For reasons never really made clear, he walked down the stairs to the library that sunny morning in July and opened fire with a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle. When it was over, nine people lay in pools of their own blood. Fessenden, relaxing in a chair, talking to a friend, was one of them. Judy heard about it from her sister, Janet, who lived near the college. There is no good way to bear bad news.
Simplicity is best.
Disbelief and confusion continue to cloud the memory. But, recently, doctors at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County declared that he was cured and no longer a threat to the community. If he does get out, says one of them, he will enter a world he has not been a part of for 25 years. She's the daughter of Frank Teplansky, a graphic artist who was another of Allaway's victims. He was talking to Fessenden, an old friend, on the morning they were shot.