for all of us here at nbc news, thanks for watching. due to mature and graphic subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. at the center of any criminal investigation is a dark heart and the iron hand of justice. >> get out of the car, please. >> you're about to come face to face with a killer. >> yeah, i could put that gun to my head. but why should i, man? >> just hours before he commits murder, you'll hear him tell why he's about to take out his anger on people he doesn't even know. >> i've taken so much [ muted ]

from these people, it's a little bit of payback time. >> people say why don't they just leave everyone else alone and just end it for themselves? suicide is not enough. they need to get even. >> what makes someone so desperate? >> we would fire back. still hollering at him to put the gun down and give himself up. he would still say, "no, i'm killing more people." >> mass killing may be the price that we pay for living in a country with freedom. >> we're about to take you to the center of a massacre where the killing often stops only when the bullets run out on this "dark heart iron hand," rampage killers. every time another rampage killer decides to get even by murdering innocent people, we all ask ourselves the very same question. why? why did it happen? you want the answer? a killer is about to tell you.

>> you're watching a man who is about to explode. a loner, a misfit. a young man with few friends or family ties who is about to wage war on the world and himself. >> this disturbing videotape, made the night before his deadly massacre, is a unique look inside the mind of dion terres, a man on the verge of a rampage killing.

>> dion terres came to kenosha, wisconsin, from illinois to begin a new life with a girlfriend he expected to follow him there. but the woman never joined him in kenosha. and further attempts at other relationships also failed. and he had difficulties at work as well. he lost his job at a motorola plant after he did not report for work for over three days. and a motorola exit interview form produced later in a lawsuit against terres' estate indicates that terres offered a human resources representative $1,000 in cash to keep his assembly line position. he was told to leave.

>> i'm very seriously considering driving over to motorola, or motorola, and shooting john [ muted ], who was my supervisor. very, very seriously considering it. dreaming about it. >> but in the end, he decides to kill total strangers instead. august 10th, 1993, jill tobias is buying happy meals for her two small children at this kenosha, wisconsin, mcdonald's when dion terres, the man in the mirror, enters the fast food restaurant, shooting. >> and then all of a sudden, there was this boom. as i started to turn around. i heard somebody say, "out." >> on the radio, i heard of shots being fired at the mcdonald's that i had just passed. >> reporter: officers quickly surround every exit, hoping to apprehend or stop the gunman conducting a reign of terror inside. >> and i started to crawl under

the table, and i thought to myself, he said "get out." >> everyone rose, and with that, we could see the top of his head and the blue smoke. >> reporter: then, as deputy sheriff herring climbed through the drive-up window, he hears a final shot ring out. >> there was a young man laying by the entrance, the rear entrance. i moved a gun away from his hand. he was deceased. >> we're inside mcdonald's, facing west. >> reporter: the first detectives on the scene, les meredith and albert aiello, document the carnage. >> apparently, a female victim was wounded in this area. blood splattered on the wall as well as apparently body matter or brain. white male on the floor near the women's bathroom.

the gun was in his left hand. >> reporter: three people are dead, the gunman by his own hand and the videotape they find in his car reveals the secret world of a tormented man. >> i just feel like as individuals, our life doesn't mean piss. >> reporter: none of the people we spoke with who knew terres were aware he was a man obsessed with collecting firearms or as an admirer of adolf hitler. >> there's a nice thing. >> reporter: and serial killers like jeffrey dahmer and john wayne gacy. >> he admired their boldness, their fearlessness, and their power. he was a man who felt powerless. >> reporter: according to criminologist james fox, the motives of a rampage killer or mass murderer are very different from those of a serial killer. like other experts we talked to for this broadcast, james fox

has spent his professional life studying murder, including mass murder. >> serial killers generally kill because they like it. it makes them feel superior. mass killers generally kill to express their hostility, their anger. >> why don't you tell the family what you guys did to me when i was young? you in particular. tell them. tell them about it all. you [ muted ] pig. >> reporter: this young white male with his problems, his frustrations, and his inability to deal with them fits the profile of many mass murderers and rampage killers. >> typically, a mass killer is having problems not just in one area of life, but in every important area of life. terres had trouble having a sexual relationship with women. but he also had trouble holding a job. >> reporter: according to a major newspaper study of 100 cases of rampage murder, 47 occurred shortly after the

