been investigating the unsolved murders of barton s first wife, debra and her mother eloise for nearly seven years and barton was their primary suspect, a fact that would have surprised and shocked many of his day trading co-workers. i felt confident that he s the man that did our killings in alabama. i don t have a doubt about it. he s our guy. but they had come up empty on physical evidence to tie him to the murder. now, more than ever, they were convinced barton was their killer. debra and eloise s bludgeoned bodies were discovered in their vacation trailer in this crowded campsite in cherokee county, alabama, over labor day weekend in 1993. there was no sign of forcible entry. the first person that come in to play was the husband. mr. bill spivey, his father-in-law, had what i would call the understandably horrific, tragic response of demanding to get to his wife and insisting he had to be restrained.
formulas, putting them on his own personal computer and taking them home and he got caught. he had a fit. he threw a temper tantrum. he screamed, yelled, cussed. he ended up two nights later, breaking back into our business and he destroyed our computers. he stole all the formulas so that we couldn t manufacture. barton was arrested and charged with felony burglary, but he was not prosecuted for this crime. the owners gave him a choice. leave town immediately or go to jail. they did not even pack up their belongings. he took his wife, his son, and they left town, sent movers back in to move his personal stuff a week later. he did not even come back into town to sell his house. he did it all from atlanta. nine years later mark barton would go on his bloody rampage in atlanta, shocking not only the nation but also a group of investigators in alabama, nearly 100 miles away.
just one massacre, one terrible episode. and afterwards they kill themselves. though a distraught and depressed barton did kill himself after his rampage, he seemed to treat the 1993 murder investigation as if it were a game. mark was pretty much playing cat and mouse with us. i never felt like that he would reach a point where he would ask for an attorney and cease any communications with us because he wanted to know what we were doing. besides his relationship with leanne, the woman who would later become his second wife, mark barton had one more important incentive to murder, money, in the phenomenal of a lefty life insurance policy on debora spivey barton. in fact, one of the policies being issued only 30 days prior to this incident. and it was for like $650,000, i think, so, you know, needless to say that sends up a red flag for
a half million dollars in his day trading ventures. he was going to punish all the people that he held responsible all the successful ones in the brokerage firms and day trading areas who were making large sums of money when he was failing. they represented everything that he could not achieve. criminologist james spock james fox says in many ways, mark barton is characteristic of someone who commits mass murder in the workplace. the typical workplace avenger is a middle-aged white male who feels that a good job, a decent salary and benefits is his birthright. he s angry. he blames the world and he wants to get even. the national mean age of all murderers is 29. workplace killers are older. on average, they are 38 years of age.
every place, every street, every building in this area. it s safe to say every law enforcement agent and officer in the metro area is now looking for mr. barton. we must bring him to justice quickly. for more than five hours the city of atlanta is held hostage by fear as the police dragnet continues. one hour after mayor campbell s press conference, officer hewell clemens spots mark barton s van on interstate 75. clemens calls immediately for backup. he knows this is a dangerous situation. he had done a lot already so i felt like it would have been easy for him to overreact, and i didn t want to start anything until we had the advantage. just as barton heads for an exit ramp, the desperately needed backup arrives. i saw barton s van go by with clemens following him, officer clemens following behind, and i started following officer clemens.