All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S01E11.WEBRip.en

-The 19th of August 1987,
was a warm summer's day

in the idyllic market town
of Hungerford in Berkshire,

a town that truly
encompasses the spirit

of the British countryside.

-A bright, calm, lovely
High Street, delicate shops,

the epitome
of a south of England,

self-effacing
and yet rather proud town.

-But this rural idyll was about
to become the setting for

one of the worst mass shootings
in British history,

perpetrated by
one lone individual.

-When we look at spree killers,

we look at what drives them,
it's often an underlying,

simmering resentment that is
often years in the making.

It's a very unique form
of mass murder.

-A gun-obsessed local man
named Michael Ryan

had taken to the streets,
firing randomly at strangers,

intent on killing anyone
who crossed his path.

-People were deeply shocked

at the way this chaotic violence
had erupted

into what were small-scale,
placid English lives.

-By killing 16 people
in less than 2 hours,

Michael Ryan had undoubtedly

become one of the world's
most evil killers.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It was a day
that shocked the nation.

On Wednesday,
August the 19th, 1987,

a lone gunman
took to the streets

of the countryside town
of Hungerford in Berkshire

and terrorized the residents.

Armed with a collection
of deadly weapons,

27-year-old Michael Ryan

began his rampage
in nearby Savernake Forest

by killing a young mother
in front of her children.

By the time Ryan
turned the gun on himself

just before 7:00 p.m.,
14 people were dead.

Two others would later die
in hospital.

-There couldn't have been
a more unlikely setting

for the senseless carnage
of August the 19th, 1987.

To the townspeople
of Hungerford,

"massacre" was the sort of word
used in history and fiction.

-30 years later,
in February 2017,

a small number of the locals

gathered to mark an event
of great importance,

but equally one
they'd all rather forget.

-Let's pray, shall we?

We meet in the presence of God.

We pray for all
who in bereavement,

disability, or pain

continue to suffer
the consequences of the tragedy.

We remember with thanksgiving
and sorrow

those whose lives
have been taking away.

-Hungerford resident and
ex-policemen Trevor Wainwright

lost his father
during the tragedy.

-The ceremony was really
a rededication

of the memorial plaque

for those that were killed
in the Hungerford Tragedy.

They put the plaque on the wall
of the local football club,

and it remained there
for 20 years plus,

and I think the local council
thought that perhaps

it wasn't the right place
to have that plaque,

and it might be more fitting

to put it on the wall
of the war memorial.

-The tragedy was an event
that affected the whole town,

including former mayor
of Hungerford Ron Tarry.

-I think it's important
that we don't forget it.

It is part of our history
whether we like it or not,

and I think that it's important
that we do remember it,

and that tragedy memorial
is a remembrance

of what happened on that day.

-Because of my involvement
with my own family

and being a local policeman,

I've not wanted to forget
what happened,

but in my position,

I like to think
I sometimes represent the town

to discuss
these issues for them.

It's very difficult.

People in the town have always
kept away from publicity,

I suppose probably because
of what happened on the day

and the way the media
invaded the town back in 1987.

-The story of
the Hungerford Tragedy

begins almost 60 years ago.

Michael Ryan was born
just 10 miles from Hungerford

in Marlborough, Wiltshire,
on the 18th of May, 1960.

His 55-year-old father, Alfred,

was 20 years senior
to Ryan's mother, Dorothy,

who doted on their young son.

-Michael was a bit
of a mummy's boy.

She really did pander to him

and tended to insulate him quite
a lot from the outside world.

But I think in insulating him,

she tended to isolate him
a little bit, as well,

so he didn't really develop
the skills of social interaction

with his peers all that well.

-Ryan was an only child
who struggled to fit in

with the other kids at school.

-I think because he hadn't had
those relationships

with siblings
that most children have,

he found it difficult
to relate to other people,

so he didn't really make
any connections

with others at school,

and I think he got
a bit of a reputation

as being the odd one out,
the slightly strange kid.

-Aged 16, Ryan left
John O'Gaunt secondary school

and began his working career
as a part-time handyman.

His mother continued to dote
on him, even as he grew older,

reportedly buying him
everything he wanted,

including his first air rifle.

♪♪

He began a collection
of firearms,

which he kept on proud display
in his room.

