Jennifer San Marco (December 6, 1961 – January 30, 2006) (aged 44) was a former US Postal Service employee and mass murderer who killed seven people in Goleta, California.

San Marco's background

San Marco had previously worked as a dispatcher for the Santa Barbara Police Department in the mid-1990s, a job for which she underwent a background check and psychological evaluation. She left the job after several months, not unusual for the high-stress occupation.

San Marco eventually went to work for the postal service as a clerk, but left on psychological disability following a 2003 incident in which she had to be removed from her workplace by police. San Marco subsequently moved to a small town in New Mexico sometime in 2004. According to colleagues, she had a history of making racially charged statements, and once attempted to start a publication entitled The Racist Press.

The spree shooting

On January 30, 2006, San Marco shot and killed her one-time neighbor, Beverly Graham, and then subsequently drove to the mail processing plant at which she previously worked in Goleta, California. San Marco entered the sprawling plant by driving through a gate behind another car. She gained entry to the building by taking an employee's identification badge at gunpoint. She then shot and killed six employees of the plant with a pistol before taking her own life.

San Marco apparently believed that she was the target of a conspiracy centered at the Goleta postal facility, according to writings recovered from her house in New Mexico. A spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department speculated that San Marco's paranoia and history of mental illness may have motivated her to commit the murders.

Postal killer believed she was target of a plot

Writings that allude to a conspiracy help establish motive in rampage

Msnbc.msn.com

February 3, 2006

The woman whose suicidal rampage at a Santa Barbara County postal facility killed seven people believed that she was threatened by a conspiracy involving its workers, authorities said.

Jennifer San Marco left writings at her New Mexico desert home alluding to a vague plot involving the Goleta mail-sorting plant where she once worked, a local medical facility and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, sheriff's Sgt. Erik Raney said in a telephone interview Friday.

"There was several different writings that were described to me as kind of just ramblings, not anything specific, but they alluded to a conspiracy," he said.

"She obviously felt that the post office was out to get her in one way or another," Raney said. "That establishes as good of a motive (for the killings) as we can determine at this point."

Raney said that despite a history of mental illness, San Marco managed to buy the gun and ammunition used in Monday night's killings from two New Mexico pawn shops.

Gun purchase went unquestioned

She bought the 15-round, 9 mm Smith & Wesson model 915 last August from a pawn shop in Grants, N.M., and an unspecified amount of ammunition from a pawn shop in Gallup, N.M., Raney said.

How she managed to purchase it is "the million-dollar question yet," he said.

Paul Castillo, owner of Ace Pawn and Antiques, told the Santa Barbara News-Press that San Marco bought the gun for $325 without saying why she needed the weapon.

She filled out an application for a background check, which didn't turn up any problems, and picked up the gun two days later, Castillo said.

The gun originally was purchased by another person in San Jose and later sold to the pawn shop, Raney said.

The last victim to die in the rampage was the first buried Friday.

More than 1,200 mourners overflowed a church for the funeral Mass for Charlotte Colton, a mother of three who was shot in the head and died Wednesday at a hospital.

"If there was anything she did it, was love boldly and fearlessly," Colton's niece, Katrina Baggao de la Cruz, told mourners at St. Raphael's Catholic Church, the News-Press reported. "You simply wanted to be a better person around her."

Colton, 44, of Santa Barbara, was survived by her husband, Jim, and three sons. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery.

Psychiatric history

San Marco, 44, worked at the Goleta postal facility for about six years before she was placed on retirement disability for psychological reasons in 2003, the Postal Service has said.

Employees said her behavior was increasingly more bizarre and that she sometimes talked or argued with herself or made racist comments, although she never made any threats to them.

In February 2001, deputies were called to remove her from the plant because of strange behavior.

She was sent to a Ventura psychiatric hospital for three days of assessment but Raney said he did not know the diagnosis. The hospital was not the medical facility mentioned in San Marco's writings, Raney said. He declined to identify the facility named in the writings.

"It might have just been a place where she had her regular doctor's visits," he said.

The 2001 incident may have prompted her to place the Sheriff's Department in her conspiracy but it was unclear whether the incident specifically motivated the killing spree, Raney said.

Search for clues

"Was this cognitive thought? Did she have a specific grudge for a specific reason and came back with a vendetta in mind, or (was it) a manifestation of her psychosis? ... I don't know that we'll ever know that," he said.

Also found in the woman's home was a check for cash with the notation "will," indicating San Marco left a will, "and that may shed more light on what's happened here," Raney said.

Police in New Mexico say San Marco, who was white, distributed a publication called "The Racist Press." The newsletter included error-laden explanations of various religions and a confusing theory linking the U.S. government to "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz, the Ku Klux Klan and racist murders.

Authorities believe that San Marco drove from New Mexico to California last week. On Monday night, she sneaked into a Santa Barbara condominium and shot to death her first victim, a woman who had been her neighbor several years ago and with whom she had argued.

Less than an hour later, San Marco began her rampage at the postal plant.

Postal Shooter's Bizarre Behavior

CBSNews.com

February 2, 2006

Jennifer San Marco's reputation for bizarre behavior had resulted in her leaving the Postal Service in June 2003 after six years. She was granted early retirement on a medical disability because of psychological problems, the U.S. Postal Service said.

But, no one suspected the ex-postal worker would go on to commit the nation's bloodiest shooting at a postal installation in nearly 20 years.

San Marco is also linked to the killing of a former neighbor.

The body of Beverly Graham, 54, was found in her condominium a day after authorities say Jennifer San Marco opened fire inside the mail sorting center where she once worked. Another woman wounded in the rampage died Wednesday, bringing the death toll to eight, including San Marco.