perpetrator lost his job. terres' massacre came just five months after he lost his job at a motorola plant. >> i'd kill everybody, if i could. i'd like to. hang their bodies all in my room from my ceiling. just let you drip down on me. >> reporter: in the same study of this rampage murder phenomenon, nearly 50% of the killers have a history of mental problems. >> i've just had enough, man. it's too late for help. i went for help when i started at motorola. when i told that guy the real truth, what was really inside of me, he freaked, man. >> reporter: nbc news contacted motorola to confirm terres' videotaped statements, but they

declined to comment, citing legal issues. but documents entered into evidence for the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the estate of dion terres suggests that two years prior to the rampage, terres did seek psychiatric help through the motorola employee assistance program. while employed at motorola, terres agreed only to therapy sessions, refusing the recommended inpatient treatment and medication. an evaluation by his psychiatrist reads, "he is not deemed to be in immediate danger to himself or anyone else." >> i'm saying i'm perfectly sane. perfectly. there's nothing wrong with me. nothing. it's society that's crazy. you're all nuts. i just want the thoughts to stop. >> people say, well, why don't they just leave everyone else alone and end it for themselves? suicide is not enough. they need to get even. they need justice. >> you know, i could put that

gun to my head. but why should i, man? when i've taken so much [ muted ] from this [ muted ], from all these people? you know, it's a little bit of payback time. >> reporter: like 30% of rampage and mass murderers, terres did kill himself in the end, an almost welcome way out of his own private hell, but not before venting his rage on the world at large. >> it's finally over. it's going to end. i'm happy. it's finally over. the torment. the bull [ muted ]. everything. reporter: still ahead, one of the most deadly rampage killings in american history. >> he came out of the one of the aisles, and before we even knew it, he was just standing above us and started shooting.

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reporter: it is a little before 4:00 p.m. on july 18th, 1984, and a man wearing fatigues, a black t-shirt and sunglasses strides into a mcdonald's in san ysidro, california, a small suburb of san diego located near the mexican border. james huberty, a 41-year-old unemployed security guard, is armed to the teeth. >> i heard one loud boom that echoed and it hurt my ears. >> reporter: wendy flannigan is stationed at the cash register when the gunman opens fire. she was 17 years old at the time. >> and i remember just following the other people that were in

front of me, running toward the same direction. >> reporter: everyone inside mcdonald's or within huberty's line of sight outside is defenseless. two young boys on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant are cut down. by the time huberty is finished, he will have committed the second most deadly rampage killing in american history. james huberty's path to massacre began on this farm in massillon, ohio, a rural community 60 miles south of cleveland. >> you know, when i first heard about it, i heard the name james huberty and i just thought, oh, my god, there's just -- nobody would be referred to as james huberty except the huberty i know. >> reporter: gene hoffacre, a former schoolmate of huberty, says he was a loner. >> he was just kind of a recluse-type individual. >> reporter: but huberty did manage to marry, raise two young girls, and put down roots in his hometown.

but there were signs of trouble. numerous arguments with neighbors. a police charge of disorderly conduct. >> someone yesterday asked me if i hated my husband. i hate the things he's done. but him, no. >> reporter: in this 1985 nbc interview, a year after his rampage, his wife, aetna, talks about james huberty's generally volatile state of mind. >> i told the kids that i kept them away from him as much as possible, told them not to talk back, not to act up. try to keep him calm, don't agitate your father. >> reporter: in october 1982, the power generating plant where huberty works as a welder shuts down. he cannot find work. he moves his family to mexico, but their stay in tijuana lasts only three months. from there, the hubertys move to san ysidro, california, the site of the mcdonald's massacre. >> he was not adapting down here, and there was nothing to go back to.

