off those 9 wide shoes and slip into these golden embroideried slippers. this would obviously be someone who's a wall street buff, maybe who's a history buff. >> did you see those leopard loafers? interesting, bernie. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. don't forget to tune in for "pure evil the killings in connecticut." up next a cnn special investigation, it's called "death and taxes." good night. >> reporter: a clear morning, a rogue pilot. a building billowing smoke. >> all the windows were blown, there's fire coming out.

>> reporter: and an angry manifesto left behind. here in austin, texas. 53-year-old joe stack made a missile of his small plane. slamming it into an irs office. a final expression of a simmering rage. on the surface, joe stack seemed like a good guy, sound and perfectly sane. so what led this regular joe to become what some would call a domestic terrorist? what drove him to kill on february 18? >> he was like the poster boy for chill. >> reporter: rick furly was a band mate of joe stack's. joe played base and was the kind of guy you could count on. >> superprofessional. >> reporter: billy eli was the

front man who brought stack into the band. he says the joe stack who flew his plane into a building was not the same joe stack he knew. some people call him a domestic terrorist. >> yeah, some people do. and some people call him all kinds of things, man. i called him a friend of mine and my bass player. i mean i wasn't aware of any political agenda that he ever had. >> reporter: austin's a town known for big texas hospitality. vibrant music, and a thriving technology community. joe stack came here to start over. back in the '80s, stack founded a small company in california and connected with a group of people obsessed with taking on the u.s. tax code. for joe stack, this was the beginning of decades struggling with the tax system.

j.j. mcnabb is an expert on tax protesters. >> their beef is somewhat varied, but in general, they don't want to pay taxes. they come one a variety of reasons how not to do that. >> reporter: when stack's marriage and business went bust in california, he moved to austin. here he founded a software company, joined a band and got remarried. on the outside, stack seemed happy. but beneath the surface, his life was far from it. >> there's all kind of people in the world and anything can happen any given day and anywhere. >> reporter: each day after breakfast with her son, lisa alexander heads to work. february 18 was no different. this single mom is a revenue

officer for the irs in austin. >> i tell the taxpayer, we're out here to assist you, to work with you, with your delinquency with the internal revenue service. because we know the economy is hurting, but we still have a job to do. >> reporter: that morning, alexander settled into her routine here at the irs offices. >> checked my mailbox and i finally get swated. >> reporter: across town, it was also business as usual for glass repairer robin dehaven. he had already started his workday. >> i was already at work, i had already picked up my workload and i was just trying to go through my workload. i had a few tickets, windows to look at, doors to look at or windows to repair. >> reporter: the iraqi war vet headed out to his first job. >> it was a nice day, clear, the

traffic wasn't too bad at that point. >> reporter: february 18, for most people just an ordinary day. but for joe stack, he had reached his breaking point. trouble at home, finances running low, and an audit by the irs. that morning, stack finalized his 3,000-word manifesto. >> if you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself why did this have to happen? the simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. >> reporter: stack had been writing for months. he railed against the government. >> the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws. >> reporter: and he foreshadowed his fatal plans. >> violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. >> reporter: less than an hour

later, as lisa alexander reviewed cases at the irs, as robin dehaven headed down the highway, joe stack was taking off on a deadly mission. you could switch for up to 600 highway miles on a single tank of gas. or the hundred-thousand mile powertrain warranty. over a thousand people a day are switching to chevy. they're not just trading in, they're trading up. qualified lessees can get low mileage lease on this 2011 malibu ls for around one ninety-nine a month, a consumers digest best buy. call for details. pancakes! ♪ from dawn 'til sunset, i'll never walk away ♪ ♪ blueberry pancakes are so good ♪ [ male announcer ] bisquick. pancake lovers unite.

[ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? introducing bayer am, an extra strength pain reliever with alertness aid to fight fatigue. so get up and get goin'! with new bayer am. the morning pain reliever. we get double miles on every purchase. echo! so we earned a trip to the grand canyon twice as fast. uhoh. we get double miles every time we use our card. i'll take these. no matter what we're buying. plus the damages. and since double miles add up quick, we can bring the whole gang. it's hard to beat double miles. no, we ride them. [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? oh, that's the spot! [ heather ] businesses need a reliable financial partner. one who can stay in sync with their moves. my job at ge capital is to get bobcat all the financial and business support they need. we provide financing for every bobcat dealer in north america.

together, we've rolled out over 100,000 machines to small businesses all over the country so they too can grow. ♪ ge capital. we're there for bobcat every step of the way. ♪ boss: just going over how geico ghelps people save in even more bobcattalkways... of the way. ...with good driver discounts, multi-car discounts, defensivdriver discounts... boss: just going over how geico ghelps people save in even more bobcattalkways... of the way. woman: you! oh, don't act like you don't recognize me! toledo, '03? gecko: no, it's...i...

woman: it's o late stanley. gecko: actually, miss, my name's not stanley. woman: oh...oh, i am so sorry! from behind you look just like him. i'm just.... gecko: well...i'd hate to be stanley. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 percent.

♪ one, two, one, two three, four ♪ >> reporter: the giddy up bar. >> joe stack was the base player in my band for about two years and he was a good musician. he was a conscientious musician. >> reporter: joe stack played with billy eli's band in the honky tonks around austin, texas. he was the band member everyone could count on. >> he was a meticulous, engineer kind of guy. he loved things that you could do by the numbers. he had a good sense of humor. >> reporter: was he ever angry? was he depressed? >> i never saw him there. >> he would want to sit down and

have a beer with the guy. we never saw him angry, we never saw him get flustered. he was always in a good mood. >> reporter: during all the gigs the band played together, stack never hinted at his problems with the irs. >> i can honestly say the irs never, ever came up in any conversation that we had. but, you know, i mean, we were musicians and friends and we talked about music. >> reporter: stack helped with the band's album. >> the last time i really had any interaction with joe, he was producing the album "amped out." he did a good job, he made it real easy, and we were able to go in and record our tracks inarily record time. >> reporter: he also wrote a song for another band, glass straw called "a certain kind of magic." ♪ here we go again with my paper

and my pen ♪ >> reporter: he played keyboard, and came one the title named ironically "over the edge." music was also a part of joe's life growing up. >> we were band mates, we were friends and also in glee club together. we toured and sang and so forth. so it was really a musical connection, i guess, between us. >> reporter: phil day was the lead singer in the high school rock band called the mythical maze. back then, joe stack was still playing bass, growing up andrew joseph stack went by the name andy. >> i don't think he ever saw himself as a star. he didn't -- it wasn't that type of personality. you can kind of tell people that would love to be out in the limelight and be a -- headlining a show somewhere. that wasn't andy. >> reporter: the school they attended together was the milton

hershey school, a residential school for orphans in hershey, pennsylvania. when stack was a young boy, his father died of a heart attack. after his sudden death, andy's mother ethyl was unable to care for her two oldest sons, andy and harry. so she enrolled them in the milton hershey school in 1963. andy was just 7. then another tragedy. andy's mother died months later. it was suicide. harry stack told the austin-american statesman she killed herself with a gun. while his other siblings moved with relatives, andy and harry stayed at milton hershey where they became what classmates called lifers. >> some kids came in at kinder garden and lived there the entire until the high school graduation.

and those were the lifers. >> reporter: hershey classmate remembers the hard life of his fellow classmates. >> we were desperately poor and we had tragedy in our lives, some of our parents were dead. some of our parents were killed in serious accidents or murders or any time and sundry ways of tragedy and we were all young children. >> reporter: daily life at the school was regimented. david hafner roomed with andy during high school. >> we had chores to do, and the house parents would inspect our stayly chores. we were on the hmerit system. >> each of the homes would have their own dairy farm and we milked cows twice a day, and the only time we didn't milk the cows is when we were away on vacation.

>> reporter: students were often teased when they ventured off campus. >> i remember traveling to, you know, football games and so forth to other schools and kids in other schools would taunt us because we were orphans. we were at one school and we beat them pretty badly in the game and getting back on to the busses, there were a bunch of cheerleaders out there chanting, we might have lost, but we're not sad because we still have our mom and dad. >> throughout school, his classmates say stack always seemed a little distant. >> even when i look back at photos of andy and so forth, it didn't matter what was going on around him, it always looked like he was thinking about something else. he always seemed to be in that world where you knew there was something happening but he wouldn't vocalize what it was. you could sense maybe there was something bothering him, but he wasn't going to verbalize it.

