Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / Mark Barton - The Killer Day Trader

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Mark Barton - The Killer Day Trader · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In July of nineteen ninety nine, over the course of
0:10
Speaker 1: three days, one man brutally killed his entire family, and
0:14
Speaker 1: then he walked into his workplace an open fire on
0:18
Speaker 1: those who worked with him, leaving even more people dead
0:22
Speaker 1: before turning tail and running. What first looked like a
0:26
Speaker 1: financial meltdown spiraled into something far more calculated, a sequence
0:31
Speaker 1: of killings that began in silence at home, and as
0:34
Speaker 1: investigators pulled back the layers the uncovered notes trying to
0:38
Speaker 1: explain the madness, massive financial losses, and even eerie ties
0:43
Speaker 1: that connected the killer to another double homicide. This is
0:49
Speaker 1: the story of Mark Barton, the Killer day Trader.
0:55
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
0:59
Speaker 2: and Grim, a true crime podcasting.
1:03
Speaker 3: The following.
1:06
Speaker 2: Material more mai audience listener discretion.
1:32
Speaker 1: You excited for the merch launch, I am. If you
1:35
Speaker 1: guys don't know, we launched some pretty cool merch check
1:38
Speaker 1: it out, just saying.
1:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, what we have it? We posted on Instagram.
1:42
Speaker 1: We did, we did?
1:43
Speaker 3: We find it that way.
1:44
Speaker 1: We have three new designs. We brought some stuff out
1:47
Speaker 1: of the vault, and one of the new designs is
1:48
Speaker 1: actually only going to be available for one week and
1:51
Speaker 1: then it's retired forever, so if you want it, you
1:55
Speaker 1: only have a week just saying.
1:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's the coveted jack Osher, which people think
2:00
Speaker 2: is pretty awesome. We get a lot of requests actually
2:02
Speaker 2: for jack O merch we do.
2:03
Speaker 1: I mean, Jacko was pretty cool to start with, so
2:05
Speaker 1: I can't blame them. Yeah, so yeah, but also, uh,
2:09
Speaker 1: with this, it's coinciding with our five year anniversary of
2:12
Speaker 1: this podcast, and we had a five year celebration the
2:14
Speaker 1: other day with some like close friends and stuff. It
2:17
Speaker 1: was fantastic.
2:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it went really well. It's crazy how you just
2:21
Speaker 2: like plan events though, and then they're finally there and
2:25
Speaker 2: then they're just gone, Like I don't know. I mean,
2:27
Speaker 2: obviously that's just everything, but time is there's so much
2:31
Speaker 2: like anticipation and excitement and then I don't know. I
2:34
Speaker 2: tried really hard to be like as president as I
2:36
Speaker 2: could in that moment. I did a mental milcause I'm like,
2:39
Speaker 2: you want to want to remember this.
2:41
Speaker 1: It was good. I make sure I remember too. Yeah,
2:43
Speaker 1: my heart was definitely filled after that.
2:46
Speaker 2: It was it was it was awesome, yeah, and good
2:49
Speaker 2: good for us, Like people don't celebrate things enough so
2:52
Speaker 2: I'm glad we did it.
2:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys should make sure you celebrate the small
2:55
Speaker 1: things in your life, whether it's small, big, or whatever.
2:56
Speaker 1: Just celebrate yourself. You deserve it. Yes, and one you
3:00
Speaker 1: can actually do to help celebrate us if you want,
3:02
Speaker 1: I mean, no pressure, but you can join over on Patreon.
3:04
Speaker 1: We're in fact even doing a giveaway for that JACKO
3:08
Speaker 1: shirt plus some ones that have actually been retired. You'll
3:11
Speaker 1: never be able to purchase those shirts again, but we're
3:12
Speaker 1: given away over on Patreon, and some people can sign up,
3:16
Speaker 1: just like Eric Brett, Howard did Marritt Egan, Jen Herschel,
3:21
Speaker 1: and as well as a Dutch listener who just said
3:23
Speaker 1: there are some wicked true crime stories, which I'm assuming
3:26
Speaker 1: they're meaning like over like where they live, right, So
3:29
Speaker 1: I think we might have to look into doing another
3:31
Speaker 1: Dutch story here soon. Sure, I'm in so but thank
3:34
Speaker 1: you guys so much for signing up. If you guys
3:36
Speaker 1: are interested, the link is in the description of this podcast.
3:39
Speaker 1: But I think we should get right into the story. Okay,
3:42
Speaker 1: let's do it now. Most weekday mornings don't feel historic
3:46
Speaker 1: in any sense. In fact, they tend to feel rather
3:49
Speaker 1: small and not much different than the one that came
3:51
Speaker 1: before it. You know what, may start with an alarm
3:54
Speaker 1: that goes off, You hit snooze, maybe once or even twice.
3:57
Speaker 1: Then the shower runs, coffee bruise, and the day begins
4:00
Speaker 1: with no urgency, but it begins instead with more of habit.
4:04
Speaker 1: You might drive the same route that you always drive.
4:06
Speaker 1: You park in roughly the same spot you've parked in
4:09
Speaker 1: for who knows how long. You walk through the doors
4:11
Speaker 1: you walk through hundreds or even thousands of times before that.
4:15
Speaker 1: In fact, if someone asks you to describe the building
4:18
Speaker 1: in detail, you probably easily could with your eyes closed,
4:21
Speaker 1: just picturing it perfectly. Not because you've paid attention to
4:24
Speaker 1: say all these things, but because the little things have
4:28
Speaker 1: ingrained themselves in your mind over time. There might be
4:32
Speaker 1: a bulletin board that you pass by with a poster
4:34
Speaker 1: on it that's been there way too long. The stairs
4:37
Speaker 1: you climb might have one step at the bottom that
4:41
Speaker 1: one step just doesn't quite align with the rest, But
4:43
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, because inside that building it's just work.
4:47
Speaker 1: It's an office with fluorescent lights maybe that hum softly overhead,
4:51
Speaker 1: and computers blink awake, and someone down the hall might
4:54
Speaker 1: laugh at something you can't quite hear. The breakroom even
4:58
Speaker 1: still smells faintly of reheated leftovers from yesterday and stale
5:02
Speaker 1: coffee grounds. The printer whirls awake and phones start to ring.
5:07
Speaker 1: You greet the same people you did yesterday, the same
5:10
Speaker 1: way you always have. You know, morning, how is your night?
5:13
Speaker 1: Or happy insert day of the week. Here, you sit
5:17
Speaker 1: at your desk, You log in and scroll through some emails.
5:21
Speaker 1: Places like this have their own rhythm. You learn it
5:24
Speaker 1: without realizing your learning it. It gets to a point
5:27
Speaker 1: that even disagreements feel predictable. Someone might get frustrated, someone
5:32
Speaker 1: might vent, someone shuts their door a little harder than usual.
5:36
Speaker 1: But by the end of the day people gather their
5:38
Speaker 1: things and go home. Whatever irritated them feels like it
5:42
Speaker 1: gets folded neatly into tomorrow. And that's the unspoken rule.
5:47
Speaker 1: No matter how stressful the job gets, no matter heavy
5:51
Speaker 1: or how heavy the workload becomes, no matter how sharp
5:54
Speaker 1: the words exchanged in the conference rooms were there's a
5:58
Speaker 1: line that doesn't get cross. Work is contained. Sure, you
6:02
Speaker 1: might decompress outside of it. You know, you leave and
6:06
Speaker 1: you maybe vent or talk to things about spouse or
6:09
Speaker 1: even messages with some work friends. But to say the least,
6:12
Speaker 1: most of it stays there at work, and you assume
6:15
Speaker 1: that people around you, no matter how quiet, no matter
6:18
Speaker 1: how intense, are operating within these same boundaries that you are.
6:23
Speaker 1: You don't scan the room for threats, you don't calculate exits,
6:28
Speaker 1: you don't measure the distance between yourself and the door.
6:31
Speaker 1: Why would you You know these people. You've shared coffee
6:34
Speaker 1: with them, You've complained about management with them, you sat
6:38
Speaker 1: beside them during long afternoons when time seems to slow down.
