Dr. Dabbs – Sylvia Seegrist: “My Family Makes Me Nervous”

Crazy

Crazy. We toss that term around fairly liberally these days. It is arguably tasteless in a modern context yet nonetheless serves as a timeless euphemism for a wide variety of mental illnesses. In these days of politically correct wokeness, I rather suspect the term Crazy’s days are numbered. It is an undeniable label, and labels are malignant dinosaurs in modern society.

Schizophrenia

The archetype is paranoid schizophrenia. Movies paint a bleak picture of those who suffer from this horrible disease. Up close I have found it to be quite unlike my preconceptions.

To quote the Mayo Clinic website, “Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning and can be disabling. People with schizophrenia require lifelong treatment.”

Distilled to its essence, schizophrenia is a mental illness in which people perceive the world around them in an irrational and unrealistic way. Schizophrenics frequently hear voices or, less frequently, see nonsensical visions. Paranoid schizophrenia is a common subset of this overarching disease. According to psycom.net, “The paranoia in paranoid schizophrenia stems from delusions—firmly held beliefs that persist despite evidence to the contrary—and hallucinations—seeing or hearing things that others do not. Both of these experiences can be persecutory or threatening in nature.”

The age of onset for schizophrenia is typically late teens or early twenties for men and late twenties for women. I have followed a few patients through this process, and it is invariably terrifying for both them and their families. The vast majority of schizophrenic patients are completely harmless and are rightly deserving of societal support rather than scorn. Once you cinch the diagnosis and get them on the proper medications these people can generally stabilize their lives. Those very few who cannot, however, can be something to behold.

The Origins of the Monster

Sylvia Seegrist was born in the summer of 1960. Like most epically troubled souls, hers was an utterly dysfunctional childhood. Her paternal grandfather sexually abused her when she was young. Sylvia was atypically diagnosed with schizophrenia at age sixteen while hospitalized. That’s a bit earlier than most. She subsequently received inpatient treatment fully a dozen times in various institutions. When she came of age she was then, unsettlingly, allowed to enlist in the US Army.

People with schizophrenia can seem strange to the rest of us, and humans are cruel. This leads to social isolation and harassment. Over time, Sylvia’s behavior grew ever more bizarre. After sixty days on active duty, Uncle Sam decided that Sylvia Seegrist was incompatible with military service and sent her packing. She spoke regularly of killing innocent people, drank furniture polish, loudly raked her leaves at 4 in the morning, and sat in the sauna of her local fitness center fully dressed in a set of Army fatigues. The staff at the pharmacy where she got her medications referred to her as Ms. Rambo.

Seegrist had to work at it a bit to obtain a firearm. For whatever reason, she chose a Ruger 10/22. We have discussed the background and development of this remarkable little rimfire rifle in this venue before. Here’s the link. She tried to purchase a 10/22 at K-Mart, but the staff falsely claimed that they had none in stock to put her off. She later purchased a copy of the rifle elsewhere for $107.

The Shooting

Seven months after she bought her rifle in 1985, Sylvia trekked to the Springfield Mall in Springfield Township, Pennsylvania. It was the day before Halloween, and she actually visited the mall twice that day. Expansive shopping malls were frequently the social epicenter of those American communities that had them back then. I have myself logged many a delightful hour wandering about such spaces with my girlfriend in tow. Sylvia bought Halloween decorations and worked out at a fitness center before returning to her little Datsun car parked outside. She then retrieved her 10/22 rifle, loaded it, and began firing on random mall patrons in the parking lot.

Sylvia missed her first target located some thirty meters distant. This man later slashed one of her tires to prevent her escape. The deranged woman then fired at a lady standing at a nearby ATM and missed her as well. Before entering the shopping mall she shot and killed a two-year-old waiting with his family outside a nearby restaurant.

Seegrist then wandered fairly randomly through the shopping mall, firing into some stores and ignoring others. Her little .22 rifle did not make a great deal of noise, so many mall patrons mistakenly ignored the sound. Along the way, she shot and killed Earl Trout and Augusto Ferrara.