it was just something he dealt w. >> he had a wit for sure, but to myself and others who weren't close friends with him, you would say he was shy and reserved, even. however his friends report that once you got to know him, he was actually pretty friendly. >> reporter: when stack graduated in 1974, the milton hershey school gave him what they give all their graduating students. >> you were given a suitcase of clothes and $100. they kept $10 in case you had any outstanding phone calls or anything and said, see you. >> reporter: but stack struggled finding his own way. >> i think he struggled when he came out of milton hershey and was trying to figure out what way to go in. i think the first few years were tough for him and it took a while for him to get on his feet it seemed. >> reporter: stack attended the

air community college but he struggled, barely making ends meet. >> i was living on peanut butter and bread or ritz crackers when i could afford to splurge for months at a time. >> reporter: stack would go on to find his future in california. a future that was far from bright. >> my introduction to the real american nightmare starts back in until early '800s. . >> that nightmare when we come back. the fuel supply, unlock the doors, and turn on the hazards. . >> that nightmare when we come back. >> that nightmare when we back. ♪ [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae.

algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. and to do this at a large enough scale etfs? exchange traded funds? don't just give me ten or twenty to choose from. come on. td ameritrade introduces commission-free etfs with a difference-- more choice. over a hundred etfs.... ...chosen by the unbiased experts

at morningstar associates. let me pick what works for me. for me. for me. the etf market center at td ameritrade. before investing, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. contact td ameritrade for a prospectus containing this and other information. read it carefully before investing. of some of the annoying symptoms menopause brings. go introducing one a day menopause formula. the only complete multivitamin with soy isoflavones to help address hot flashes and mild mood changes. new one a day menopause formula.

i'm don lemon, here are your headlines this hour. an icon of the democracy movement has been fleed from house arrest. she walked out of her home a free woman today. the nobel peace prize laureate has been confined to her home for 15 of the past 21 years. she's expected to speak to her supporters on sunday. medical workers in haiti are appalled at the number of people dying and being hospitalized in the cholera outbreak. the death toll is at least 800 with more than 1,000 hospitalized. doctors without borders are saying his staff is now seeing seven times the number of patients they did ten days ago. a man says he will be cleared of federal charges that

he and his wife received year of kick backs from real estate deals. leslie johnson is a county councilwom councilwoman. both appeared in court after a four-year investigation. agents allegedly heard the couple flushing a check for $100,000 down the toilet. a search also revealed that mrs. johnson was hiding $800,000 in her bra. actress zsa zsa gabor went home today after an emergency trip to the hospital. doctors feared a massive blood clot in herr leg had travelled to her heart. it turned out to be an infection. those are your headlines this hour. cnn's special investigation "death and taxes" continues right now. >> reporter: in the early '80s, joe stack found himself in southern california.

a hot bed of the anti-tax movement. >> there was several groups in the southern california area who realized that, you know, once a minister became ordained and started their own church, there were certain tax benefits for them. >> reporter: andre hensley is the -- kur by hensley was andre's father. >> our whole goal is to help people with the freedom of religion. and if they want to start their own church, we want to help them do that. >> reporter: j.j. mcnabb is a tax expert who's writing a book on tax protester schemes. >> my understanding is they had about 40,000 or 50,000 people set up home-based churches in which they said if you turn your home into a church, then you are tax free. >> reporter: and that's exactly what joe stack did. he began his own tax exempt

church. >> some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having tax code readings and discussions. in particular zeroed in on a section of the wonderful exemptions that make institutions like the vulgar catholic church wealthy. >> reporter: stack must have thought he was doing something heroic. >> he was being somewhat like the founding fathers. that he was protesting and just like they did and that he would be a hero and that others would learn from his heroic efforts and move on. >> although the irs revoked it's tax exempt status from 1988 to 1995, the universal church challenged that ruling and says it never advocated tax evasion. >> if you have a tax due and you feel that you have earned money, then you need to pay your taxes. work within the system that's there, that's the bottom line. >> reporter: but the bottom line

