Man who killed self at Ground Zero upset about election, girlfriend (new details emerge)

ATHENS, Ga. - (KRT) - The Georgia man who killed himself at Ground Zero was upset about President Bush's re-election - but his biggest problem may have been his double life, a source told the New York Daily News on Sunday.

Andrew Veal, 25, was engaged to be married to an Iowa college student, whom he was supposed to see at her sister's wedding in Seattle this weekend. But Veal also had a girlfriend in Athens, Ga., where he lived, sources said.

When cops found his body in lower Manhattan's hallowed ground Saturday morning, they found a note to his girlfriend saying she was "too good" for him, a source said. The note also included a reference to Bush's victory, the source said.

"I think he wanted it to be dramatic," said one 23-year-old Athens friend. "The election was just a catalyst."

Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian who hated guns, never got worked up about politics or Sept. 11 and seemed content, friends said.

"He doesn't even have friends who have guns," said Mary Anne Mauney, Veal's boss at a University of Georgia survey research lab. "We're all trying to understand, and nobody does."

Veal and his roommates held an Election Night party in their clapboard house near the University of Georgia campus, where they expected to celebrate a John Kerry victory.

But the day after Bush won, Veal bought a shotgun in an Athens store and drove to New York, a source said, where he went on a spending spree with his girlfriend's credit card.

While his mom and his fiancee tried desperately to reach him by phone, he called an Athens restaurant where he worked part time and said he was in New York on Thursday.

He was found Saturday morning when a worker at the Millenium Hotel across Church St. from Ground Zero saw him lying on a concrete structure inside the gated and guarded perimeter.

Police from the Port Authority, which controls the 16-acre site, found Veal's car nearby and are reconstructing his movements, spokesman Steve Coleman said.

Among their concerns: How did a shotgun-toting man slip unnoticed into the guarded area - a solemn tourist destination that is also a major rail hub with entrances to Hudson River PATH tunnels?

Port Authority cops and private security guards watch the site, and Coleman would not say if surveillance cameras caught Veal's movements. He asked anyone who may have seen anything unusual Friday night to contact PA police.

Mauney said Veal's mother was in a "terrible" condition after learning of her son's death, and his friends could not fathom why he chose to end it all at Ground Zero.

"He was just an incredibly wonderful person - sensitive, passionate, caring and kind. I'll miss him very much," Mauney said. "As to the whys or hows, nobody knows."

Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian Veal was a peaceful, liberal vegetarian

Glad to hear the additional information......although I too am a Yankee......the first thing I thought after reading your post was...."D@mn Yankees"......LMAO.

I too am tired of these liberal transplants who come to town and think we should all stand behind them and just follow blindly while they lead. *Snicker* I just saw my Delaware transplant lib neighbor for the first time, Sunday, since she went to dictate her vote last Tuesday.....as soon as she realized I was outside...she went scurrying into her garage to hide......She's decided she doesn't want to confront me is my guess......(I'm sure she would like to give me a piece of her mind) but I won't secede the ground of the argument to her side.

We've clashed three times now...two publicly and one in private....she lost her argument each time.......LOL......the first two times were rather embarrassing for her.

I'm sure that your liberal dog pound like my own neighbor made the first mistake when they assumed because you're from the south (which equals bible belt in their limited mindset - for mine it was the fact I'm catholic) and religious you are ignorant and therefore easily led.

The good news of that assumption though is .......that they shall remain utterly confused as to how to regain power from......all of y'all ig...nor...ant hicks! (I'm sure that's what this collection of ignoramuses are thinking about y' all)......LOL. In this case their ignorance is our bliss......may they continue to grope around in the darkness for the next thirty or more years!

Thank you for your service to our country.......and I too am a member of the vast NRA conspiracy.......

Here, Here to the good fight and the defeat of Karl Marx and all of his followers (by the way I read somewhere that when Karl wrote his communist manifest, etc. he had spent his entire life living off the inhertence of two estates and had never worked a day in his life.....tipical isn't it?)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.