Nathan Gale

Nathan Miles Gale (September 11, 1979 – December 8, 2004) was a former American Marine who murdered former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott and three others during a Damageplan concert at the Alrosa Villa club in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8, 2004.

Life

Nathan M. Gale was born in Calumet City, Illinois, and raised solely by his mother.[1] Nathan Gale relocated to Bellefontaine, Ohio, in 1983. Beginning at the age of twelve, he was arrested on numerous occasions for shoplifting, domestic violence, vandalism, public obscenity, and drug possession.[1] His probation officer noted that Gale was introverted and only acted out for the attention he did not receive from his overworked mother and his absentee father.

Gale was introduced to Pantera in the tenth grade by a school friend, and became obsessed with their 1992 album Vulgar Display Of Power. At 16, he began telling classmates the band members of Pantera regularly visited him at their high school.[1] His classmates worried for his sanity, when it became clear that he seriously believed that the band was visiting him, and a fellow pupil informed the high school staff who notified his mother. She confronted Gale about it, telling him a famous heavy metal band like Pantera would not be coming to a small Ohio town to visit a teenager, and he did not mention it again.

After graduating from high school in June 1997, Gale was unemployed and continued living with his mother. In December, she awoke early in the morning to find her son pacing the living room, claiming people were videotaping him through their windows, which she believed was a delusion brought on by his constant use of psychedelic drugs.[1] Weeks later during an altercation regarding Gale's drug use, he violently pushed her against a wall inside the house. She called 9-1-1 in order for police to remove him from the house, however she declined to press charges.[1] She informed him that he was barred from visiting her until he received drug and psychiatric counseling, however he refused to comply. She claimed to have found him repeatedly sleeping on her porch, and told him to remain away from her property until he received professional help for his drug use.

For the following two years, Gale was often homeless. He survived by working minimum wage professions, panhandling and stealing.[1] In 1998, he was arrested when police found him sleeping on public property at night, and later for attempting to steal an automobile while in the vicinity of a gas station.[1] In 1999, Gale relocated to Bellefontaine to live with childhood friends. His friends asked him to leave when they discovered his drug abuse, and Gale returned to Marysville. In 2000, Gale contacted his mother and agreed to receive treatment if he could return to living at her home.[1] While residing with his mother, he frequently experienced night terrors and paced around his bedroom in late hours of the night. He also still believed that he was being spied on, and complained of hearing disturbing voices.[1] Gale was unable to hold employment with his volatile behavior, and he decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

According to Gale's mother, he received a medical discharge from the Marine Corps in September 2003, due to his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.[2] The discharge occurred only two years into his four year enlistment.[3]