Lynwood Drake and the 1992 San Luis Obispo County Murders
Background
Lynwood Crumpler Drake III, commonly known as Jim Drake, was an American mass murderer who killed six people during a violent spree through San Luis Obispo County, California, on November 7 and 8, 1992. The attacks occurred at private residences in Morro Bay, a card club in Paso Robles, and the home of a former landlady in San Miguel. Drake also wounded two people before ending the rampage by killing himself.
Drake was born on October 10, 1949, in Norfolk, Virginia. Over the years, he worked as a bartender, caterer and construction worker. He reportedly studied acting in New York and appeared briefly in the 1982 motion picture The World According to Garp. By 1992, however, Drake was unemployed, receiving disability benefits and experiencing serious personal, financial and emotional problems.
Acquaintances described Drake as an angry and unstable man who believed that numerous people had mistreated or conspired against him. He was also known to gamble heavily. Residents later told investigators that Drake had repeatedly threatened to kill people he considered enemies before taking his own life. Although these statements alarmed some people, they were not treated as an immediate or credible plan for violence.
Personal Disputes and Warning Signs
In June 1991, Drake was arrested after assaulting a day-care employee following an incident in which his young daughter suffered a cut during a fall. He received probation and was ordered to participate in a mental-health program intended for people with aggressive behavior. Available accounts do not establish that he completed the program.
During May 1992, Drake was evicted from a rented home in Morro Bay after failing to pay rent for several months. His landlord, 80-year-old Andrew Zatko, pursued the eviction. Norman Metcalfe, a former neighbor and another of Zatko's tenants, testified against Drake during the legal proceedings and reportedly helped remove him from the property.
Shortly after the eviction, Drake's common-law wife separated from him and took their daughter. Drake apparently blamed Zatko, Metcalfe and others for the collapse of his family life. He also held a grudge against employees of a Paso Robles card club where he had lost money and had reportedly been barred for cheating and causing trouble.
The Murder of Andrew Zatko
At approximately 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 7, 1992, Drake entered Andrew Zatko's home in Morro Bay while carrying a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. The residence's front door was unlocked, which was not considered unusual in the community at that time.
Zatko was preparing dinner in the kitchen. His 89-year-old companion, Gladys Walton, was seated nearby. Drake confronted Zatko and fired at him from extremely close range, striking him in the throat. Zatko died from the wound. Walton was not shot and survived the encounter.
The killing was not random. Investigators believed Drake deliberately selected Zatko because of the eviction and the financial dispute between them. After killing him, Drake left the residence and continued to another home in Morro Bay.
The Murders of Norman Metcalfe and Danny Cizek
Drake next waited at the home of 37-year-old Norman Metcalfe. At approximately 6:24 p.m., Metcalfe arrived with 32-year-old Danny Cizek and 27-year-old Jeffrey Sidlin. Drake confronted the three men and shot Metcalfe in the head, killing him.
During the confrontation, Drake also fatally shot Cizek. Sidlin struggled with Drake over the revolver and was shot in the arm. Despite his injury, Sidlin survived. The resistance may have prevented Drake from immediately shooting additional people at the residence.
By this point, Drake had killed three men in Morro Bay. He escaped before officers could locate him and later obtained or carried a 12-gauge shotgun for the next phase of the attack.
The Oak's Card Parlor Massacre
Approximately five hours after the Morro Bay shootings, Drake traveled north to Oak's Card Parlor in Paso Robles. He had previously gambled at the establishment, lost several hundred dollars and been prohibited from returning after accusations of cheating and disruptive conduct.
Drake entered the rear portion of the card club with the shotgun. He targeted card dealers David Law, 47, and Joe Garcia, 60. Both men were fatally shot. Customer Kris Staub, whose age was reported as approximately 30 or 31, attempted to flee through a doorway but was also shot and killed.
Approximately ten other customers were present during the attack. Drake threatened them with the shotgun, but they pleaded with him not to fire. He eventually left without shooting those customers. His decision to spare them indicated that the card-club killings were primarily directed at people he associated with his gambling losses and expulsion from the business.
Hostage Taken in San Miguel
After leaving Paso Robles, Drake drove to San Miguel and broke into the home of 60-year-old Joanne Morrow, a former landlady. Drake took Morrow hostage and assaulted her with a blackjack or similar baton. He threatened to kill her as the situation continued through the night.
Police eventually located Drake at Morrow's residence and surrounded the house. Officers began communicating with him by telephone while attempting to secure Morrow's release. She survived the attack, although she had been beaten and terrorized during the hostage situation.
At approximately 5:00 a.m. on November 8, 1992, while still speaking with negotiators, Drake shot himself in the head. He died inside the residence, bringing the approximately 12-hour killing spree to an end. Morrow was rescued alive.
People Killed
- Andrew Zatko, 80 — Killed on November 7, 1992, inside his home in Morro Bay, California.
- Norman Metcalfe, 37 — Killed on November 7, 1992, at his residence in Morro Bay, California.
- Danny Cizek, 32 — Killed on November 7, 1992, during the attack at Norman Metcalfe's residence in Morro Bay, California.
- David Law, 47 — Killed late on November 7, 1992, at Oak's Card Parlor in Paso Robles, California.
- Joe Garcia, 60 — Killed late on November 7, 1992, at Oak's Card Parlor in Paso Robles, California.
- Kris Staub, approximately 30 or 31 — Killed late on November 7, 1992, while attempting to escape from Oak's Card Parlor in Paso Robles, California.
People Wounded or Assaulted
- Jeffrey Sidlin, 27 — Shot in the arm on November 7, 1992, during the confrontation at Norman Metcalfe's home in Morro Bay.
- Joanne Morrow, 60 — Beaten and held hostage during the night of November 7 and the early morning of November 8, 1992, at her home in San Miguel.
Investigation and Suicide Note
Investigators concluded that the murders were motivated by revenge arising from personal disputes, Drake's eviction, the separation from his wife and daughter, and his gambling losses. The sequence of locations showed that he had selected people connected to grievances he had accumulated over time.
Police found a handwritten suicide note in Drake's clothing. In the note, he referred to himself as “Jesse Cole Younger,” an apparent reference to the outlaw Cole Younger and the James-Younger Gang. He claimed that he had killed the three men in Morro Bay because they had taken his wife, family and daughter from him. The note also expressed resentment toward members of his own family and portrayed Drake as a persecuted man seeking revenge.
Authorities learned that Drake may have intended to attack at least two additional people: his pastor and the day-care worker involved in the earlier dispute concerning his daughter. Investigators believed vehicle problems after the card-club shootings may have prevented him from reaching those intended targets.
Aftermath
The murders shocked Morro Bay, Paso Robles and the surrounding communities, where violent crime of this scale was unusual. The fact that Drake had repeatedly spoken about killing his enemies raised difficult questions about whether the rampage could have been prevented. His threats had become familiar to people around him, but no one recognized that he was preparing to carry them out.
Lynwood Drake died at age 43 on November 8, 1992. Including Drake's suicide, seven people died during the spree. Six victims were murdered, one man was wounded by gunfire, and a woman was beaten and held hostage. The attacks remain one of the most destructive episodes of mass violence in the history of San Luis Obispo County.
