Was America's first Mass Murderer a Victim of Organized Stalking?

Mr. Howard Barton Unruh, considered the nation's first mass murderer, recently died in a NJ psychiatric hospital.  He was 88. On September 6, 1949 Mr. Unruh killed 13 people in a shooting spree in Camden, NJ.  It was the nation's worst mass murder at the time.

Mr. Unruh, 28 at the time, was a WWII combat veteran with two bronze stars.  He was a pharmacy student, a born again Christian who lived with his mother, and had a self constructed shooting range in his basement.  He was described as a recluse.

A diary was found indicating that Mr. Unruh was planning on killing some of the victims he did kill.  "They have been making derogatory remarks about my character."  He was convinced that his neighbors were responsible for his character assassination and plotting against him.

Mr. Bruce Shipkowski, reported in Miami Herald and Star Ledger on 10/20/2009, (see link below) that although Mr. Unruh was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic he was nevertheless found mentally competent to stand trial.  He was not tried and committed to a mental institution.

Although I'm not condoning the murder in any way, I would like to point out that Mr. Unruh did exhibit some of the classic signs of a victim of Organized Stalking (OS).

A "Targeted Individual" (TI) of OS typically becomes a recluse when the stalking and character assassination have been ungoing for a some time. 

The fact that he kept a diary of the people he wanted to kill shows that he had an idea of who was responsible for defaming him and isolating him.

The contradictory traits of being a born again Christian and "loving guns" may have more to do with his inability to handle the gang stalking he was experiencing than cognitive dissonace.  It's evident that all TI's struggle with how to deal with the excruciating painful ordeal of community based harassment which is part of OS.  While most TI's cope from day to day, some commit suicide, and others commit murder like the VA Tech mass murderer.  

If, in fact, Mr. Unruh was a victim of OS, the mass murder then dates the OS phenomena to 1949.  Considering how well organized and sophisticated the stalking perpetrators are, the possibility that it dates back to 1949 and that Mr. Unruh was a victim is quite plausible.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1290273.html