James Huberty - MvcDonald's murderer

[Jim Eshelman]

California's deadliest shooting spree to date (which, at the time, was the worst of its kind in America), was the San Ysidro McDonald's shootings, in which 22 people died and 19 more were injured at the hands of James Huberty.

Huberty, according to his birth certificate, was born October 11, 1942, 011 AM EWT, Canton, OH. The shootings began July 18, 1984, 3:59 PM PDT. in San Ysidro, CA.

This incident might have been entirely preventable. Huberty suspected he had a serious psychological problem. The day before the incident, he requested an appointment at a mental health clinic. They never called him back: Because he had been calm and polite on the phone, they marked it non-urgent, intending to respond to him within a couple of days. The story of his rapid psychological decline over two days is terrible, ending with him kissing his wife and daughter good-bye and driving down to the local McDonald’s to kill everybody he could. He died at the end.

Huberty was a Virgo-Libra. Neptune is in the exact degree of IC, with Jupiter and Venus more widely foreground. Additionally, the chart has no dramatic hard aspects so, overall, there is a "soft" character to all the major features of the chart, someone who doesn't handle stress and pressure well and has no easy psychological escape valve. The strongest aspect is a 0° conjunction in Virgo. He has a pile-up of Sun and four other planets in the 4th house and in Virgo.

When he moved to San Ysidro, CA, he placed natal Saturn just over a degree from his local Ascendant. I suspect this set in motion pressures and adversity that he wasn't psychologically equipped to handle.

SECONDARY PROGRESSIONS
Primary Eastpoint had reached 13°32' Cancer and, in RA, was conjunct natal and progressed Pluto. His only other progression of note was progressed Mercury trine natal Jupiter +14'.

Of great interest - though of no obvious or certain interpretation - his primary angles for San Ysidro had reached almost exactly his natal angles for his birthplace. (The two Ascendants were less than 1° from each other.)

TRANSITS
Transiting Pluto had been toying with a conjunction to his natal Moon - typical of psychological eruptions and repressed content needing to burst into light of day - but was not partile for the event. In fact, there were several wider transits that showed broader shifts in his psyche, such as Neptune near his angles and Uranus having recently completed half an orbit since his birth. Mars was just past (62') the semi-square to his Neptune.

Exact transits were limited to t Uranus -134- r Jupiter +45'. There were no other exact transits.

SOLAR RETURN
His SSR alone isn't all that impressive, although the main angularity is natal Uranus on EP exactly squared by a widely foreground transiting Mars. Of interest is that a Moon-Neptune conjunction is 3° wide in eclipto yet only 1°49' wide in mundo. I think we must suspect this as an important and viable aspect.

Such transits as occurred to his SSR are not what we would normally single out - e.g., Pluto had returned to within 20' of its SSR position. Of interest considering the psychological instability is t Mercury partile square SSR Ascendant. Venus squared his SSR Saturn partile. Every transit to the SSR is entirely appropriate, but none of them seems sufficient to trigger a major event such as this.

His Demi-SSR was unusually good, though, with Mars in Scorpio just over 1° from MC and Saturn square Asc. When it occurred, t Neptune was half a degree from square r Neptune. These show a variety of mounting pressures and stressors.

His July 9 Quarti-SSR is a strong chart and may be relevant, yet yes clearly so. With Saturn on EP, Mercury and Pluto are on the major angles and Moon conjoins Uranus exactly. I wouldn't pick the event from this but, if valid, it contributes to the overall "stressor" picture.

LUNAR RETURN
The man who felt he need psychiatric help surely was feeling this under his final, July 5 SLR. Neptune exactly rises (1°+), square natal Neptune; and Moon closely conjoins Pluto. There is also foreground Jupiter, but not as closely. His natal Sun-Mercury is within 1° of Midheaven, so something very basic to his identity was on the line. In fact, his ego boundaries were dissolving and becoming less distinct, since this structure amounts to transiting Neptune rising in exact mundane square to natal Sun-Mercury on MC. This is a very revelatory chart. Transiting Sun was partile square natal Mars - the release valve.

SNQ
Progressed EP 21°34' Pisces opposed natal Mars 21°34' Virgo - to the minute!

SQ
Similarly, SQ EP 12°50' Leo conjoined SQ Mars 12°43' Leo, with transiting Uranus on IC and Ascendant square natal Saturn.

PSSR
I should (or someone should!) take the time to calculate an accurate PSSR. A mean calculation gives Ascendant conjunct transiting Saturn and Midheaven square transiting Mrs. Of great interest (but not clear meaning in this case), transiting Jupiter was 0°03' from PSSR Moon, square PSSR/SSR Mercury. It isn't clear that this is appropriate.

PSN
Aspects in the PSN are of great interest in this case. A reprise of his natal Sun-Mercury conjunction occurred, but with a progressed Sun-Saturn opposition, exactly aligned with transiting Uranus in a most interesting degree of the zodiac:

15°02' Tau p Saturn
15°23' Sco t Uranus
15°45' Sco p Sun
16°32' Sco p Mercury

The angles, of course, are identical with those of the PSSR and should be closely checked, because they may bring transiting Saturn and two different Marses to angles.