6:42
Speaker 1: They're a part of the background in your life. Not strangers,
6:45
Speaker 1: not dangerous, just coworkers. There are moments, though, where a
6:51
Speaker 1: line can get crossed, long before anyone realizes it has been.
6:56
Speaker 1: On one ordinary afternoon, in a building that looked like
6:59
Speaker 1: every other building, no one knew they were standing at
7:02
Speaker 1: the edge of disaster. And then when the door opened
7:06
Speaker 1: in walked Mark Barton now Mark Orin Barton, was born
7:12
Speaker 1: on April second, nineteen fifty five, in Germany. His father,
7:15
Speaker 1: Truman Barton, was serving in the US Air Force at
7:19
Speaker 1: the time, and the family spent part of Mark's early
7:21
Speaker 1: childhood overseas before eventually settling into Sumter, South Carolina. He
7:27
Speaker 1: was an only child raised in a structured military household,
7:31
Speaker 1: and from an early age he stood out as being
7:33
Speaker 1: rather intelligent, particularly very strong at math and science, but
7:37
Speaker 1: also he was rather emotionally distant. Classmates would later describe
7:42
Speaker 1: him as quiet and socially isolated. He wasn't known to
7:46
Speaker 1: be disruptive or aggressive in school. Instead, he kept to himself.
7:49
Speaker 1: He excelled academically, especially in subjects like chemistry, but he
7:54
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly social to say the least. He didn't build
7:58
Speaker 1: any strong friendships, and he was often disc decribed as
8:00
Speaker 1: just being withdrawn. By his mid teens, Mark began experimenting
8:05
Speaker 1: with drugs, particularly with hallucinogens, and what may have started
8:10
Speaker 1: as experimentation, it quickly escalated into heavier use. According to
8:16
Speaker 1: later accounts, He was even hospitalized multiple times after overdoses.
8:22
Speaker 1: Now those close to him suggested that the drugs that
8:24
Speaker 1: he used may have been an escape from feelings or alienation.
8:29
Speaker 1: Whether that was the case or not, though it marked
8:32
Speaker 1: the first documented period where life began to drift off
8:35
Speaker 1: course for him. Now after high school, Mark attended Clemson
8:40
Speaker 1: University before transferring to the University of South Carolina. During
8:44
Speaker 1: this time, he continued down a negative path and was
8:47
Speaker 1: even charged with burglary and was placed on probation. Around
8:52
Speaker 1: the same period, Mark sought psychiatric treatment following what sources
8:56
Speaker 1: described as a mental breakdown, went therapy and drug treatment,
9:02
Speaker 1: and though there are references that discuss ongoing mental health struggles,
9:06
Speaker 1: there was no formal long term diagnoses that was publicly confirmed.
9:10
Speaker 1: What is clear, though, is that he had periods of
9:12
Speaker 1: instability alternating with stretches that where he appeared to be
9:16
Speaker 1: focused in high functioning, a sort of flip flop back
9:19
Speaker 1: and forth. Despite all this, though, Mark still completed his degree,
9:25
Speaker 1: and it was nineteen seventy nine when he graduated from
9:28
Speaker 1: the University of South Carolina with a bachelor's degree in chemistry.
9:33
Speaker 1: At this point in his life, there was no public
9:34
Speaker 1: sign of violence that would later define his name. He
9:38
Speaker 1: was a trained chemist from a military family, very academically capable.
9:43
Speaker 1: He was socially reserved, sure, but there was also that
9:46
Speaker 1: pass that was marked by drug use and some illegal trouble,
9:49
Speaker 1: But there was nothing violent. That's the main takeaway now.
9:52
Speaker 1: After graduating, he found work in chemistry related fields and
9:56
Speaker 1: eventually relocated to Atlanta, where he met Deborah Spivy. The
10:01
Speaker 1: two even married the same year after he graduated, beginning
10:05
Speaker 1: what appeared to be a very conventional young marriage built
10:08
Speaker 1: around work and family plans. From there, in Mark's career,
10:13
Speaker 1: he worked a series of technical and sales jobs involving
10:16
Speaker 1: chemical products and industrial compounds. Eventually the couple moved to Texarkana, Texas,
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Speaker 1: where Mark helped start a manufacturing company called TLC Manufacturing.
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Speaker 1: By the late nineteen eighties, he had risen to president
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Speaker 1: of the company and was earning a very strong income
10:36
Speaker 1: of around eighty six thousand dollars a year according to
10:39
Speaker 1: later records. And remember this is even in the eighties.
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Speaker 2: H Yeah, so that's a good chunk of change, definitely.
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Speaker 1: Now. During this period, the couple had two children, a
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Speaker 1: son named Matthew who was born in nineteen eighty eight,
10:51
Speaker 1: and later a daughter named Michelle. Now. Accounts from later
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Speaker 1: investigations described Mark as increasingly controlled and prone to mood swings,
11:01
Speaker 1: and soon the marriage began to deteriorate as tensions grew
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Speaker 1: inside the home. At work, things also began to unravel too.
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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety, Mark's relationship with TLC Manufacturing ended and
11:15
Speaker 1: he later described it as an official firing meant to
11:18
Speaker 1: protect the company's image. But what happened next drew some
11:21
Speaker 1: serious attention. See, shortly after his departure, someone broke into
11:27
Speaker 1: the office. They stole proprietary formulas and erased computer files. Now,
11:33
Speaker 1: as a result, police arrested Mark on burglary related charges. Now,
11:39
Speaker 1: a detective involved at the time thought the break in
11:42
Speaker 1: might actually have been less about theft and more about
11:45
Speaker 1: hiding internal problems, possibly inventory discrepancies or other irregularities.
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Speaker 2: Okay, sorry, Mark was fired, correct, Okay, and then there
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Speaker 2: was a break and it was assumed that he was
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Speaker 2: the one.
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Speaker 1: Mark is arrested on burglary related charges regarding this incident, Yes, okay,
12:05
Speaker 1: But I did say someone broke into the company, and
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Speaker 1: I mean someone very specifically, because we don't actually know
12:13
Speaker 1: for sure, Okay for sure, and I'll tell you exactly
12:16
Speaker 1: why here. So that very same day, a company board
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Speaker 1: member contacted police to say that an agreement had been
12:21
Speaker 1: reached with Mark and the charges were dropped. So there
12:26
Speaker 1: was no conviction or anything. There was no confirmation that
12:29
Speaker 1: technically it was Mark, but it was Mark, Okay, if
12:34
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, right, let go.
12:36
Speaker 2: You say it, but it was Mark.
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Speaker 1: It was him, but they reached a personal agreement where
12:40
Speaker 1: law enforcement was not involved, so there is no documentation
12:43
Speaker 1: that he did it.
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Speaker 2: Okay, I see, I just wanted to clarify there. But
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Speaker 2: I see why you kind of why I was confused,
12:50
Speaker 2: because you were sort of hiding it for a second, for.
12:53
Speaker 1: A hot second.
12:54
Speaker 3: Yes.
12:54
Speaker 1: Now, following this fallout, Mark moved his family back to
12:57
Speaker 1: Georgia and he attempted to start another small business, but
13:00
Speaker 1: it didn't appear to gain any sort of traction. Eventually,
13:03
Speaker 1: he returned to sales work, taking a job with a
13:05
Speaker 1: chemical company. But at the company he met a young
13:08
Speaker 1: receptionist named Leah Ann Lang. Now, she was married at
13:13
Speaker 1: the time, and I mean so was Mark, but he
13:16
Speaker 1: later admitted they began an affair in nineteen ninety three.
13:19
Speaker 1: According to his own statements, he changed his appearance during
13:23
Speaker 1: this period, buying new clothes using tanning beds, and he
13:27
Speaker 1: began spending more time away from home. Now his wife,
13:30
Speaker 1: Deborah also grew suspicious of this, and there were incidents
13:34
Speaker 1: of frequent jealousy and arguments where she questioned him about
13:37
Speaker 1: signs that she saw that he might be seeing someone else.
13:41
Speaker 1: It was around this time that Mark took out a
13:43
Speaker 1: life insurance policy on his wife Deborah, which was valued
13:46
Speaker 1: at roughly six hundred thousand dollars.
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Speaker 2: In the nineties.