>> reporter: and nothing to look forward to either. huberty again has trouble finding work. he finally lands a job as a security guard, but even this is short-lived. like many rampage killers, huberty's life was beginning to fall into a deadly pattern, an unstable, angry personality fueled by increasing feelings of helplessness and the desperation of unemployment. >> he was frustrated. it's like putting pressure on a container and not having any release for it. >> reporter: the release came with a vengeance on the afternoon of july 18th, 1984. >> 245 just occurred 400 west san ysidro. got about four calls on it. supposed to be a shooting. >> reporter: at 4:04 p.m.,

police are dispatched to the san ysidro mcdonald's where james huberty is on a rampage. >> get out, please. there's a man with a rifle in there. >> reporter: inside, 17-year-old mcdonald's employee wendy flannigan is dodging bullets. >> and i remember hearing all the bullets hitting all the metal around me because that's where the freezer is and all the grills and everything back there, everything's metal. >> reporter: miguel rosario, the first officer on the scene, has no idea of the severity of the situation. but as he gets closer, he spots the gunman through the restaurant window. >> as soon as we made eye contact, we were no more than about 80 feet away. he started making aggressive movements. >> reporter: officer rosario scrambles for cover behind a large pickup truck and immediately calls for backup. >> emergency. i'm taking a round -- we're taking rounds here. >> you said the mcdonald's,

shots being fired now? >> he shot under the vehicle, at the vehicle, over the vehicle. i thought that i was outgunned. probably a robbery that had gone bad. >> reporter: meanwhile, back inside, 17-year-old wendy flanigan is running for her life. >> i just concentrated on going forward, and then i got out of his line of fire. and i ran for the emergency exit. >> but the door won't open, and wendy is trapped inside along with co-workers and a customer with a small child. they duck into a utility closet. >> and i remember the baby being straight in front of me. the -- i don't even remember the -- the face of the lady. i don't want to cry. >> reporter: today, albert lios is a san diego police sergeant, but 17 years ago, he was a co-worker of wendy flanigan's, who, along with several others, hid in an alcove during the

massacre. >> there was a time clock by where we were crouched down hiding, and i kept looking at it every -- every minute seemed like an hour. >> reporter: but then huberty discovers their hiding place. >> he came out of one of the aisles, and before we even knew it, he was just standing above us and he just started shooting. >> reporter: several of his co-workers are killed instantly. albert is shot four times, and a fifth bullet ricochets off the floor, sending shrapnel into his chest. >> i don't know if he -- he thought that he had killed us all or if he ran out of ammunition. so, he went back to the front to reload, and that's when i made my escape. ended up crawling to the back of the mcdonald's. i crawled downstairs, and i crawled into a closet. >> reporter: the same closet in which wendy flanigan had taken refuge. when we come back -- >> every person i had to hear scream and beg for their life. >> i think i counted about

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reporter: on july 18th, 1984 patrons and employees at this mcdonald's in san ysidro, california are easy prey for james huberty, a man on a rampage. >> did you understand what he said in english? >> yeah. he said, "i kill a thousand. i'm going to kill a thousand more." >> reporter: hiding in a tiny utility closet where they had been trapped for almost an hour, wendy flanigan and albert lios, two mcdonald's employees, listen as huberty continues his siege. >> every person i had to hear scream and beg for their life or mothers begging for their

baby's life, when a baby would be crying and he would start yelling for them to shut up and the mother would beg and you'd hear all the gunfire and the screaming, and then quiet, you know. >> i think i counted about 130 -- 125 to 130 shots that he fired before i lost count. >> reporter: outside, s.w.a.t. teams take up positions around the fast food restaurant. sergeant chuck foster is one of the two snipers trying to get huberty into their gun sights. >> he was sitting on a counter midway down the ordering area of the mcdonald's. he had his rifle across his lap. it looked like he was reloading a magazine. >> reporter: with snipers in position police officials authorize the use of deadly force. >> after about several seconds, he got off of the counter and then he slowly made his way toward the doorway. when he got to a point where i could see him from the shoulders down, then i shot him. >> reporter: james huberty had spent 77 minutes killing 21 men, women and children in cold blood with weapons he had collected

