School Shooter Laurie Dann

By Angela Cross

In 1988, a small suburban town in Illinois mourned the murder of an eight-year-old boy who was shot to death in his classroom. The shooter's rampage left five people in critical condition, though they would eventually recover. The most regrettable part of the whole ordeal was that the shootings could have been prevented if police paid closer attention to warning signs displayed by Laurie Dann. In the end, she decided to take her own life rather than face retribution from her victims' families.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201988562

Book preview

SCHOOL SHOOTER LAURIE DANN

ANGELA CROSS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LAURIE DANN

VIRGINIA LARZELERE

BETTY LOU BEETS

JANIE LOU GIBBS

JUDY BUENOANO

KRISTIN ROSSUM

LYDA TRUEBLOOD

MARGARET RUDIN

MICHELLE REYNOLDS

MICHELLE HALL

In 1988, a small suburban town in Illinois mourned the murder of an eight-year-old boy who was shot to death in his classroom. The shooter’s rampage left five people in critical condition, though they would eventually recover. The most regrettable part of the whole ordeal was that the shootings could have been prevented if police paid closer attention to warning signs displayed by Laurie Dann. In the end, she decided to take her own life rather than face retribution from her victims’ families.

Laurie Dann’s upbringing was rather unimpressive – she didn’t excel academically, she wasn’t widely known in her school, and she was somewhat of a loner who had no idea what to do with her life. Numerous psychiatrists attributed her growing mental instability to her parents’ overprotecting and unaccommodating methods of raising her. However, nobody knew what Laurie wanted to make of herself – she was content with following her father’s advice of finding a wealthy man in her community in Winnetka, Illinois, and raising a family. In a nutshell, her parents, Norman and Edith Wasserman, wanted her to become nothing more than the wife of a rich man.

While in high school, she was described by her peers as frail and shy. Despite her lack of social skills, she would eventually date several young boys in her school and community. This way of life persisted until her graduation from New Trier High School in 1975, but the future appeared bleak. She failed to obtain good grades, and her parents became worried that she wouldn’t be admitted into a renowned university to continue her education and eventually find a potential husband.

Her parents’ coddling of her began early in life. It’s unclear whether they were initially aware of Laurie’s loner behavior or whether they just felt the need to keep a close eye over her. Whatever the reason, her father’s fear that she’d never be accepted into a university pushed him to pull a couple strings and cash in a few favors as he was able to get her enrolled at Drake University in Iowa.

Her freshman year went a lot smoother than she and her parents had expected. She was earning above-average grades, gaining new life experiences, and making new friends. Her grades allowed her to be transferred to the University of Arizona where she planned to earn her teaching credential.  However, after her parents urged her to stick to their initial plan of finding a potential husband, her grades began to slip. She spent four years studying at Arizona but never earned a degree.

Her time at the University of Arizona wasn’t completely wasted. While at the university, she was introduced to a pre-med student, and they soon began dating. Some of her classmates were rather surprised that she was able to pull a pre-med student who was on his way to become a full-fledged doctor, but her looks had many men – including her boyfriend – constantly seeking her attention. At this time, she decided to basically ignore her academic career and wish of becoming a teacher since she had finally met a man who could provide for her and her future family.

Everything was going according to plan – she had been transferred to Arizona to find a potential husband, she had met a future doctor, and they were engaged not long after they began dating. However, things changed drastically, and even Laurie was unable to grasp the reality that was facing her.

Nearing the end of her four-year study at Arizona, sometime in 1980, her fiancé had decided to end their relationship. Their engagement was called off and Laurie was embarrassed for sacrificing everything, especially her ambition to become a teacher, in order to become a doctor’s wife. She was devastated, and for the next several months, she was unable to get over her lost love. Without the possibility of graduating from the University of Arizona that year, she decided to cut her losses and move back to Illinois with her parents. They accepted her without hesitation.

Laurie’s abrupt return to Winnetka, Illinois, was a surprise to everybody, especially since her parents constantly told people that a doctor had fallen head-over-heels in love with their daughter. Out of humiliation, Laurie took adult educational classes in order to salvage whatever was left of her tattered academic career, but even then she wasn’t fully committed and flunked out of several classes.

During the summertime, she had several odd jobs, including working as a cocktail waitress at a local golf club in Northbrook. Though many of the golfers and other club members would make passes at her, she never paid any attention until Russell Dann came by. Russell was the son of a wealthy family in Highland Park and respected by the people in his community. He soon became smitten by the stunning brunette working in the club’s bar. It appeared that the attraction was mutual. 

Laurie was no longer interested in taking classes, and she soon gave up her part-time waitressing stint at the golf club. She had met Russell, an executive at an insurance broking firm, and it didn’t take long for him to grow deeply in love with the 24-year-old bashful, dark-haired woman of his dreams. They dated for roughly 20 months before he got down on one knee and proposed. She accepted without a second thought, and in September 1982, they became husband and wife.

Russell and Laurie began a new life as husband and wife, and things seemed to be going perfectly for them in every way. Russell was bringing home the bacon, and Laurie was soon learning how to become a homemaker. Her parents were thrilled that she had finally settled down and were wondering when their first grandchild would come into the world. This was a question that Russell was wondering himself, but there were more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.