13:51
Speaker 1: Correct. Yeah, so an idea. The idea of this, he claimed,
13:56
Speaker 1: came from her, and it was meant as a financial
13:59
Speaker 1: protection or the family in case of anything happening. The
14:02
Speaker 1: exact reason why we all take out any sort of
14:04
Speaker 1: insurance policy, right, Yeah.
14:06
Speaker 2: Affection life insurance is a good thing to have.
14:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, But he claimed that idea came from Deborah herself. Then,
14:12
Speaker 1: in the late summer of nineteen ninety three, over Labor
14:14
Speaker 1: Day weekend, Mark's wife, Deborah Barton, traveled with her mother,
14:18
Speaker 1: Eloise Spivy, to a lakeside trailer near Lake Weice in Alabama,
14:23
Speaker 1: and according to Mark, he stayed behind in Georgia with
14:26
Speaker 1: the kids. But at some point during that visit something
14:31
Speaker 1: went terribly wrong. Now, soon after Deborah Barton and her
14:35
Speaker 1: mother Eloise went camping to that lake, they were soon
14:38
Speaker 1: found dead inside the trailer. During this trip, both of
14:42
Speaker 1: them had been attacked with what investigators described as a
14:46
Speaker 1: sharp or blunt heavy instrument, something that was like struck
14:50
Speaker 1: the injuries were severe, and the scene didn't look like
14:53
Speaker 1: a break in of any sorts. Cash had had been
14:55
Speaker 1: left behind, alongside other valuables, which made the robbery look
14:59
Speaker 1: very unlikely of being exactly that a robbery.
15:03
Speaker 2: And they're camping right, exactly Gosh, that is not something
15:07
Speaker 2: you hear often when people are camping now.
15:09
Speaker 1: One investigator later described the scene as driven by anger
15:13
Speaker 1: rather than theft, and almost immediately attention turned towards Mark,
15:18
Speaker 1: and several factors raised suspicion, the fact that he had
15:21
Speaker 1: recently taken out that large life insurance policy on Deborah
15:24
Speaker 1: only weeks before the killing, in fact just yes, also
15:28
Speaker 1: with the fact that he was involved in an affair
15:31
Speaker 1: with Leanne Lang, a relationship that friend said was becoming
15:34
Speaker 1: rather serious, and investigators began to wonder if Deborah's death
15:39
Speaker 1: might clear the way for his new life. Police questioned
15:43
Speaker 1: Mark extensively, and according to later accounts, he appeared very
15:47
Speaker 1: calm during interviews, sometimes almost even challenging against the investigators.
15:53
Speaker 1: He insisted that he'd been in Atlanta during the murders
15:55
Speaker 1: and denied any sort of involvement now, unfortunately without witnesses
15:59
Speaker 1: placing him at the campground authorities were forced to rely
16:02
Speaker 1: on forensic evidence alone. Now, at one point they managed
16:07
Speaker 1: to search Mark's car and investigators used luminol, a chemical
16:11
Speaker 1: that reacts with blood, of course makes it glow right,
16:15
Speaker 1: and they received positive reactions on parts of the vehicle,
16:19
Speaker 1: including the seat belt and ignition area. Now, Mark claimed
16:23
Speaker 1: he had no explanation at first, and later suggested maybe
16:26
Speaker 1: the blood might have come from a cut on his
16:28
Speaker 1: finger months earlier. And he also refused to provide a
16:31
Speaker 1: blood sample or DNA sample of any sort to try
16:34
Speaker 1: and do a comparison. He also just declined to take
16:38
Speaker 1: a polygraph test too, So why would he give out anything?
16:41
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, but that would be spots that after you
16:45
Speaker 2: committed something like you're reaching for your seatbelt, you're starting
16:49
Speaker 2: your vehicle.
16:49
Speaker 1: Exactly, so you have blood in your hand. But I mean,
16:52
Speaker 1: he's right though, technically speaking, Devil's advocate here, you have
16:55
Speaker 1: a cut in your finger, blood will get in.
16:57
Speaker 2: The same spot, I guess. But also I could see
17:00
Speaker 2: those those places being missed when cleaning up.
17:04
Speaker 1: Right Now, I don't exactly understand fully how this search
17:11
Speaker 1: of his vehicle must have worked, because, like I'm assuming
17:14
Speaker 1: they don't have a warrant to seize his vehicle because
17:17
Speaker 1: first of all, they didn't have a warrant to clearly
17:19
Speaker 1: get his DNA. He declined, and after this, additional testing
17:25
Speaker 1: could not be completed because Mark apparently was still driving
17:29
Speaker 1: it and he said he spilt soft drink in the car,
17:33
Speaker 1: which destroyed any potential traces of what was what was there?
17:40
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, that seems too convenient.
17:42
Speaker 1: Rather convenient. Yes, So I don't understand exactly the situation
17:47
Speaker 1: on how they were able to look at the car
17:49
Speaker 1: in the first place. I guess he just gave them
17:50
Speaker 1: permission and what they found was not strong enough to
17:54
Speaker 1: get a warrant, and he was still driving it and
17:56
Speaker 1: just destroyed what they had found.
17:58
Speaker 2: He was confident in his cleanup job with the vehicle,
18:02
Speaker 2: so he gave them.
18:03
Speaker 1: That, I guess. So now, despite strong enough suspicion, the
18:07
Speaker 1: case stalled. There were no fingerprints tying him to the scene,
18:10
Speaker 1: no murder weapon, and no definitive forensic link. There was
18:13
Speaker 1: just nothing. Investigators didn't have enough to arrest him or
18:17
Speaker 1: even to charge him, and thus the murder of Deborah
18:19
Speaker 1: Barton and her mother remained unsolved, and funny enough, within
18:24
Speaker 1: a week of Deborah's death, Leanne was reportedly spending nights
18:29
Speaker 1: at Mark's home.
18:30
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I freaking hate that. And I'm just
18:33
Speaker 2: so pissed because that is like the mother of your kids. Yep,
18:37
Speaker 2: that I don't know. That is just never okay. Well
18:41
Speaker 2: to take that from your children.
18:43
Speaker 1: Not only that, but within months her divorce was finalized
18:47
Speaker 1: and their relationship was now out in the open.
18:50
Speaker 2: I can't imagine the kids wanted much to do with
18:53
Speaker 2: him after all misshit.
18:55
Speaker 1: And then to take it one step further in nineteen
18:58
Speaker 1: ninety five, the two of them were then married. Cool
19:02
Speaker 1: Now Mark did have his two kids, and essentially he
19:05
Speaker 1: had a new family and they were settling into life
19:08
Speaker 1: in Georgia. Mark continued to work as a chemical salesperson
19:12
Speaker 1: and presented himself as a smart, successful professional. Neighbors said
19:16
Speaker 1: he was friendly, playful with the kids, and sometimes even goofy,
19:20
Speaker 1: someone who enjoyed playing video games with his son and
19:22
Speaker 1: joking around that sort of thing. He simply seemed like
19:26
Speaker 1: a devoted father trying to move on after tragedy. In
19:28
Speaker 1: their eyes, however, the darkness still lingered in him. Friends
19:33
Speaker 1: and neighbors also described some mood swings and controlling behavior leanne.
19:39
Speaker 1: In fact, according to people who knew her, sometimes Eve
19:42
Speaker 1: said that she even appeared uneasy around him. Some said
19:45
Speaker 1: she seemed quieter when he was nearby, as if she
19:49
Speaker 1: was very careful about what she said. Then, there were
19:53
Speaker 1: also troubling incidents involving the kids. In the mid nineteen nineties, Michelle,
19:58
Speaker 1: who was still very young his daughter, reportedly told a
20:01
Speaker 1: daycare worker that her father had touched her inappropriately. Now
20:06
Speaker 1: the allegation triggered evaluations and legal review, and a psychologist
20:10
Speaker 1: involved in the custody process reportedly stated that Mark was
20:13
Speaker 1: quote certainly capable of homicide.
20:18
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I just despise this guy.
20:23
Speaker 1: Still because of how young she was and not understanding
20:27
Speaker 1: perhaps what she was saying or what she was communicating.
20:32
Speaker 1: There was no physical evidence, no charges were filed, and
20:36
Speaker 1: Mark remained full custody.
20:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, got away with something else again, yep.
20:42
Speaker 1: And life just continued forward.