for other tax protesters was to push the system as far as they could. >> you know, in the late '70s and early '80s all the way up through the middle '90s, there was quite a bit of tax protests going on in the country in terms of people raising issues and litigation and those sorts of things. >> reporter: this man says he's been a tax protester for more than three decades. he doesn't want us to show his face because he's fearful of what he says could be retribution by the irs. >> most people think in our society that you're innocent until proven guilty. but when it comes to tax issues, you're guilty until you can prove that the irs is wrong. >> reporter: and during that time, stack, according to documents obtained by the associated press did not pay taxes for 1981, '82 and '83. in his manifesto published on

the internet. here's how he described part of his battle. >> we carefully studied the law with the help of some of the best high-paid experienced tax lawyers in the business and then began to do exactly what the big boys were doing, except that we weren't stealing from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of god. >> it's not the irs that makes the churches tax exempt, it's congress. the irs simply collects money, they don't write rules, they don't pass the laws. >> reporter: that distinction apparently made little or no difference to stack. according to court documents, he filed suit against the irs in the fall of 1983. five years later, he lost. according to the associated press, he had to pay back taxes of $14,446, plus interest and penalties. here's what he wrote. >> that little lesson in

patriotism cost me $40,000, plus ten years of my life and set my retirement plans back to zero. >> this wasn't something that came out of nowhere. he has for a long time regarded the tax system as unfair and causing him unique and debilitating personal losses. >> reporter: brian levin is a criminalologist who specializes in analyzing acts of so-called lone wolf violence. he says joe stack was influenced by the anti-tax movement. >> he was the prototypical lone wolf. the more they go off alone, the more that anger festers and they're able to get caught in a web of a belief system which, when coupled with this emotional instability, comes a volatile and dangerous mix and is most

likely to be directed against a symbolic target that they believe is at the root of their setbacks and pain. and this is -- this is payback. it is not just political, it is personal. >> reporter: joe stack would remain in california in the late 1990s, where he continued to run afoul of the irs. he formed two software companies and records show he failed to file corporate taxes on either. he began to funnel his anger and frustration targeting the irs. >> this was not someone who was just going to go and hurt somebody randomly or just go after any government official, this was someone who wanted to declare war on the irs and to have a movement continue after he was gone. to do it as well. >> reporter: coming up, joe

stack gets ready to go to war. ♪ to do it as well. >> reporter: coming up, joe stack gets ready to go to war. u. >> reporter: coming up, joe stack gets ready to go to war. . >> reporter: coming up, joe stack gets ready to go to war. ♪ a harmonica and a box guitar ♪ ♪ in a canvas-covered wagon stuffed... ♪ [ male announcer ] while the world's been waiting on the electric car, maybe the whole time, the electric car has been waiting for this... the wattstation from ge. it's going to change the way we get to where we all want to go. ♪ i didn't think much of it till i took it apart ♪ dear corolla, it must be hard. you never considered making turn-by-turn navigation standard. if you want to talk about it.. call me when you get there. that is if you find there, since you don't have turn-by-turn navigation standard. the all-new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on a 2011 chevrolet cruze ls for around $169 a month. call for details.

when it comes to investing, no one person has all the answers. so td ameritrade doesn't give me just one person. questions about retirement? i talk to their retirement account specialists. bonds? grab the phone. fixed-income specialist. td ameritrade knows investors sometimes need real, live help. not just one broker... a whole team there to help... to help me decide what's right for me. people with answers at td ameritrade. get up to $500 when you open an account. can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? heartburn happens when stomach acid refluxes into the esophagus. prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release system that protects the medicine as it passes through the stomach's tough acid. then it gets absorbed into the body, turning off many acid-producing pumps at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection all day and all night. prilosec otc.

heartburn gone. power on.

a quiet, tree-lined street, middle class america, under the big texas sky. >> the neighbors are all very friendly and helpful people,

just kind of middle america, i guess you would say. >> reporter: elbert hutchins lived two houses down from joe stack. like other neighbors, he believed this was the last place a rampage would be born. >> it's just incredible. you know, you would never suspect something like this. >> reporter: irs employee lisa alexander was just returning to her job after a few days of field work. she was looking forward to a good day. >> i didn't get any type of vibes or i didn't feel anything or nothing new, it was supposed to be an ordinary day. >> reporter: like alexander, robin dehaven, an iraq war veteran was just going through his daily routine as a window installer. >> i was going to do a window repair, a pretty simple job i thought and i was going to try to contact this woman and go