over the years. like dion terres, the other mcdonald's killer, he was an avid gun collector. and according to his wife, interviewed a year after the massacre, huberty had threatened herr two daughters with weapons. but etna huberty could not bring herself to leave her increasingly troubled husband. >> after he pulled that machine gun, that was zelia, and held a knife to cassandra's throat, i was going to. and a friend of mine said, who would he have if you leave him? nothing. gee, he'd be all alone. then what would happen to him? >> one of the characteristics of mass killers is that they're isolated. they're alone. many of them have moved thousands of miles for the sake of a job, and they pick up roots in massillon, ohio, like huberty did, and by the time things go sour in san ysidro, california, all his support systems, his old friends and buddies and family

are back in massillon, ohio, and aren't there to help him. >> reporter: ironically, hours before the massacre, huberty and his family had lunched at another mcdonald's and then went to the zoo, where huberty and his wife walked and talked. >> he made a statement to her at that point that, well, society had its chance. and she just kind of shrugged it off. and then a little while later, they got in a car and went back home. she went in to take a nap because she was tired, and he came in a few minutes later with this comment about going out hunting, hunting people. >> when he made that threat about going out to hunt humans, you didn't really -- >> no. >> -- believe that? >> no. >> reporter: if she doubted her husband's sanity when he uttered those chilling, prophetic words, it was nothing new for etna huberty. >> i told him straight out, you're crazy. he wouldn't admit it. i was the one that was crazy. not him. >> reporter: but three days

before the massacre, huberty does make a small plea for help. >> it was sunday night. he told me -- he finally admitted he had a problem. >> reporter: two days later, on the day before the massacre, huberty phones this mental health facility and speaks to an intake operator. >> john huberty was rational and polite, according to the receptionist who took the call, answered all of the questions in the negative, and specifically said he did not want to say what his problem was. >> well, they told him they'd call him back with an appointment. he sat there and waited for two hours. they never called. >> reporter: the current clinic director told nbc news that then, as now, if a caller indicates they have an emergency they are given immediate attention but there was apparently no indication that huberty was in deep distress. and if huberty had requested an appointment for a mental health assessment, one would have been scheduled at the time of the call for the clinic's first available opening. etna huberty says she called the clinic back, but her husband's name had been misspelled on

intake, and though they can't immediately locate a record of his call, when she tells them her husband has guns in his possession, they say they told her to call the police. >> they took the appropriate action given the information they had available to them. when we come back -- >> he acted like he had the power and he had the control and he could take his time and do what he needed to do and there was nobody going to stop him. hi, i'm doing my back-to-school shopping and i saw another store's ad for these crayons at a lower price. no problem -- i can match that right here. oops -- i don't have the ad. you don't need it. oh, what about a coupon for these pens? yeah. easy.

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what's your story? citi can help you write it. hey there, everyone, i'm alex built. we are learning more about the claude helicopter crash that killed 30 service members. the deadliest since the war began in afghanistan in 2001. among the casualties, 22 navy

s.e.a.l.s. deadly violence continuing to take a toll in syria after 67 civilians have been killed in armored assaults across that country. we will have more news later. but now, back to "rampage killers." due to mature and graphic subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. at the center of any criminal investigation is a dark heart and the iron hand of justice. >> here's a frightening fact. more than 30 times each year, someone goes on a rampage killing. and in some cases, the victims have no connection to the killer. it can be as random as opening up a phone book, closing your eyes and picking a name. that's pretty much what happened on a wednesday afternoon in 1991 during the lunchtime rush at a popular restaurant.

12:40 p.m., a luby's cafeteria in killeen, texas. suddenly, a man in a blue pickup truck crashes through the front plate glass window. when the explosion of glass settles, it quickly becomes clear this has been no accident. >> to me, it reminded me of rambo, this ammunition belt around his neck. like he was ready to do battle. and he had a couple of guns in his hand. >> we were right in the middle of the cafeteria. his pickup truck stopped about ten feet from our table. >> reporter: the gunman began sweeping the front of the restaurant with gunfire, coldly choosing who will live and who will die. terrified patrons like evelyn seals and betty mae hide under the tables, listening to gunfire and the strange ranting of a madman.

