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Shootings suspect ran ad seeking relationship
Monday, May 01, 2000 By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The recorded voice was smooth, upbeat, vibrant.
"Hi, this is Richard," he began. "I'm an international attorney.... It'd be great to meet someone really interesting for a meaningful relationship. If this sounds good to you, please leave a number and I'll call you."
It sounded just fine to a 47-year-old Monroeville woman who had called the number after reading a personal ad in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette three weeks ago. The woman, who spoke on the condition of not being identified by name, left her number and later that night the man called back.
He said his name was Rick, 34, an international attorney from Mt. Lebanon. They chatted and she liked what she heard -- except for when he asked if she was "curvaceous." Nonetheless, they started to make plans to meet that night when call waiting interrupted their conversation and the man said to call him back. She did so a week later but never talked to him again.
On Saturday, the woman was watching news reports of the two-county rampage in which five people were killed and another person was critically wounded when she felt as if she had been hit with a sledgehammer. The description of suspect Richard S. Baumhammers, 34, of Mt. Lebanon sounded so much -- too much -- like that man from the personal ad she had talked to.
"I almost passed out," she said.
Still, she wasn't sure if it was just a bad coincidence -- until yesterday. Chris Reen, director of Post-Gazette classified advertising, confirmed that the person who placed the personal ad was indeed Baumhammers.
"Oh, my God!" the Monroeville woman said when a reporter told her of the confirmation. "I just can't believe it. I'll never trust anything again. That's the one ad I pick out because I thought I could truly trust him because it said he was a lawyer.
"It really shows you can't really trust anybody. I'm glad he never called back."
The woman's tangential connection to Friday's horrific shooting spree began when she read the ad in the April 6 Post-Gazette. The ad, which continued to run through yesterday's edition, read:
"SWM, 34, 6'2", 215 lbs., blond/blue, athletic, attorney. Seeks lady for meaningful relationship, interests include dining out, conversation and travel."
She called the reply box number and heard Baumhammers' recorded message in which he said, "I've worked in Europe and I've worked in Atlanta, Ga. I'm 6'2", 215 pounds, light brown hair and blue eyes, athletically built. I have a neat mustache and beard. I enjoy many things Pittsburgh has to offer. I enjoy dining out, traveling, conversations, cafes, concerts."
She left a message in his voice mailbox in which she said she had a degree in French and had lived in France for a time after college. She left her cell phone number and he called back.
"He started [the conversation] by speaking in French, saying 'Hello' and 'My name is Richard.' I responded in French that it was a long time since I had spoken it."
The conversation then proceeded in English. He said he was an international lawyer who had just gotten back from a trip, that he lived in Mt. Lebanon, his parents were dentists, he was his father's attorney and he enjoyed fine wine.
"He was very articulate, very well spoken," she recalled. "She said he puts ads in a lot of places, places he's traveled, especially when he lived in Georgia and California, because it was hard to meet people.
He said he thought it was a better, quicker way to meet people...that he didn't particularly care for bars, that he preferred coffee houses and dining out.
"He said he had met a bunch of different people through ads but said there are a lot of weirdos out there."
Baumhammers, who had tried to recruit members for a right-wing, anti-immigrant political party and who is accused of targeting racial and ethnic minorities in his rampage, gave no hint of such animus in the conversation, she said.
Baumhammers told the woman he had lived "with a foreign girl" for a time and their relationship was "really great" but it didn't work out because her parents wanted them to marry and he wasn't ready for it. And the Monroeville woman told Baumhammers she was in the process of divorcing a man from Thailand.
She said he did not react in any negative way to that information.
He suggested they meet in a Downtown coffee shop but the call-waiting interrupted their plans. Baumhammers told her he would call her back but then asked her to phone him. After they hung up, she realized she didn't have his phone number.
A week went by and she called his voice mailbox again but he didn't respond.
"He was just very friendly and seemed like he just needed someone to be with, to spend time with because he traveled so much and would come back to such loneliness. He said he just had no one," the woman said.
"I guess it was foolish. I really thought I could trust a lawyer so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm glad he never called back. It's so scary."
Staff writer Dennis B. Roddy contributed to this report.
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