change a window out. >> reporter: an unsuspecting hero, an unwitting victim and a suicidal killer, all three on a collision course. joe stack had harbored a grudge against the irs for years, but in the months leading up to february 18, he had taken to his computer to write his manifesto. >> joe stack was someone who felt that his concerns were not listened to. and joe stack felt that the system was biassed against him. >> reporter: stack's manifesto is a litany of grievances, a rant, but also a window into his thoughts as he spiralled downward. >> i find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious and probably pointless, especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my

thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. >> reporter: and stack ends with an ominous threat. >> well, mr. big brother, irs man, let's try something different. take my pound of flesh. sleep well. >> reporter: when he's done, joe stack signs, dates and posts his online script and then leaves his computer for good. this is the house joe stack shared with his wife and stepdaughter in north austin. on the evening of february 17, his wife and stepdaughter fled to a hotel, after stack reportedly went ballistic over his problems with the irs. this is what happened the next day. around 9:15 a.m., he set his house on fire. albert hutchins was at home that morning. >> my wife was watching tv and we both heard a loud noise and

we rushed out into the backyard to see what was going on and we saw smoke and flames coming from the second floor window of the stark's house. and i ran back through the house and grabbed our cordless phone and ran to the front yard while i was dialing 911. >> reporter: his manifesto posted, his house torched and stack, he was now gone. after he set his house on fire, he got in his car and set out on his real mission. he drove 20 miles north to an airport where he kept a single engine plane. this is where stack would take his final ride. according to the ntsb, stack was cleared for takeoff at 9:44 a.m. and looking back, hiss voice sounds eerily cool for a man who was about to do what he was about to do.

>> georgetown tower, dakotas. >> 89 delta, clear for takeoff. what's your direction of flight sir. >> stack flew southbound and climbed to an altitude of 4,800 feet. then he had one final conversation with air traffic control. >> dakotas, 89 delta, frequency change. see you later. >> reporter: my pilot on this kay is jerry white. he was also flying february 18. just ahead of joe stack. do you remember that day, did it look similar to today? >> it was just like today, he was right behind me. >> reporter: so you saw him take off. >> yeah, and he had a very normal takeoff. >> reporter: nothing out of the ordinary? >> nothing at all out of the ordinary. just another guy up there. >> reporter: at 9:44 a.m., stack starts desending rapidly.

three minutes later, 9:57, he slipped off the radar. ich provid for their every financial need. [ thunder rumbling ] stack starts desending rapidly. three minutes later, 9:57, he slipped off the radar. ne44 a.m. stack starts desending rapidly. three minutes later, 9:57, he slipped off the radar. cending r. three minutes later, 9:57, he slipped off the radar. t. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. ♪ and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. you don't decide when vegetables reach the peak of perfection. the vegetables do. at green giant, we pick vegetables only when they're perfect. then freeze them fast so they're are as nutritious as fresh. [ green giant ] ho ho ho. ♪ green giant took some foolish risks as a teenager. but i was still taking a foolish risk with my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me.

i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more... and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol...stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39% to 60%. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nurspregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let's go, boy, go! whoo-whee! if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices...

which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. my kids say i speak a different language. but i love math and math and science develop new ideas. we've used hydrogen in our plants for decades. the old hydrogen units were very large. recently, we've been able to reduce that. then our scientists said "what if we could make it small enough to produce and use hydrogen right on board a car, as part of a hydrogen system." this could significantly reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by as much as 80%.

a an icon of the democracy movement has been freed from house arrest. she walked out of her home today a free woman. the nobel peace prize laureate has been imprisoned in her home for 15 of the past 21 years.

she's expected to speak to her supporters on sunday. medical workers in haiti are appalled at the number of people being hospitalized in the cholera outbreak. the death toll is at 800 with more than 1,000 hospitalized now. doctors without borders are saying they're seeing seven times the number of patients than they did just three days ago. a couple receives years of kick backs from real estate deals. both appeared in federal court on friday after a four-year fbi investigation. just as they were about to be arrested, agents allegedly heard the couple flushing a check for $100,000 down the toilet. a search also revealed mrs. johnson was hiding $800,000 in

her bra. the u.s. postal service says it lost 8.5 billi$8.5 billion l. people just aren't buying as many stamps. the cnn special "death and taxes" continues right now. i'm thinking it's going to be a normal day. >> reporter: robin dehaven was driving down the road on february 18, like he is on this day with me. and that's when something he had never seen, caught his eye, something small, flying much too close to the ground. >> i looked on the horizon and i just saw a little white dot and i didn't know what it was. i'm staring at it like why is this? but it didn't look like a plane. i have never seen planes flying around here.

