Edwin James Grace Jr.

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Key Personnel massacre
Location
Coordinates	39.9280724°N 74.9730878°W / 39.9280724; -74.9730878 Fatal error: The format of the coordinate could not be determined. Parsing failed.
Date
Target	Male employees and co-workers at Key Personnel Incorporated
Attack type	Mass shooting, murder–suicide, shooting spree, workplace shooting, androcide
Weapons	Two sawed-off .22 caliber rifles
Deaths	7 (including the perpetrator)
Non-fatal injuries	7 (6 from gunfire, one from jumping out a window)
Perpetrator	Edwin James Grace Jr.
Motive	Revenge over his anger with employment agency

The Key Personnel massacre is a mass shooting spree that occurred inside the multi-business Heritage Building in Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey on June 21, 1972. The perpetrator, 33-year-old Edwin James Grace Jr., entered the building armed with two sawed-off rifles and shot 12 men inside the business building after failing to apply for an application with Key Personnel Incorporated, killing six men and injuring six other men, including the company's president.

Grace attempted to take his own life after the shooting and died after shooting himself elsewhere in the body hours after arriving at Cherry Hill Medical Center. The massacre itself, known as "12 Minutes of Chaos", was marked one of the worst mass shootings in New Jersey's history. The shooting also marked one of the deadliest androcides in state history, as Philadelphia outlets confirmed that he killed his male employees only as his target.

Background

The Heritage building, located on 383 Kings Highway North in Cherry Hill Township, houses a total of eight businesses and 16 offices, including Key Personnel Incorporated. The building, as of 2026, currently houses the Bratton Law Group.

Murders

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. ET, Grace left the Saxony Motel on the Black Horse Pike in Turnersville, New Jersey, before driving to Cherry Hill Township. There, he drove to the backlot of the building, parked his tan 1970 Volkswagen Type 3 fastback, and entered the building armed with two sawed-up rifles with 120 rounds of ammunition. Grace was wearing his dark blue uniform pants, a light blue shirt, a black tie, black shoes, a slight moustache, a Dick Tracy hat, a dog tag reading his birth year "1939", and a navy-blue blazer with the emblem of the civil division of Essex County, New York court logo on the breast pocket and a gun belt.

At 2:33 p.m. ET, Grace walked to the first floor with the two rifles. He spared the women by waving them out of the way and Grace marked men only for his slaughter. As they pleaded for their lives, Grace fatally shot his first victim, 41-year-old Steven Bernard Robinson, the CEO of Key Personnel, in the head. He then shot two more men, while a third escaped the scenario by leaping out of a window while Grace reloaded. He walked upstairs before continuing to open fire on the male employees as he walked down the hall. Some employees took cover underneath tables, while some jumped out windows. Grace continued to shoot at the male workers until he worked his way down to the basement, where he attempted to take his own life by shooting himself in the head. At 2:45 p.m. ET, Grace pulled the trigger and shot himself in the head, but as officers arrived, officers lobbed seven cannisters of tear gas into the two-story colonial building with its 16 offices before taking Grace into custody.

After Grace was taken to the Cherry Hill Medical Center, Grace didn't spoke a single word to law enforcement officers nor medical staff. He died from his injuries on July 8, 1972. A total of 70 bullets were fired during the massacre.

Victims

A total of 12 men were shot by Grace, killing six men and injuring six other men. Many of the male victims were employees of the business, with one of the deceased being the president of the company.

Killed

• Steven Bernard Robinson, 41, of Cinnaminson, New Jersey, president of Key Personnel
• Robert Bertone, 22, of Delanco, New Jersey
• Joseph A. DiPalma, 44, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey
• Joseph Boyd, 48, of Mount Laurel, New Jersey
• Theodore G. Hall, 38, of Willingboro, New Jersey
• Charles R. Merkel, 38, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Injured

• Charles Collins Jr., 23, of Pennsauken, New Jersey
• Walter Wilks, 46, of Levittown, Pennsylvania
• Wayne Stroup, 21, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey
• Val Rishko, 25, of Groveville, New Jersey
• Bill Maynard, 25, of Marlton, New Jersey
• Glen Davis, 23, of Moorestown, New Jersey
• James Slemmer, 44, of Haddonfield, New Jersey
• James Ashmen, 24, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey (injured from jumping off a window)

Perpetrator

Edwin James Grace Jr.
Edwin James Grace Jr..jpg Edwin James Grace Jr..jpg
Born	(1939-01-29)January 29, 1939 Brooklyn, New York
💀Died	July 8, 1972(1972-07-08) (aged 33) Cherry Hill, New JerseyJuly 8, 1972(1972-07-08) (aged 33)
Resting place	Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn
🏫 Education	St. Francis College
💼 Occupation

As reported by the New York Daily News, Edwin James Grace Jr. (January 29, 1939 – July 8, 1972), was born in the Madison neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Grace graduated from James Madison High School in June 1956. Three months later, he entered St. Francis College but dropped out in the middle of his sophomore year in January 1958. He spent most of his adult life working for the Pinkerton Protective Agency in Essex County, New York, but joined the United States Army for a few years, including a tour around Okinawa.

In May 1970, Grace wrote to the Judicial Conference, seeking reinstatement and the conference double-checked with Howard Tyson, director of the administration of the Civil Court, saying that Tyson did not want him reinstated. In 1971, Grace quit Pinkerton to work for civil court in Essex. During his last four months, he worked out of its Camden, New Jersey office until the murders. A few days prior to the murders, Grace went back to his home in Brooklyn to see his family in their East Flatbush home before the family left New York in a white Volkswagen. Ever since their departure, Grace began suffering mental health issues. Interviews from neighbors confirmed that "he didn't know what he did for a living". One neighbor told the Daily News that there's "not a single soul who knew him who has a bad word to say about him or his family".

On August 30, 1971, Grace joined as a uniformed security guard for Rochdale Village Inc. in Trenton, New Jersey, but was fired on December 30, 1971 for "excessive absence" because of a family emergency involving his ailing father. He fled back to New York for several months before returning back to New Jersey on April 7, 1972, and brought back his Pinkerton job.

Investigation

After the shooting, police officers entered the Turnersville motel room where Grace stayed prior to the massacre. According to investigators, Grace's room was reported as "dingy" with stucco and paneling on the walls. The handles on the chest of drawers were broken, and the mirror was completely faded. Inside the broken chests contains a $63.69 insurance bill that was due 10 days prior to the massacre, as well as two bottles of aspirin gunstocks, barrel extensions, more ammunition, and two books. One of the two books was titled New Day, Adventure from the Bible and the other being My Way of Life. The clock radio was unplugged and a gray suit hung limply from a wire hanger in the closet. Police also investigated his Volkswagen sitting at the parking lot of the Heritage Building. Inside, investigators found a map in his car with large X's over Cherry Hill and Pennsauken.

Police later recovered a card that was written by Grace himself, all taped on a metal frame of the motel's mailbox, that was written hours before the massacre, reading: "Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds, and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul." The word "Invictus" was written underneath the message, with the word being Latin for "unconquered". It remains unknown if misandry played a partial role in the massacre.

References

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