>> he did say, "this is what i think of the bitches of belle county. and was it worth it?" >> he acted like he had the power. well, he did. and he had the control and he could take his time and do what he needed to do and there was nobody going to stop him. >> reporter: but who was this gun-wielding madman? george hennard grew up on u.s. army bases in the southwest. after a brief stint in the navy, hennard is at loose ends when he is not recommended for re-enlistment. so he turns to the merchant marine. the work offers long hours and endless travel. >> and most of it was cleaning and detailing. and it was just -- you know, that satisfied him. he was constantly busy. >> reporter: jamie dunlap meets hennard in texas, where they strike up a friendship over a mutual interest in cars. they become roommates. >> it was pretty good at first. but after a few weeks, we just couldn't -- you know, it was

unbearable to live with him as time went by. more -- you could just see more hate kind of built up in him. and that's one reason i just didn't want to be around him anymore, you know? i felt bad. i felt like -- you know, because everybody -- he'd always talked about how everybody -- what did he say? abandoned him. >> reporter: on may 11th, 1989, returning from a long trip at sea, hennard is arrested for smoking marijuana on board a ship and his seaman's papers are confiscated by the coast guard. he will not serve on any ship again, a loss from which some feel he never recovers. >> people said that his mood lightened and he was at his happiest going to sea and being a sailor. quite ironic that the loss of his ability to go to sea and work as a sailor he brought upon himself so completely. and, of course, used this as the great injustice to trigger the beginning of the end.

>> reporter: two years and one day later, he would crash into luby's, open fire on 100 innocent people, and become instantly notorious. but sisters jana jurnigan and jill fritz were barely aware of the george hennard who lived in the big house on the corner down the road from them in belton, texas, not far away from the site of the massacre he was to perpetrate only months later. hennard had been watching the sisters, his obsession with the young women prompting him to write them a five-page letter that he sends to the wrong address. >> how are you doing? this is george calling from las vegas. i've got a case of mistaken identity on my hands. >> reporter: realizing his error, hennard leaves this message on the girls' mothers' answering machine. >> i wrote a girl named stacy weatherford a letter. the letter was not for her. it was for your daughter. i don't know her name.

please go over there to the weatherford residence and make sure you get the letter for them including the four pictures. it's a mess. and if they don't want to give it to you, call me back and let me know. >> the more i listened to it and the more it went on, i thought, oh, my goodness, you know? who could this be? >> reporter: jane bug retrieves the letter and enclosed photographs and realized that she and her daughters are in danger. >> this was a threatening letter. i didn't know if he would come down here, if he would try to contact us. i just didn't know. >> reporter: the letter contains delusional, rambling statements, citing events that never happened, a confrontation with the young women's father, a concert they never attended. most frightening to jane, in the letter, hennard called the girls his admirers, writing "i must admit being truly flattered knowing i have two teenage groupie fans." continuing in chilling detail, the letter describes hennard's hatred of women, saying --

"i would like to personally remind all those vipers that i have civil rights, too." he goes on. for the next four months, hennard and jane lock horns in a bitter standoff over the two young women. >> hennard would peer in the windows of jane bug's house. she couldn't prove it, but could find piles of cigarette butts, like someone had been standing out there all night. hennard was a heavy smoker. hennard would follow them downtown to shopping, to the bank. he would flash the headlights of his truck, the same truck he used to crash into luby's, precisely at the moment that the girls would drive past to see jane. >> reporter: george hennard continues stalking jane bug and her daughters. >> it was a saturday morning before the shooting. i saw a bicycle.

and he pulled right in front of the car. and it was just like he paused for just a minute. our eyes just locked on each other, and it's like the messages were just going back and forth. >> reporter: the communication is silent, but for jane, the silence speaks volumes. >> you're not going to hurt my girls. you're going to have to go through me first. and he was telling me that he might have to. >> reporter: shortly after this confrontation with jane bug, hennard crashes his pickup truck through the front plate glass window of luby's. and for ten minutes, wages war on petrified patrons. when we come back -- >> he was coming towards me at that point.

