American Notes Revenge

Ten minutes before the expected adjournment of last week's city council meeting in Mount Pleasant, Iowa (pop. 7,300), a man in a parka and camouflage hunting cap approached the horseshoe-shaped meeting table. Whipping out a pistol, he shot one councilman in the head. As city officials ducked for cover, he fired eight more shots. When police arrived they found Mayor Edward King, 53, dead and two council members gravely injured. The gunman, Ralph Orin Davis, 69, had been angry with the city over a backed-up sewer.

A few days before the shooting spree, Kristofor Hans, a 14-year-old student, walked into his high school in Lewistown, Mont. (pop. 6,900), shot dead a teacher and wounded a vice principal and two students. Friends said the boy was furious over a failing grade.