-The Freudians would say
that was a significant thing

because of his own lack
of masculinity

and had to use a gun
to confirm his own masculinity.

He lived in a fantasy world
of gun magazines,

and he used to wear
a strange kind of camouflage hat

as though he was really Rambo.

Someone have speculated
that he was spoiled,

some that he was
just overindulged,

but there is no doubt

that he turned into
a tragic loner.

-In 1985, 25-year-old Ryan
lost his father to cancer

and became even more withdrawn
from the society around him.

He immersed himself
in his passion for guns,

spending more and more time
at the firing range.

-Often when we look
at spree killers,

we look at what drives them.

It's often a underlying,
simmering resentment

that is often years
in the making,

and because they don't have
those social connections

with other people,

they simmer away, and they just
get worse and worse,

and they spend a lot of time
on their own

ruminating and planning.

-On the 19th of August, 1987,
the 27-year-old was unemployed

and still living at home
with his mother.

The frustration simmering
inside Michael Ryan

was about to boil over.

-No one can say whether
he got out of bed that morning

and decided, "I think I'm gonna
shoot 16 people today,"

though there could be no doubt
that he took out

two semi-automatic rifles
and a Beretta handgun

and by 12:30,
had killed his first victim.

-Ryan had loaded his car
with guns

and driven out
to Savernake Forest,

7 miles west of Hungerford.

35-year-old Susan Godfrey

was picnicking there
with her two young children.

-Ryan approached Susan Godfrey
and her two children,

instructed her at gunpoint to
put her children into the car,

then took her into the bushes
in the forest

and shot her
13 times in the back.

-Ryan had callously
and brutally committed

his first murder.

-Indeed, it was her children

who subsequently
first raised the alarm

when they told a passerby,

"A man in black
has shot our mummy."

-Mrs. Myra Rose
told for the first time

how she was asked for help
by two young children

who had just seen
their mother shot dead.

-And she said,
"A man in black shot my mummy."

I don't think they realized
what death was.

-But Ryan wasn't done
for the day.

Susan Godfrey
was his first victim,

but would not be his last.

-He set off down the A4
towards Hungerford,

stopped at the petrol station
to fill up his car,

waited for another car to leave,

and then tried to kill
the lady behind the counter.

-From the forecourt,
Ryan opened fire

through the glass at the cashier
as she ducked for cover.

When he entered the shop
to finish the job,

his gun jammed, and he fled.

The fortunate woman
immediately dialed 999

and alerted the police.

Ryan got back into his car and
continued on with his journey.

His day of murder
and destruction had begun,

but he was nowhere near finished

as he headed directly towards
his hometown of Hungerford.

At around 12:45, Ryan arrived
home to number 4 South View.

-He got there about quarter
to 1

to load up the rest
of his collection of guns

into the back of his car.

He duly did so,
and then the car,

for whatever reason,
failed to start.

Ryan was so furious,
he shot the car five times.

He then killed his dog
for reasons, again,

no one can explain,

set fire to the house,

and he killed two neighbors

who happened to be
in their back garden.

-Ryan's next door neighbors
Roland and Sheila Mason

were both killed instantly.

With his house in flames,
27-year-old Ryan

took three guns from his car --
a Beretta 9 mm pistol,

an M1 carbine assault rifle,
and an AK-47 machine gun.

He then headed east on foot.

-He took two semi-automatics
and a handgun with him

and started to walk towards
Hungerford Common,

then began what you could
describe as almost a spree.

-Ryan shot and injured two more
people at the end of South View,

one of them a 14-year-old girl.

He seemed intent on causing
mayhem on the streets

of the small rural town.

-We will probably never know
what Michael Ryan's intentions

were when he left
the house on the day

that he carried out
these killings.

I think when we look at some of
his behavior around it, though,

we can perhaps speculate
that he was suffering

from some kind
of mental illness.

Some of the things, for me,
that would support that

would be how close together
these killings were.

When killings are further apart,

when there's time
in between them,

the person is thinking about it.

The person is deciding
to do it again,

but when it's in a continuous
spree like this,

there's less of that
decision making going on

and psychosis or schizophrenia
do come into the picture.

-One of the injured women
who Ryan had shot at

through her living room window
had managed to dial 999.

Reports of the shootings
had even filtered through

to newsrooms across the country.

