subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. at the center of any criminal investigation is a dark heart and the iron hand of justice. >> 911. >> we have an emergency. it's piedmont center. >> i knew if i laid there, i was going to die. >> everything in me was just pumping, live, live, live. >> his co-workers never suspected mark barton was a ticking time bomb. >> barton just methodically went down the line and killed every one of them. >> and he gave me that smile like he always does, you know, come here, and he pulls out

these two guns, and the next thing i know, he points them at me and he starts shooting. >> after killing his wife and two children, he heads to the office taking out nine people on his hit list. what made him snap, or did he? >> i don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill as many of the people that greedily sought my destruction. >> could someone you know be on the verge? >> there are thousands of people in workplaces in america who don't smile, who are always angry and other people just don't want to deal with them. >> on this "dark heart, iron hand: out for revenge." each year, almost 500 people are fatally assaulted by enraged co-workers according to the department of labor. nearly 2 million more are victims of some sort of physical attack at work including assault, robbery, and rape.

and 6 million more are threatened in some way. mark barton's killing spree came just days after he lost a huge amount of money trading stocks. according to the experts, this crime, like that of most workplace killers, was not committed by someone who just snapped. most people who go on murderous rampages plan their attacks carefully, but what sets barton's case apart are the clues about his troubles. the trouble is only a few people knew to look for them. >> it is a modern american nightmare and tonight it is in atlanta. >> 911. >> quick, we've got an emergency. there is a lady that's down. send an ambulance. >> ma'am -- >> the police reporting that there are multiple shooting victims in an office building in atlanta. >> thursday, july 29th, 1999, it's a blistering hot day and

atlanta is in the midst of a record heat wave. the afternoon calm of the city's tony buckhead section is suddenly shattered by a fuselage from a man bent on massacre. >> atlanta police. >> there is a shooting at 3500 piedmont road on the third floor suite 300 -- or suite 310. >> the 911 call is from the office of momentum security, a day trading firm, located in an office building at two securities center. >> do you know what part of the body was injured? >> where is he shot? >> in the arm. >> upper part of his arm or lower part? >> upper part or lower part? what part of the arm is he shot on? his left upper arm. >> we ended up in the elevator, went up on the third floor. as we came out onto the third floor and turned to the right, we saw a lot of blood on the floor and a lot of blood on the walls and the window. >> terry brown is one of the first paramedics on the scene. she thinks she is responding to

help a single victim with a gunshot wound to the arm. >> we slowly made our way down the hall and, again, just seeing a lot of blood. and what was really unreal about it at first, it was dead silence. there was not one sound. you could have heard a pin drop. >> but what terry brown and her partner find resembles a combat zone. >> and then all of a sudden people start screaming, there's another one shot, another one dead, oh, i think they're dead. >> as terry calls for additional units, terror heightens inside the two securities office complex. workers trapped and desperate to flee the gunman stalking them smash out a window on the second floor. police respond to the scene not knowing the location or identity of the shooter. inside the building, the number of casualties is mounting. >> and sure enough there was another young man about 35 feet down the hall face down who had three gunshot wounds to the back, one to the arm and one to the leg. you're hearing chairs topple over and glass breaking and people screaming and yelling and

people grabbing on to us begging us to hide them because they didn't want to get shot. >> police are dealing with possible injuries. of course we do not know the extent of those injuries thus far and perhaps a shooter who may be loose somewhere inside that building. >> outside, police and s.w.a.t. teams mobilize to begin a floor-by-floor search for the shooter. meanwhile across the street at all-tech investment group, another day trading firm, nell jones is wrapping up her day. >> i looked up at the clock and noticed it was a few minutes after 3:00. and then someone who had entered and crossed behind my chair mumbled something about hoping that he wasn't spoiling our trading day. >> that someone is mark barton, who is about to continue the carnage he'd begun across the street just minutes before. mark barton was at first glance