>> reporter: but dehaven would soon realize it was an't a toy,t was a real plane, joe stack's piper cherokee. >> it was coming in at an angle so it was acting erratically. i saw him turn and i thought, well, there's no more waiting, here we go. >> reporter: lisa alexander was just getting settled into her morning routine at the echelon building in north austin. she remembers hearing the familiar sounds of her irs colleague and friend vernon hunter walking into the office. >> i remember vernon coming through humming that morning. i didn't actually see vernon, he was just going through, good morning, good morning, he was making his morning stroll. and then i finally get situated

and, bomb. >> a single engine aircraft has crashed into a seven-story building. >> within seconds i saw a big plume of black smoke so i knew it had crashed. >> it was like a fireball, some people were crying. >> some people were running, some people were peeling out in their cars and we could see smoke pouring out of the building. >> a pilot crashed into the building intentionally. >> reporter: stack slammed his plane between the first and second floors of this building. it exploded on impact. >> it's like the building kind of swayed. >> reporter: lisa alexander had no idea what had just happened. the impact was seismic. >> it was like, i know we're not having an earthquake, and then the explosion, it's like oh, my god, and by that time the tiles start falling down and the ws start shattering and then it was dark. >> reporter: chaos quickly turned to fear as alexander and

others began to try to escape. >> and this poof sound comes in as if there was a plane or something behind it. and that's when i said, oh, my god, i'm not going to see my son. >> reporter: robin dehaven headed for the smoke. so you just drove into this parking lot? >> i saw it was coming from this parking lot, i just turned in and avoided the people that were running. >> reporter: a veteran of iraq with two tours under his belt, dehaven says his instinct kicked in. he grabbed his ladder and raced to help those trapped in the building, those like lisa alexander. >> we get to the window and we're all yelling and screaming, help us, help us. >> reporter: dehaven tried to help, but he couldn't find solid footing for hiss ladder. at one point, the ladder was swaying, with no other choice, he climbed into the burning building.

>> there was just daylight through the broken windows in that room. enough i could see there's office cubicles, chairs, looked like somebody just knocked stuff over, ceiling tiles were falling down. >> reporter: dehaven eventually made eye contact with lisa alexander and her reaction was unmistakable. he said that he looked into your eyes and he saw fear, panic. >> yeah, because i didn't know if there was going to be another explosion or not, and i just knew if there was, that's one that's going to take us out. >> reporter: after the ladder was finally steadied, dehaven had to talk alexander out of the building to safety. >> the look on her face when she started climbi ining up that la and she was in straight panic. >> i was nervous so i was like shaking, and robin is like, i got you, just come on, put your foot down, you can do it. >> i was trying to be nice and say, ma'am, we got to do this, just trying to earn her trust.

>> that's not the way i wanted to go down, but that was the only way next to jumping. it feels good to be on this side. >> reporter: alexander remembers not only dehaven's reassuring words, but also the encouragement of the crowd that had gathered after the attack. >> i guess the crowd helped me out because i was real nervous. >> reporter: people were cheering for you? >> yes, like you can do it, you can do it. >> reporter: after alexander, robin dehaven went back five more times into the smoldering building, helping rescue six lives in all. from the air, it's obvious that this attack could have been so much worse. you can see the damage from here. >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: wow, that's so close to the freeway. >> it's right there. >> reporter: this could have been a real disaster. >> yeah. >> reporter: coming up, could there be another joe stacks out there? and how concerned should those who work to the federal

government really be. >> his story was about the irs, but it became a reality that day for me, i don't know if this is what i want to continue to do. ] in the event of a collision, the smartest thing you could do is cut the fuel supply, unlock the doors, and turn on the hazards. or get a car that does it for you. ♪ [ male announcer ] nature is unique... ...authentic... ...pure... and also delicious. ♪ like nature valley. granola bars made with crunchy oats and pure honey. because natural is not only good, it also tastes good. nature valley -- 100% natural. 100% delicious. down the hill?

man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. [ indistinct talking and laughter ] whew! i think it's worth it. working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals.