-I was a general news reporter
in the news room at the "Times"

on the eastern side of London,

and the news came in...

Even in those days,
news got around very quickly...

that there had been
a major shooting incident

in this small Berkshire
country town of Hungerford,

and I was sent by the office
from London to Hungerford,

which is about
between 80 and 90 miles,

and I was dispatched
I think probably some time

after 1:00
and I just shot down the M4.

-News had also reached the mayor
of Hungerford, Ron Tarry,

who was at a meeting
in a nearby village.

-I was in the Lambourn area,
and I had the car radio on

when I heard there had been
a shooting in Hungerford,

a number of people
had been killed.

My first thought was, "There are
a number of Hungerfords.

There's one down in Hampshire,
and it's probably not ours,"

and then it said,

"Hungerford is a small
market town in Berkshire."

Suddenly, the shock came in.

It was -- it was my Hungerford,
if I like to call it that.

How can it happen in a place
like Hungerford?

-At that point, I had
an antique store in Hungerford,

and so I knew the town
really very well.

I used to go there every week
without fail,

Saturday and Sunday.

It was very comfortable and warm
and an enjoyable place to be,

which makes the juxtaposition
with Ryan all the more dramatic

because we're not talking about

the mean streets of
Chicago here.

We're not talking about
East Los Angeles.

We're talking about Hungerford,

a delightful,
charming English county town

with no real worries

and equally
no history of violence.

-Ryan's spree continued.

On a footpath that ran
between South View

and Hungerford Common,

he encountered a family
walking the opposite way.

While the rest of his family
ran away,

the 51-year-old father,
Kenneth Clements,

put his hands up
as if to surrender,

but Ryan cold-bloodedly shot him
in the chest,

killing him instantly.

Kenneth had become
Ryan's fourth victim.

-There doesn't seem to be
a pattern

to Michael Ryan's behavior
on the day

that he carries out
these shootings.

It appears to be indiscriminate.

They are every day people
doing every day, normal things,

and I think Michael Ryan
never felt

that he was part of that normal,
part of that every day,

so perhaps there is
a pattern underlying it

in that the people
that he's taking his rage out on

are the people
that he wants to be like.

-Another Hungerford resident,

police officer
Trevor Wainwright,

was out of town enjoying a day
off, when he heard the news.

-On the 19th of August,
I can remember very clearly

it was a beautiful
hot summer's day.

I heard that there'd been
a shooting or a hold-up

at the filling station
at the Savernake.

-Because the reports
from the petrol station

were coming from the neighboring
county of Wiltshire,

Trevor didn't draw
any association

to his own patch in Hungerford

until he received
a distressing call from home.

-It was my wife saying,
"Trevor, you'd better get home.

"Don't know what's happening,

but there's gunfire
going across our garden."

So I thought,
"Mm, what's all that about?

Could it be connected
with this Savernake thing?"

You know, I didn't know,
but obviously,

I'd like to get back
to Hungerford.

-As Trevor raced home,
the true severity

of the situation
was revealed to him.

-As I drove
across Hungerford Common,

I could see,
on the edge of the town,

a couple of houses on fire.

You know, you could see
the smoke,

and I could see,
in a clump of trees,

there was a group of people
shouting in the trees.

So I pulled up, and I knew
a couple of the people,

and I said, "What's going on?"

And they said, "Oh, it's a bloke
gone mad with a gun."

And I just didn't know
what to think, you know?

And you could smell the cordite
from the weapon in the air,

which I've never experienced
that before,

not like that, you know?

Just you could hear the sound
of a gun going off,

but I think the smoke
and the fire from the house

was the thing
that was quite frightening.

-By now, police were beginning
to arrive in Hungerford,

still unaware of the scale
of the ongoing devastation.

Trevor's colleague,
41-year-old Roger Brereton,

was the first constable
on the scene at South View.

-Roger Brereton
was a lovely lad.

He was a local lad, I think,

come from Wantage way,
originally.

He came to Hungerford as a PC.

We used to go out, crew a car
together on many occasions,

going round the rural area.

He was always a laugh
and a joke.

He was good police officer.

He was out in the Newbury area,
and the call came up

there was a shooting
in Hungerford,

and bravely, he said,
"I'm on my way."