an unlikely killer. for more than a decade, he worked as a professional chemist, testing cleaning compounds and developing new products before deciding to start day trading, opening accounts at both momentum securities and all-tech investment group, where he traded for two years. day traders are not generally long-term investors. they make large daily investments in stocks hoping for quick profits on small changes in the stock's price. some of these individuals are risk takers looking to make a fast buck in a high-stakes arena many consider gambling. even in this risky game, barton gained a reputation as a high roller. >> his trading style was a much more gambling, much more swing for the fence type of trading. mark did not trade that style that we had really taught. >> mark was gambling but he was playing with his family's future during a time when the stock market was fluctuating wildly

like the day he opened fire on his colleagues. >> the dow today not such a good day for the upside. >> nasdaq also getting hit very hard. >> i was actually giving a system demonstration to a new potential client. >> brent doonan, a 25-year-old office manager at all-tech investments, gave this interview from his hospital bed while recovering from five gunshot wounds. >> and mark had came past the conference room. you know, he came back once and he said, come here, come here. i said, "hold on a minute. hold on a minute." and he gave me that smile like he always does. "come here." >> doonan along with two other employees follows mark barton, a man he knows and trusts, a fellow day trader and friend, into an office next to the conference room. >> having gotten all three people in that one office, barton closed the door and closed the venetian blinds so that no one could see into the glass on the front of the office. >> and he said -- he said today is going to be a visual. i just kind of looked and he

pulls out these two guns and still, even at this point, i thought they were some sort of cap guns or something, and the next thing i know he points them at me and he starts shooting. >> meanwhile, 16 miles south of atlanta in stockbridge, georgia, a shocking multiple murder investigation is under way. >> around 3:30 we were contacted through 911 and they contacted the henry county police department and notified us they found three victims there. >> i'll never forget it, going into the bedroom. >> what detective renee swanson found was a macabre scene, the lifeless bodies of two children, a boy and a girl, tucked into their beds as if they were asleep. >> it was just like, you know, who could have done this to these children? could their parents have done anything like this to them? we really didn't know what we

had. we knew that the parents were missing. >> detectives quickly learned that the apartment belongs to leigh ann barton, the wife of mark barton. what they don't know yet is that he is now waging war on the financial center of atlanta. >> i left the apartment to obtain the search warrant and then when we re-entered the apartment over to our left was like a table and it had a computer on the table and there was a note on the computer which we did not see at original entry and there was a letter from mark o. barton. >> in the letter barton wrote, "to whom it may concern, leigh ann is in the master bedroom closet under a blanket. i killed her on tuesday night. i killed matthew and michelle wednesday night." back in atlanta at all-tech investments, mark barton continues his rampage. he opens fire on the office manager brent doonan and two

other all-tech employees, whom he's lured into a nearby office. nell jones is at her desk. >> and i was just sitting looking at my computer screen and i heard what i thought was about five loud noises, bangs, pops. >> the blood was starting to go everywhere. i was scared to death. i was scared to death. i had to get out of there. >> nell turns to question barton about the noise she's heard coming from the office. one look at his face tells her something is terribly wrong. >> and his eyes met mine and for a moment we just locked in mutual communication, and he seemed very, very sad. for a moment i felt incredible sadness in this person. and then suddenly he broke eye contact. i just gasped and pulled back just as the bullet passed right in front of my forehead and

smashed into my computer screen. >> with barton's attention focused in the main room, brent doonan, wounded and bleeding on the office floor, uses the opportunity to make his escape. >> i knew if i lay there, that i was going to die. i just charged him and pushed him -- pushed him away as i went, and luckily he didn't cap me as i was going across. maybe he was just stunned. but i made it past him and out the conference room and down to the end of the hallway. >> barton keeps firing relentlessly as people run and duck for cover. nell jones starts running for her life, fearing that at any moment she will take a bullet to the back. she's about to dive into the

ladies' room when she freezes. >> that would be a very vulnerable place to be caught should barton come down and decide to check out anybody who might be in the ladies' room. >> nell, looking for somewhere else to hide, notices an unlocked utility closet opposite the ladies room and scrambles inside. >> very honestly i have never felt more completely and absolutely alive in my entire life than in those moments. in the midst of all of that murder and mayhem, i knew that i was alive. and that my survival, my further survival, was dependent upon my somehow outwitting barton or somehow frustrating his intent to kill me. so it became a deadly challenge, but every vein in me was just

