abdul Khan, 84, a retired restaurateur, mowing the lawn in his back garden. It was Jane, PC Wainwright's then-wife. S02:E04 - Peter Sutcliffe - the Yorkshire Ripper. In contrast, Dorothy Ryans funeral service, held at St Marys Church in Calne, Wiltshire, was only attended by 40 mourners. His real passions were cars and guns. Eric Vardy, a carpenter and van driver for Norland Nursery College, was on his way with passenger, Steven Ball, to a builders supplier. On the sunny afternoon of August 19th, 1987, it was market day in Hungerford and Ryan went to Saverneck forest - a place he would often go to shoot his gun and sneak up on unsuspecting. Maybe he was distracted; maybe he enjoyed the power of sparing Mrs Wainwright's life. A former school friend remembers a teenage Ryan boasting of spying on and stalking people there. He put some petrol in his car and some in a canister. "I don't think he fully intended to commit a killing spree that day. Trevor can't move out to his own place. Slaughter on a warm summer's day: The Hungerford Massacre. All I could think of was the dogs. I happened to mention that a chap that worked with my wife was injured during the shootings, to which he suggested that it was a good job that the SAS finished him off when they did. Ryan then went to Froxtield petrol station, where he was watched by Mrs Kakoub Dean, wife of the owner, as he filled up his metallic silver Vauxhall Astra GTE, as well as a five-litre can. Whether Mrs Ryan truly believed her son's imaginings is impossible to tell. Ryan had holed himself up in a second-floor classroom and was shooting through the window at both police and press helicopters. He uses it against the people he has grown up with and against the unarmed police that are called. By now, the name of the gunman was circulating. He chased me all the way. "Members of the public were in the station with the police. She seemed more concerned about her trousers than her wounds. Her Majesty the Queens private secretary sent a letter of condolence from Buckingham Palace to Mayor Tarry and enclosed a personal contribution from the Queen. Semi-automatic rifles Ryan used during his rampage. As Mr White turned his Toyota Crown into South View, he was shot in the head and died instantly. Trevor Wainwright says he is "haunted" by his father's death. All over Berkshire, the funerals that followed the massacre were deeply poignant. Shortly after Ms Haslett escaped South View, her colleague Derek Whiting arrived in a second ambulance, completely unaware that a gunman was at large. Ryan used a semi-automatic rifle, an M1 Carbine and a Beretta pistol to carry out a string of attacks in the village. She scrambled into her house, where she collapsed and her mother immediately called an ambulance. It was his gun cupboard. If this was his plan, it fell to pieces when his car would not restart. The press helicopters were in the way of police trying to track Ryan and this allowed him to get away again. He sprayed their car with 11 bullets, Ivor Jackson was shot three times in the chest and once in the head and White was shot too, dying as their car smashed into the police car Ryan had shot at earlier. At the time, the idea crucified me. Instead she found Ryan, who shot her once. "It hasn't got any easier. Inside, PC Roger Brereton, a traffic officer who had volunteered to investigate, was slumped against the steering wheel, clearly dead. "The station was locked, so I let myself in with a key. "I didnt know by doing that, by asking him to come home, I was just leading them both into danger.". Mrs Pascoe, safe with her neighbours in a community centre, was playing cards with the children to distract them from the horror outside. It transpired that they were the parents of the police officer who had run all the checks on Ryan when he had applied for a modified licence, to own more powerful firearms. She was wounded but managed to call her husband, Ivor Jackson, who worked close by. At around 4 pm, the Royal Air Force hospital in nearby Wroughton contacted the Princess Margaret Hospital to inform them that they could take the next two serious and six minor casualties. The Hungerford Family Help Unit was hastily established in makeshift offices, co-ordinated by John Smith, to help a community suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "He was trapped and didn't have a viable way out of his situation.". They lived a few doors from each other and their families were friends. February 27, 2023 equitable estoppel california No Comments . Robert, his frightened son, escaped by jumping over a fence into the neighbouring school, whilst the rest of the family literally ran for their lives. At 1.30 pm specially trained officers from the Tactical Firearms Unit were brought in and local police officers assembled closer to town. With blood running