-But by now, Ryan had
turned back towards his home

and spotted Roger Brereton
in his police car as he arrived.

-He just went to do his job
and drove up into South View,

and, tragically, he was shot

whilst he was in the car,
several times,

and he didn't stand a chance.

♪♪

-Ryan fires 23 rounds
at Brereton

in his police car,

hitting him four times.

He was unarmed.

He was doing no more
than responding to a call

that there were reports
of gunfire.

How could he possibly
have expected to encounter

a man who would
shoot at him 23 times?

-It could've been anyone,
you know,

but, you know,
it was pretty tough it was him.

-PC Roger Brereton had become
Ryan's fifth victim of the day.

-I mean, nowadays,
you know, we're used --

This is an age
of terrorist attacks.

They'd be armed to the teeth,
the people who were --

But they were just policeman.

They didn't carry sidearms.
They didn't have rifles.

So if Michael Ryan had wanted,
he could've gone due west,

and he could've gone into
Hungerford High Street

and he could've got up and down
the High Street shooting people

left, right, and center,
and no one could've stopped him

'cause there was no policemen
with any weapon.

-Town Mayor Ron Tarry
was desperately trying

to return to his home and find
out if his family was safe,

but the increased number of
police had made that difficult.

-Well, I drove to Hungerford.
Everything was closed off.

The police were on every entry
into Hungerford,

and there was no way
I could get into Hungerford.

My wife was here, and my
daughter and grandson were here,

but I went just out of town
to a farm manager that I knew

and was able to ring
and speak to my wife here,

be assured that
they were all okay,

and that was the first concern,

but I couldn't get
into Hungerford for some time.

-With Hungerford in lockdown,

Ryan continued with
his bloody spree on South View,

shooting at passing cars.

First he fired at a mother
and her daughter,

who managed to escape
by driving away.

Then he shot and killed
driver George White

and another neighbor,
84-year-old Abdul Khan,

who was in the back garden
of his home on Fairview Road.

-He shoots at a neighbor.
He shoots at an ambulance

which has also responded
to the concept of shots fired.

The man disassembling,

disintegrating before
your very eyes,

falling apart, shooting
at people entirely at random,

and then, of all
remarkable coincidences,

his mother drives into
South View.

-Ryan's mother, Dorothy,

arrived to a scene
of complete devastation.

-It's almost impossible
to imagine

what she must have thought.

Her house is on fire.

There are bodies in the road.

Her neighbors are dead,

and there's her son carrying
two rifles and a handgun,

clearly having done something
absolutely terrifying.

His mother gets out of the car,

puts her hands up
and pleads with him.

Ryan shoots her, kills her.

-It could be theorized that
he accidentally shot his mother.

I mean, if he was experiencing
some kind of psychosis,

some kind
of mental health condition

where he wasn't in control
of his actions,

he could well have just been
targeting people randomly,

people who appeared
in his line of his sight,

and his mother happened
to be one of those people.

-As this scene of absolute
tragedy and terror continued

to unfold on South View,
Trevor Wainwright

reported for duty
at Hungerford Police Station.

-It was quite bedlam,
to be honest.

In those days, we only had
two phone lines

into the police station,
and there was a lot of movement.

The first thing I wanted to know
is who this was

that was shooting people
because, you know,

I'd been at Hungerford
as a bobby 15 years.

I knew all the kids.
I played football with them.

I took them for football,
and I had

a wonderful relationship
with people in the town,

and this name Michael Ryan
came out,

and it didn't mean
anything to me.

I thought, "Well,
who the hell is that?"

-At 1:30 p.m., the specially
trained Tactical Firearms Unit

were brought in to support
the local police.

-Yeah, the adrenaline
was running through me,

and I knew what
I wanted to do was

to accompany the armed police
when they arrived

because I was the local bobby,
you know, and I thought,

"Well, they didn't know
where he was."

You know, the location of him
at that time, and so I said,

"Well, I'll go down
to the news agents'

and get local maps,
Ordnance Survey maps.

I drove my car down
into the High Street,

and I was amazed to see
a row of ambulances,

a PC who stopped the traffic
and a couple of fire engines,

more police cars,

and there was people shouting
in shop doorways.

I just went straight into
the news agents'.

I said, "Let me have
your street maps.

Let me have your --
all the map's you've got."

