By Courtney Wood
The world was horrified and sickened by the unthinkable acts of Gregory Bowers when he killed eleven innocent people and injured seven more. The unexpecting victims were attending Shabbat morning services at the Tree of Life Synagogue, as most of them had done countless times before. It has since gone down in history as the worst attack on the Jewish community that has ever occurred on American soil. Sadly, it was not the first attack of this kind to occur not only in America but in the city of Pittsburgh. On April 28th, 2000, Richard Baunmhammer went on a hate-fueled rampage through the Steel City and by the end of this devastating day, five people would be dead and one paralyzed for the rest of his life. A lifetime of undiagnosed mental instability and a history of hate combined to make an unimaginable tragedy.
Richard’s upbringing was not one of sadness or struggle, it was one that can only be described as a family living the American dream. His family came to this country for a better life, to achieve their goals and live without fear. In 1944 his grandparents, Arturs and Margrieta Anna Baunmhammer, and their two children (one of which was Richard’s father Andrejs) fled Latvia fearing Soviet control over their country. After living in New York, the Baunmhammer family moved to Pittsburgh in 1950, where Arturs worked as a janitor at their local church. Their high achieving family became American citizens on November 9th, 1955. Andrejs graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh in 1959, where he earned a master’s degree in dental research. While at Pitt he met Richard’s mother Inese, whose parents also were post-war Latvian immigrants. The couple married in 1959 as well. Both of his parents became faculty members of ‘Pitt Dental School’ and went on to create a very successful dental practice. Inese gave birth to their son Richard, on May 17th, 1965.
Since Richard was born into a family of proud immigrants who all succeeded on a high level, it is no surprise he grew up to study immigration law. The list of academic accomplishments he earned is very long: he graduated from Kent State, Cumberland Law School and finally the University of Pacific's McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento California where he earned a Master’s degree in Transnation business practice and specialized in immigration and international law. After school, he lived in Atlanta and was a member of the Georgia State Bar Association until March 2000.
On April 27th, 2000 Richard Baunmhammer purchased a .357 magnum revolver; the very next day he would use it to spread fear and death.
Richard’s shooting spree of terror began at approximately 1:30 PM when he shot sixty-three-year-old, Anita “Nicki” Gordon simply because she was Jewish. On the surface, this seemed like a random act of hate, but that was not the case as Gordon was his neighbor of thirty-one years; practically his entire life. After the murder he attempted to set her house on fire by igniting one of her throw rugs, fortunately, the house was not burned down.
Richard continued his anti-Semitic agenda by traveling to Beth El Congregation in Scott Township where he fired shots into the windows and spray-painted two large red swastikas on the sides of the building. There is no known connection between him and this particular synagogue, making this attack practically random.
After defacing the synagogue, he drove to an Indian grocery store in Scott Township and shot thirty-one-year-old Anil Thakur and twenty-five-year-old store manager, Sandeep Patel. In a truly sad misfortune, Anil was only picking up groceries on his lunch break just as he had done most days. Around seven hundred people would gather at a Hindu temple to remember Anil in a beautiful service held shortly after the attack. A critically wounded Sandeep was rushed to Mercy Hospital where doctors operated for over two hours to safely remove the bullet lodged deep in his neck. Sandeep survived the attack but was paralyzed from the neck down and would have to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In February 2007, only seven years after the nearly fatal attack, Sandeep died from pneumonia; he was only thirty-two years old. A witness to the attack, Kent Kretzler, said he heard five or six “crackling sounds” and saw a man walk past with a gun “showing no panic, no anguish, nothing … he was very calm”. This marked an interesting turning point in events as his victims were no longer only religiously selected, it became clear that any minority was not safe.
Richard’s next stop was in Carnegie PA where he fired four shots at the Ahauath Achim Congregation. Thankfully no one was harmed and the damage was limited to only shattered glass. Unlike the first synagogue, this one was not a random location, it was the one Anita Gordon went to.
At approximately 2:30 PM Richard walked into the ‘Ya Fei Chinese Cuisine’ restaurant at Robinson Town Centre, located only ten minutes from his home, and shot thirty-four-year-old manager Ji-Ye Sun and twenty-seven-year-old cook Theo “Tony” Pham right in front of customers. Witnesses said the gunman asked for the two men by name before shooting them. There was no known motive or connection between the victims and Richard, but given that he asked for them specifically and how close the restaurant was to his home many speculate that this may have been personal.
The brutality ended with his final victim; a twenty-two-year-old black male named Gary Lee. Richard went to the C.S. Kim School of Karate in Center Township and aimed his gun at George Thomas Jr but turned and shot Gary instead, killing him instantly. Gary was a student at the popular school which has locations all over Pittsburgh.