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reporter: october 16th, 1991. >> no, no, no. >> reporter: george hennard has crashed his pickup truck through the front plate glass window of luby's cafeteria in killeen, texas, and he's shooting everyone in sight. the potential escape route through the shattered front window is blocked by hennard's truck. he calmly struts around the restaurant loading, shooting and reloading. >> he came back around the truck after he had shot a while and came back toward me. that's when i got up and ran.

>> reporter: sam wing escapes death narrowly. >> he shot at me and shot out the exit sign above my head when i went out the door. >> reporter: mary standridge has come to luby's with some colleagues from work to celebrate boss's day. trapped with co-workers under a table, all she can do now is watch and wait. >> i said, i'm going to be sick. she said, don't. if you make a noise, he'll be over here. so, the only way i could stop from that was to keep my eyes open and watch where he was. so i did keep watching and i did see on our end everything that he did. >> reporter: in the back of the restaurant, cowering patrons watch as tommy vaughn desperately tries to kick out one of the windows. >> he tried to knock it out with a chair, and the window wouldn't give. so this big guy, he jumped, bodily knocked the window out. and so we started running. and the last thing that i

remember then was that this guy turned back around and started shooting at us as we were running out. >> reporter: evelyn and betty also seize upon the now-open window as their chance for escape. >> he shot at us as we was going out the window. but like i told evelyn, i said we'll have to run fast. but i said i'm afraid he'll shoot us in the back. but i said i'd much rather him shoot me in the back than come around, look me in the face and call me a name, then shoot me in the face or the heart. >> reporter: still hiding under the table, mary has a strange showdown with the stranger with a gun when hennard makes eye contact with her. >> he was coming toward me at that point. and it was almost like how dare you? like a control thing, that i was looking at him, how dare you. and that's when the police arrived and came running through the window. and i think -- i consider them my angels to this day. >> when we got in there, we

could see that the -- we could hear them moaning and groaning. g reporter: a >> he would stick his head out every once in a while with his weapon and fire a round at us. we would fire back. still hollering at him to put the gun down, to give himself up. he would still say, "no, i'm killing more people." >> reporter: morris fires 15 rounds, wounding hennard before he runs out of ammunition. >> after you hit him once and saw him flinch and he'd still come back shooting at you, and you'd think, damn, why don't you go down? >> reporter: he quickly exits the restaurant to reload. as he is crawling back, a shot rings out. hennard, with one round left in the clip shot, himself in the right temple. in ten minutes, hennard killed 22 people, not including himself. eight men and 14 women.

>> looking back and knowing that it was an issue about some girls before, it makes sense because a lot of the people he shot were women. >> george hennard, i think, is a classic case of a hate-driven individual who blamed -- in his life, blamed women largely for all of the ills that fell upon him. >> reporter: and some experts find significance in the date of the massacre. october 16th, 1991. it not only marked the two-year anniversary of hennard's dismissal from the marines, it was also the day after his birthday. >> it's no coincidence that he committed the mass murder on his 35th birthday. after all, for many people, the 35th or the 40th birthday is an important benchmark in your life. and you know, when george hennard simply did not achieve what he set out to do, he felt that someone was responsible,

and it certainly wasn't him. he went after all of humanity. >> reporter: and evidence found in his home after the massacre indicated that hennard's murderous rampage may have been inspired by another rampage killer, james huberty, the man who killed 21 in a mcdonald's seven years before. >> hennard had video on huberty. hennard had visited the site of the san ysidro massacre, much as a tourist would visit a destination. >> reporter: some experts think that popular culture is partly to blame for this copycat phenomenon. after all, nowadays, images of mass killers can be found on everything from trading cards to magazine covers to calendars and t-shirts. but criminologist james fox cautions against blaming too much on the copycat phenomenon. >> if james huberty didn't exist, hennard would still have

a murderous personality and would have gone on a rampage. coming up, rampage killers >> women that commit mass murder, they tend to be psychotic. they tend to really be suffering from mental illness. the safety of onstar is now available for your car.

