Frank Vitkovic
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|---|---|
| Name: | Frank Vitkovic |
| Date of Birth: | 1965 |
| Occupation: | NEET/former student |
| Ethnicity: | Croatian/Italian |
Frank Vitkovic was an Australian university dropout that entered an Australia Post building on December 8, 1987 and rampaged through the offices of the building using a illegally sawn-off M1 Carbine, murdering 8 people and injuring 5 more. He then committed suicide by jumping through a window on one of the top floors of the office, after being tackled by a bystander, losing possession of his rifle. This was known in Australia as the Queen Street Massacre. He was celibate, possibly a mentalcel, as he had bemoaned his inability to get a girlfriend. He may have (similar to Elliot Rodger) more aptly fitted the description of being love shy, as compared to being incel in the strict definition of the term, as he had blamed his celibacy on shyness, writing in his diary: "it's hard for a self conscious guy like me to talk to girls with confidence" and "since the age of 12 I knew that normal sex was not possible for me and I avoided girls completely until I was 19". [1]
Queen Street Massacre[edit | edit source]
Vitkovic entered the Australia Post office CBD (central business district) of Melbourne, Australia in the afternoon of December 8, 1987 wearing military fatigues and carrying an illegally modified M1 Carbine (described as being sawn-off of the point where it almost resembled a pistol) in a brown paper bag. After speaking with the clerk at the front desk of the office, he pulled his rifle out of the used chanel bags it was hidden in, opening fire randomly at anyone who came into his line of fire. He proceeded up the stairs of the building, continuing to fire at anyone that moved. After proceeding to the eleventh floor, he was tackled by two office workers who struggled with him and deprived him of his weapon, with a women who worked in the office taking the firearm and placing it in a freezer. Breaking free of his restrainers, Vitkovic jumped through a window to a external ledge outside the building. He then struggled with an employee, with some reports claiming that the employee pushed Vitkovic to his death. However, official accounts claim this was a mistaken report of an eyewitness, with the employee apparently holding a struggling Vitkovic by the ankles as he attempted to jump to his death, Vitkovic then prevailing in the struggle and plunging to his death.
Vitkovic has apparently chosen the building because it was the place of employment of a supposed "former school friend", with reports that he had previously planned to shoot up a university, which he apparently believed the target was attending. The target survived the massacre by ducking the shooter and then hiding in the women's toilets.
Motivation and background[edit | edit source]
He was born in 1965 to a Croatian father and an Italian mother. A friend of his family described Vitkovic as: "an excellent student, a good tennis player, friendly and helpful, over six feet tall and very good looking". He apparently had a troubled adolescence, where he was socially isolated and quite likely bullied, writing in his diary: "I know one thing for certain ... I am hated very much by many people, but they don't know anything of my hatred which is twice as much as theirs . . . everyone will pay for their sins". Later diary entries contained similar accounts of despair and misanthropy, with Vitkovic writing: "I see those people in the city and I admire them, and yet I hate them cos they've been the ones who've lumped shit on me all these years. . . they have all the things I want but will never have ... those greedy businessmen and women in the city... They are all pigs. And pigs always end up in the slaughterhouse."
He attended a Catholic college in Melbourne, Australia, before dropping out due to poor performance. While a student, he had sought counselling for his problems, to no avail. He was an avid Tennis player, however he had frequent anger issues, he was reported as having frequent violent tantrums on the court when things didn't go his way. Immediately before the massacre, he had reportedly suffered a leg injury playing tennis that was serious enough to warrant surgery. This apparently caused Vitkovic to sink into a deep depression. The surgery had failed to fix the problem, leading to him being partially lame when he committed the massacre, a fact which likely saved his friend Con Margelis (who had knowledge of the injuries effect on Vitkovic), who he targeted on the day of the massacre.