20:44
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is so awkward and comfortable. What
20:47
Speaker 2: a piece of shit.
20:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a douche canoe now. Meanwhile, the unresolved Alabama
20:52
Speaker 1: case never fully disappeared. Law enforcement had never charged him,
20:57
Speaker 1: but the suspicion was still there. The insurance pay from
21:00
Speaker 1: Debor's death eventually resulted in a large settlement, giving Mark
21:03
Speaker 1: access to significant funds, and part of that money was
21:07
Speaker 1: placed in a trust for his children. But the payout
21:09
Speaker 1: also gave him a lot of financial freedom, and eventually,
21:13
Speaker 1: by the late nineteen nineties, Mark's focus well it shifted
21:16
Speaker 1: away from traditional work and towards a rapidly growing new industry,
21:22
Speaker 1: internet day trading. When the stock market was booming, Now,
21:27
Speaker 1: the Internet was changing how people invested in the stocks,
21:30
Speaker 1: and a new culture was growing around something that was
21:34
Speaker 1: called day trading, where people buy and sell stocks rapidly,
21:37
Speaker 1: sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times a day, chasing
21:40
Speaker 1: quick profits and turnarounds. Mark fell hard into this world.
21:46
Speaker 1: He opened accounts at brokerage firms including Momentum Securities and
21:50
Speaker 1: all Tech Investment Group in Atlanta's Buckhead Financial District. Now,
21:55
Speaker 1: these offices, they were built for day traders. There was
21:58
Speaker 1: rows of computer terminals, real time data feeds, and people
22:01
Speaker 1: constantly watching the markets rise and fall. At first, Mark
22:08
Speaker 1: just kind of fit in. He presented himself as an
22:11
Speaker 1: experienced and financially secure and individual, and records showed he
22:15
Speaker 1: claimed a substantial net worth, and coworkers later said he
22:18
Speaker 1: seemed very confident, even enthusiastic about day trading now. Like
22:23
Speaker 1: many day traders at the time, he focused heavily on
22:25
Speaker 1: volatile internet stocks, the kind that could rise and crash
22:29
Speaker 1: within minutes alone, and if you were on top of it,
22:32
Speaker 1: you could make money. But the markets highs while they
22:36
Speaker 1: were matched by equally brutal lows, and as such, by
22:40
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen ninety nine, Mark's losses were mounting fast.
22:45
Speaker 1: According to brokerage officials, he had lost around one hundred
22:48
Speaker 1: and five thousand dollars in roughly seven weeks alone at Momentum,
22:53
Speaker 1: which was only one of the brokerage firms he was at.
22:57
Speaker 1: Some reports even suggested his total losses over the previous
23:00
Speaker 1: year could have reached several hundred thousand dollars as well.
23:04
Speaker 1: The losses triggered something else, pressure from the firms themselves.
23:10
Speaker 1: So day trading often involves what they call margin accounts,
23:14
Speaker 1: especially they're sorry essentially borrowed money used to increase buying power.
23:19
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like borrowing from a bank situation.
23:22
Speaker 1: You have the money, but it's technically not yours. And
23:24
Speaker 1: when stocks fall sharply brokerage. They issue margin calls, basically
23:28
Speaker 1: demanding traders to posit more money to cover than those losses.
23:33
Speaker 1: Now Mark actually began struggling to meet those demands. His
23:38
Speaker 1: account at Momentum was reportedly restricted after he failed to
23:41
Speaker 1: cover a margin call. Then, trying to regain access, Mark
23:46
Speaker 1: wrote a fifty thousand dollars check to the firm, but
23:48
Speaker 1: the check bounced, and then Momentum denied him trading privileges,
23:53
Speaker 1: at least temporarily. For someone already under intense financial and
23:59
Speaker 1: emotional st the restriction was a major blow. People later
24:04
Speaker 1: described Mark as increasingly anxious and angry during this period,
24:08
Speaker 1: and at home arguments with Leanne reportedly became more frequent too,
24:12
Speaker 1: especially over money. Mark still tried to protect the normalcy
24:19
Speaker 1: in his life though how people saw him. He kept
24:23
Speaker 1: buying gifts for his children, spending time with them, acting
24:26
Speaker 1: like a regular suburban father, But those financial losses were
24:30
Speaker 1: just piling up, and tensions at home were growing right
24:33
Speaker 1: along with it. Then, in the early hours of Tuesday,
24:37
Speaker 1: July twenty seventh, while Leanne slept in her Stockbridge apartment,
24:42
Speaker 1: he attacked her with a hammer. The assault was sudden
24:46
Speaker 1: and brutal, as she was struck repeatedly in the face
24:49
Speaker 1: and head and died right there in bed where she laid. Afterward,
24:55
Speaker 1: Mark dragged her out of bed and hid her body
24:58
Speaker 1: in the master bedroom closet, covering her with a blanket
25:02
Speaker 1: and placing boxes and clothes around it to conceal. And
25:05
Speaker 1: then he cleaned up.
25:08
Speaker 2: Oh I okay, I was just like sitting here kind
25:11
Speaker 2: of chilling, and I was not expecting.
25:13
Speaker 1: That it was a fast turn. And right after he
25:16
Speaker 1: killed her and just kind of like hidden cleaned up
25:18
Speaker 1: the crime scene. He then shifted right back into just
25:22
Speaker 1: regular day routine like nothing happened at all.
25:25
Speaker 2: Holy. He is just a fricking monster and a hat
25:28
Speaker 2: he is. These wives of his are just completely disposable
25:32
Speaker 2: basically to him. They are because like, what did she
25:35
Speaker 2: even do? He's the one that has a freaking problem
25:38
Speaker 2: here and is spending all their money exactly like she,
25:42
Speaker 2: And of course she's going to be concerned about this.
25:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the volatile one. He's the one who's flying off,
25:47
Speaker 1: he's one losing the money. It's all coming down to him,
25:50
Speaker 1: and he's placing that blame onto other people.
25:52
Speaker 2: I think she probably really realized that the grass wasn't
25:57
Speaker 2: greener when she left her husband and married him because
26:01
Speaker 2: he's terrible.
26:02
Speaker 1: Well, he definitely is, that's to say the least. She
26:04
Speaker 1: was probably on an ice manicured lawn and left for
26:08
Speaker 1: fucking swamp water and moss.
26:09
Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, well, because well, I mean when they
26:12
Speaker 2: were having them fair, everything was probably hunky dory, right,
26:15
Speaker 2: and then yeah, it really turns quite bad.
26:20
Speaker 1: I just realized my analogy earlier. I called him a
26:23
Speaker 1: douche canoe and he's like, oh yeah, his lawn isn't
26:26
Speaker 1: actually grass, it's just swamp water and moss. So I
26:29
Speaker 1: just picture him in a canoe in a swamp, and
26:31
Speaker 1: it just says, douche along the side, riding his little
26:35
Speaker 1: douche canoe in a swamp.
26:36
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good, good good one there.
26:41
Speaker 1: Good visual. Now. Over the next day, though he did
26:44
Speaker 1: spend time with his children, he ran errands and kept
26:47
Speaker 1: to any sort of normal activity. Reports indicated he even
26:50
Speaker 1: took his son Matthew to scouts, all while Leanne's body
26:55
Speaker 1: remained hidden in that apartment closet. Then, on the night
26:58
Speaker 1: of Wednesday, July twenty eighth, Mark did something else he
27:03
Speaker 1: turned on his kids. He later claimed that he believed
27:07
Speaker 1: he was sparing them from future suffering, but that is
27:10
Speaker 1: just his twisted rationalization of what's in his mind, basically
27:15
Speaker 1: of a monster's mind. In reality, he put them through
27:18
Speaker 1: something unimaginable. He attacked both the children with the very
27:23
Speaker 1: same hammer that he used on his well wife while
27:27
Speaker 1: they were asleep too. Mark then placed their bodies face
27:32
Speaker 1: down in a full bathtub to make sure that they
27:35
Speaker 1: worked out.
27:36
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Ben, what the frick is happening here?
27:40
Speaker 1: And once he knew they were in fact dead, he
27:43
Speaker 1: then took the time to carefully wash and dry his children,
27:47
Speaker 1: to dress them, and then he placed them in their beds,
27:50
Speaker 1: wrapping them in blankets so only their face.
