Warnings Presaged Atlanta PL Deaths:
Murdered Manager Asked Police to Sit In on Hearings Three Times
By Norman Oder, Library Journal, November 1, 2002
"Though officials from the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library (A-FPL) aren't talking, an investigation
by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution into the murder-suicide at a branch July 29...
uncovered a pattern of incidents that led to significant concern.
John Eggleston, a library associate and the only man in the 14-staffer branch, talked of
'conspiracy' and a 'gender war' at the Union City library. He so disturbed branch manager
Gladys Dennard that, after five years of tensions, she asked a police officer to sit in on
disciplinary meetings three times and called 911 for help when Eggleston wouldn't leave her
office on July 23. By the time police arrived that day, Eggleston had left and Dennard said she
didn't want to file a report. Instead, she prepared to fire him. Six days later she was killed by
Eggleston, who then turned the gun on himself.
Indeed, Eggleston might have been fired earlier. Dennard had given him four written reprimands
in the previous two years. Two would have been enough for termination. After one reprimand,
in April 2001, Eggleston was sent for anger management counseling, where he received a
mixed report.
The Journal-Constitution's investigation was based on police and library records
obtained under the state open records act. Branch staffers, as well as Director Mary Kaye
Hooker, declined to be interviewed."
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