Edwin James Grace: Mass Murderer of 1972
Background
Edwin James Grace was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. He worked intermittently as a Pinkerton security guard beginning in August 1971, with no disciplinary marks on his record . Grace became angrily fixated on an employment agency in Cherry Hill, New Jersey—Key Personnel, Inc.—after it failed to find him a job in his field .
The Crime: June 21, 1972
On the afternoon of June 21, 1972, at approximately 2:30 PM, Grace drove from Brooklyn to the Heritage Office Building at 383 Kings Highway in Cherry Hill, New Jersey . Armed with two sawed-off .22-caliber rifles and carrying dozens of magazines (reports mention seven 20-bullet clips) and perhaps up to 100 rounds, he entered the employment agency’s offices .
Grace began a shooting spree in which he targeted only male employees—he reportedly waved women out of the way, sparing them intentionally . Witnesses say he walked from office to office, reloading as he went, across about seven minutes, firing between 50 and 100 rounds .
Responding officers surrounded the building after receiving a call from one of the wounded. They fired tear gas and entered soon after, finding the rampage already over .
Casualties
According to reporting, Grace shot 12 men, killing six and injuring six others . Identified victim details are sparse in sources, but one individual known by name is:
- Theodore Hall – wounded with a bullet to the head; he died later in the hospital on June 21, 1972 .
Other wounded employees included Wayne Stroup (age 22) and Val Reshko (age 24), both from Cherry Hill; Stroup was paralyzed but improving, and Reshko was recovering from a partial leg amputation . However, specific names of the other victims—fatalities or survivors—are not detailed in the available sources.
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