27:52
Speaker 2: Was showing Oh my gosh.
27:55
Speaker 1: Matthew was positioned with his game boy nearby, which he
27:58
Speaker 1: loved to play, and Michelle was left with a teddy
28:00
Speaker 1: Bear nearby. The scene was arranged to look peaceful, almost
28:04
Speaker 1: like they were sleeping, I guess, and Mark also wrote notes.
28:09
Speaker 1: Handwritten messages were placed on each victim. On Matthew's body,
28:13
Speaker 1: he left a note asking that someone take care of
28:16
Speaker 1: his son, and a similar note was left with Michelle,
28:18
Speaker 1: describing her as his sweetheart and asking her to be
28:22
Speaker 1: cared for. Another handwritten note was in place with Leanne
28:26
Speaker 1: to where she laid in the closet still, and he
28:29
Speaker 1: called her his precious love. In the living room, Mark
28:33
Speaker 1: left a longer typed out letter printed from a computer,
28:37
Speaker 1: and by the morning of July twenty ninth, things began
28:41
Speaker 1: quietly inside that Stockbridge apartment. The bodies of Mark's wife
28:46
Speaker 1: and children remained there, right where he had placed them,
28:50
Speaker 1: and Mark began moving through that morning with a sense
28:53
Speaker 1: of purpose. Mark left his apartment and then made several
28:58
Speaker 1: deliberate stops through ti him, one of which was his
29:01
Speaker 1: attorney's office, where he reportedly made some changes to his will.
29:05
Speaker 1: Then he drove towards Atlanta's financial district, carrying two handguns
29:09
Speaker 1: with them a nine millimeter any forty five caliber pistol,
29:14
Speaker 1: along with, of course, plenty of ammunition. People who encountered
29:18
Speaker 1: him that morning described nothing unusual about his appearance. He
29:21
Speaker 1: wore casual clothes and behaved normally. When he arrived at
29:24
Speaker 1: Momentum Securities around early afternoon, he walked in just like
29:28
Speaker 1: any other day trader did. That Thursday, the market itself
29:33
Speaker 1: was down. It was another bad day for traders, but
29:36
Speaker 1: employees they recognized him. They chatted casually with him, and
29:40
Speaker 1: he did so back with other staff members and other
29:43
Speaker 1: traders and smiling, making small talk, all while waiting for management.
29:48
Speaker 1: Some believed he was just there to discuss money or
29:50
Speaker 1: try and resolve his issues with his account. He appeared calm,
29:54
Speaker 1: even friendly, so no one thought anything of it. None
29:59
Speaker 1: of them knew that he had just murdered his family
30:01
Speaker 1: ash and for roughly twenty minutes, Mark waited. The trading
30:06
Speaker 1: floor buzzed with the usual energy of people watching the markets,
30:09
Speaker 1: chasing gains and reacting to losses. Shortly after three pm
30:15
Speaker 1: on July twenty ninth, nineteen ninety nine, the atmosphere inside
30:18
Speaker 1: Momentum Securities was typical. Terminals glowed with live market data.
30:24
Speaker 1: Traders watched those screens, but Mark had been inside for
30:28
Speaker 1: about twenty minutes, and he was apparently waiting, but there
30:31
Speaker 1: was no raised voices or visible rage with him. But
30:35
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, without any clear sign, he just
30:39
Speaker 1: reached for his weapons. Witnesses later said Mark pulled out
30:43
Speaker 1: both guns, one in each hand, and he reportedly smiled.
30:49
Speaker 1: According to multiple accounts he made a chilling remark before firing,
30:52
Speaker 1: and now variations of the quote have been reported, but
30:55
Speaker 1: the message was the same. He essentially said the trading
30:59
Speaker 1: day was bad and it was about to get worse,
31:03
Speaker 1: and then he opened fire on the room. The first
31:07
Speaker 1: shots were close ranged and victims were struck almost immediately.
31:11
Speaker 1: The confined office space amplified that sounds of the gun
31:15
Speaker 1: turning the trading room floor into chaos within seconds. People
31:18
Speaker 1: dove under desks, others ran towards exits, and some were
31:22
Speaker 1: hit while trying to escape. But Mark he didn't flinch.
31:27
Speaker 1: He simply moved through the space, pulling the trigger repeatedly
31:31
Speaker 1: on both weapons. Four people were ultimately killed at momentum.
31:37
Speaker 1: Others were wounded, some critically, and survivors later described blood
31:41
Speaker 1: being on desks, on walls, and all over computer screens,
31:44
Speaker 1: and the scene unfolded quickly but felt endless to those inside.
31:49
Speaker 1: Panics spread beyond that immediate office, as employees in nearby
31:52
Speaker 1: suites heard the shots too, emergencies. They had calls flooding
31:56
Speaker 1: in through nine on one dispatchers, and within minutes police
32:00
Speaker 1: were racing towards the Pimont Center, where the shooting was unfolding,
32:03
Speaker 1: but Mark didn't stay there. Before officers could fully lock
32:08
Speaker 1: down the building he had left. Some reports suggested he
32:13
Speaker 1: exited calmly, blending in with the fleeing employees. Others recall
32:16
Speaker 1: seeing a man moving quickly away from the scene, but
32:19
Speaker 1: either way, just across the street, just steps away, stood
32:24
Speaker 1: another brokerage, where Mark also traded all Tech investment group.
32:28
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, and he was headed straight for it.
32:32
Speaker 2: Holy shit.
32:33
Speaker 1: The people inside had no idea that a mass shooting
32:36
Speaker 1: had just occurred moments earlier, and Mark entered here calmly,
32:41
Speaker 1: just as he did the last place. Witnesses later said
32:45
Speaker 1: he appeared relaxed and even friendly. He greeted staff, walked
32:48
Speaker 1: towards the manager's office as if he were just simply
32:50
Speaker 1: arriving for a routine meeting.
32:52
Speaker 2: Nothing was off about him. Notice again, just appeared completely.
32:56
Speaker 1: Fine, exactly Oh, Mark Sproke spoke briefly with the managers
33:01
Speaker 1: and the staff, and then within minutes, while talking to them,
33:06
Speaker 1: he produced those same two weapons. Managers and a secretary
33:10
Speaker 1: were hit with bullets at close range almost immediately, and
33:13
Speaker 1: survivors later described confusion, with people struggling to understand what
33:17
Speaker 1: was happening, and before anyone could react, Mark moved from
33:20
Speaker 1: that office with the managers into the main trading floor room,
33:23
Speaker 1: and he began firing across that open room, targeting people
33:27
Speaker 1: as they dove or tried to hide and run. Some
33:30
Speaker 1: were struck while attempting to reach exits. Other drop behind
33:33
Speaker 1: desks or crawls crawling across the floor, and they were
33:36
Speaker 1: hit and trying to find any sort of cover. It
33:38
Speaker 1: was just chaos, and he was seeing anyone and firing indiscriminately.
33:43
Speaker 1: Witnesses recalled him moving steadily through that space, continuing to
33:47
Speaker 1: shoot as he went. Several victims died where they fell,
33:50
Speaker 1: and others were critically wounded but thankfully survived. Now. During
33:55
Speaker 1: the attack, Mark reportedly made another chilling statement, something to
33:59
Speaker 1: the fact of hoping he was not ruining anyone's trading day.
34:03
Speaker 2: Of course, you are, you freaking idiot right now.
34:07
Speaker 1: The shooting lasted only minutes, but left behind devastating damage.
34:12
Speaker 1: By the time the gunfire stopped, five more people were
34:15
Speaker 1: dead and many more were injured. Yet, even as emergency
34:20
Speaker 1: calls came in, confusion between dispatchers and responding officers delayed
34:24
Speaker 1: the full realization that a second crime scene existed just
34:28
Speaker 1: across the street, and with that bit of confusion, left
34:33
Speaker 1: a window and again Mark walked out, disappearing into the
34:37
Speaker 1: surrounding areas.
34:39
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, I feel like at this point he's
34:42
Speaker 2: already killed fourteen people if my count is correct, Like
34:45
Speaker 2: that is just bonkers.
