Carl Drega did not like authority figures who intruded into his personal space. He lived outside of Colebrook, New Hampshire, and when he drove into town on August 19, 1997, he was pulled over for driving a rusty pickup truck. Drega shot and killed the two police officers, then drove to the office of a judge that he didn't like and killed her, then killed the editor of the town newspaper for good measure. He drove home, set it on fire, and was killed later that day in a shootout across the state line in Vermont. Investigators found 86 pipe bombs in his house, and a surveillance system concealed in the birdhouses on his property.

One year later, a memorial has been erected outside of the News and Sentinel offices in Colebrook. The black marble slab has etched portraits of Drega's four victims, and was dedicated with a parade and a perhaps-not-well-thought-through gun salute. [08/02/1998]

November 26, 2009