Do Whatever It Takes

Running toward the sounds of battle is the common euphemism. All organic creatures have an inbred drive to survive. This curious bit of hardwired source code is obvious if you look for it. We duck involuntarily at loud noises. My wife tells me I have the most entertaining dance I perform whenever I encounter a snake unexpectedly at close range on our rural walks. I cannot comment, as I have never technically seen that myself. Some folks, however, can successfully overcome these natural urges. One of those was a graduate student/volunteer fireman/construction worker named John Laufer.

John Laufer was at the Springfield Mall this day with his girlfriend. When first he heard the gunfire he thought it to be some kind of Halloween celebration. When he glimpsed Sylvia Seegrist mid-rampage she was wearing camouflage fatigues and firing randomly as targets bore. He later said that he thought the rifle was firing blanks as it made so little noise. His first impression was that whatever this stunt was it was in terribly poor taste. Leaving his girlfriend in a position of comparative safety, Laufer approached the psychotic shooter boldly.

Rarin’ and Ready

Laufer was young and fit, an impressive specimen. While not a trained soldier or cop, he had the self-confidence that comes from physical size and conditioning. He was also a young man, meaning he was bulletproof and immortal. There is a reason 19-year-olds make the best soldiers. 

As Laufer approached, Sylvia saw him coming and indexed her rifle toward him. Laufer moved in too quickly for her to get a proper firing solution and snatched the rifle from the woman’s hands. He then forced the now-disarmed shooter into a nearby store and held her for mall security personnel. She had fired a grand total of fifteen rimfire rounds, killing three and wounding seven. The first security guard reflexively asked the dazed woman why she had done all this. She responded simply, “My family makes me nervous.”

The Fallout

Sylvia’s mother Ruth had this to say in the aftermath of the shooting, “You know, it’s ironic that people who are irrational are expected under the law to get help on their own. There needs to be something in the law that compels a troubled person to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist. In the 1950s, we were institutionalizing people who weren’t mentally ill. You could institutionalize someone who was just unruly. We’ve gone from one extreme to the other.”

This is a timeless conundrum. How do you address dangerously psychotic people without violating their civil rights? In a free society, you cannot simply incarcerate folks because they might do something horrible in the future. This is one of several reasons I personally choose to carry a gun whenever I am not asleep or in the shower. 

Sylvia Seegrist lied on her Form 4473 when she bought her rifle, falsely claiming that she had no history of mental illness. That this self-attestation is even included on the form is frankly insane. Nowadays such information is technically somehow folded into the various state and federal background check systems, but it doesn’t work. I’m a physician who encounters people like this who would be disqualified from owning weapons due to mental illness not infrequently, and I have no idea how to report that were I so inclined. 

Where is she now?

Sylvia Seegrist will spend the rest of her life in prison. She was incarcerated in a mental institution or two before settling into the Muncy State Prison for Women. She no longer responds to overtures from her surviving family members. Her prison counselor meets with her every other week and reports that she, “Takes her meds, spends time at the library, exercises a lot, and takes steps to keep herself sharp.” At the time of this writing, she is 62 years old.

John Laufer was rightfully lauded as a hero. His selfless actions saved untold lives that fateful day in the Springfield Mall. Laufer was 25 at the time of the shooting and became a bit of a celebrity in the immediate aftermath. Once the attention began to wane he moved on with his life.

John Laufer

The first year John Laufer applied for the Pennsylvania State Police Academy he was rated 49^th out of 2,123 applicants. They only had 32 slots. His performance at the Springfield Mall certainly didn’t hurt his chances, but he still didn’t make the cut. The following cycle, however, he was accepted for the 20-week course.

John Laufer went on to an esteemed career in Law Enforcement, eventually attaining the rank of Major in the Pennsylvania State Police. In 2013 he was hired as the Police Chief in the city of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. He continues to serve in that position to this day. Not all heroes are doused in gamma radiation or shipped in from some faraway planet. Sometimes they’re just born with it.

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