Suicide Letter Of Man who Crashed Into IRS Building In Austin Texas

It's pretty clear he picked that office specifically because of his dispute with the IRS. Toward the end of his manifesto he mentions his current audit. He blames a Bill Ross, presumably an accountant, for blindsiding him during the audit which leads to this quote:

"This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is... well, just look around."


which leads to this:

" ... I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well."

I'd say that shows he planned to hit the very same building he had recently spent some very unpleasant time inside of, with the intent to take as many IRS employees with him as he could.

I suspect he chose his target of opportunity well since he knew he was not coming back and did not want to be intercepted by a couple of scrambled F-16’s since Randolph AFB as training facilities to the southwest of Originally Posted by LonesomeDove

By the time TCA figured it out would there have really been enough time to scramble the F-16s? He couldn't have been more than a minute or two away from the other building by then.

It's pretty clear he picked that office specifically because of his dispute with the IRS. Toward the end of his manifesto he mentions his current audit. He blames a Bill Ross, presumably an accountant, for blindsiding him during the audit which leads... Originally Posted by Carl

I don't dispute what you wrote Carl but we will never know why he chose the building he did. If he really wanted to do the kind of damage he seem bent on doing then the IRS building at 35/71 would have been the logical choice and not the one he ended up picking since it was a side office.

By the time TCA figured it out would there have really been enough time to scramble the F-16s? He couldn't have been more than a minute or two away from the other building by then. Originally Posted by discreetgent

While verifying things for this post after my last post, I have determined that RAFB must not have an intercept contingent on its facilities SW of Austin since NORAD scrambled two F-16’s out of Ellington Field. Unless they went to full military power, i.e. supersonic, which they will do if required, there would not have been enough time to intercept. Keep in mind that F16's can go mach 2+ with full armament if they push it although it is not recommended due to g-force and air resistance issues.

Therefore D-G I would agree with you. Not enough time for what I originally posted.

I don't dispute what you wrote Carl but we will never know why he chose the building he did. If he really wanted to do the kind of damage he seem bent on doing then the IRS building at 35/71 would have been the logical choice and not the one he ended up picking since it was a side office.



While verifying things for this post after my last post, I have determined that RAFB must not have an intercept contingent on its facilities SW of Austin since NORAD scrambled two F-16’s out of Ellington Field. Unless they went to full military power, i.e. supersonic, which they will do if required, there would not have been enough time to intercept. Keep in mind that F16's can go mach 2+ with full armament if they push it although it is not recommended due to g-force and air resistance issues.

Therefore D-G I would agree with you. Not enough time for what I originally posted. Originally Posted by LonesomeDove

Well LD he chose that particular building because that is where the IRS housed their investigative and audit division as people have mentioned. As I mentioned previously the main building which I guess I should have been more concise is at 35 and 290/71 is where all tax returns are processed. This individual had a problem with being audited and therefore targeted this particular building. And yes as DG pointed out it would not have taken the nut case more than a few minutes to fly to the main complex and I can assure you that even if they had scrambled F16's from anywhere even remotely close by they would not have made it their in time. I have friends who work in both buildings and fortunately the one who works in the building that was targeted was not at work at the time.

I strongly suspect it is more likely the case of it being the closest building that he could access without having a transponder functioning in his aircraft since he would have been nearly undetected due to his transit time from Georgetown Municipal Airport to that part of Austin. All of Austin is a TCA and to fly into/transit through a TCA, you have to have a functioning transponder. ... Keep in mind that the TCA handles all air traffic for Austin and he would have had to be in the pattern to fly anywhere that far south. Also, any transponder would give the information the FAA needed to see if he had filed a flight plan, so I suspect he chose his target of opportunity well since he knew he was not coming back and did not want to be intercepted by a couple of scrambled F-16’s since Randolph AFB as training facilities to the southwest of ABIA. Originally Posted by LonesomeDove

Do you really think he was that well thought out. If he was in financial straights, couldn't he have sold his airplane for cash?

This is precisely what that asshat wanted. I refuse to indulge him...

Nice analysis of the letter in Slate.

http://www.slate.com/id/2245337/

Bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, the guy was just a sorehead. A very deeply disturbed and motivated sorehead, but a sorehead nonetheless.

Austin is Class "C" airspace. To travel in this airpace, you need a transponder with altitude reporting capabilty (known as Mode C) and you need to have established two-way communication with air traffic control. You do not need permission to fly through there, and you do not need to file a flight plan if you are flying under visual flight rules (VFR).


In any event, he could have easily and legally flown to within a minute or so of the building without raising any suspicions, far too little time to scramble any fighter jets.

Nice analysis of the letter in Slate.

http://www.slate.com/id/2245337/

Bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, the guy was just a sorehead. A very deeply disturbed and motivated sorehead, but a sorehead nonetheless. Originally Posted by TexTushHog

That was an in depth analysis by Slate. They basically decoded Joesph's behavioral pattern, that of a man who was deeply troubled.