So I was able to get some,
grab them,

drove back
to the police station,

and by that time, there was
lots of senior police officers

coming in and armed response
vehicles that were coming in.

-We knew something
pretty serious was going on,

but we didn't really know
the scale of it.

The telephone system
was overwhelmed.

I think it was very difficult
for the police

to find out where he was
and what he'd done.

-Even with the help of the maps,

the police were struggling
to locate Ryan.

-At that time,
there was conflicting reports

as to his exact location

because the communication
problem with the phones...

Calls were coming in saying
he was in one street,

but, of course, he'd moved on
by the time

that call had been processed,
so nobody knew where he was,

but all the time
he was shooting people

as he went round the streets.

-Ryan was on the move.

After wounding another of
his neighbors on Clarks Gardens,

he'd headed back across
Hungerford Common,

where he murdered
Francis Butler,

a young father
who was walking his dog.

His 10th victim of the day
was taxi driver Marcus Barnard,

whom he gunned down
on Bulpit Lane.

But Ryan wasn't nearly finished.

He was heading towards

the heavily populated
town center.

On Priory Avenue, he'd shot
and injured two more people

before heading north
towards Fairview Road.

-As he walked along,
he was shooting

at pretty much anyone that
he came across.

Some he killed.

Some he simply injured.

-Local police officer
Trevor Wainwright

was in the midst of working
to bring Ryan's killing spree

to an end when tragedy struck
devastatingly close to home.

-I got called into
the sergeant's office,

and he said to me,

"Trevor, I don't know
how to tell you this."

I said, "What?" He said, um,

he said, "Your dad's been shot

and he's dead."

-Trevor's parents,
Douglas and Kathleen Wainwright,

were in their car
just where Fairview Road

meets Priory Avenue,
unaware of the danger

that awaited them
as they drove to see their son.

-I didn't even
think about my mum and dad

coming to Hungerford that day.

They lived in Kent,
and they traveled,

what, 120 miles that day,

and they've driven 300 yards
from my house,

and they drove
straight into Michael Ryan,

who shoots into the car,
and he shot my dad in the head,

and he died instantly.

-Kathleen was able to
pull herself out of the car,

where she hid from Ryan
until a local resident

bravely took her
into the safety of their home.

-The sergeant told me
my dad had died.

At that point, he said,
"Your mum's also been shot,

"but she's been taken
to hospital.

We're gonna get you
to the hospital," so it was...

Really, that was me out of doing
any more work at Hungerford.

-By now,
more and more journalists

were arriving
at the police cordons,

desperate to find out exactly
what was going on in the town.

-You couldn't get into
the town center,

but you could see there was
a police helicopter overhead,

and there was smoke
in the distance.

Well, I checked in
with the office,

and they told me there
had been multiple shootings,

and they knew even then

that it was in this street
called South View,

which was on the eastern
side of the town,

and they wanted me, obviously,
to get there as soon as I could.

But you couldn't get
within half a mile of it.

I mean,
there was no way on Earth

you could get anywhere
near it at that time.

-It soon became apparent
to the press

that something horrifying
was happening within the town,

but no one was really sure
just what was going on.

-Even the police didn't know
what had happened.

The whole incident
consisted of three locations.

10 miles away
in Savernake Forest,

it all began when he shot
that poor woman

who was picnicking
with her children.

Then he drove down the A4
to Froxfield

where the service area was,

and he tried to shoot
the woman on the till.

And then he came into
Hungerford,

and gradually, these reports of
these different things came in,

and it was immensely confusing.

And if it was confusing
for the police,

it was doubly confusing
for journalists

who were trying to put together
a picture of what had happened.

-Gradually,
Mike and his fellow journalists

began to build a bigger picture.

-It was
starting to become clear

that there was a man
on the loose

with what looked
like automatic weapons

who had killed
more than one person.

There were perhaps two, three,
four, even five people dead.

He was just shooting, shooting,

shooting with a fully automatic
assault rifle.

So, you know, piecing that
together for the police,

never mind for journalists,
was a very difficult task to do.

-But the media
and the police had no idea

of just how much
the body count was rising.

Van driver Eric Vardy became
Ryan's 12th victim of the day

when he was shot on the junction

of Priory Avenue
and Tarrants Hill.

