On a tragic day in the spring of 1969, the life of Ignatius Keenan, a 50-year-old Caucasian male, was violently cut short. It was April 5th when Keenan and his family were traveling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, just east of Harrisburg. What should have been a routine journey turned into a scene of terror and unimaginable loss. Without warning, their vehicle was caught in a horrifying shooting spree.
The perpetrator of this senseless act was Donald Martin Lambright.
Armed with two carbine rifles, Lambright opened fire on unsuspecting motorists along the busy highway. The Keenan family was among his victims. In the chaos and violence that erupted, Ignatius Keenan was fatally wounded. His wife, Ruby Edna Hesson Keenan, who was 51, also lost her life in the attack.
The horrific event did not end with the Keenans. Before he was through, Lambright had killed two other people and wounded sixteen more, leaving a trail of devastation and forever altering the lives of many families. The motive for Lambright's violent rampage remains a dark chapter in the state's history. The aftermath of the shooting left a community in mourning and a nation in shock over the indiscriminate violence that had unfolded on a public highway.