"The shell casings found match those found at the postal distribution center," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson told reporters.

He said Graham's neighbors told authorities they heard the sound of gunfire between 7:15 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Monday night. Beginning at 9 p.m., authorities said, San Marco began shooting six postal employees and committed suicide at the Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center.

"She went through all the requisite screenings. There were no prior indications" of problems, said Keith Blackman, a media consultant to the Postal Service.

And in the city of Milan, New Mexico, where San Marco was a regular presence at municipal offices, village Manager Carlos Montoya told the Los Angeles Times, "We felt she was unbalanced." "Now, violent? I guess it crossed my mind. But just that she would slash a window or damage property or something," Montoya said.

Before becoming a postal worker, San Marco, 44, worked as a Santa Barbara police dispatcher in the mid-1990s and passed an extensive background check and psychological exam. She left after a few months, not unusual for a stressful job with a high turnover rate, police Lt. Paul McCaffrey told the Santa Barbara News-Press. The job did not include weapons training.

Acquaintances said San Marco, who was white, sometimes talked to herself and spewed racist comments.

Former plant worker Jeff Tabala recalled that San Marco seemed particularly hostile to Asians while working for the Postal Service. He said all of the dead were minorities: Three were black, one was Chinese-American, one was Hispanic and one was Filipino.

It is unclear why San Marco killed her victims, but the U.S. Postal Inspector says that "chances are" she knew and chose her victims, CBS News affiliate KCBS reports. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson said it wasn't clear if the killings were racially motivated.

It is clear the shooter had a long history of mental problems, officials said. She had been placed on a medical leave from her postal job for psychological problems.

In 2003, Tabala said, he saw sheriff's deputies pull San Marco out from under a mail-sorting machine and wheel her away in handcuffs on a mail cart after a disturbance.

She returned several months later but "people started coming to me and saying, 'She's acting erratically,'" Tabala said. "She was screaming. She was saying a lot of racist comments. It was pretty ugly."

San Marco was escorted out of the building by management and never returned, Tabala said.

"She seemed to be having conversations and there wasn't anyone around her. She'd be just jabbering away." Tabala said.

Graham's boyfriend, Eddie Blomfield, said San Marco would often go outside singing loudly, which led to arguments between the women. Graham's brother Les Graham Jr. said his sister had complained about a woman who "used to come out and rant and rave in front of her building."

Authorities in New Mexico, where San Marco moved in 2004, also described her increasingly bizarre behavior after she lost her job. Police were contacted about San Marco at least twice after she was accused of harassing an office worker and appearing naked at a gas station. She was dressed when officers arrived

A deputy clerk for the city of Milan, N.M., said San Marco applied for a business license in 2004 for a publication called "The Racist Press" that she said she planned to launch.

"We weren't sure what she was going to do next," said Terri Gallegos, deputy clerk for the city of Milan, New Mexico, where San Marco applied for a business license in 2004 for a publication called "The Racist Press" that she said she planned to launch. Another time she said she wanted to register a cat food business.

During one meeting, Gallegos said, San Marco carried on a conversation with herself "like she was arguing with someone but there was no one there."

Last March, office workers called authorities after the 44-year-old woman made what Gallegos described as a rude allegation. Other times, Gallegos said, San Marco would come in and simply stare at one employee in particular.

In June, police talked to her after someone at a gas station called to complain of nudity, Police Chief Marty Vigil said. San Marco was dressed when officers arrived.

U.S. Postal Inspector Randy DeGasperin told reporters Tuesday that San Marco left the mail facility on a medical leave in 2003 after her co-workers expressed concerns she might hurt herself.

"She was not making any threats or anything of that nature," DeGasperin said. "It was more for her safety."

Authorities said it was unclear whether San Marco targeted specific employees when she arrived at the postal center about 9 p.m. Monday.

"According to witnesses from the scene, she had a 9mm pistol and reloaded at least once during her rampage," said Santa Barbara County Sheriff James Anderson.

Killed were Ze Fairchild, 37, and Maleka Higgins, 28, both of Santa Barbara; Nicola Grant, 42, and Guadalupe Swartz, 52, both of Lompoc; and Dexter Shannon, 57, of Oxnard. Charlotte Colton, 44, of Santa Barbara, died Wednesday after being hospitalized in critical condition.

Higgins had just returned from maternity leave about a month ago and leaves behind a baby girl and her husband.

"She was a talker. There was not a moment she was quiet," said colleague and friend Lexi Bushnell told the Santa Barbara News-Press. "She loved to lighten things up."

Swartz was emerging from a dark period after losing her husband, Donald, three years ago to cancer, according to friend Darlene Skura.

"She was becoming more active, starting to get on with her life," Skura told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's editions.

Grant's neighbors said it was not uncommon to see the married mother of two playing basketball with her children.

"She was such a joy," said friend and neighbor Leslie Brown. "When you talked to her, she just glowed."

Police said San Marco entered the sprawling Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center by driving through a gate behind another car. She gained entry to the building by taking an employee's identification badge at gunpoint. That worker was not hurt.

Only about 80 of the approximately 300 people who work at the mail-sorting center were on hand when San Marco arrived. Authorities said many of them fled to a fire station across the street when the shooting began.

"I was dumping mail on a belt when the gunshots suddenly (went) 'Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" said postal worker Alger Busante, 56, of Santa Barbara.

It was the deadliest shooting at any workplace since 2003, when 48-year-old Doug Williams gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, at a Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant in Meridian, Miss., before turning the gun on himself.