The gunman then crossed through
Orchard Park Close,

killing 22-year-old Sandra Hill
in her passing car.

After heading onto Priory Road,
Ryan forced his way into a house

and killed both Victor Gibbs
and his wife Myrtle,

bringing his tally
of victims to 15.

-Most spree killers feel
kind of quite hard done by.

They feel that they are victims.

They feel that other people

have been out to get them
for their entire lives,

and they often begin
fantasizing about one day

getting their revenge
on these people.

-Ryan continued south
on Priory Road,

now heading away
from the town center

and towards his old school,
John O'Gaunt.

He shot at a family who were
driving by in their car.

34-year-old father Ian Playle
was hit in the neck and died.

In less than 90 minutes,
Ryan had killed 16 people.

-Finally, Ryan,
I think symbolically,

returns to his old school,

the John O'Gaunt
Community College,

and he locks himself in.

By this time, the police have
managed to assemble a reaction,

and he begins to negotiate.

-For 5 hours,
the police tried convincing Ryan

to give himself up.

-He seems incredibly concerned
about his mother.

That seems to be what is
at the forefront of his mind,

what he's most concerned with.

And you could interpret that
as some kind of remorse,

but actually, I think it's more
indicative of his enmeshment

with his mother and his
dependence upon his mother,

'cause they had
quite an intense relationship.

He really was quite
a mummy's boy,

and I think that the thought
that he had killed her

and taken her out of
the equation was something

that he was having
quite a lot of trouble with.

-Very near the end of the events
at Hungerford that day,

he said to
the police negotiators,

"Hungerford must be
a bit of a mess by now.

I wish I'd stayed in bed."

And that, in a way,
encapsulates the tragedy of him.

-Shortly before 7:00 p.m.,

police heard a single shot
emerge from the school.

-The standoff ends with Ryan
killing himself.

The psychotic break is complete.

He doesn't do anything dramatic.

He simply shoots himself
with one of his own rifles.

-Sergeant Paul Brightwell
of the Tactical Firearms Unit

began a shouted conversation
with him.

-On many occasions,
he seemed to me

just to be on the verge
of coming out.

It wasn't until he said
about the fact that he'd got

one round of ammunition left,

and so I said, "Well,
why have you kept that one?"

And he said, "It's obvious."

-In a way, it was
a sort of something of relief

that it was over then.

You know, he couldn't shoot
anyone else, and in a way,

it sort of has brought
some closure in my mind.

It didn't bring any closure

to the events
that happened subsequently,

but it did
bring closure that event.

He couldn't shoot any more out,
and no more lives would be lost.

-For the local residents,
including Trevor Wainwright,

the news of Ryan's suicide
brought mixed feelings.

-One of
the strangest things for me

was that the remorse had gone,
you know?

The fact that
he'd killed himself

and he was no longer alive,
the hatred...

You know, if he'd have been
caught and arrested,

I would've hated him so much,
and I would've been

at every court hearing
to see him get sentenced.

But the fact
that he killed himself,

I didn't have that hatred.

-In the wake of the tragedy,
the news began to spread

of the true loss of life
in Hungerford.

-In the evening, we were told
there'd be a briefing

by the head
of Thames Valley Police,

and it was about 10 past 8:00
in the evening,

and there were
about 20 of us there.

We were waiting
just at the corner of this lane,

I remember, and this
senior officer came down.

And remember, we all thought --

You know, we knew that more
than one person was dead.

It could be three, four,
five, even six.

It was an enormous shock.

No one had any idea of the scale
of it until that moment,

and that was the first time
we had a death toll,

an accurate casualty figure.

-16 people were dead.

As the news became public,
the face of the killer,

Michael Ryan,
began to circulate.

-When I saw the picture of Ryan
in the papers myself,

I knew it was the guy
I used to see

walking his dogs
on Hungerford Common

in his combat jacket
and his hat.

But that wasn't anything
alarming to me

because a lot of people wear
those type of coats, you know,

especially around this area.

He was a guy that was quite
insignificant, to be honest.

He was quite polite.

When I saw him on the Common
with his dogs,

we'd say good morning.

The dogs would sniff each other,
and he'd walk off.

-I'd never really met him.
I knew of him.

I mean, he lived locally,
and I saw Michael Ryan

spectating at football matches
but didn't ever seem to mingle.