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shooting at 3500 piedmont road on the third floor, suite 300 or suite 310. >> on july 29th, 1999, at approximately 2:30 p.m., amidst intense heat and a falling stock market, mark barton, who has already murdered his wife and

two children, opens fire on associates at momentum securities, a day trading firm in buckhead, the financial section of atlanta. after killing four and wounding five at momentum, he crosses the street and enters all-tech investments, another day trading firm where barton works. he opens fire again. adding to the chaos and confusion, 911 dispatch operators don't realize there are now two different locations, two separate day trading offices with similar addresses, two different scenes of carnage. >> quick. >> 911 -- >> quick, we've got an emergency at piedmont center. >> we already have the police and ambulances out. >> hurry. >> ma'am -- >> there is a lady that's down. send an ambulance. >> ma'am, we've got everybody en route. >> okay, fine. >> so far no one but the terrified people inside the two trading firms knows the location or identity of the gunman. all-tech day trader nell jones,

who has managed to evade the killer once, is still hiding in a dark utility closet, terrorized, wondering if she will be mark barton's next victim. >> i heard running and then i heard one shot fire out, and then an incredible, overwhelming stench of gunpowder, which told me that barton had just passed by. >> eyewitness descriptions of the suspect, a man wearing a red shirt and khaki pants, are broadcast on television and radio. from their office tower facing piedmont road, bookkeeper laurie woodard and her co-workers watch as bedlam unfolds in front of them. >> people are glued to the windows, this whole side of the building, people are glued to the windows. >> while keeping a close eye on the police action as they cordon

off the area, lori hears the description of the suspect over the radio. >> and i thought, well, that's kind of strange because that's just what they announced and here he comes -- or here comes someone dressed like that and it didn't seem like anybody was stopping him. >> shocked, lori realizes she might actually be watching the suspect escape. from her vantage point she could see what the killer could not, police staged at the top of the driveway the man in the red shirt was climbing. >> immediately stopped and kind of slowly turned around and glanced at the roadblocks down below and stood there for a few minutes and then slowly walked down the winding -- there was like a driveway that winds around, and he took one last glance over his shoulder and just took off into the woods and that's when we called 911. >> back at all-tech, nell jones is still cowering in a closet. she hears s.w.a.t. teams swarm the building, decides it's safe to open the door and is immediately confronted with the body of a woman lying in a pool of blood. >> the image that stayed with me

longer and that bothered me even more than mark barton's face was the image of this beautiful woman there on the floor. >> meanwhile, back in stockbridge, georgia, where barton has killed his wife and two children before embarking on his workplace rampage, detectives renee swanson and richard hill photograph the crime scene and obtain a list of all vehicles owned by the couple. the investigators are about to learn they are not the only ones looking for mark barton. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations.

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or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. if you've had enough, ask your dermatologist about enbrel. anyone that sees or comes in contact with mr. barton should assume that he is armed and, of course, extremely dangerous. >> atlanta police are searching for mark barton, a day trader on

the run after going on a murderous rampage in two separate office buildings. he has killed 12 so far, including his wife and children in the two days before the office massacre. from the outside looking in, mark barton and his family seemed picture perfect. to some of his neighbors, he seemed like a doting family man. >> hi. >> but those who knew him as an adult knew little of his past. his public smiles masked the turmoil that was brewing beneath the surface, probably escalated by his day trading losses which reportedly amounted to over $100,000 in the weeks before the killings. mark barton and his two children from a previous marriage had only recently moved back into his wife's apartment after a separation. and the letter found alongside his murdered family paints a portrait of a deeply disturbed, distraught individual. "i don't plan to live much longer," he wrote. "just long enough to kill as many of the people that greedily sought my destruction." according to one newspaper account, barton had lost nearly

a half million dollars in his day trading ventures. >> he was going to punish all the people that he held responsible -- all the successful ones in the brokerage firms and day trading areas who were making large sums of money when he was failing. they represented everything that he could not achieve. >> criminologist james spock james fox says in many ways, mark barton is characteristic of someone who commits mass murder in the workplace. >> the typical workplace avenger is a middle-aged white male who feels that a good job, a decent salary and benefits is his birthright. he's angry. he blames the world and he wants to get even. >> the national mean age of all murderers is 29. workplace killers are older. on average, they are 38 years of age.

