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1965 Highway 101 sniper attack
1965 Highway 101 sniper attack
Location	Orcutt, California, U.S.
Coordinates	34°49′55″N 120°21′58″W / 34.832°N 120.366°W
Date	April 25, 1965; 59 years ago
Target	Motorists traveling along U.S. Highway 101
Attack type	Mass shooting, triple murder, murder-suicide
Weapons	Sporterized Swedish Mauser bolt-action rifle w/ Mannlicher stock (6.5×55mm); Pistol (not used);
Deaths	4 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	10
Perpetrator	Michael Andrew Clark

Early on the Sunday morning of April 25, 1965, 16-year-old Michael Andrew Clark opened fire on cars traveling along U.S. Highway 101 just south of Orcutt, California from a nearby hilltop. Three people were killed and ten were wounded before Clark committed suicide upon arrival of police.

Shooting

Late on the night of April 24, 1965, Michael Andrew Clark, who lived in Long Beach, California, left home in his parents' car, without their permission. In the back of the car, he had a Swedish Mauser military rifle equipped with telescopic sight and a pistol he had removed from his father's locked gun safe along with a large quantity of ammunition. Early the next morning, he climbed to the top of a hill overlooking a stretch of Highway 101 near Orcutt. As the sun came up, Clark began shooting at automobiles driving down the highway.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Two men were killed and six more people were wounded as the shooting continued for hours before Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office deputies rushed the hill and Clark committed suicide as they closed in.^[4]^[5] A five-year-old boy wounded in the head died a day later, bringing the total to three dead for the rampage.^[6]

Reportedly the two men killed in the shooting were attempting to assist others who were trapped in a vehicle which had been hit by the gunfire.^[7]

Victims

Those killed were:^[8]

Charles Christopher Hogan, 21
Joel W. Kocab, 28
Kevin Dean Reida, 5

Those wounded were:^[9]

Doris Burson, 24, injured by glass fragments
Alice Jones, 31, injured by glass fragments
Marvine Jones, 12, injured by glass fragments
Bill Reida, 42, shot in the neck
Lucille Reida, 44, wife of Bill Reida, injured by glass fragments
Kim Alan Reida, 3, son of Bill and Lucille Reida, graze wound
Norbert Schuerman, 38, policeman, shot in the left arm
Kathleen Smith, 22, injured by glass fragments
Renee Terry, 15, shot in the right forearm
Leona Weber, wrist injury from shrapnel
Joy Ziomek, 39, arm injury from glass fragments

Aftermath

A lawsuit was eventually brought to the courts by victims William, Lucille, and Kim Reida, complaining that parents Forest and Joyce Clark were negligent in two counts: "failure of the Clarks to train, control, and supervise son Michael" and also, "failure of Forest Clark to keep the rifle out of Michael’s hands." The case was decided in favor of the Clarks and generally upheld on appeal, although the appeals court found negligence on the part of father Forest Clark for not adequately securing the weapons.^[10]

Cited works and further reading

Cawthorne, Nigel; Tibballs, Geoff (1993). Killers. London: Boxtree. pp. 195-199, 316-322. ISBN 0-7522-0850-0.

References

^ Santa Maria Times, April 26, 1965
^ "Sniper Kills 2". Los Angeles Times. April 26, 1965.
^ Ovid Demaris (1971). America the Violent. Penguin Books. p. 344.
^ "Highway Sniper Dies After Killing Two, Wounding Six". Los Angeles Times. April 26, 1965.
^ Los Angeles Times. May 7, 1965. Michael Andrew Clark, 16, took his own life after killing two passers by and fatally wounding a third with a high-powered rifle on Highway 101 near here April 25, a coroner's jury ruled Thursday. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ "Highway Sniper's Bullet Proves Fatal to Boy, 5". Los Angeles Times. April 27, 1965.
^ "Part II, p. 1". Los Angeles Times. April 28, 1965. Both men who were killed by a teen-age sniper on U.S. 101 may have been trying to aid victims in another auto, it was disclosed Tuesday.
^ "The Press-Courier - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
^ "The Free Lance-Star - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
^ "Reida v. Lund 18 Cal.App.3d 698".