34:46
Speaker 1: It's a lot now. Police initially responded to what they
34:50
Speaker 1: believed was a single active shooting, but soon it became
34:53
Speaker 1: clear that there was a second one across the street.
34:55
Speaker 1: We have momentum securities he did first, and then All
34:58
Speaker 1: Tech Investment Group second, and that reallyzation that there was
35:00
Speaker 1: a second one hit quickly and this incident was it
35:04
Speaker 1: was not contained clearly because the shooter was elsewhere and
35:08
Speaker 1: then also gone. They had two scenes, no shooter in sight.
35:13
Speaker 1: Officers flooded the Piedmont Center complex, parking cars and control
35:18
Speaker 1: cars all over to try and block entrances. Swat teams
35:21
Speaker 1: moved floor by floor, clearing offices, escorting terrified employees out
35:25
Speaker 1: of the buildings. Helicopters circled overhead ambulances lined the street
35:29
Speaker 1: as paramedics rushed the wounded to nearby hospitals and inside
35:32
Speaker 1: the buildings, automatic locking systems had actually even been engaged,
35:36
Speaker 1: which trapped some employees in the office. Many witnesses called
35:41
Speaker 1: local radio stations and television stations, describing gunfire, screams, and
35:46
Speaker 1: all the confusion surrounding it. Blood covered the desks and
35:49
Speaker 1: the floors, and police made their way through just trying
35:52
Speaker 1: to find these survivors and then escorting them out. They
35:55
Speaker 1: even had to make sure they had their hands raised,
35:57
Speaker 1: unsure if the shooter was still in there. So they're saying,
36:01
Speaker 1: hands up, to make sure that you can appear like
36:03
Speaker 1: you're not unarmed, you're not a police officer, just in
36:06
Speaker 1: the odd chance that he's waiting.
36:09
Speaker 2: This would just I can't even imagine the mass confusion,
36:12
Speaker 2: confusion that's going on here.
36:14
Speaker 1: Exactly that what's chaos. It's confusion. And I don't know
36:17
Speaker 1: if you kind of caught on. I'm rambling my sentences here.
36:20
Speaker 1: I'm trying to push that confusion fan into you. Yeah,
36:23
Speaker 1: I hope it's working.
36:24
Speaker 2: It would just yeah, it is working. It's just very unsettling.
36:28
Speaker 1: Now. Within roughly two hours, police identified the suspect as
36:32
Speaker 1: forty four year old Mark Barton, and his name was
36:35
Speaker 1: released publicly, along with details of his appearance and the
36:38
Speaker 1: vehicle he was believed to be driving, which was a van.
36:42
Speaker 1: Authorities quickly expanded the search perimeter beyond Buckhead into Cobb
36:46
Speaker 1: County and surrounding suburbs were alerted to officers, canvas, wooded areas,
36:52
Speaker 1: and parking structures, and because Mark reportedly held a pilot's license,
36:56
Speaker 1: airports were notified in case he attempted to flee by air.
36:59
Speaker 1: As well. As the afternoon stretched into evening, fear spread
37:04
Speaker 1: across the metro area. News outlets interpreted the programming with
37:08
Speaker 1: live coverage, and the city's mayor, even Bill Campbell. He
37:12
Speaker 1: described the scene inside the office as an awful lot
37:16
Speaker 1: of blood everywhere, and he called it a long, unspeakable day.
37:20
Speaker 2: No kidding.
37:22
Speaker 1: But for several hours Mark remained missing. Sightings were reported
37:26
Speaker 1: across the region. One account described a man matching his
37:29
Speaker 1: description at a shopping center in Kenshaw, where he allegedly
37:33
Speaker 1: threatened a young girl before fleeing again. Whether every sighting
37:37
Speaker 1: was accurate remained unclear, but the tension was very real
37:42
Speaker 1: and now police were still looking for him. They were
37:45
Speaker 1: also dealing with something else while this was happening. Another
37:48
Speaker 1: investigation was quietly unfolding about twenty miles away in Stockbridge, Georgia. Now,
37:55
Speaker 1: at first, this other investigation had nothing to do with
37:59
Speaker 1: the Masacre. Down Town. Apartment management at Bristol Green Complex
38:03
Speaker 1: had simply reported that the rent was late and something
38:07
Speaker 1: felt off with one of their units. At around three
38:10
Speaker 1: point twenty three pm, less than half an hour after
38:13
Speaker 1: the first shots were fired in Atlanta, a Henry County
38:17
Speaker 1: Police officer entered the apartment with assistants from the property manager.
38:21
Speaker 1: When the officer entered, they found something that was very
38:26
Speaker 1: disturbing that changed the direction of the entire case. They
38:30
Speaker 1: found the body of two children that were discovered first,
38:33
Speaker 1: eleven year old Matthew Barton and his younger sister, Michelle,
38:36
Speaker 1: who were lying in their beds, carefully positioned wrapped in
38:39
Speaker 1: blankets with their faces exposed, each with a handwritten note.
38:44
Speaker 1: As officers continued to search the apartment, they soon found
38:47
Speaker 1: a third body, Mark Barton's wife, Leanne. She was located
38:52
Speaker 1: in the master bedroom closet, hidden beneath a blanket, also
38:55
Speaker 1: with a handwritten note. In the living room, officers found
38:59
Speaker 1: the last letter, addressed to whom it may concern. The
39:05
Speaker 1: note was timestamped early that morning, July twenty ninth, at
39:08
Speaker 1: six thirty eight am. In it, Mark described killing his
39:12
Speaker 1: wife first and blamed her for his downfall. Then he
39:17
Speaker 1: said he killed his children next the next night, and
39:21
Speaker 1: he did so to spare them the pain. He claimed
39:24
Speaker 1: he'd use a hammer while they slept, then placed some
39:26
Speaker 1: face down the bathtub to ensure they were dead, and
39:29
Speaker 1: he also wrote that he intended to kill quote as
39:31
Speaker 1: many of the people that greedily sought my destruction end quote.
39:38
Speaker 1: The note also referenced the unsolved nineteen ninety three murder
39:42
Speaker 1: of his first wife and her mother. Mark denied responsibility
39:48
Speaker 1: for those deaths, insisting that there was quote no reason
39:51
Speaker 1: to lie now end quote, even though he acknowledged the
39:54
Speaker 1: similarities in the killings.
39:56
Speaker 2: Hmmm, Okay, so he's saying he didn't do them.
40:01
Speaker 1: He says he does he did not do them.
40:03
Speaker 2: Do you believe that?
40:05
Speaker 1: I do not believe that.
40:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that but at that point it's kind of like,
40:10
Speaker 2: why wouldn't you just say but yeah, it's kind of odd.
40:14
Speaker 1: It is odd. I would expect him to perhaps confess,
40:18
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, he doesn't want his name tied
40:21
Speaker 1: to that legacy. If he did do it. I do
40:23
Speaker 1: believe he did it. Who else would have done it?
40:25
Speaker 1: There was no like why, Yeah, it was clearly targeted.
40:28
Speaker 1: There was no burglar or robbery or anything associated with it.
40:31
Speaker 1: The killings happened very similarly, Like who else would have
40:35
Speaker 1: done it? Why? What's the motivation here?
40:37
Speaker 2: No, it to one hundred percent makes sense that it
40:40
Speaker 2: was him. But yeah, it just is odd that he
40:42
Speaker 2: didn't put it in the letter. Yeah, after he's killed
40:44
Speaker 2: how many other people that he's not just going to
40:46
Speaker 2: fucking admit to that one too?
40:48
Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, it's it's weird. But anyways, Now investigators also
40:53
Speaker 1: immediately recognize the similarities between the case, but that was
40:57
Speaker 1: about all they could do. The language in the letter
40:59
Speaker 1: shi between apology and justification, and for investigators, the discovery
41:03
Speaker 1: at the apartment completely reframed the unfolding of the events
41:07
Speaker 1: within Atlanta. He had first appeared to be just doing
41:11
Speaker 1: a workplace shooting driven well not just, but it appeared
41:14
Speaker 1: to be an isolated incident with a workplace, you know,
41:18
Speaker 1: driven by financial stress. But it was now clearly part
41:21
Speaker 1: of a much larger and more personal killing spree. Mark
41:26
Speaker 1: had he killed his wife days earlier. He then murdered
41:29
Speaker 1: his children, and then he just went out and continued
41:33
Speaker 1: to mow down people that he believed did him wrong.