92% are male and whites represent 70% of all workplace avengers. >> the massacre that left 15 postal workers dead, 6 wounded. >> the government was a former employee of the standard viewer company and he went about his killings methodically. >> three insurance company executives were killed wednesday when a disgruntled former employee ran into a building cafeteria and began shooting. >> in 1999, 62 people were murdered at work by a co-worker or former co-worker. >> 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. in fact, there are some killers in workplaces who have literally stepped over some of the people they simply did not wish to kill. >> eyewitness nell jones says barton walked into the offices

of all-tech investment where he killed 9 and wounded 13 with a hit list. >> just adjacent to our space were several traders who had been there for a long time, who barton knew and had traded with, 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. >> not unlike the killing spree of joseph westbecker, a company man with 20 years of service at the same printing plant in louisville, kentucky. placed on permanent disability at 47, he was angry and ready for revenge. >> he had a job to do that with an ak-47, started roaming through the corridors looking for his enemies, particularly

management. he was so selective and so methodical, that at one point he stopped, looked at a buddy and said, oh, not you, jimmy. >> another hallmark of work place killers, unlike other mass murderers, they do not usually elude capture by police. >> mass murder in general is simply no challenge to law enforcement. in the typical case, someone who goes on a rampage is on a suicidal rampage. yes, he wants to kill a lot of other people because he blames them for all of his personal problems, but then, he's going to kill himself. >> by the end of the day 50% of mass murderers are dead either at their own hand or by forcing the police to shoot them and it's that subset of suicidal people who hit on the idea of mass murder as a form of suicide. >> joseph westbecker was not the

exception to the rule. after killing 8 and wounding 13, westbecker shoots himself in the head with a pistol. >> and when police arrived, not only do they have the murder victims but they've got the perpetrator's body. they've got plenty of physical evidence. they may have a confession. they have everything they need. >> but will mark barton, now on the run, follow the pattern and commit suicide? or does he have more killing in mind? that's a coffee and two pills. the afternoon tour begins with more pain and more pills. the evening guests arrive. back to sore knees. back to more pills. the day is done but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve. just 2 pills can keep arthritis pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is lara who chose 2 aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. [ female announcer ] get an aleve coupon in this sunday's paper.

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championship, and at least 13 people were injured, two critically. more news later but now back to the nbc documentary. 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." july 29th, 1999, every police department in the state gunman walks into two buildings and opens fire. when it was all over, mark barton had killed nine of his co-workers and had critically wounded 13 others. investigators were about to discover that the deadly rampage began two days earlier at his home. that's where they found the bodies of his wife and two children. and now, the manhunt begins. >> we are actively looking at

every place, every street, every building in this area. it's safe to say every law enforcement agent and officer in the metro area is now looking for mr. barton. we must bring him to justice quickly. >> for more than five hours the city of atlanta is held hostage by fear as the police dragnet continues. one hour after mayor campbell's press conference, officer hewell clemens spots mark barton's van on interstate 75. clemens calls immediately for backup. he knows this is a dangerous situation. >> he had done a lot already so i felt like it would have been easy for him to overreact, and i didn't want to start anything until we had the advantage. >> just as barton heads for an exit ramp, the desperately needed backup arrives. >> i saw barton's van go by with clemens following him, officer clemens following behind, and i started following officer clemens.

