The Goleta Postal Massacre

Jennifer San Marco began working at the U.S. Postal Service mail plant in Goleta, California, in 1997. Coworkers saw her behavior grow erratic and heard her make racist remarks. In 2003 she was placed on medical leave and retired on mental disability grounds. She later settled in New Mexico, where she tried to license a periodical she called The Racist Press. In August 2005 she bought a used 9mm pistol at a pawn shop in Grants and passed the background check.

On the evening of January 30, 2006, San Marco shot and killed Beverly Graham, 54, a former neighbor, at her Santa Barbara County condominium. She then drove to the postal plant, followed a car through the security gate and took an employee’s badge at gunpoint. In the parking area she shot Ze Fairchild, 37, and Maleka Higgins, 28. Near the entrance she killed Nicola Grant, 42. Inside, she shot Charlotte Colton, Guadalupe Swartz and Dexter Shannon, 57, then killed herself.

The attack at the plant lasted only minutes. Charlotte Colton, 44, died two days later, bringing the death toll to eight, including San Marco. Writings from her time in New Mexico mixed childhood memories with paranoid ideas about government plots. Her clean background check raised hard questions about gun sales and mental illness. Six olive trees and a marble plaque at the facility honor the postal workers.