MARK BARTON; 6'4, 220 POUNDS OF CRIME AND BRAIN CHEMISTRY

                     MARK BARTON: 6'4, 220 POUNDS OF CRIME

                                AND BRAIN CHEMISTRY

_____________________________________________

BACKGROUND

          Mark Barton was born on April 2, 1955, as the only child to Truman

 and Gladys Barton, the former of whom worked for the U.S. Air 

Force. His parents were stationed in Germany at the time due to 

Truman's job. He lived in Europe for most of his childhood, until 

the family moved to Sumter, South Carolina. Intelligent but distant

 emotionally, Barton was a loner at school, being left out by the 

other children.

          As a teenager, Barton began abusing hallucinogenic drugs 

and resultantly had several visits to the local hospitals due to 

accidental overdoses. Attending Clemson University and later the 

University of South Carolina, Barton committed a robbery in order

 to pay for his drug abuse; he was caught, charged for the crime, 

and had to undergo drug and psychiatric therapy. Graduating the 

University of South Carolina in 1979, Barton moved to Atlanta, 

Georgia, where he met Debra Spivey, whom he later married. The 

couple moved to Arkansas after Barton became the president of a 

manufacturing company; there, they had two children together,

 named Matthew and Mychelle.

__________________________________________________

BARTON OFFICES

         The office area where Barton worked and later committed the

 majority of his rampage.

         It was at this point that Barton became paranoid and 

controlling over Debra and their marriage began to experience a 

downturn as a result. His paranoia also affected his life at the 

workplace, and he was fired from his position in 1990, leading to a 

furious outburst that culminated in Barton sabotaging the 

company's data files. Moving with his family back into Georgia

 after completing his time in jail for the data file sabotage, Barton

 started an affair with Leigh Ann Lang, an affair that Debra knew

 but didn't bother to voice her opinion about.

         In 1993, Debra and her mother were bludgeoned to death in 

a camping trailer and Barton was considered a prime suspect in 

the double homicide, but the charges against him were dropped. 

Now a widower, Barton married Leigh Ann in 1995, but the newest 

marriage was a rocky one, as Barton's mental health began 

deteriorating. Things became worse when Barton spent his ex-

wife's insurance money terribly, losing hundreds of thousands of

 dollars of personal income while day trading at his current 

workplaces, Momentum Securities and the All-Tech Investment 

Group. Workers at both offices had come to nickname Barton as 

"The Rocket" due to his explosive nature.

________________________________________________

KILLING SPREE

           "I am so sorry, I wish I didn't. Words cannot tell the agony

. Why did I? I have  been dying since October. I wake up at night so 

afraid, so terrified that I couldn't be that afraid while awake."

                  -Excerpt from Barton's letter left for authorities

            On the night of July 27, 1999, Barton snapped and 

bludgeoned Leigh Ann to death in her sleep. When morning 

dawned, he also murdered Matthew and Mychelle, covered them 

with their blankets, and left notes on their bodies for the police. On

 July 29, Barton went to the Momentum Securities office in nearby

 Buckhead, having an appointment there to leave $50,000 in cash.

 While waiting for the manager, he calmly chatted up several other

 day traders, all of whom weren't aware he was armed. When the 

manager still wouldn't return, Barton took out two pistols at 

around 2:45 p.m. and began a shooting rampage, effectively killing

 four and wounding several others.

           After five minutes of shooting, he then left the office and 

crossed the street towards the All-Tech Investment Group office,

 with everyone inside not being aware of the massacre that had 

just happened several feet away from them. Entering the office, 

Barton coaxed managers Scott Manspeaker and Breet Doonan into 

their quarters along with secretary Kathy Van Camp and began 

shooting again, hitting all three before targeting clients.

           When Barton fled again, five more were killed and several

more were  injured, three of them critically. Immediately after the 

killing spree, authorities began searching throughout the Atlanta area for

 Barton, and when police arrived at the Barton residence, they found the

 corpses of his family and the letters left for them. These discoveries 

shocked the community, which was already reeling from the two office 

massacres.

            Five hours after the rampage, Barton was spotted in 

Kennesaw, having threatened a girl at a shopping mall, who fled 

from him and reported what happened. Fleeing in his van, Barton 

was spotted by a pedestrian who reported the van, which was 

eventually followed by numerous police cars. Not aware that he

 was being followed, Barton stopped at a gas station in Acworth,

where officers surrounded him. With no way out, he turned one of

 his guns on himself and committed suicide, ending his rampage.

 Barton's murder spree has been classified as one of the deadliest

 rampages in Atlanta's history. Barton was forty-four years old 

when he died.

____________________________________________________

KNOWN VICTIMS AND TIMELINE

1. Debra Spivey (his first wife)

2. Eloise Spivey (his first mother-in-law)

    1999, Georgia:

July 27-28, Stockbridge: His family:

3. Leigh Ann Barton, 27 (his second wife; bludgeoned with a       hammer as she slept)

4.Matthew David Barton, 11 (his son)

5.Mychelle Elizabeth Barton, 8 (his daughter; also possibly sexually abused prior to the killings, but the charges were dropped)

July 29, Buckhead:

6-10. Four killed and two injured in the Momentum Securities office massacre. 

11. Edward Quinn, 58

12. Kevin Dial, 38 (office manager)

13. Russell J. Brown, 42

14. Scott Allyn Webb, 30

15. Brad Schoemehl, 24 (injured; shot three times at point-blank range)

16.Andrew Zaprzala (injured; shot in the side, bullet shattered his ribcage and was lodged inside his body)

Five killed and ten injured in the All-Tech Investment Group office massacre. They are:

17. Allen Charles Tenenbaum, 48

18. Dean Delawalla, 52

19. Joseph J. Dessert, 60

20. Jamshid Havash, 45

21. Vadewattee Muralidhara, 44 (student at the office)

22, Brent Doonan, 25 (injured; shot five times with a .45 pistol)

23. Scott Manspeaker, 27 (injured; shot in abdomen and arm)

24. Kathy Van Camp (injured; shot in the face at point-blank range)

25. Fred "Volkhard" Herder, 54 (injured; shot in back)

26. Harry Edward Higginbotham (injured)

27. Yusef Liberzon, 39 (injured; shot in head, was left physically disabled)

28. Charlie N. Williams (injured)

29. Meredith Jody Winitt, 22 (injured; shot in the spine, intestines, and pancreas, was nearly killed by the gunshot)

30. Sang Yoon, 34 (injured; shot in arm)

31. Unnamed 38-year-old woman (injured)

Nell Jones (attempted; shot at)

Injured one unnamed person at either office massacre.