mark barton made a right into the lot of the bp gas station with clemens behind him. >> with barton cornered at the gas station and concern for the safety of innocent bystanders, the officers now had to be ready for anything. >> what's he going to do next? what's mark barton's next plan of action? he's boxed in. i'm in front of him. another car behind him. what's going through his mind? is he going to jump out shooting at myself, officer clemens, or shooting at the citizens at the gas pumps? >> to be honest with you, i was tense. i didn't want to make any mistakes. >> there was a heavy sun glare and as i was watching i saw a flash of silver go up. >> i was looking for glass breakage, door openings. >> we saw the muzzle flash and heard the gun pop. >> with guns drawn, officers

carefully approach the van. >> once i opened the door, you know, your heart is racing, of course. to see him not moving, there was a lot of blood. >> a few moments ago at lake acworth and cobb county at a bp station, mr. barton was pulled over and committed suicide. >> according to detective renee swanson of the henry county police department, barton had previously discussed suicide with his wife leigh ann. >> while she was at work he had called her and was threatening that he was going to commit suicide. well, she heard a gunshot over the phone and the heart was just stricken. took off home and when she gets home he's there fine and, you know, leigh ann was, what is going on? why did you do that? what was that gunshot? he said, oh, i killed the cat instead. >> of course, mark barton eventually did kill himself, his wife and his children. although murdering one's family is not characteristic of workplace killers, barton's troubled state of mind fits the profile perfectly. >> the common pathway to mass murder and rampage killing is being so depressed that one doesn't care if one lives and being so frightened at harm that others are believed to be doing

that one lashes out at them. >> depression, anger and despondency are traits of the workplace killer and barton was a man who saw no way out from the depths of his depression. "i have been dying since october," he wrote in the letter found near his murdered family, "wake up at night so afraid, so terrified, that i couldn't be that afraid while awake. it has taken its toll. i have come to hate this life and the system of things. i have come to have no hope. i killed the children to exchange for them five minutes of pain for a lifetime of pain." >> he took them out to eat. they went to walmart and bought some little surprises and stuff. and then, he comes home and puts his children to bed and killed them with a hammer.

and then he took them into the bathroom and bathed their bodies and washed their hair and put them to bed for the rest of their life. >> he wrote, "i forced myself to do it to keep them from suffering so much later." he closes his letter with the chilling words, "you should kill me if you can." >> this is a man who was willing and able to get revenge with a gun. but before he took his own life and got even with all of the people at the stock brokerage firms, he also took his wife and children with him, not because he hated them, not because he was angry, but he wanted to save them from the misery of this world. >> i don't want you growing up in a world without me. i'm so important that you shouldn't live if i'm not there

for you. that's the height of self-centeredness to think the kids are better off dead than growing up without this depressed, suicidal father. >> depression and anger were also characteristics co-workers noticed in patrick sherrill, a mail carrier in edmond, oklahoma. >> many of patrick sherrill's co-workers called him "crazy pat." but they certainly did not see him as a ticking time bomb. >> just after dawn on august 20th, 1986, sherrill reported as usual to the post office in uniform and carrying a mail bag filled with guns. >> two days earlier, his supervisor at the post office had threatened to fire him, and he decided he was going to get even. >> in the end, patrick sherrill killed 14 co-workers before killing himself. like patrick sherrill, mark barton was never formally diagnosed with a mental

disorder. in hindsight, barton's personality fit clinical patterns of a man on the edge. >> the person that i started to work with and the person that he ended up were two different people. he was not the same person at all. >> secretary leigh ann burke saw mark barton's behavior change over time. she started working with him in 1984 in texarkana, texas, where he was employed as a chemist for tlc manufacturing, a company that made cleaners and solvents. >> he was always kidding around and laughing and making jokes in the beginning. like i said, he was like a 6-year-old in the body of a 35-year-old man. i mean, he was just a big dennis the menace at first. >> but then a new mark barton began to emerge. >> he would have temper tantrums when he couldn't get formulas to blend right or he would be trying to make a new product and he would try and try and he would have -- he would throw things and, you know, have these little temper tantrums. >> she noticed barton isolated

