On February 16, 1988, a mass shooting occurred at the headquarters of ESL Incorporated in Sunnyvale, California. 39-year-old Richard Farley shot and killed seven people and wounded four others. A former employee of the company, he stalked his co-worker Laura Black for four years beginning in 1984. Farley was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder and is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
Background
Perpetrator
Richard Wade Farley was born in Texas on July 25, 1948. He was the oldest of six children. His father was in the military, therefore the family frequently relocated, and eventually settled in California. He graduated from high school in 1966 and attended Santa Rosa Junior College. Farley then joined the United States Navy in 1967 where he stayed for ten years. After his discharge in 1977, Farley began working as a software technician at ESL Inc., a defense contractor in Sunnyvale, California.
Stalking
In April 1984, 35-year-old Richard Farley met 22-year-old Laura Black, who also worked at ESL Inc. Farley described himself as immediately smitten and later said that he instantly "fell in love" with Black. Farley began leaving gifts, including letters and homemade baked goods, on Laura Black's desk and asked her out numerous times. Black repeatedly refused the invitations and later said in an interview that she "...tried really to ignore him but to be cordial". Despite her refusals, Farley persisted; he began calling her desk every few hours as well as showing up at Black's aerobics class. By providing false information to the ESL HR department through pretexting, Farley was able to obtain Black's home address and home phone number. Farley was also known to have befriended the custodial department in an attempt to copy keys to Black's desk so he could rifle through her files to gain an insight into her life. He was also known to have pried through confidential personnel files of Black through false pretenses.
During this time, Farley was sending one or two letters to Black a week. Though there were periods of time during which the letters would cease, in total Farley sent about two hundred letters over a period of four years, with the final letter sent from his prison cell after his rampage at ESL. Black moved four times during those four years, but Farley was able to obtain her address every time. Farley doctored photos of him and Black being together and mailed them to her.
In fall of 1985, Black asked the Human Resources Department at ESL for help. ESL ordered Farley to attend psychological counseling sessions, and despite attending these sessions, his harassment of Black continued. By spring of 1986, Farley was threatening fellow ESL employees. Because of his poor performance, his employment with ESL was terminated in May 1986. He had been working for ESL for nine years and spent several months stalking Black full-time, then found work at a rival company, Covalent Systems Corporation in Sunnyvale.
Shooting at ESL
Black filed for a temporary restraining order against Farley on February 2, 1988 and it was granted by a family court judge. A court date was set for February 17, 1988 to see if the restraining order should be made permanent.
Farley bought a shotgun and various other weapons and equipment. The restraining order did not prevent him from buying weapons during that time. He also owned a variety of other weapons which were not present during the shooting at ESL, including a Mossberg shotgun barrel and a Ruger .22 LR carbine and over 3,000 rounds of ammunition. On February 9, 1988, he left a package with Black's attorney, claiming to have evidence that he and Black had a longstanding relationship. The package included items such as photographs purportedly showing Black and Farley on dates, a garage door opener to Black's house, and hotel and credit card receipts. Farley claimed that Black kept a stash of cocaine that they shared once. Black's attorney dismissed the package as utter fabrications.
On the day before the court date, February 16, 1988, Farley drove his motorhome to the ESL parking lot in Sunnyvale, California. He later claimed he waited for Black to leave work so he could convince her to rescind the restraining order. If she refused, he would kill himself. At about 3:00 p.m., Farley loaded up his guns, a 12-gauge Benelli Riot semi-automatic shotgun, a Ruger M-77 .22-250 rifle with a scope, a Mossberg 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a Sentinel .22 WMR revolver, a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver, a Browning BDA .380 ACP pistol, and a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol. He had a foot-long Buck knife and smoke bomb and wore a bulletproof vest, earplugs, and a leather glove.