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dion terres, james huberty, and george hennard. what ultimately drove these men to mass murder is still a mystery. all of them fit the rampage killer mold. white, male, over the age of 25,

emotionally frustrated and disappointed by life. but there are always exceptions to the rule. october 30, 1985. 25-year-old sylvia seegrist, dressed in green army fatigues and armed with a .22-caliber rifle, steps out of her car and opens fire at this suburban philadelphia shopping complex. when the smoke clears, three are dead and seven wounded. according to newspaper accounts, seegrist had been committed 12 times in ten years to psychiatric hospitals. she is found guilty but mentally ill of three counts of first-degree murder. >> women that commit mass murder, they tend to be psychotic. they tend to really be suffering from mental illness. whereas a man may be paranoid, may be narcissistic, may have certain forms of personality disorders, they may not be

psychotic at the time. but women offenders tend to be. >> women aren't the only exception to the white male rampage killer profile. >> what's his motive? the man hates the world. >> colin ferguson, a jamaican immigrant, comes to the usa seeking the american dream but only finds several menial jobs which he considers beneath him. an angry, frustrated ferguson, blaming racism for all his failures, enters this long island train and methodically pumps bullets into the trapped commuters, killing six and wounding 19. >> he wanted to get even with the people, the successful people, to punish them. >> a subset of rampage killers who often set out to punish specific individuals are those who target the workplace. >> workplace killers, unlike

those mass killers who go on a rampage in a public place and target absolute strangers, are very selective and very discerning as to their victims. >> atlanta 1999. mark barton, armed for an afternoon of killing, enters two day trading offices where he has traded. he murders nine and wounds 13. he had also killed his wife and two children in the two days before the massacre. according to one newspaper account, barton had lost nearly half a million dollars in his day trading ventures. eyewitness nell jones says barton walked into the offices of altech securities with a hit list. >> just adjacent to our space were several traders who had been there for a long time, whom barton knew and had traded with in the old days, and beginning with those people barton just methodically went down the line and killed every one of them.

it was a very methodical, malicious assassination. >> five hours after starting his reign of terror, barton is cornered by police at this gas station and takes his own life. mass murderers like barton, terres, huberty, and hennard carefully plan their acts of revenge. >> one of the central myths is that people just snap and do this. in fact, every single case has lots of events building up to a crescendo, often for years before the event. >> rampage killing has not reached epidemic proportions in the united states, but one recent study found that the number of occurrences of mass murder in the u.s. did increase in the 1990s. in 1990 the average number a

year jumped from 23 to 34. and according to the study the number of deaths per incident suddenly increased in 1993 and remains higher. >> part of the reason why the body counts in these mass killings seem to be on the rise has to do with the proliferation of firearms. >> sure, we now have background checks. but most people who fit the profile of a mass killer do not show up in a background check. they don't have criminal records, and they don't have records of psychiatric treatment. >> so how are we to predict or protect ourselves against these sudden outbursts of rage? it's a problem for which there doesn't seem to be an easy answer. >> for mass murderers you don't necessarily see a whole lot of acting out behavior prior to this going on -- prior to their assault. >> interestingly, the people who

do mass murder tend to not be as violent as, say, the average armed robber. if you look at armed robbers or people who beat their wives, you'll find much bigger histories of violence than if you look at people who are mass murderers. most of them have had an interest in violence but haven't done it. >> there are a lot of precautions that we would like to be able to take. but really, what are we going to do? i hate to say it, but i think that mass killing may be the price that we pay for living in a country with freedom. >> though it is still virtually impossible to know who will take out their anger in a mass killing, there are some clear hints about who fits the description. a "new york times" study looked at more than 100 rampage killers and found that a majority of them are white and two-thirds of them have some college