Cops Hunt Broker in Boss Slaying

N O R F O L K,  Va., Nov. 8, 2000 -- Police were hunting for a fired stockbroker who allegedly returned to his former workplace and killed his boss, officials said.

Police said Joseph H. Ludlam, a 36-year-old who lost his job at First Union Securities last month, returned to his office on the 14th floor of downtown Norfolk’s Sun Trust building at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and shot branch manager Tim O’Shaughnessy, 40.

Police have charged the fugitive with murder, and filed a warrant against him with the National Crime Information Network, police spokesman Larry Hill said.

“If he happens to get stopped elsewhere else in the United States, [and] an officer runs a check on his name, they will know that he is wanted for a murder here in Norfolk,” Hill said.

The search for Ludlam, of Portsmouth, was focused in southeastern Virginia because a witness apparently saw him in the area as late as Tuesday afternoon.

First Union officials reportedly said O’Shaughnessy, who had been hire to boost morale in the office, fired Ludlam over concerns aggressive trading tactics.

Something Was Amiss

People arriving for work knew something was amiss when they found a parking garage door onto Plume Street bashed outward. The suspect had apparently tried to flee through the door, in the victim’s car, but then used another exit.

Right after the shooting, the suspect stepped on an elevator with Joanne Podgurski. “He was sweating profusely,” she told ABC affiliate WVEC-TV. “His face was just covered in sweat. He was breathing really hard. I asked, ‘Are you okay?’ And he just said, ‘It’s really hot in here.’”

Podgurski got off on her floor, having no idea Ludlam was a suspected killer. “Maybe, had I made serious eye contact with him or something, who knows what he would have done? It’s scary now.”

Police later towed Ludlam’s car, with its custom license plate depicting his work as a stockbroker. He left it behind in the SunTrust garage.

Witnesses told police that Ludlam warned at least one other person in the office before the shooting, “You’d better get out of here.”

No History of Violence

Ludlam has no violent criminal history. A marijuana possession charge was dismissed in 1994 and he had some minor traffic offenses this year.

Tuesday afternoon, police began gathering evidence at his Portsmouth home. About 15 members of the SWAT team warned neighbors to go inside their homes. Then they stormed Ludlam’s house. Nobody was home. His wife and young daughter were taken into police protection hours earlier to ensure their safety.One neighbor said she saw Ludlum get off the ferry from Norfolk around 3 p.m. She said he didn’t talk very much, but she added that was not unusual.

O’Shaughnessy, who was married with four boys age 6 and under, was transferred to First Union’s Norfolk office several months ago after managing the company’s office in Elizabeth City, N.C., company officials told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk.

He was charged with boosting morale and rebuilding an office that had suffered an exodus of brokers in recent years, and was doing a “superior job,” according to John M. Mathews, one of nine other brokers in the office.

But Thomas Love, who brought O’Shaughnessy to First Union more than seven years ago, said O’Shaughnessy was scrutinizing Ludlam’s accounts and was concerned about the aggressive nature of the investments and how Ludlam would react to being fired.

‘Tim Was Concerned’

“I knew Tim was concerned and I know the firm was concerned about it,” Love said.

That concern prompted O’Shaughnessy to ask a colleague to sit in on the meeting when Ludlam was fired, a man familiar with the situation told the newspaper.

Ludlam was discharged from the Navy as a lieutenant in March 1996, according to military records. He also had worked in real estate and for a discount brokerage before joining First Union.

Ludlam, a 1986 graduate of the Naval Academy and a Gulf War veteran, was hired by First Union’s Norfolk office several months before O’Shaughnessy became manager of that office, Love said.WVEC’s Dale Gauding and The Associated Press contributed to this report.