AUSTIN, Texas – Joe Stack felt the federal government — especially its tax code — robbed him of his savings and destroyed his career while allowing corrupt executives to walk away with millions.
It's clear from the 3,000-word manifesto posted on a Web site registered in his name that the bitter feud with the Internal Revenue Service was his passion — one so deeply held it apparently drove him to commit suicide Thursday by slamming his single-engine Piper PA-28 into an Austin office building that houses the IRS.
"Nothing changes unless there is a body count," Stack wrote.
It was a passion some of Stack's friends say they never saw.
They knew Stack as a fellow country rocker and band mate who recorded with them in Austin's vibrant music scene. They recalled a quiet father who visited Norway every year to visit a daughter and grandchildren. They never heard Stack talk about politics, about taxes, about the government — the sources of pain Stack claims drove him to his death.
"I read the letter that he wrote. It sounded like his voice but the things he said I had never heard him say," said Pam Parker, an Austin attorney whose husband was one of Stack's band mates.
Read More...
No comments:
Post a Comment