The Shooter
Joseph Thomas Wesbecker, whose father, a construction worker, died in a fall, when he was 13 months old, was born on April 27, 1942. After his father's death he was raised as an only child by his mother Martha, herself only 16-years old at that time, and her family, though he was often passed from place to place during his early childhood, and at one time deposited in an orphanage for almost a year. His grandfather, to whom he felt closely attached, died when he was four.
As Wesbecker was a poor student he dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, but he later managed to earn his G.E.D.. In 1960 he started to work as a pressman at a printing plant and married one year later. With his wife he had two sons, James and Joseph. In 1971, finally, he moved to Standard Gravure, where he soon earned a reputation as a determined, hard-working, loyal and reliable worker
The year 1978 marked the beginning of the downward slope of Wesbecker's life. His marriage ended in divorce and a bitter battle over custody and support for his two sons ensued. It was also the year he admitted himself for the first time to a hospital to seek psychiatric treatment. In 1983 Wesbecker married again; Wesbecker's second marriage also ended in divorce after one year. As a consequence he became increasingly reclusive and suicidal, separated from most of his family members and lived an overall lonely life, in whose center his work remained.
After the selling of Standard Gravure and the subsequent management change in 1986, Wesbecker was assigned to a mechanical folder. Soon thereafter he complained about stress and overstrainment and asked to be placed back at his old job, but his request was declined, wherefore he grew increasingly hostile against the new management, grew wary of conspiracies aimed to harass him, and began to complain about policy changes at the company. He also complained that exposure to toluene at work caused him memory loss, dizziness and "blackout spells".
The hostility culminated in May 1987, when Wesbecker filed a complaint with the Jefferson County Human Relations Commission, charging that he was harassed and discriminated for his psychological state and deliberately put under stressful conditions. The following examination indeed diagnosed that Wesbecker suffered from depression and manic depression, thus substantiating his claim of discrimination, and he was put on Prozac.
In August 1988, Wesbecker stopped working and was finally put on a long-term disability leave in February 1989, though there was also an agreement to re-employ him as soon as he recovered sufficiently. Between August 1988 and May 1989 Wesbecker bought several weapons, among them the AK-47 and pistol he later used in the shooting. Shortly before the shooting at Standard Gravure, where he showed up the last time on September 13, Wesbecker presumably received a letter from the company, announcing the cancellation of his disability income.
Read more about this topic: Standard Gravure Shooting, Background