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Kill Total: |
17 |
Kill place: |
Dunblane, Scotland |
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Kill date: |
13th
March 1996. |
Victim(s): |
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Date of Birth: |
1953 |
Marital Status: |
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AKA: |
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Occupation: |
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An avid gun collector and
disgraced scoutmaster, Hamilton was known as "Mr. Creepy"
by the boys in Dunblane, Scotland, a village 40 miles from
Edinburgh.
Disliked by all his
neighbours, Tom enjoyed taking pictures of young boys with
their shirts off. His fixation with young boys eventually
got him dropped by the Boys Scouts. In the 1980s he
sponsored boys' athletic clubs but it just wasn't the
same. Sadly, Hamilton never got over being dropped as a
scoutmaster. After nearly twenty years, he was still
seething with anger. A week before his deadly rampage
Thomas wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth complaining about
a campaign to ruin his reputation.
13th March 1996, Hamilton walked to the Dunblane
Primary School with payback in mind. Armed with four guns,
he burst into the gymnasium where 29 children were
attending class. The vengeful ex-scoutmaster
systematically slaughtered 16 kids, their teacher and then
shot himself. Another teacher and a dozen other students
were wounded during the rampage. The children, ages 5 and
6, were sitting in circles on the floor playing when
Hamilton started firing. 13 children died instantly. Three
more died later in the hospital. Surrounded by bodies of
the dead and dying, 43-year-old Hamilton turned the gun on
himself and put a bullet through his brain. Scottish
police described the crime scene as a medieval vision of
hell with "little bodies in piles." Prime Minister John
Major said the massacre was a "sick and evil act." Days
later he visited Dunblane along with the Queen to express
their grief over the senseless tragedy.
Dunblane, with a population
of 7,300, is a small market town in the Scottish Highlands
north of Stirling. It is a popular commuting base for
people who work in Stirling and Edinburgh.
Nearly a month after the massacre work crews began
demolishing the gymnasium where all the children died. In
its place there will be a play area and a flower garden.
To avoid having some weirdo try to claim a piece of the
building as a trophy, officers placed a 24-hour police
presence around the demolition site at the time.
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