41:36
Speaker 1: It wasn't financial, it was anger, it was personal. It
41:40
Speaker 1: was a vendetta. Sure that might be financing there in
41:44
Speaker 1: that reason, but it was personally motivated. News of the
41:50
Speaker 1: discovery spread quickly through law enforcement channels, and by late afternoon,
41:54
Speaker 1: while Atlanta was already in a massive man hunt, witnesses
41:59
Speaker 1: began reporting sightings, and hours passed still with no confirmation
42:03
Speaker 1: of where Mark was. Then, around seven forty pm, security
42:08
Speaker 1: personnel at a shopping mall in Kennesas spotted a unattended
42:12
Speaker 1: van matching the description that was put out to the public.
42:17
Speaker 1: Almost simultaneously, a woman in a parking lot reported a frightened,
42:20
Speaker 1: frightening encounter with a man carrying a black bag, who
42:24
Speaker 1: warned her not to scream or run. Another witness recognized
42:28
Speaker 1: Mark from television coverage and called nine one one two,
42:31
Speaker 1: providing police with the van's location and direction of travel.
42:35
Speaker 1: Cobb County officers quickly picked up the trail, and one officer,
42:40
Speaker 1: hughle Clements, spotted the van on Interstate seventy five and
42:43
Speaker 1: began following at distance, waiting for backup. Then, at approximately
42:48
Speaker 1: seven to fifty pm, Mark exited the interstate onto Georgia
42:51
Speaker 1: Highway ninety two and pulled into a gas station in Ackworth.
42:56
Speaker 1: Patrol cars moved in on him almost immediately for there,
43:00
Speaker 1: boxing the van in from multiple angles. Officers exited the
43:05
Speaker 1: vehicles with guns drawn pointed at the van, shouted commands
43:08
Speaker 1: from Mark to step out, but before they could reach
43:11
Speaker 1: him and do anything, Mark raised a handgun inside the
43:15
Speaker 1: van and a muffled shot rang out. Then his body
43:20
Speaker 1: slumped forward against the steering wheel. It was roughly seven
43:25
Speaker 1: point fifty five pm when officers cautiously approached the vehicle.
43:30
Speaker 1: I'm sure if he was still alive or if there
43:33
Speaker 1: was additional threats inside, but moments later the danger was
43:38
Speaker 1: confirmed to be over. Mark Barton was dead from a
43:41
Speaker 1: self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
43:45
Speaker 2: This is how I was expecting this to end.
43:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.
43:48
Speaker 2: I was like, there's no way he's gonna turn himself
43:51
Speaker 2: in or let himself go to jail or whatever.
43:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. I actually I did leave one bit of information
44:00
Speaker 1: note in the note that he left behind. He did
44:02
Speaker 1: say he was going to.
44:03
Speaker 2: See oh okay.
44:05
Speaker 1: So for for story reasons, I left that out, but
44:08
Speaker 1: I'll let you know that now.
44:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I just have to say too, not that
44:12
Speaker 2: any of the deaths made sense, but it really doesn't
44:16
Speaker 2: make sense that he needed to kill his kids like
44:18
Speaker 2: that just they would have been I mean, of course
44:21
Speaker 2: they would have like a lot of trauma, and but
44:24
Speaker 2: they were young and stuff, right, and they would they
44:26
Speaker 2: would be able to get over that and still live
44:29
Speaker 2: a life one hundred percent, right, And so that just
44:32
Speaker 2: makes no sense.
44:33
Speaker 1: They're way better off than him murdering them with a
44:35
Speaker 1: hammer while they're in.
44:37
Speaker 2: Beds exactly like they would have been fine to just
44:40
Speaker 2: move on with their life. So he is just a
44:43
Speaker 2: piece of work here, Oh.
44:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, he is. Now. The manhunt that had paralyzed Atlanta
44:48
Speaker 1: for hours had ended in that single moment. There was
44:52
Speaker 1: going to be no arrests or interrogation, and also no trial.
44:57
Speaker 1: The only explanations investigators had were in the notes left
45:01
Speaker 1: behind in that Stockbridge apartment and the trail of devastation
45:04
Speaker 1: that he created across the city. Over the course of
45:08
Speaker 1: three days, Mark Barton had killed twelve people, his wife,
45:12
Speaker 1: his two children, and nine men and women inside the
45:16
Speaker 1: Atlanta brokerage firms. More than a dozen were also wounded,
45:20
Speaker 1: many with life altering injuries, and it was immediately described
45:24
Speaker 1: as one of the deadliest mass killings in Georgia's history.
45:28
Speaker 1: At momentum Securities, four people were killed, including traders and
45:33
Speaker 1: staff who'd been working in normal afternoon when Mark arrived
45:36
Speaker 1: at Altech. Five more lost their lives after Mark crossed
45:40
Speaker 1: the street and opened fire inside that building. Hospitals across
45:44
Speaker 1: Atlanta had quickly filled with victims, and emergency crews had
45:47
Speaker 1: prepared for multiple casualties, but many said that they had
45:51
Speaker 1: never seen anything like this volume of wounded arriving from
45:54
Speaker 1: an office or a corporate setting all at once, and
45:57
Speaker 1: as news spread that Mark's wife and child had been
46:00
Speaker 1: found murdered in Stockbridge, the emotional impact only deepened from there.
46:06
Speaker 1: City officials tried to steady the shocked public. Office workers
46:10
Speaker 1: across Buckhead were evacuated or locked down for hours, unsure
46:14
Speaker 1: whether the shooter was even still nearby it all, and
46:17
Speaker 1: families of the dead began speaking publicly In the days
46:20
Speaker 1: that followed. Some struggled to understand why their loved ones
46:23
Speaker 1: had been targeted at all, and investigators later even said
46:27
Speaker 1: that there was no clear evidence that Mark selected specific
46:30
Speaker 1: victims inside the office, although some reports suggested a few
46:34
Speaker 1: had previously lent him money or were connected to his
46:36
Speaker 1: trading losses. Whether he intended to target individuals or simply
46:41
Speaker 1: anyone at all who was in front of them, while
46:44
Speaker 1: it remains uncertain.
46:46
Speaker 2: And they did absolutely nothing wrong, this was all on him,
46:49
Speaker 2: one hundred percent. He was the one that fucked up
46:51
Speaker 2: his life completely with this.
46:53
Speaker 1: He was the one who did the stock trading. He
46:55
Speaker 1: was the one who tried to invest. Yeah, he was
46:56
Speaker 1: the one who gained money, who lost money. It was
47:00
Speaker 1: all him. In fact, many of those people, I'm sure
47:04
Speaker 1: are losing money just like him. Many of those people
47:07
Speaker 1: did not go off and blame other people. Yeah, but
47:12
Speaker 1: he did.
47:12
Speaker 2: It's I'm honestly a little surprised that it isn't more
47:16
Speaker 2: people that he ended up killing at these places. Really,
47:20
Speaker 2: if you know, he had like two guns, he's just
47:22
Speaker 2: like opening fire. But then you did say, like he
47:25
Speaker 2: is also making people suffer for lifelong with lifelong injuries.
47:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, many of the survivors struggled with like not only injuries,
47:34
Speaker 1: but also just the trauma of what they've experienced.
47:37
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Yeah.
47:38
Speaker 1: Now, some return to the office only briefly to gather
47:41
Speaker 1: belongings before spaces were permanently changed or closed. Memorials appeared
47:45
Speaker 1: outside the buildings with flowers, notes, and candles left by
47:48
Speaker 1: coworkers and strangers alike. By the end of that week,
47:52
Speaker 1: investigators had pieced together the basic timeline, but attention quickly
47:56
Speaker 1: shifted backwards. The discovery that Mark Barton had won being
48:00
Speaker 1: the prime suspect in another double homicide immediately changed how
48:05
Speaker 1: people understood that the Atlanta shootings. Suddenly, the story was
48:09
Speaker 1: no longer about a financial collapse and a workplace shooting.