one man, one plane. and one deadly mission. >> for that whole week i was waking up at between 1:00 and 2:00, just crying my eyes out, you know, glad to be here and puzzled as to why did i come so close to death? >> reporter: survivor lisa alexander's trauma is still fresh. by the time you found out that this person, it wasn't an accident, he targeted that building, he targeted you. >> you hear stories about the irs, but it became a reality that day for me. it was like i don't know if this is what i want to continue to do or not. and as time progressed, it was, you know, a message from god to me saying, like, hey, if i took you to that and brought you through, when it's your time, you're going to go.

everybody else got out except for vern. >> reporter: vernon hunter, a close friend and colleague did not survive. the 68-year-old veteran served two tours in vietnam. >> vern, he was a nice guy, he would do anything for you. >> reporter: hunter was a husband, a father, and a grandfather of seven. >> my 5-year-old, she loves me just, the two of them together had so much fun. and, you know, he would talk about seeing her when she grows up or when she graduates from high school and college, she's not going to see that, she's going to miss all that time with him. >> reporter: the patriot guards stood by and u.s. flags waved in honor of the veteran who served his country. what are you thinking?

>> i hate that happened. and i question why and why did we come so close? and that it just ended up being vern. >> reporter: lisa alexander did find some meaning in the tragedy that day. >> because i have been raised all my life to go to church and believe in god. and it's like, you know, maybe it is time for me to start believing. >> in memory of the tragic events last week. >> reporter: one week after the tragedy, a moment of silence. and a ceremony to honor emergency responders and robin dehaven for their service. >> robin dehaven is a true hero. >> we know that time is of the essence in a situation like that and someone needs to react right away that's willing to do it. >> reporter: he was at the right place at the right time. >> it was like no, no, go away t building is on fire. >> reporter: not surprising since dehaven wanted to rescue

people for a living. >> i actually tried out for the fire department two years prior too. >> reporter: what happened there. >> i didn't make it. >> reporter: big mistake. >> yeah. >> reporter: he received the city's public service honor for being a hero, a title he's still getting used to. people call you a hero. >> yeah, like my son asked me the other day, you're here, aren't you, daddy? just out of no wrrwhernowhere? because he's heard that from his mom and grandma and grandpa. but i'm not a normal hero, i'm just your dad. >> reporter: the attack left 13 dead and three injured. >> my heart grieves for the loss of life caused by my husband. >> reporter: stack's widow sheryl has spoken little about the tragedy, but made this statement at a fund-raiser for

her and her daughter. >> i am the victim of a violent crime. done by someone i loved and who loved me very much. i have a lot to come to terms with dealing with that. >> reporter: mourning the man they knew and loved, but feeling angry and betrayed by his actions. friends like billy eli were also shocked that stack was behind the attack. >> i remember thinking, somebody mu stole his plane. >> reporter: so then you realized it was your friend joe stack who flew his plane into the building? >> and i started mentally shuffling all the cards and trying to figure out how this couldn't be right, how this couldn't be joe. it's got to be something morn we're hearing. >> reporter: and that's what

makes a lone wolf so frightening is that he operated under the radar. according to an fbi report, the most significant domestic terrorist threat over the next five years will continue to be the lone wolf terrorist, inspired by the ideologies of former terrorism groups, their relative anonymity limits law enforcement protection capability and makes prevention extremely difficult. brian levin, an expert on lone wolf extremists echoes that warning. >> when you take extreme hatred and emotional instability, and hook it in -- even in part to a belief system, you set forth a walking time bomb. >> just as disturbing, stack's friend billy eli has been contacted by extremists who expect him to take up stack's cause.

>> all of a sudden, you're linked to joe stack? >> i have got people that are like, hey, i know you're going to want to pick up the gauntlet, and, man, there's no gauntlet. >> reporter: levin says that's exactly what stack wanted, to inspire others. >> he wanted to light the fuse that would cause a general up rising by others who feel cheated by the tax system to act out violently as well. >> reporter: and he cautions, there may be other joe stacks out there. >> he's become a folk hero to some in the anti-tax world. the extreme anti-tax world, that is. and that's not only sad, it's dangerous. and i'm not talking about conservative people with good will who go to church and vote for conservative candidates. i'm talking about people who are opting out an w