himself and his first wife debra, whom he had met and married while attending the university of south carolina. >> mark always prided himself on the fact that nobody knew what he was. no family ever visited them other than her parents. i didn't even know his parents were alive. i just assumed that his parents had died. >> an only child, barton grew up sumter, south carolina, where he attended high school. a loner who excelled in academics, he was one of the few sumter high school students to reach the national merit scholar semifinals, but mark barton kept his past shrouded in mystery, preferring to keep even his accomplishments a secret. >> he would be so proud that nobody from his high school, nobody from college knew where he was. nobody from his past knew how to

reach him, and he was very proud of that point. i always thought that was very strange. >> and according to leigh ann burke, his marriage was not a partnership of equals. >> mark was definitely dominant. she didn't go anywhere without calling to let him know that she was going or even to ask if it was all right. he refused to let her work. he was the breadwinner. >> two years after joining tlc manufacturing, barton becomes president and leigh ann notices barton's erratic behavior is driving away business. >> then he would do things like change formulas without telling anybody or without telling customers or -- which would always cause a problem. >> according to leigh ann burke, barton was deliberately trying to run the company into the ground so he could take it over. >> he was photocopying reports from the company, like at night he would come in. he was taking all of our

formulas, putting them on his own personal computer and taking them home and he got caught. he had a fit. he threw a temper tantrum. he screamed, yelled, cussed. he ended up two nights later, breaking back into our business and he destroyed our computers. he stole all the formulas so that we couldn't manufacture. >> barton was arrested and charged with felony burglary, but he was not prosecuted for this crime. the owners gave him a choice. leave town immediately or go to jail. >> they did not even pack up their belongings. he took his wife, his son, and they left town, sent movers back in to move his personal stuff a week later. he did not even come back into town to sell his house. he did it all from atlanta. >> nine years later mark barton would go on his bloody rampage in atlanta, shocking not only the nation but also a group of investigators in alabama, nearly 100 miles away.

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on july 29th, 1999, day trader mark barton killed nine associates and wounded 13 others during a bloody rampage. after losing close to half a million dollars in the stock market over several months, barton sought revenge in the two offices where he had failed as a day trader. police later discovered that in the two nights before, he had also killed his wife and two children. news of barton's bloody atlanta rampage was particularly shocking to david mcdade, the district attorney of nearby douglas county. >> i began hearing news reports and when they finally gave the

name mark barton, my reaction was frustration, anger. i screamed. i knew instantly when they said "mark barton," that it was going to be this mark barton. >> david mcdade was convinced mark barton had gotten away with murder yourself before, the murders of his first wife and mother-in-law at an alabama campsite. mcdade was part of the investigating team because the barton family lived in his county at the time. and he became even more certain barton was his man when he heard him protest his innocence in the letter he left behind after killing his wife leigh ann and two children. "there may be similarities with these deaths and the death of my first wife, debra spivey," barton wrote, "however, i deny killing her and her mother." >> and the only way he could know there were similarities is he had to, in fact, commit the first crimes. >> alabama law enforcement officials like danny smith had

been investigating the unsolved murders of barton's first wife, debra and her mother eloise for nearly seven years and barton was their primary suspect, a fact that would have surprised and shocked many of his day trading co-workers. >> i felt confident that he's the man that did our killings in alabama. i don't have a doubt about it. he's our guy. >> but they had come up empty on physical evidence to tie him to the murder. now, more than ever, they were convinced barton was their killer. debra and eloise's bludgeoned bodies were discovered in their vacation trailer in this crowded campsite in cherokee county, alabama, over labor day weekend in 1993. there was no sign of forcible entry. >> the first person that come in to play was the husband. >> mr. bill spivey, his father-in-law, had what i would call the understandably horrific, tragic response of demanding to get to his wife and insisting he had to be restrained.