48:12
Speaker 1: It was also about a mystery that had lingered unresolved
48:15
Speaker 1: for six years prior to that. In September of nineteen
48:19
Speaker 1: ninety three, Mark's first wife, Deborah Spivy Barton, and her mother,
48:23
Speaker 1: Eloise Bivvy were found brutally killed inside a camping ground
48:27
Speaker 1: inside a trailer near Lake Weese in northeastern Alabama. They
48:32
Speaker 1: traveled there for a holiday weekend and then they were
48:35
Speaker 1: just killed violently with what appeared to be a heavy
48:38
Speaker 1: or sharp object. And to top it off, the crime
48:41
Speaker 1: scene showed no signs of force entree, leading police to
48:44
Speaker 1: believe the victims likely knew whoever entered the trailer, and
48:48
Speaker 1: from the beginning, Mark drew attention from investigators. Just weeks before,
48:52
Speaker 1: of course, there was the large life insurance policy reportedly
48:56
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand dollars, money that would ultimately lead to
48:59
Speaker 1: his day trade, which would ultimately lead to more killings.
49:03
Speaker 1: And at that same time his marriage was deteriorating. He
49:06
Speaker 1: was involved in an affair with LeeAnne, the woman he
49:09
Speaker 1: would later marry and later kill, but Mark denied any
49:14
Speaker 1: sort of involvement in that case, even in his suicide
49:18
Speaker 1: note he left behind, he denied it, even though there
49:20
Speaker 1: are so many connections between each one. Investigators in Alabama
49:25
Speaker 1: reviewed the old files again after Mark's death, but without
49:28
Speaker 1: a living suspect to question, without evidence, there was nothing
49:32
Speaker 1: they could do. The case remained open but unresolved, leaving
49:37
Speaker 1: families with no legal closure, and officially speaking, those two
49:43
Speaker 1: deaths are not on Mark's record.
49:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, well how could they be? Right?
49:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you do count them, you were right.
49:52
Speaker 1: That is fourteen dead to his name.
49:54
Speaker 2: Gosh, that is so man, so many deaths.
49:58
Speaker 1: Yeah. For those trying to understand the Atlanta massacre of
50:01
Speaker 1: the Alabama case, cast a very long shadow. Some believe
50:05
Speaker 1: that if charges had been filed years earlier, the later
50:08
Speaker 1: killings might never have happened. Others argued that hindsight made
50:12
Speaker 1: connection a lot easier to see than they had been
50:15
Speaker 1: in real time. But either way, the reopen discussion forced investigators, journalists,
50:20
Speaker 1: and public to all reconsider Mark's history not as a
50:24
Speaker 1: sudden break from normal life, but possibly a part of
50:26
Speaker 1: a much larger and darker pattern. Now in Atlanta, the
50:32
Speaker 1: massacre left a very lasting mark. The victim's names had
50:36
Speaker 1: become part of the city's history, remember not as statistics,
50:40
Speaker 1: but as co workers, friends, and family members who lived
50:44
Speaker 1: well and worked during an ordinary day that turn not
50:48
Speaker 1: so ordinary, and the legacy of the case ultimately lies
50:51
Speaker 1: in its complexity. It was a family tragedy, a workplace massacre,
50:56
Speaker 1: and a financial collapse, all wrapped up in a story
50:59
Speaker 1: shadow by unreserve, suspicion from years earlier, and a hidden
51:03
Speaker 1: darkness deep inside someone. There was no single explanation that
51:08
Speaker 1: explained everything, no simple motive that could tie everything neatly up.
51:14
Speaker 1: What remained in this timeline that reads almost unreal in hindsight,
51:19
Speaker 1: is a man who appeared to be normal, a rapid
51:22
Speaker 1: descent behind everyday life and a city forced to piece
51:25
Speaker 1: together the truth after the fact. The investigation ended when
51:30
Speaker 1: Mark turned that gun on himself and pulled the trigger
51:32
Speaker 1: at that gas station. But the questions it all raised, well,
51:37
Speaker 1: it'll never go away, and that's a story of Mark Barton,
51:43
Speaker 1: the killer day trader.
51:46
Speaker 2: What a selfish shun of a bitch.
51:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a damn good way of putting it. I mean,
51:52
Speaker 1: it's hard to put things like this into words, but
51:54
Speaker 1: that's a damn good start.
51:55
Speaker 2: Gosh. We had to pause at one point and I
51:57
Speaker 2: was like, what the fuck? He just keeps killing people?
52:00
Speaker 2: What is happening here?
52:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, he went on a literal killing zone.
52:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I for some reason, I was like, did
52:07
Speaker 2: I miss something in the intro because I was shocked
52:10
Speaker 2: by almost all of these. I was just sitting here
52:13
Speaker 2: drinking my macha and he just wasn't fucking stopping.
52:17
Speaker 1: It just kept going and it came out of nowhere too.
52:20
Speaker 1: And I really hope I portrayed that well enough because
52:22
Speaker 1: I wanted the killings, because they did. I wanted to
52:26
Speaker 1: portray it in the writing and how I presented this
52:28
Speaker 1: case that the killings just came out of fucking nowhere. Yeah,
52:31
Speaker 1: and then during the chaos in the offices, I barely
52:35
Speaker 1: took a breath, and I put my sentences all mashed together,
52:38
Speaker 1: and I just kept going at a fast paced because
52:39
Speaker 1: I wanted to try and get that chaos across, because
52:42
Speaker 1: that's what it was. He did good, well, thank you,
52:45
Speaker 1: but it was he came out of nowhere. He did
52:49
Speaker 1: such violence, and it made such little sense.
52:52
Speaker 2: Well, one thing too, that is so mind blowing to
52:55
Speaker 2: me is that he goes to one place, kills four
52:58
Speaker 2: people and is able just to walk wherever to the
53:02
Speaker 2: next place and walk in there like it's, you know,
53:05
Speaker 2: a normal day, and just do it again. Yeah, Like
53:08
Speaker 2: holy shit, what kind of person or are you if
53:12
Speaker 2: you can just do that, like I don't know, act
53:15
Speaker 2: like nothing.
53:16
Speaker 1: Had happened, and then just go do it again.
53:18
Speaker 2: I think that you would you would be spiraling or
53:21
Speaker 2: you know, adrenaline. You would definitely look off. You wouldn't
53:24
Speaker 2: just be able to portray yourself as a normal as
53:27
Speaker 2: a normal day, a normal dude or whatever.
53:29
Speaker 1: Well that begs the question how long has he been
53:31
Speaker 1: hiding this sort of stuff? How long has he been
53:33
Speaker 1: pretending to just be a normal dude.
53:36
Speaker 2: Yeah right, Wow, gosh, he's okay, Like, yeah, just fourteen
53:41
Speaker 2: people dead and then how many super injured? And for
53:48
Speaker 2: what for absolutely nothing, because he decided to make terrible
53:51
Speaker 2: decisions in his life.
53:52
Speaker 1: Exactly, huh he blamed them for his own actions.
53:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, fucked up exactly. He is like about
54:00
Speaker 2: as selfish as you get, yeap, like that is. That's
54:04
Speaker 2: like the definition and a half of freakin' I'm angry here.
54:08
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, I think Nicole's angry. I'm
54:10
Speaker 1: in trouble today. I need to make sure I don't
54:14
Speaker 1: talk much. I'll do the dishes. I'll do the dishes.
54:17
Speaker 1: I'll make sure that we have a nice atmosphere in
54:22
Speaker 1: this house today.
54:22
Speaker 2: We'll light a candle, play some chill.
54:24
Speaker 1: Hal Yeah, you know, we'll definitely do that. But if
54:28
Speaker 1: you guys want to check out some more of this podcast,
54:30
Speaker 1: there is a link in the description where you can
54:32
Speaker 1: see our social media as our website, all that sort
54:34
Speaker 1: of stuff.
54:35
Speaker 2: The new merch Is that going to be dropped that much?
54:37
Speaker 2: Is that link going to be there?
54:38
Speaker 1: I believe it is. We believe we have a merch
54:41
Speaker 1: link down there, and it's not I'll make sure it is,
54:43
Speaker 1: but yeah, so it's all there. Check it out, do
54:45
Speaker 1: the things we appreciate you, and, as always, until next time.
54:49
Speaker 2: Stay wicked.
54:52
Speaker 1: Oh that was a long one.
54:53
Speaker 3: That's what she said. B B B a