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Butcher goes postal

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Anonymous

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A butcher has slashed six people, including two children, with his knife after going on the rampage in a village in south-western France.
Michel Perroy, in his late 40s, attacked people in Salleboeuf, near Bordeaux, apparently at random, as he ran shouting through the streets.

The village policeman and two passers-by, one of them himself a victim of the frenzy, managed to control the butcher.

Most of the injured were slashed across the face, although one was also knifed in the chest. None are in critical condition.

The attacks began at about 0900 (0700GMT) on Friday, when Mr Perroy rushed into the bakery next to his butcher's shop, "extremely agitated" according to one eyewitness.

He slashed the baker and his daughter-in-law in the face, before running through the village brandishing his knife.

"It's the end of the world, we're all going to die," he screamed.

He knifed four more people - including his five-year-old grandson - before being wrestled down.

"He was on the ground, covered in blood, saying 'The Jehovah's Witnesses have said it's the end of the world'," said one bystander.

Mr Perroy had moved to the village a decade ago, and was widely popular.

"I don't understand it - he was always ready to lend a hand, a truly good man," said one villager, Michele Dugarry, who had noticed nothing unusual when the butcher came into her cafe about an hour before the attack.

However, Ms Dugarry added that he had said he spoken about getting rid of some Jehovah's Witnesses who had called on him.

Mr Perroy is now being held by the police on suspicion of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.

He has not spoken since his arrest.

"We can suppose that this is a man who lost his senses, but that remains to be verified," said Gendarmerie Commander Franck Neollier.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3007592.stm
 
interesting! if you enter salle boeuf (Salleboeuf) into google's language translator it comes out as room ox. butcher goes postal in room ox!!!! ;)
 
sorry if i'm off topic, but where does the expression <to go postal> come from?
 
go postal v 1. to perpetrate acts of premeditated violence. 2. to go insane. Notes: the term originated from the cases of United States Postal Service employees who, due to job stress or other traumatic influence, have murdered coworkers on the job, usually with a firearm. Only later did the definition open up to general insanity, but still has connotations of violence. Submitted by Notes by Michael Venables, USA. crime (related to) attack kill shoot

From the Online Slang Dictionary.
 
Sally said:
go postal v 1. to perpetrate acts of premeditated violence. 2. to go insane. Notes: the term originated from the cases of United States Postal Service employees who, due to job stress or other traumatic influence, have murdered coworkers on the job, usually with a firearm. Only later did the definition open up to general insanity, but still has connotations of violence. Submitted by Notes by Michael Venables, USA. crime (related to) attack kill shoot

From the Online Slang Dictionary.

why is it everyone seems to get in with the explanations before me. I want to look intelegent damn it!:(
 
Just to clarify for our non-USAian friends about the term "going postal" -- I always took it to be part and parcel of this expression the understanding that the USPO, being a government agency, gave preference to veterans for employment. Hence, they had a bunch of Viet Nam veterans with various forms of PTSD and other problems from the war. Then the postoffice puts them to work in a high-stress situation mechanically sorting mail.

That makes this a very nuanced phrase that has had the corners knocked off it by common usage until it's been reduced to the equivalent of "getting medivial on their asses". But look what you have in the original intent:
1. someone with a damaged/fragile psyche
2. often with a substance abuse problem
3. put in a stressful situation by managerial callousness or incompetence
4. lashes out at everyone in said environment, usually with firarms
 
John the Baptist

I realize that I've mentioned this one on the boards before, probably ad nauseum, but it seems to fit so well here:

One of the very first Fortean news stories I ever recognized as such, around 1959, involved a man who ran naked through the downtown streets of a major American city (Detroit, as I recall), brandishing a sword, and screaming "I'M JOHN THE BAPTIST!!" as he hacked and slashed at passers-by.

Sure, John. You got it, John. No argument from me, John. Whatever, you say, John.
 
Re: John the Baptist

OldTimeRadio said:
......One of the very first Fortean news stories I ever recognized as such, around 1959, involved a man who ran naked through the downtown streets of a major American city (Detroit, as I recall), brandishing a sword, and screaming "I'M JOHN THE BAPTIST!!" as he hacked and slashed at passers-by......

We seem to have had a few round my way in the last couple of years......

Blokes with, so called, Samuri swords freaking out & attacking all & sundery. Last year in the next village to me some bloke visiting, took it out on various parked & passing cars.
 
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