Anita Gordon

Anita Belle “Nicky” Horvitz Gordon was a 63-year-old white woman who lived a quiet life in the well-to-do Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania. She was known by neighbors for her daily walks with her miniature collie, Chipper. To her husband, Sanford Gordon, she was simply "an angel." The couple had been longtime residents of the Virginia Manor neighborhood, where they were friends with the family next door, the Baumhammers, for over three decades.

On the afternoon of Friday, April 28, 2000, Anita Gordon became the first victim in a horrifying, racially motivated shooting spree. Her neighbor, 34-year-old Richard Scott Baumhammers, an unemployed immigration attorney, walked to her home around 1:30 p.m. and fatally shot her. After killing her, he set a fire in her house before driving away in his black Jeep Cherokee. Firefighters, responding to an automatic fire alarm, discovered Anita's body inside her home. She had been shot multiple times with a .357 Magnum revolver.

This was only the beginning of a two-hour, 15-mile trail of terror across two counties. Driven by white supremacist and anti-immigrant hatred, Baumhammers systematically targeted ethnic and religious minorities. After murdering Anita, he drove to the Beth El Congregation synagogue in nearby Scott Township, where she was a member. He fired shots into the synagogue's windows and spray-painted two red swastikas and the word "Jew" on the building's facade. From there, he continued his rampage, killing Anil Thakur, a 31-year-old man from India, at a grocery store and critically wounding the store manager, Sandip Patel, who was left paralyzed and died from complications seven years later.

Baumhammers then drove to a Chinese restaurant in Robinson Township, where he shot and killed two men of Asian descent: 34-year-old manager Ji-ye "Jerry" Sun and 27-year-old delivery driver Thao "Tony" Pham. The final stop in his deadly journey was a karate school in Center Township, Beaver County. There, he murdered Garry Lee, a 22-year-old African American man. At approximately 3:30 p.m., police apprehended Baumhammers in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, bringing the violent spree to an end.

The investigation, led by local police and the FBI, quickly identified Richard Baumhammers as the sole perpetrator. He was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, attempted homicide, ethnic intimidation, arson, and other offenses. His defense attorneys initially argued he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, citing a history of mental illness and diagnoses of delusional disorder. Psychiatrists testified that Baumhammers suffered from delusions, believing the FBI was monitoring him. However, he was ultimately deemed fit for trial.

In May 2001, an Allegheny County jury found Richard Baumhammers guilty on all charges. Prosecutors argued that while he was mentally ill, he was also a "controlled, deliberate, calculating and selective" killer who was motivated by hate. Evidence included a manifesto he had written for a "Free Market Party" that advocated for an end to non-white immigration. Just days after his conviction, the jury recommended the death penalty. A judge formally sentenced him to death, and he was sent to Pennsylvania's death row. His numerous appeals, citing mental health issues, have been repeatedly denied, though his execution has been stayed indefinitely due to a statewide moratorium. As of November 2019, his conviction and death sentence were upheld on appeal.