The murderous spree was finally stopped at approximately 3:30 PM by Aliquippa patrolman John Fratangeli who pulled over Baunmhammer in Ambridge PA. Fratangeli said Richard “showed no emotion” while being arrested and placed in the back of the cop’s car. Terrifyingly, Baunmhammer was arrested with several rounds of ammunition in his pocket; raising the question were there more targets planned? In total, the carnage lasted two hours, spanned a fifteen-mile trail and crossed over three townships.
"What I can assure you is that any philosophy or exclusion found no origin or encouragement in the Baunmhammer household.”. -Andrejs Baunmhammer
The only connection authorities could make between the victims was that each one was a minority of some kind. This theory was not only proven correct, but horrifyingly went further than most realized as evidence of recruitment and propaganda was found. Police uncovered a three-page manifesto he signed as the chairman of the “Free Market Party” in which he advocated for the rights of European Americans and denounced third world immigration. Within the pages he was critical of capitalism, Marxism and singled out Jewish people and racial minorities as “problems”. County Homicide Chief Walsh said “he would try to sign up recruits for the party anywhere he could get someone to sit and listen”.
He took his “party’s” views so seriously he registered the party’s name online in order to create a webpage for it. On the site he talked about the plight of the European American who were, in his view, being over-run by other races. When commenting on the sites' content, the investigator said "from what I saw and from what I read, it seemed to advocate violence". Given the extreme content and potential to inspire further events, the site has since been shut down.
The Free Market Party manifesto and website were not the only hate filled content Baunmhammer engaged in. Prosecutor Ed Borkowsksi revealed that Branch “ read racist, anti-immigration ligature and saw Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Adolph Hitler as heroes.”
All of these revelations unveiled a dark and hateful set of beliefs which gave the world a clear explanation of why he committed such atrocious acts. Given the amount of passion in his writings and the depths of his actions, it is likely that the murders were conceived and planned way before they were executed. The exact time of planning is unknown, but it is likely he thought of acting on his ignorant notion's years before that fateful day.
“There is a history of mental instability with this individual”. - Lawyer Lee Rotham
One of the most important aspects to consider when trying to figure out why this horrific event occurred is Baunmhammer’s history of mental disorders. His father has stated that his son showed signs of illness from as early as four years old, he was treated since 1993 for an “unspecified mental disorder” and he was hospitalized at least once as a child. Baunmhammer would later be diagnosed with Schizophrenia as an adult. His condition and desperation escalated to the point where he asked famed and controversial doctor Jack Kevorkian to help him commit suicide.
Although he did not have an official diagnosis for most of his life, it was obvious to those around him that he was suffering from some kind of complex. It was clear that as he got older, his paranoia grew with him. He claimed the FBI and CIA were monitoring his house. His psychosis culminated after returning from a trip to Europe where he claimed that he was poisoned. Those close to him did not believe the story as there was no evidence that anything happened. When telling family and friends about it he said “I’m not sure what happened to me, but I haven’t been right since I came back”. One thing that was not a delusion was an incident he had in Paris with fifty-year- old Vivianne Le Garrac who said he punched her in the head because he thought she was Jewish.
After his arrest, officials questioned Baunmhammer’s companions including his online friend from St. Petersburgh Florida, George Naruns. George said Richard’s mood “would escalate, he would be totally normal in one conversation, on the phone or online, and the next time he’d have bizarre ideas about a reality that didn’t exist”. An official diagnosis would not be known until directly before the trial when doctors had the chance to give a complete examination.
The trial of Richard Baunmhammer took many twists and turns including: mental competency hearings, a few death sentences and a lot of appeals. Initially he was charged with twenty-three crimes in total including: eight counts of ethnic intimidation, five counts of criminal homicide, two counts of institution vandalism, two counts of arson, two counts of criminal mischief, one count of attempted homicide, one count of reckless endangerment of another person, one count of violation of the uniform firearms act and one count of aggravated assault. Eventually he would be arraigned on nineteen homicide, arson and hate crime charges (May 1st, 2000).