down his face, he could only watch through half-closed eyes as Dorothy Ryan, Michaels mother, arrived home from the Wednesday market. He saw Mr White and Mr Jackson in the car and Mr Clements - who had been walking his dog with his family - lying dead on the footpath. Then the radio announced the names of some of the people whod been shot, but didn't say if they were dead or alive. No-one blamed me. Ryan shot at her, making a hole in the side window. Hungerford. The letter, complete with golden tassel, is still in its recorded delivery envelope and is kept in a basket in the Jacksons' kitchen. The mother-of-four, 38, from Kent . He claimed he had been taken under the wing of a retired colonel who was going to buy him a house and a Ferrari. Many were attended by people who had never known the deceased in life, but wished to show support for their families and the bereaved Hungerford community in general. She parked behind Whites car and opening the door and looking in, said, Oh Ivor and then hurried up the road. 19th August 1987. Say the name Hungerford and most people will associate the town with the events of Wednesday, 19 August, 1987. At about 02:00 she looked out of the window and saw the bodies from South View being collected and driven away. Their inability to defend themselves against their bullies means that shame, guilt, anger, hate and the need for revenge builds inside them. I later realised that was because the bullets were still in her. Prof Jackson also considers Ryan was heavily influenced by a mass shooting occurring 10 days earlier in Melbourne, Australia, that was reported on television in the UK. When that didn't bring him the respect he was looking for, he grabbed his guns and set out to kill as many people as he could. Thirty years later, the events of that day are rarely discussed by those affected. Mrs Pascoe stemmed the bleeding and stayed with the girl until an ambulance arrived. Thomas Hamilton murdered 17 people in Dunblane in 1996. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the village on Thursday, August 20, 1987, the day after the shooting, to pay her condolences. The Hungerford massacre was a spree shooting in Hungerford, England, United Kingdom, on 19 August 1987, when 27-year-old Michael Ryan shot dead sixteen people, including an unarmed police officer and his own mother, before shooting himself. Classmates remember he was quiet, seemed shy, "kept himself to himself" and was keen on the military. Dr Yardley and Prof Jackson both believe that Ryan did not "snap" and carry out the killings. But we've stuck by each other.". Another, Eric Vardy, was killed. He became a skilled shooter and member of two gun clubs. Ryan had murdered 16 people and seriously injured 15 more, but his whereabouts were unknown. She remembers Michael as quiet and polite. document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) "I just thought she was delirious from blood loss.". It later transpired that he had shot the family dog, a black Labrador. In the ambulance on the way to hospital in Swindon, Ivor Jackson's heart had twice stopped beating. "They were looking for bullet holes and spent shell cases to collect. But Ryan had moved. For more stories of the worst people on earth, visit our . Still shooting, Ryan then walked to the end of the road, went along a footpath and made his way across some playing fields. If only my car had started. As he went along Priory Road, Ryan stopped at the home of Myrtle and Victor Gibbs, whose door was, as usual, locked. He was shot three times in the groin and the leg with the AK-47 rifle and died where he fell. A few doors down, a 14-year-old girl was staring at her legs. This seemed to fit the profile of Michael Ryan. They keep meaning to frame it and put it up on the wall. He says he was helped by a discovery made at the post-mortem examination - that his father had developed lung cancer. "And then I remembered the name. Armed with three guns, he had already murdered six people and seriously injured seven more. Ryan's mother Dorothy was shot not far from her home in South View as she pleaded with her son to stop the shooting. In addition to this, the local telephone exchange could not handle the amount of 999 calls that were being made, as Ryan wreaked havoc across the suburbs and people desperately tried phoning for help. Other victims included Susan Godfrey, of Reading, who was killed while picnicking with her children; Roland and Sheila Mason, who were killed in their home; Kenneth Clements, who was shot while walking to Hungerford Common. Further delays were caused by the firearms squad being in training about 40 miles away. Later that day, his parents were driving up from their home in Kent to visit him. "I put two and two together and assumed that the armed robbers from Froxfield had been cornered in Hungerford," he