I think there are fundamentally 2 kinds of people in this world: those that have something bad happen, retreat and sit around saying "woe is me" waiting for someone or something to help them; the second group sees the same event happen, processes it, recognizes it as reality and then does the best they can given the circumstances. Originally Posted by atlcomedy

Ain't that the truth.

Isn't this like cutting off your nose to spite your face? "The IRS screwed me! I'll show them, by killing myself!" HUH? Why punish yourself to get even with someone else?

Even if everything in his suicide letter was spot on, he looses all credibility by such a stunt. No one will see the brilliance in his letter (not saying his letter was brilliant), they will just see a crazy man in need of help. Originally Posted by Nicolette Bordeauxva

At best, I think the IRS can be called a "merciless bunch".

I disagree entirely with what the pilot did, but a small benefit from this tragedy is that the IRS is going to be taken down a peg and made to reconsider how it handles business.

The IRS had to actually be reined in once some years back for their excessive tactics in collecting back taxes.

In was done in a more diplomatic method than a plane attack crashing their building, of course.

Joseph Stack's letter. He made persuasive arguments about the the law being illegible, corporate collusion to keep salaries down, politicians and health care, workers being treated as slaves, and unethical lawyers and accountants fleecing consumers. I also like the fact that maybe a few of those arrogant IRS workers may start to treat people with a little more humanity in the future. They like the neonazi TSA folks are supposed to be public servants.

And the American dream IMO is bigger than anyone living in this country. If Joseph Stack felt like there were those in government who were denying both himself and others the chance of the American dream, then killing those government folks responsible was not evil but patriotic.

But he didn't do that. He just killed people who happened to be in a building and in doing so he went from being a patriot to a terrorist. What I would ask Joseph Stack had he lived is, "And how does blowing up an IRS building help people without health care? Hell, Joseph, you have added to not helped that problem."

After reading Gore Vidal's essays on Timothy McVeigh, once more I was struck by how rational some of McVeigh's arguments were. McVeigh was in Iraq and saw firsthand how "heroes" like himself blew up buildings killing innocent people. He was appalled at what happened in Waco, and the Oklahoma City bombing was his answer for it. But once more he killed people far removed from the Waco debacle, and in doing so, he too was a terrorist and not a patriot.

I think there are fundamentally 2 kinds of people in this world: those that have something bad happen, retreat and sit around saying "woe is me" waiting for someone or something to help them; the second group sees the same event happen, processes it, recognizes it as reality and then does the best they can given the circumstances. Originally Posted by atlcomedy

Sounds like a Liberal and a Conservative doesn't it.

Nut Case, Sure. But he made some valid points.

The plane hit the 2nd floor, which houses the Criminal Investigation (CI) unit of IRS. These are the folks that prepare cases for referral to the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution. So, it's probably safe to assume that there was something going on with Joe and CI. Few of the cases referred by CI are actually accepted by the DOJ. But few people know this, most think CI, I'm going to jail.

If you've never dealt with the IRS then you can't understand the fear and frustration that most individuals experience. By dealing I mean that you are the subject of an intensive Audit, aggressive collection or a referral to the CI unit. The feeling is of being smothered, there being no way out, hopelessness. Suicidal thoughts are common as there appears to be no alternative.

For those embroiled with an IRS matter, the only option they have is to employee those that probably are part of the problem, lawyers and accountants. I've witnessed first hand how hiring the wrong professional can create a large part of the problem. In every profession there are generalist and specialist. How one finds the correct specialist is difficult, asking for referrals can produce incompetents or genesis.

I've witnessed individuals who had problems that were so unique that IRS agreed they didn't owe money, but the system didn't have a way to correct the problem. So, they still owed the money. When IRS doesn't have a canned solution, they pass the problem along. Getting something off your desk is tantamount to solving the problem in atta-boys. Just because you are right doesn't mean that the problem can be solved. For a problem with IRS to linger for 5 or 10 years isn't unusual. Please don't quote 3 yr., 6 yr. or 10 year statutes to me, I know them all.

I had a phone call from a former IRS employee who confided that he would only tell me this. "I don't agree with what he has done, but if it makes one IRS employee wake up and say, I'm not going to be an ass-hole today, then Joe Stack has done some good."

In Joe's letter there was a small part of Internal Revenue Code Section 1706, who here read that and understood what he was referencing? It deals with who is an employee and who is an independent contractor (IC). It specifically excludes engineers from claiming IC status. What difference does this make, $$$$$$, both to the engineer and to the person paying for the engineer's services. Laws aren't necessarily fair, but are writted either to garner revenue or to placate those with good lobbyist.

Joe Stack will be remembered as a nut case, a perpetrator, when he should be remembered as a victim. Yes, a victim who in some cases probably brought problems on himself. But, never the less a victim of a system designed to only be comprehended by a select few.

I come to bury Joe Stack, not to praise him. "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

But, never the less a victim of a system designed to only be comprehended by a select few.

And a murderer,
And a terrorist.