On a cold Valentine's Day morning in 1977, a tragic event unfolded in New Rochelle, New York, forever altering the lives of many. James Green, a 45-year-old Black man from Mount Vernon, went to his job as a mover at the Neptune Worldwide Moving Company, unaware of the horror that would soon transpire. That day, a recently suspended co-worker, 33-year-old Frederick F. Cowan, arrived at the warehouse with a deadly arsenal and a heart full of vengeful hatred.
Cowan, a large man and a U.S.
Army veteran, was known to harbor racist and anti-Semitic beliefs, openly admiring Adolf Hitler and collecting Nazi memorabilia. His two-week suspension, reportedly for being rude to a customer, was initiated by his Jewish supervisor, who became the primary target of his rage. Dressed in military-style clothing, Cowan entered the building shortly before 8 a.m. and began a shooting rampage.
As employees were gathering in the cafeteria and preparing for their workday, Cowan opened fire. James Green was one of the first people he encountered. Witnesses reported that upon seeing the initial victims fall, Green turned to run but was shot in the back by Cowan. He tragically died on a flight of stairs leading to the second floor. Along with Green, three other employees were killed in the initial onslaught: Joseph Hicks, Frederick Holmes, and Pariyarathu Varghese.
The violence quickly escalated as police responded to the scene. Cowan, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and several handguns, fired from a second-floor window, killing New Rochelle police officer Allen McLeod and wounding several other officers and civilians. This initiated a tense, day-long siege, with hundreds of law enforcement officers surrounding the building.
Throughout the standoff, Cowan made sporadic contact with the police, at one point demanding potato salad and cocoa. He expressed no remorse for his actions. As the day wore on, several employees who had been hiding inside the warehouse managed to escape. Finally, late in the afternoon, a single gunshot was heard from within the building. Fearing he might have hostages, police cautiously entered the warehouse as dusk fell. They found Frederick Cowan dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was the sole perpetrator of the massacre. A subsequent search of his home revealed a significant cache of weapons and a vast collection of Nazi propaganda, further cementing the ideological hatred that fueled his deadly rampage.
