Talk:Howard Unruh

message: Back in 1949 Unruh was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.  This was the norm back then with many people who were violent.  Today it is unlikely that diagnosis would occur.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Borange (talk • contribs) 23:02, 2 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Howard Unruh likely did not have paranoid schizophrenia 

message: Unruh(e) is German and means riot, trouble. 77.132.55.137 (talk) 07:12, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: as an ironic side note

message: Re this edit which describes Unruh as "the first single-episode mass murderer in U.S. history". It would be more accurate to say that this was the first single person mass shooting to kill more than ten people in the USA. Gilbert Twigg, who killed nine people in 1903  is almost forgotten today.--♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 19:52, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Description in lead section 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Howard Unruh. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20091030182248/http://www.philly.com:80/inquirer/local/nj/20090906__You_never_get_over_it_.html?viewAll=y to http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20090906__You_never_get_over_it_.html?viewAll=y
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Cheers. —cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 05:11, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Howard Unruh. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090908000717/http://www.philly.com:80/inquirer/front_page/20090906__You_never_get_over_it_.html to http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20090906__You_never_get_over_it_.html
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Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 06:13, 28 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/florida-survivors-demand-action-gun-control-1.4538726
:Somebody added this to the article earlier, but I removed it. The connection is coincidental and trivial in my opinion. –dlthewave ☎ 20:25, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: This is interesting, but it runs into problems with WP:TRIVIA. It isn't notable enough for a mention here.--♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 06:47, 17 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  great granddaughter of Cohens survived the Florida shooting in 2018 

message: Hello 
I have made a few changes to this article, and would welcome any comments/input on this, and thought I would talk a bit here about the reasons for them.
The article as it was, was cited mainly on sources which date from the time of Unruh's death in 2009, some 60 years after the actual events concerned, and while this doesn't necessarily have to be a problem, a study of the sources contemporary to the so-called Walk of Death reveal that some significant details used in the later sources, in particular the Smithsonian article, appear to be either based on dubious contemporary sources, or were later creations.  This article, in turn, was heavily reliant on a report filed on the day of the shootings by Meyer Berger, "Veteran Kills 12 in Mad Rampage" which, readable though it is, contains information which cannot be regarded as reliable.  For example, the story about the killer threatening his mother with a wrench originates in the Berger story, and appears in no other contemporary sources.  Unruh himself makes no mention of this, and Freda's only published comments regarding her last moments with her son prior to the killings were that she was concerned about him, because his "eyes looked funny", which does not support the version of him threatening her with a wrench.  
The story of the stolen gate also appears to be a confusion of a story which appears only in the Berger article, that Freda was so distraught about her son's dispute with Cohen, that she had begged a neighbor to make a little gate in their fence.  But there is no other evidence of a gate, made by Unruh or anyone else, and according to Unruh's own account, as released by the Camden County prosecutor, it was the following morning, not the previous night, that he made up his mind to kill.  
There are many other problems with the Berger article, including his fundamental chronology of events which differs from all other contemporary sources including the account of Unruh, which are not relevant here, but given that much of the information in these sections derived either from this article or from much later sources, the sources I have cited are more reliable and also offer more revealing information about the killings and the background to them. Makercomms (talk) 17:46, 9 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Possible Motives for killings and other issues 

message: Re this edit: I'm concerned that this is running into problems with WP:TOPIC and WP:TRIVIA. The use of the section heading "Miscellaneous" shows that this isn't directly related to the 1949 shooting.--♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 07:34, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stoneman Douglas shooting 

message: I have added a sentence about this. It seems fitting. The Smithsonian profile on Unruh begins with the failure of a gay lover to keep a date and this being the trigger for the shooting. There is probably more material to be added here; a couple of the victims had apparently been aware of Unruh's homosexuality, and he seemed paranoid others were as well. I am surprised this was not in the Wiki entry.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-first-mass-murder-us-history-180956927/
:It has been suggested that Unruh's homosexuality was a factor, but there is an element of media speculation. Nobody really knows what tipped Unruh over the edge, and his mental health had been poor for some time, as with many mass shooters. He had all sorts of perceived grudges with other people and the incident with the gate is often given as the trigger for the shooting. The article should be cautious about stating or implying that his homosexuality and the failed date was the motive because of the element of speculation.--♦IanMacM♦ (talk to me) 05:44, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unruh's Homosexuality and Motive for Shooting 

message: Why is there bracketed info about some of the involved policemen? What purpose does this serve? ElleBlair (talk) 19:25, 29 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Policemen’s Army Info?