Austin, TX Man Sets Fire To Home, Flies Plane Into IRS Building

[rchurchward]

(CNN) -- An Austin, Texas, resident with an apparent grudge against the Internal Revenue Service set his house on fire Thursday and then crashed a small plane into a building housing an IRS office with nearly 200 employees, officials said.

Federal authorities identified the pilot of the Piper Cherokee PA-28 as Joseph Andrew Stack, 53.

Two people were injured and one person was missing, local officials said. There were no reported deaths.

A message on a Web site registered to Stack appears to be a suicide note.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/tex...ex.html?hpt=T1

You can read the "suicide note" at the CNN link above. I got about 3 pages through it (it's 6 pages long) and stopped reading. Sure sounds like he's got some bitter resentment against the US government. But really? Set fire to your house and fly a small plane into an IRS building? That's a bit drastic don't ya think?

Not sure what kind of message he was trying to send but if he was trying to get some sort of "revenge", file this one under epic fail. Only casualty (reported) was himself.

[windmortal]

Truly tragic. What could lead to something like this?

[rchurchward]

Truly tragic. What could lead to something like this?

Did you read the suicide note? If not: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/im...ack.letter.pdf

He's got all sorts of reasons, going all the way back to the beginning of his life. He was pretty much just fed up with everything, thought the government was corrupted, etc.

[garnett_21]

Horrible...just plain horrible...glad no innocent lives were taken...well, not reported yet at least.

[RenegadeLonghorn]

This is less than 10 minutes from my house. I drove by it today on my way to the post office and saw the smoke from the building.

[pghin08]

That's crazy, one of the more intricate suicide notes I think I've seen. Hope everyone is okay in that building.

[OnePimpTiger]

I wouldn't call it a tragedy...more psychotic.

Notice the "Communist creed" at the bottom of his note? If he wanted to leave California to try something new and prefers communism to capitalism, why didn't he move to Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, or North Korea instead of another town in the US?

[rchurchward]

I wouldn't call it a tragedy...more psychotic.

Notice the "Communist creed" at the bottom of his note? If he wanted to leave California to try something new and prefers communism to capitalism, why didn't he move to Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, or North Korea instead of another town in the US?

Exactly. And to add on to that, not only did he leave California to try something "new", he moved to one of the most (if not THE most) republic(an) states in the Union. Did he think he was going to be escaping it all?

And yes, not quite a tragedy, yet. As soon as one innocent life is reported being taken, then it becomes a tragedy.

[OnePimpTiger]

Exactly. And to add on to that, not only did he leave California to try something "new", he moved to one of the most (if not THE most) republic(an) states in the Union. Did he think he was going to be escaping it all?

Well it was something "new"...but from reading his note, it seems like it was new in the opposite direction of what he was looking for. Based on his apparent beliefs, I'd say Cali is the state closest to what he was looking for.

And yes, not quite a tragedy, yet. As soon as one innocent life is reported being taken, then it becomes a tragedy.

Very true. If some crazy wants to kill himself, have it haus, I won't feel bad for ya...but if he takes an innocent person with him, I have a HUGE problem with that.

[rchurchward]

Very true. If some crazy wants to kill himself, have it haus, I won't feel bad for ya...but if he takes an innocent person with him, I have a HUGE problem with that.

Exactly my thought. As awful as it might sound, he can take himself for all I care. But once he takes out an innocent person, like you said, there's a big problem there.