Soon after their marriage, Laurie was having difficulties coping with her new role as a trophy wife, and she was slowly showing signs of mental deterioration. In the beginning, Russell found his wife’s strange habits to be endearing and cute, but as time passed by, he became increasingly worried over Laurie’s odd quirks. After coming home from work, Russell would find their $230,000 home a mess with garbage left all over the floor. It appeared that Laurie either had no intention or was incapable of cleaning their home. In an attempt to make her husband happy, she would do the laundry. This, too, seemed too much of a challenge for her, and she left their clothes folded neatly in their drawers still sopping wet.

Russell tried to justify his wife’s peculiar behavior by claiming that Laurie’s inability to clean was due to her overly-protected upbringing where she was completely dependent on others to do things for her. However, some things were inexplicable, such as Laurie’s leaving her makeup in the microwave and throwing bundles of cash in the back seat of her sedan like it was nothing. He became infuriated that she didn’t show any signs of remorse for her actions when he caught her watching TV for hours on end.

Russell was still deeply in love with Laurie and was unwilling to give everything up. However, he noticed that Laurie had developed even weirder habits such as tapping her foot while stopped at red lights, compulsively washing her hands, and not willing to go through the trouble of putting on makeup and nice clothes while attending social events. He grew increasingly worried about his wife, but he also realized that she needed a lot more help than he could ever hope to give her.

In early 1986, Russell and Laurie decided to separate and file for divorce. Russell was relieved that would soon be free of the problems Laurie brought into his life, but Laurie wasn’t taking things in stride. Sometime in mid-1986, while sleeping in his bed, Russell was stabbed in the chest with an ice pick by an unidentified person. He was in critical condition following the stabbing but was estimated to make a full recovery – the ice pick had missed his heart by an inch. Russell automatically assumed that his wife was behind it and filed charges against her.

A store clerk identified Laurie as recently purchasing an ice pick but no concrete evidence could be produced that showed her entering or exiting Russell’s home on the night of his stabbing. In the end, it was his word against hers, and they were both told by the court to take a polygraph. Russell failed his test while Laurie played the role of the victim, and the charges against her were dropped. After five years together as a married couple, they officially divorced in 1987. As a part of the divorce settlement, Russell agreed to give his ex-wife $125,000 in cash to begin her life anew.

A separate incident of terror occurred right around the same time as Russell’s stabbing. A Tucson physician – coincidentally Laurie’s ex-boyfriend from Arizona – was receiving threatening calls and letters at his home from an unknown source. Afterward, several odd phone calls were made to his hospital, and several of his co-workers were informed that he had impregnated a woman he was treating. This was news to him as he was happily married, had two children, and had no history of infidelity. The calls were eventually traced to Laurie, and the physician’s lawyer sent a letter to her parents requesting that they control their daughter and prevent her from contacting him or his hospital ever again. They put an end to her long-distance calls to Arizona, but it wouldn’t last.

Following the divorce, Laurie immediately moved back into her parent’s home in Cook County. Once again, her parents, who loved her unconditionally, ignored the numerous warning signs and accepted her back into their home with open arms. But even then, her father and mother were worried that her compulsive hand-washing ritual and aversion to being touched were symptoms of a terrible underlying mental condition. Either blinded by love or unwilling to take a more direct approach to their fragile daughter, they justified her behavior as being a longing for affection from her cold-hearted ex-husband.

Not long after her return to her parents’ home, Laurie decided to try her hand at something different. She told her parents that she aspired to become a babysitter, and they supported her ambitions by paying for fliers and posters to promote their daughter’s new business. Her parents’ names carried some weight in their community – combined with the seemingly innocent and shy persona that Laurie was putting on – one family didn’t hesitate to hire her to become a regular babysitter. She even promoted Laurie as an ideal babysitter to several of her closest friends.

At first, Laurie’s career as a babysitter seemed to have a soothing effect on her compulsive tendencies. She wasn’t recoiling as much from physical contact with children, and she even managed to reduce the frequency and length of her hand-washing episodes. According to several of her clients, she was doing a great job at protecting their homes, and she was extremely gentle with their children. Laurie became the go-to babysitter for people in the prosperous neighborhood, but if history is any indication, Laurie’s good behavior wouldn’t persist for very long.

The trusting parents would leave her for days on end with their children. For one family, after returning home, they found their couch pillows in tatters, items stolen from their fridge, electric garage and TV remote controls missing, and their rugs were slashed. When confronted, Laurie denied any wrongdoing and pointed the finger at unidentified robbers. Not believing her, the parents sought retribution through the legal process, and Laurie was again told to take a polygraph. With only circumstantial evidence to rely on, and Laurie’s passing of yet another lie detector test, police were forced to drop all charges. However, in an attempt to fix their name and put the past behind them, Laurie’s parents reimbursed the family after they were forced to replace what had been damaged.

During the summer of 1987, Laurie wanted to start a new life. She was bored of living with her parents, and word spread that she might have caused extensive damage to one of her client’s