From: xiong@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Bo Xiong)
Subject: [PG-13] Halloween Tragedy: Gunman Sounds of Grievances in U. of Iowa
Organization: The Ohio State University; Department of Phyiscs
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 06:49:45 GMT

Enclosed is the English Version (An except ?) by the author of the Chinese 
article on the November 1991 Iowa Killing, which draws hot discussion on SCC.

A SCCer sent it to me for posting and SCC discussion, please no flame,
as the subject indicated: it's rated PG-13 (Parent Guidance required
for those under 13 :-)

(The author's address & phone # as published in Hua Xia Wen Zhai:
 Yujian Liu, 132 Elton Street, 1st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11208, U.S.A.
 718-348-9299)

------------------ Beginning of The Forwarding --------------------------

Halloween Tragedy --
Gunman Sounds of Grievances In University of Iowa Shootings
By Yujian Liu

        To the quiet, small town of Iowa City, the 1991's Hallowmas was 
a catastrophe with a blizzard.  A shooting spree on the University of 
Iowa campus torn its Department of Physics and Astronomy and sent 
shock waves throughout the country.
        Armed with his two guns, a wronged-felt Ph.D recipient 
systematically hunted down his victims in two buildings, killing five 
people and critically injuring another before shooting himself in the 
head.
        "I still can't believe that they have gone," said Bing Ji, a 
physics student, "Their faces and voices still come to my mind from 
time to time.  Sometimes I have the illusion that I am still talking 
to them and it is still very hard."  Ji was one who last saw Gang Lu 
and his victims alive.
        A twenty-eight-year-old exchange student from Beijing 
University, China, Lu was one of the department's most gifted 
graduates specializing in space plasma theory.  Lu was described by 
university officials as upset over not receiving an academic award 
for his doctoral dissertation.
        Linhua Shan, another Chinese exchange student, was nominated by 
the department chairman for the $2,500 academic award. He was fatally 
shot.
        The other dead were all involved directly or indirectly  with 
Lu's Ph.D review. Dwight Nicholson, Chair of the physics department; 
Christoph K. Goertz, Professor of Physics, Robert Alan Smith, 
Associate Professor, and T. Anne Cleary, Associate Vice President for 
Academic Affairs were all killed.  Dr. Cleary's secretary Miya 
Sioson, was wounded and paralyzed from the neck down. 
        "They were all first rate scientists," said Donald Gurnett, a 
physics professor, referring to the three slain professors who were 
conducting the department's renowned theoretical space plasma 
research.  "This will leave a big hole in the field."  
        "It's just devastating to all of us," said James Van Allen, 
former space scientist, now retired.  The building where the 
shootings took place is named for Van Allen, who recruited Nicholson 
in 1978 and Goertz in 1973.  Nicholson succeeded him as department 
chair in 1985.
        
                                 Twisted Picture
        Acquaintances of Lu could hardly image this mild, gentle, bright 
and hard working Asian student as a "violent" person.  For six years, 
Lu had been doing well academically.  He set a record score on the 
comprehensive examination for all Ph.D candidates and his research in 
computer simulation had impressed many professors. 
        "Lu was an excellent student," said John Fix, Lu's first 
academic adviser.  Goertz was Lu's last advisor.
        "As far as I know he was a nice guy, very friendly," said W.R. 
Robinson, manager of the apartment where Lu lived.  He noted that Lu 
had always paid his rent on time and never caused any problems.
        Mrs. Robinson remember Lu as being very polite, as well.  "The 
few times I ran into him on the street, he said good morning or good 
afternoon."
        "He was always going to parties.  He was out with other Chinese 
students almost every night," recalled Glenn Mitchell of Lu's former 
roommate. "He was not a danger to himself or anybody else. Whatever 
happened was completely out of character for Lu. Something must have 
happened to make him snap."
        It was not the prestige from the award that Lu coveted, Mitchell 
stressed.  Lu blamed the chairman of the dissertation committee for 
interfering with his thesis approval and subsequent job search.  "I 
had the impression that there was some animosity among them," 
Mitchell said.
         Lu was known to frequent Iowa City's Sports Column Bar.  He 
usually sat there alone, drinking beer, just quiet, recalled Kris 
Sager, a bar waitress.  "He never bothered anybody, people called him 
'Sweet Lu,'" she said.  "From what I see he was a gentleman. His 
emotional level was always on the plato. Never up, never down. Once I 
saw that he was smiling, I said, 'Oh, I got him smile!  That was like 
a big deal!'" 
        While Lu was portrayed by the press as a loner, W. X, one of 
Lu's friends said, "In fact he was eager to be socialized and was 
ready to help others."  On every weekend, Lu would call W. X to go 
out. 
        "Lu was a reasonable person, particular about fairness, and 
never mean to anybody," W. X recalled.  "Even when we went out, he 
would insisted on tossing a coin to decide to use whose car.
        "He was disgruntled over some professors who were always pushing 
him very hard, finding faults with him, and creating difficulties in 
his job-hunting.  He said he hated them," X said.
        "If he had some problem, he would not talk it out," said Ji 
Bing, who saw Lu at a departmental party a week before the shootings.  
"I didn't notice anything unusual, but I sensed he was stressed--
worried about job offers."
                          