I didn't really know him at all.

In fact, when I talked
to people since,

I don't think anybody
really knew him.

-When we look at people
like Michael Ryan,

people who carry out
spree killings,

the word "loner" often comes up.

They tend to be very much
kind of on their own,

these lone wolves, and that's
quite important for me

because I think when we have
other people around us,

they act as a bit of a check
on our behavior,

a kind of surveillance.

And when we say things that are
a bit out of order, you know,

our friends and our peers
will often pull us up on that.

When we don't have
those connections,

those feelings tend to escalate,

and we tend to ruminate
over feelings for quite a while.

And without that filter,

I think people like Michael Ryan
can escalate quite quickly.

-In the immediate aftermath,

Hungerford proved itself
to be a true community,

pulling together to support
those affected the most.

-Meanwhile, the mayor launched
an appeal for a fund

for the survivors
and relatives of the victims

from the steps of the town hall.

-The appeal is to be called
the Hungerford Tragedy Fund.

The community reaction
was marvelous.

It was remarkable.

I mean, people said,
"What can I do?

It's our problem.
What can we do to help?"

-The vicar held a church service
the first thing

the next morning,
which I went to.

I think it was
8:00 in the morning.

And he was very active
in bringing people together.

It was a community town.

I mean, it was a sort of place
where everybody knew everybody,

and they did rally round.

♪♪

-In all that carnage,

it seemed almost a cruel irony

to proclaim God's love.

Yet by prayer and word and deed,

so many people were
the instruments of God's love.

-That was the great thing,

the community spirit
of the town, you know,

and I think
that's remained ever since.

-After Michael Ryan's
killing spree at Hungerford

on August the 19th, 1987,

the whole world
was coming to terms

with the events of the day,

none more so than the residents
of the town itself,

where 16 people had died

and a further 17
had been left injured.

-Well, it was silent.

My mother was alive then,

and she lived just off
Priory Avenue,

not far from where
the shooting take place,

and I walked up there
in the evening

to ensure she was okay,

and there wasn't a soul about.

People were just shocked
and just remained at home.

Somebody told me after,
there was a report

that people in Hungerford
were cheering and singing

because they'd heard that
Michael Ryan had been killed,

but it was absolute nonsense.

There was...
People were absolutely shocked

and couldn't believe
what had happened,

and nor could I,
for that matter.

-Everyone wanted to know more
about the mysterious gunman,

and the media put
a lot of unwanted attention

on the small-market town.

-It became quite hard
to talk to people

because there were
so many journalists there,

as you can imagine.

People got sick of it.

Some of the tabloids would've
had teams of five or six,

so you got 40 or 50 journalists
crawling over the place,

and it can't be avoided.

It's just part of life,
but people didn't like it.

-One news report in particular
left Trevor Wainwright

completely stunned.

-Probably the thing
that -- mm --

upset me really badly

was the press coverage.

The headlines were, "PC Signed
Father's Own Death Warrant."

-The headline in question

referred to
the unfortunate coincidence

that Trevor had been the officer
who helped approve

Michael Ryan's
gun license renewal

just weeks before the bloodbath.

-I read that, and I just
couldn't believe that,

and it meant to me that if
I signed my dad's death warrant,

then I signed the death warrants
of all the other people

that got shot.

And, to me, that was so unfair

because Ryan was
a member of a gun club.

He had several weapons,
and each time you have a weapon,

you have to be vetted

or have the license
amended and approved.

If he wasn't a suitable person,

I'd be the person able
to say that,

but because he had no record,
and nobody really knew him,

although he was a local lad,
he was a loner.

That doesn't prevent you from
having a firearm certificate.

And, you know, clearly,
there was no reason for him

not to have
a firearm certificate.

-Trevor was badly affected
by the allegations

and wanted
to lay low for a while.

-I was so upset that I didn't
want to go to hospital

to see my mum because she was
in a ward with the other people

that had been shot,
and I couldn't face them.

They obviously saw the paper
in hospital.

My mum was told that, you know,
I was very upset,

and she phoned me up
from hospital, and she said,

"Trevor, get your ass in here.

The people want you."

-The Hungerford Tragedy would,
in fact, lead to calls

to make drastic changes
to the firearm laws in the U.K.