said. A groundsheet was found nearby, which could have been laid by Ryan in order to contain DNA evidence. "I knew Id been hit. "I rushed back to check on Jane and on the way I saw smoke coming up from South View [a nearby street]. I thought he'd come in and kill them.". The Killing Spree That Changed UK Gun Laws: Hungerford Massacre (Crime Documentary) | Real Stories Real Stories 5.92M subscribers Subscribe 3.4K 462K views 3 years ago Explores the case of. The young policeman wondered whether he should see if he could do anything to help. It was one of the worst mass shootings in British history. His wife and children were unhurt. "He certainly had no 'manifesto' or message to the world.". Ryan was holding one of his most prized possessions - a Chinese copy of a Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifle. The dust was flying up from the ground around my feet as the bullets hit. He found low-paid work as a caretaker at a girls school. The Hungerford Report The British Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, travelled to Hungerford on Sunday, 23 August 1987. It was a police vehicle which had its blue lights flashing. Lance Corporal Carl Harries, 21, a young off-duty soldier and veteran of the Falklands War, was on his way into town, to pick up a radiator hose, when he walked into the midst of the massacre. Stop it, you stupid bugger!. She was inordinately lucky not to have been shot by him. While the physical injuries from that fateful day have long since healed, the emotional scars in Hungerford still run deep. This Wednesday was no different, with the schools on holiday, many people were taking advantage of the good weather. People later commented that his mental instability became increasingly apparent following the death of his father. Whenever they asked me where it all happened I'd say it was down the A4. She ducked below her counter just as a bullet pierced the safety glass above it and ricocheted through the small shop behind her. There was also a made-up girlfriend - a delusion which went far enough for Mrs Ryan to invite people to the wedding. The final shooting took place at about 13:45. He cannot even pass the end of the road. S02:E03 - Michael Ryan - the Hungerford Massacre. He wounded a further 15 before turning the gun on himself. The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed in the wake of the massacre. In a small village 60 miles west of London, at 12:30 in the afternoon, 27-year-old Michael Ryan shoots a mother dead. The smiling Ryan shot 11 rounds from his semi-automatic at another car that drove into the street. "Theres no two ways about it. As the brothers were cleaning up, a reporter burst in. He then carries on killing with his legally purchased and licensed Kalashnikov capable of killing at 300 yards. There was no way he would miss. Fifteen vehicles were taken away for forensic examination. He headed straight there and was greeted by a nurse who said Kathleen was fine and Douglas was in the operating theatre. Ryan had been targeting people he happened across in streets and gardens. He also had a more sinister motivation for visiting the woodland. Because Ryan burned down his home, any evidence of planning was destroyed. Pic: Daily Mail / Hungerford Massacre 1987. The open-air service outside the town hall was attended by over 60 percent of the population of Hungerford and the principal sermon preached by Right Honourable Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury.Apart from the numerous local and international newspaper articles written about the Hungerford Massacre and Michael Ryan, there were also several books. Mr Lepetit said: "I gave him a hand one week, and the next he shot me and set fire to my house.". But she wasn't. "I think he fully intended to fake his own death at home and disappear at that point," says Prof Jackson. With Craig Jackson, Donal MacIntyre, Sean Preston, Michael Ryan. Ryan walked past a young boy, Dean Lavisher, without seeming to notice him, but fired at another boy riding past on his bicycle, Dean Cadle, thankfully missing him. He died instantly from chest wounds. He even persuaded the police to grant him a licence to own more powerful firearms. Then he realised the policemans wounds had not been caused by a shotgun but by a semi-automatic rifle. Were just waiting until life gets back to normal. He also wanted to know if his dog had been found and if they had located his M1 carbine and its magazine, as he didnt want the children to find it and hurt themselves. He adds that an overindulgent mother could also have led to Ryan never taking responsibility for his actions - a personality trait common to many spree killers. He tried starting his car but to no avail. I mean, there's no legitimate reason anyone would need to have a Kalashnikov - but it was legal. [CDATA[// >