mark barton's reaction was almost unemotional. >> and the staged appearance of >> and the staged appearance of the crime scene didn't add up either. >> there was an attempted to make it look like a robbery. i believe ms. spivey's purse was turned over, a couple rings about it and there seemed to be a savageness about the murders themselves to indicated it was not a robbery but more of an anger-inspired crime or hate crime. >> the theory that we had that he asked her for a divorce and she probably refused. that's when he lost control and the assault occurred. but there was just no physical evidence to put him there. >> the fact that barton reluctantly reveals the existence of a girlfriend, leanne lang, who later becomes his second wife, heightens investigators' sense that barton knows more than he's telling them. >> well, when we attempted to

interview him, he was evasive. he had a demeanor about him, his body language was obvious to all of us that he was -- he was hiding something. >> when we come back -- >> i said, leanne, you need to open your eyes. you need to talk to us. i went into great detail as to what had happened, why we thought it had happened, and even warned her at that time that whenever she ceases to fulfill his need that she was in danger. [ male announcer ] how are we going to make this season better than the last? how about making it brighter. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work? so we can build on our favorite traditions by adding a few new ones. we've all got garlands and budgets to stretch. and this year, we can keep them both evergreen. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. can you smell those savings? fresh cut christmas trees are arriving weekly.

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back in 1993, alabama investigators conducted an extensive search for any physical evidence that might link mark barton to the murders of his first wife and mother-in-law.

they checked his home and car for any sign of blood, but found none. the murder weapon was never located. frustrated, investigator danny smith turned to mark barton's new girlfriend. >> i said, leanne, i said, you need to open your eyes. i said, you need to talk to us. i give her a business card. and i told her, i said, when it starts getting bad, i said, you need to call. i went into great detail as to what had happened, why we thought it had happened, and even warned her at that time that whenever she seizceased to fulfill his needs, she would be in danger. she could easily be another victim. >> but if mark barton did murder his first wife and mother-in-law before his rampage in atlanta, it would set him apart from other mass murderers. >> most mass killers are not like barton. most of them commit, you know,

just one massacre, one terrible episode. and afterwards they kill themselves. >> though a distraught and depressed barton did kill himself after his rampage, he seemed to treat the 1993 murder investigation as if it were a game. >> mark was pretty much playing cat and mouse with us. i never felt like that he would reach a point where he would ask for an attorney and cease any communications with us because he wanted to know what we were doing. >> besides his relationship with leanne, the woman who would later become his second wife, mark barton had one more important incentive to murder, money, in the phenomenal of a lefty life insurance policy on debora spivey barton. >> in fact, one of the policies being issued only 30 days prior to this incident. and it was for like $650,000, i think, so, you know, needless to say that sends up a red flag for

us. >> the insurance company contests paying off a life insurance policy on debora spivey barton for four years. but in 1994, settles with barton for an estimated $300,000 and establishes a trust fund for barton's two children in the amount of $150,000. barton and leanne are married in 1995. after barton's atlanta rampage, investigators say they learned from leanne's sister that the money was a source of problems early on in the relationship. >> and he told leanne that she would never benefit from the death of his wife. >> mark barton had another plan for this money. he would use it to fuel his new obsession -- day trading. by the time of his workplace massacre and subsequent suicide, mark barton had already exhibited many of the hallmarks of the workplace killer. but even though the warning signs seem obvious now, in the cases of barton and others, some

experts think they do so mostly in hindsight. >> there are thousands of people in the workplaces of america who don't smile, who are always angry and other people just don't want to deal with them. yet they don't go on murderous rampages, much less kill anyone. it's impossible to identify theser. treated perpetrators in advance in any reliable way. the best thing we can do is make sure we reach out to all the people in the work site to make sure the work site itself does not force them over that edge. >> there's no question that mass murders are preventable. we know underlying problems are treatable since depression is such an important part of mass murder. and since depression can be treated successfully in six weeks, 85% of the time, we know that the proper therapeutic interventions can succeed.

>> but could mark barton have been stopped or helped? no one will ever know. in his own words, he felt beyond hope. there is no excuse, no good reason, he wrote. i am sure no one will understand. >> for the 13 people who survived the murderous rampage, life will never be the same. some were left with extensive injuries. after the companies closed their atlanta offices, at least five survives moved away. 13 lawsuits were filed by barton's victims and families of victims saying the companies should have done more to prevent a disgruntled employee from turning violent. in december 2001 a judge ruled the two atlanta investment firms could not have foreseen barton's shooting rampage, clearing them from all liability. that's our report. thanks for watching. i'm