-As a direct result
of the Hungerford Massacre,

the Home Secretary aired
his new gun law proposals today.

If Parliament agrees,

then semi-automatic rifles
like the AK-47,

similar to Michael Ryan's
murder weapon, will be banned.

-What's the worst invention
of the 20th century?

It's the AK-47 because it has
nine moving parts,

it can be mended
in a village workshop,

and it enables a boy of 10
to kill 30 men.

An AK-47 is a terrible weapon,
and Ryan had one,

and he also had an M1 carbine,
which was American,

so he had these assault rifles
which can, you know,

go through a wall 1/2
a mile away.

[ Gunshots ]

-So many people thought,

"Something has got
to be done about this.

"Why on Earth does a man
need these guns?

And why on Earth is is necessary
to license them?"

-What the government decided
to do very quickly,

in short order...

I think Douglas Hurd
was the Home Secretary...

they commissioned a report
about this from the head

of Thames Valley Police,
which came in quite quickly,

and as a result of it,
they amended the Firearms Act.

You could not any longer be
in possession

of a fully automatic
assault weapon,

and that was done
really quite quickly.

[ Applause ]

-The Home Secretary told
senior officers in Torquay

that the fearful events
of Hungerford had added impetus

to plans to tighten
firearms legislation.

-I have concluded that there
can be no justification

for high-powered,
self-loading rifles of the type

used by Michael Ryan

to be held
my private individuals.

-The Firearms Amendment Act
passed in 1988,

banned the ownership of
semi-automatic centerfire rifles

and restricted the use
of shotguns

with a capacity of more
than three cartridges

in the hope that such a tragedy
would never be repeated.

♪♪

For the people of Hungerford,
it was little consolation.

The hurt remains in the hearts
of those who remember

the 19th of August, 1987,
so vividly.

♪♪

-The scars linger now,
30 years on,

because how could they not?

Entirely random neighbors
were killed, people you knew,

people your children
had been at school with,

someone you might have seen
every day at church.

It was a community,

and there's no way a community
could've suffered such a trauma

without having been
dreadfully affected.

-The press asked me,
"When was the last murder

in Hungerford, do you think?"
and there were two policemen

murdered in Hungerford in 1876,
and I said,

"Well, I think 111 years ago.
I don't know anyone since then."

It's not the sort of thing
you would expect to hear

in a place like Hungerford.

-I think the community
has got stronger

as a result of what's happened,
and as time goes on,

you know, the anger thing
fades out a little bit,

but it will always be there.

-To help support his family,
Trevor's mother moved

to Hungerford after the attacks
to be closer to her son.

-I was so pleased for her,
you know,

because she was brave enough
to come here,

you know, where other people
were moving out.

My mum lived there for another
15 years before she died,

and at her funeral,

the church was packed
with local townspeople,

and it was unbelievable, really,
the love they gave to her.

-Michael Ryan's actions on that
fateful day in August 1987,

left the entire nation
in complete shock.

The pointless
and random killings

left many people asking, "Why?"

-One of the mysteries
of Michael Ryan

is that we will never know.

He killed himself at the end
of the events

and killed his mother
as part of the killings.

There was no one else.
His father had long since dead.

There were no siblings.

There was no other close
related family.

He was, in the end,
just this rather isolated,

way-faced young man
with a fascination with guns.

-I think Michael Ryan
certainly did some evil things.

Whether he consciously chose
to do what he did

or whether he felt compelled
to act in that way

because of some kind
of psychosis.

Perhaps we'll never know.

-But the people of Hungerford
refuse to be defined

by a day
that caused so much pain

and suffering
in such a short space of time.

-I think it strengthened
the community spirit.

It made Hungerford better known
for all the wrong reasons.

Hungerford was more than that.
That was just one dreadful day.

But there's been hundreds
of years of history

when that wasn't Hungerford.

So we don't think of
Michael Ryan

and that day in August 1987,

as being what Hungerford
is about.

-Ryan acted without reason
and entirely at random.

In less than 2 hours,
he murdered 16 people,

including a policeman
and even his own mother.

We may never know
why he did what he did,

but what we can say for certain

is that the small community
living in Hungerford

refused to be beaten
by his cruelty

or haunted by the nightmare

of Michael Ryan's
deranged killing spree.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