                          Correspondence Battle
         Lu, who felt that he was being unfairly treated, repeatedly 
made attempts to tell his side of story.  In an anonymous letter to 
The Des Moines Register in last September, Dr. Nicholson was 
denounced as "committing a fraud" in the nomination process for the 
prestigious D.C. Spriestersbach dissertation award. 
        The "fraud" originated from the deadline.  The award was for 
those who received their Ph.D degrees by June 30, 1991.  Lu finished 
his dissertation on April 29 before graduating in May. But Dr. 
Nicholson had moved the deadline for the award to April 26, three 
days ahead of the departmental deadline. 
        Dr. Nicholson claimed that Lu's thesis was not nominated because 
of academics, but because minor changes were needed.  Lu argued that 
"it is not fair to compare an unfinished thesis with a finished one, 
then conclude that the unfinished thesis is not good enough for 
nomination."
        Lu appealed to the Graduate College and was told no wrongdoing 
found in the matter. He brought his grievances to the vice 
president's office; a month later, Dr. Anne Cleary, merely said, "I 
will have to call you back."  Then Lu wrote to Dr. Hunter Rawlings 
III, president of the university.  While expecting for the response, 
Lu received some "backfire" threat from Dr. Goertz who was just 
nominated by Dr. Nicholson for a university's teaching award.
        "Outraged by the attempt to cover up," the anonymous letter went 
on, "Mr. Lu is more determined to pursuit a fair resolution to this 
matter at any cost.  And he is considering to take possible legal 
action if he is left without other choice."
        Adam Usada, Lu's roommate through this period said that Lu 
seemed very depressed, spending almost all of his time gazing at the 
TV screen. He had no more visitors. "I had heard he wasn't getting 
along with various professors, but he never spoke in menacing tones 
about them." 
                                        
                                        "Day of the Dead"       
        Then came All Saints' Day, the day religiously symbolized as 
sorrow and reverence for the dead.
        On the morning of November 1, Lu wrote to his sister in Beijing 
for the last time. 
        "When you read this letter, I will probably no longer be in the 
world of the living..." he wrote in Chinese.    "Last night when I 
finished talking with you on the telephone, I wept my heart out here 
alone... I can't swallow all this. You know that all my life I have 
been honest and straightforward, and I have most of all detested 
cunning, fawning sycophants and dishonest bureaucrats who think they 
are always right in everything. I had this in mind for a long time, 
but I persevered until I had taken my doctoral degree. You yourself 
should not be too sad about it, for at least I have found a few 
traveling companions to accompany me to the grave..."   
        It was 12:02 a.m. when he finished.  He sealed it with two 
checks attached for his aged parents, one for $4,793 and another for 
$520. 
        He had already prepared statements in English addressed to The 
New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and a local 
radio station.  This would be his last words meant for the public of 
his deepest and grievous mindset.  He put all five stamped letters in 
his mailbox. 
        That was a dreary, snowy Friday afternoon.  Lu appeared in Van 
Allen Hall for a weekly group meeting at room 309.  Hanging around in 
the hallway, he pretended to look at posters on the walls. 
        The meeting begun at 3:30.  Lu walked in five minutes late. He 
took a seat behind Goertz.  Then he got up and went out downstairs to 
room 208, to verify that Nicholson was in his office. After he 
returned to his seat at about 3:38, he stood up, pulled out his five-
shot .38 caliber revolver, and started shooting.
        Goertz was first hit, then Shan, both in the head at close 
range.  While Smith attempted to escape, Lu stepped around the table 
and fired three shots at him, hitting him in the shoulder and 
abdomen.  Seven people witnessed the slayings, one of whom called the 
police.
        Then Lu went downstairs, reloading at the standing.  In room 
208, he shot Nicholson three rounds.  Two shots went into the head 
someone upstairs screaming for an ambulance, he went up back to room 
309.
        Two men were trying to aid Smith, who was still struggling for 
life.  "I can't breath..." Smith groaned. 
        "Gang Lu, don't!" one of men said.  Lu told them to leave.  He 
pumped two more shots into Smith and Goertz, and another into Shan. 
Both Goertz and Shan were already dead in their chairs.  Then Lu left 
Van Allen Hall.
        