Before a murder trial could take place, the issue of his mental state had to be addressed. On May 19th, 2000, Common Plea Judge Lawerance O’Toole ruled that Baunmhammer was mentally unfit to stand trial and would have to have ninety days of treatment and evaluation for an official diagnosis. During this time, he saw three experts: Dr. Christine Martone, Dr. Sabato Stile and Dr. David Ness, who all came up with similar diagnoses for their long-troubled patient. Dr. Martone found him to be easily distracted, withdrawn, unresponsive, distrustful and out of touch with reality and gave a prognosis of paranoid schizophrenia. The doctor added “he’s incompetent to stand trial. He was so detached and could not help his lawyers in his defense”. Dr. Stile’s determination was psychotic thought disorder, a condition caused by schizophrenia. Dr. Ness agreed with Dr. Martone concluding that he was paranoid, but added that Richard struggled to contain his rage under stress and “would have difficulty, at best, collaborating in his own defense”. While receiving treatment, Richard would be given the psychotropic drugs ‘Trilifon’ and ‘Ativan’ to help him with his illnesses.
Despite the collective opinions of the specialists, Richard did stand trial for his crimes, and on May 9th, 2001 was found guilty of all nineteen charges; two days later he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. With the death sentence officially given, he became the two hundred forty-first person on Pennsylvania’s death row. Only three men have been executed in PA since 1995, one of which was famed serial killer Gary Hendrick in 1999. Hendrick’s case inspired aspects of the character ‘Buffalo Bill’ in Thomas Harris’s classic 1988 novel ‘Silence of the Lambs’.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell signed an execution warrant for Baumhammers on January 19th, 2010 that was to be carried out on March 18th, of that same year. His lawyer Caroline Roberto filed a notice of appeal and Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning delayed the execution. The appeal filled was one hundred eighty-four pages long and cited more than a dozen reasons to overturn the death sentence. The arguments included: claims that the government withheld key discovery material until after the trial began, the accusation that his lawyer was ineffective for not challenging the government’s psychiatric expert, she argued that he should not be killed due to being mentally ill, she claimed the DA overwhelmed the defense team with last minute evidence leaving them with no time to examine it and argued that the snippets of a conversation with his parents, that was played for the jury, were twisted to make him sound racist not mentally ill. Judge Manning reluctantly granted Baumhammers a stay of execution on February 28, 2010 saying “I’m somewhat loathe to grant it, but I think I have no choice,” then added “part of our problem (with the criminal justice system) is that there seems to be no finality to it.”
On October 7th 2014, Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett signed the second execution warrant to be followed out on December 3rd, 2014, at the State Correctional Institute Rockview, in Rockview, Pennsylvania. The very next day (October 8th 2014) U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer granted Richard Baumhammers an indefinite stay of execution “pending further proceedings or until further order of this court,”. According to court papers provided by Governor Tom Corbett’s office, the stay will allow the Baumhammers to pursue a federal appeal. Judge Barry’s decision was the last major development in the case and unless anything further happens the six-foot two, health conscious man will live in a “six and a half by thirteen feet cell, (with a) desk, bed, toilet, sink, storage cabinet and a thirteen or fourteen-inch T.V.” Dan Davis (SCI-Greene assistant superintendent) for the rest of his natural life.
* a personal note from me*
Whenever tragic events like the rampage of Richard Baunmhammer or the Tree of Life shooting happen those who live where they occurred tend to be shocked and deliver sentiments like “I can’t believe something like this would happen where I live, its unthinkable”. I never fully understood that until what happened that day in October 2018. As someone that grew up and still lives in Pittsburgh, less than 15 minutes from Squirrel Hill, I know firsthand how beautiful and very culturally diverse this city really is. It truly was unthinkable to me that a hateful attack could happen here. I was shocked and saddened when I researched this article and learned more tragedies like it happened before in areas I have been countless times. I wish the survivors, friends, families and anyone affected by these events or ones like them the peace, love and strength to rebuild and hope that these will not happen again.
Editor's note: this article ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written, and three names in it are wrong. The Tree of Life gunman it opens with was Robert Bowers, not Gregory Bowers; he killed eleven worshippers and wounded six, and he was convicted and sentenced to death in 2023, after this article was written. The prosecutor's line about racist literature and Timothy McVeigh is attributed in the text to “Branch”, which is a stray from another article by the same author and should read Baumhammers. And the Pennsylvania execution described as that of “famed serial killer Gary Hendrick” in 1999 was Gary Heidnik, who is one of the three real cases Thomas Harris drew on for Buffalo Bill and who has his own article in this archive. The subject's surname is Baumhammers; the article spells it Baunmhammer throughout and then switches, and both are left as printed. On the case itself the article is sound and careful with the medical evidence: three court appointed doctors found paranoid schizophrenia and one found him unfit to stand trial, he was tried anyway, convicted on all nineteen counts in May 2001 and sentenced to death, and two execution warrants have since been stayed. He is not in this archive's roster; five deaths in two hours is a spree, not a series.