Although he had been a patient in a hospital ward for the mentally ill, Nathan Goldberg was granted a firearms licence. Three days later, on MAY 18th, 1954, he shot three men in Hackney, north-east London, killing one of them, 54-year-old William Gibbons.
Then Goldberg, a former Irish Guardsman, went to a cinema in Leicester Square. On leaving he flagged down a taxi in which he shot himself as it drove down the Strand.
Inquiries indicated that his troubles had begun when a slipped disc ended his career in the army. His subsequent mental illness had prompted him to petition the Queen for compensation, and when police searched his pockets they found a list of 14 people he proposed to shoot. They also found a note which appeared to refer to his planned suicide. It said:
“There are some who fill me with hate to be reckoned with first.”
What had those on his hit-list done to upset him? He complained they had spoken harshly to children.