        In the falling snow, Lu walked two blocks to Jessup Hall, the 
main administration building.  Entering room 111, the Academic Affair 
Office, he encountered the secretary Miya Sioson at her desk.  He 
asked to see Dr. Cleary.
        A quarrel erupted when Sioson told Lu that Dr Cleary didn't want 
to speak to him.  His rising voice brought Dr. Cleary out from a 
meeting inside.
         Brief words were exchanged between Lu and Cleary.  Lu drew his 
gun and shot her in the mouth.  She fell, critically wounded. Then he 
turned and shot Sioson in the neck.
        Lu left the office and wandered through the hallway before 
walking upstairs.  There he reloaded the gun for the last time. Two 
bullets dropped on the staircase, he didn't bother to pick them up. 
        In the empty seminar room 203, Lu took off his light-brown coat 
and neatly placed it on a chair.  He walked around the table to the 
center of the room.  The clock on the wall read 3:50.  Lu pointed the 
gun at the right side of his head and shot...
        All the gunshots took place within twelve minutes.
        The police arrived ten minutes later. Lu was found sprawled face 
up in his blood, his right arm stretching out beside the revolver, 
his chest still moving up and down.
        He was handcuffed by Police Chief R.J. Winkelhake and was 
announced died shortly afterwards. 
        His second handgun, a .22-caliber pistol, not used in the 
shootings, was found loaded in his coat.
        Dr. Cleary died in the hospital the next day.   
        Lu's letters were intercepted by authorities soon afterwards. "A 
premeditated, cold-blooded murder," asserted Johnson
County Attorney Patrick White, who didn't release the contents of the 
letters to the public until over a month later. 
        No evidence of alcohol or drugs was found in Lu's blood sample, 
White said.
                
                        "Private Guns Make Every Person Equal"
        In the four three-page neatly-typed letters for the press-- 
abridged by authorities-- Lu further disclosed all the wrongs he 
believed university officials had done him.
        Christopher Goertz "refused to let me graduate in time for a 
precious job opportunity" and "is withholding my thesis result from 
being published" because of a dispute over physics research, Lu 
claimed.
        Goertz intentionally failed to inform Lu to prepare a talk on 
his thesis defense until one minute before the committee members 
asked for it... "As the result, my thesis was not passed..., and I 
was exposed brutally to both personal humiliation and emotional 
anguish.
        "At that time everyone in the group was criticizing my study for 
a whole semester until I am eventually proven correct..."
        After being beaten out for the physics department nomination, Lu 
complained repeatedly. But each time he got the brushoff.
        "The department/college/university authorities have been in a 
conspiracy to isolate me, delay my complaints so I might be forced to 
leave here... I regret that I have to take extraordinary measure to 
resolve this matter, but it is simply not my fault. The University of 
Iowa authorities should be blamed for the unfortunate outcome."
         Fascinated by American culture, Lu listed his favorite movies 
as "No way Out," "Die Hard," "Indiana Jones" and Clint Eastwood films 
that provided him a model -- "a single cowboy fights against a group 
of bad guys who pick on little guys." 
        He declared, "I believe in the rights of people to own firearms.
        "Private guns make every person equal, no matter what/who he/she 
is. They also make it possible for an individual to fight against a 
conspired/incorporated organization such as Mafia or Dirty University 
officials."
        Taking the case of Dr. Jean Dew, Lu added, "It is believed that 
there exists no justice for little people in this world, 
extraordinary action has to be taken to preserve this world as a 
better place to live."  The year before, Doctor Jew, an Asian female, 
won a five year federal lawsuit against the University of Iowa for 
sexual discrimination.  Issuing a humbling public apology to her, the 
university even paid the fine for the accused, a fellow male 
professor. 
        "I am being a physicist who believes in the conservation of 
matter, energy, momentum, etc.," Lu concluded, "Although my 
flesh/blood-made body seems dead, my spiritual soul remains perpetual 
and I am being quantum leaping to another corner of our world.  I 
have finished what I am supposed to do here which is to make right 
what was once wrong...  So long my friends, maybe we will meet again 
in another time at another place.  May the lord bless all those 
descent human beings who are honest, hard working and trusty!"
                        
                                        Money Held
        The two checks totaled $5,313 as well as a parcel Lu sent for 
his parents in China were also intercepted by authorities, who were 
holding the money as restitution for the victims and their families.  
        
        Lu had saved more than $25,000 during his six years as a physics 
research assistant at the university.  The money, White said, was 
accumulated by "living frugally."  Just days before his ruthless 
revenge, Lu withdrew the money and sent two $10,000 checks to his 
family in China. 
         
                                "Alien Should Not Have Guns"
        Shock and grief over the incident brought support services for 
the stricken community as well as calls for gun control.  "I implore 
you to disarm our culture before we are all widows and orphans," said 
Jane Nicholson, wife of the slain chair of the physics department 
Dwight Nicholson at a news conference.  
        "People who are not U.S. citizens should be denied gun permits," 
stated Johnson County Sheriff Robert Carpenter in a local newspaper.  
Lu obtained his gun permit from Carpenter's office on May 24 and 
bought the .38-caliber revolver for $200 at a local sports goods 
store in July. His .22-caliber pistol was legally purchased one year 
before.
        "It's difficult to verify on permit applications from 
foreigners," Carpenter admitted. 
                                
                                "No Lessons Learned"?
        In the efforts to restore order and calm to the campus in the 
aftermath of the shootings, two things had been emphasized by 
university to stave off potential backlash or criticisms. 
        "What happened Friday wasn't the act of a Chinese student.  It 
was the tragic act of a tragic individual." said Peter Nathan, vice 
president of academic affairs, who called to reach out to all UI's 
international students, including 1,200 Asians and 300 Chinese. 
Although the students with last names Lu had received threatening 
phone calls, Nathan said university "has no reason to believe a 
backlash will occur."
        Meanwhile, administrators of all levels insist that the Lu Gang 
affair was handled properly.  "I think Gang Lu was treated very 
fairly.  There was no lessons could be leaned in it," said Gerald 
Payne, the physics department's acting chair, who also claimed that 
he himself was not involved with the case.  "Nobody knows all the 
details," he said.  "Obviously, he [Lu] was a very irrational person 
with psychological problems." 
        "I think the department gave him hard time.  They really do," 
said Dudgeon Johnson, a student of Asian Language & Literature.  "I 
can see a lot of pressures from the stereotype that if you are a 
Chinese student, you always have to have the best papers, you always 
have to be the brightest.  But after work, they don't want to mix 
with you, they don't want to talk to you, they don't want to be your 
friends.  You're kind of isolated.  That's how the social pressure at 
work made the guy acting the hell like this!"
        He added, "So, it's the stereotype from discrimination.  And he 
just overreacted to it."  
                        *                       *                       *

        However the shootings is reviewed, the university will be 
haunted with it for quite some time.  As Joanne Fritz, Director of 
Office of University Relations put it, "Even though when we feel 
happy, we are going to have this remembrance as a shadow of tragedy."

END

------------------------- The End of Forwarding --------------------------

Forwarded to SCC by Bo Xiong in Chicago