I authored this
article on Fascist Soup:
Oddities I notice:
How did anyone find out who the pilot was so quickly? - and how did the media find his obscure web site rant so quickly?
Then there’s this weirdness, how do you get stories this
conflicting?
Stack, who moved to Austin from California a few years ago, complained he could not make a living with his software company, Embedded Arts.
Around 8 a.m., Stack's house in North Austin was set ablaze, officials said.
A neighbor rescued his wife, classical pianist Sheryl Housh Stack, a teaching assistant at the University of Texas, and her 12-year-old daughter, Margaux, according to KXAN-TV.
Other reports said the wife and daughter arrived home after spending the night in a hotel to find the house burning.
note, page since modified now reads as follows:
Witnesses told KXAN-TV they saw a neighbor rescue Stack's wife of two years - classical pianist Sheryl Housh Stack, a teaching assistant at the University of Texas - and her 12-year-old daughter, Margaux.
More weirdness:
Update:
CNN reports that a federal official claims the pilot had set his house on fire beforehand,
stole the plane and crashed it intentionally. The FAA said the plane departed Georgetown Municipal Airport, north of Austin, about 9:40 a.m., and that the pilot did not file a flight plan.
Joe Stack, who owned a small plane, was missing…
The four-seat single-engine Piper Cherokee came in low, nearly hitting power lines, and was roaring at full throttle on impact, the witnesses said.
The tail number matched Stack’s plane, officials said.
Remarkably, though the plane hit a seven-story office building just before 10 a.m., sparking a 50-foot fireball and breaking most of the windows, only two people were injured.
Opposed to: AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) – Austin fire officials say one person’s unaccounted for after a small plane crashed into an building that houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service. According to CNN, The pilot of the plane had set his house on fire beforehand, stole the plane and crashed it intentionally, a federal official told CNN.
The Federal Aviation Administration is reporting to CNN that the plane departed Georgetown airport north of Austin about 9:40 a.m. and was a Cirrus SR 22. The pilot evidently did not file a flight plan, according to reports. No flight plan is required because it is a VFR (visual flight rules) day, meaning clear weather.
Opposed to: An Austin, Texas, resident with an apparent grudge against the Internal Revenue Service set his house on fire Thursday and then crashed [no mention of stole] a small plane into a building housing an IRS office with nearly 200 employees, officials said.
Federal authorities identified the pilot of the Piper Cherokee PA-28 as Joseph Andrew Stack, 53.
Now remember, this is a VITALLY important detail.
If Stack stole the plane, then there is no way to tie Stack to the crime.
It would be impossible to know who was flying that plane if the tail number didn’t tie back to Stack, at least until the rubble was searched and his burned body was identified.
There is also no way the press could have found and tied the suicide web note back to Stack so quickly unless he was identified by the tail number.
If the Fed’s go with the “stolen plane” route, then the entire thing is wildly suspect.
In his rant, Stack never mentions what exactly his plan was, so if someone just randomly found the web page and reported it to the media, there’s still no way to tie it back to Stack without knowing who the pilot was, being identified by the tail number.
Also, if Stack was under financial duress, how could he afford a plane? A seriously old beat up Cherokee will run you around 30K, not including maintenance, storage, and gas which are fairly outrageous. If the plane was a Cirrus SR 22, you're looking at a cool 250K for a used one. Thus, it makes the type of plane important.
Stack says he was wiped out and forced to dip into retirement savings before moving to TX, if you’re wiped out, typically you don’t keep a plane around.
Stack then says presently he had a boatload of undocumented income which caused him trouble with the IRS when he tried to report it. If its causing trouble with the IRS, then its not undocumented. And he must not have kept it in a bank or it would have been discovered. How did he pay for the plane, which he must have bought after moving out to TX, in order for his rant to make any sense?
Did he pay cash?
How long did he have the plane and when did he get his pilots license?
You know what else stinks?
Why did this guy set his house on fire?
1. Were his wife and kid at a hotel? Why where they there?
2. If they were in the house, why would he want to kill them?
If they were broke, what possible benefit to his family would it be to burn his house down?
Also, if you were going to kill yourself, would you bother to take any identifying information with you like a wallet? Wouldn't you leave your wallet where your wife would find it so she could keep the credit cards and money?
Why burn that house down?
From the suicide note:
"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.
Yet the creation date of the note CLEARLY states it was created 2 days ago, not several months ago.
That note was edited and saved 27 times in 2 days.
Hey, you know what else is weird?
As I stated earlier, Stack never mentioned his family in the suicide note.
That fact alone is mind blowing.
How many people write suicide notes and don't mention their family at all.
He doesn't say he hates them, doesn't say he loves them, doesn't wish them good bye, doesn't leave instructions to tell the kid, nothing.
Nada.
I have a hard time believing that's what a normal suicidal person does.
Never says his kids name, never says his wifes name, never says ANYTHING other that briefly mentioning he got divorced at some point in the past.
Never mentions anyone by name, not his bosses, IRS agents, no one.
No names.
The only people he mentions by name are politicians whom he's never met in person.
I found this
article interesting.
A professional suicide note investigator commenting on typical suicide notes.
Stack's note contains multiple references to insanity.
Olsson's experience found that faked suicide notes reflected society's preconceptions about suicide victims being weak and unable to face their difficulties.
Those who forge such notes frequently use words such as 'crazy', 'cowardly' and 'selfish', but these are rarely found in the genuine items.
According to this reasoning, Sandra Weddell might well have killed herself, since her apparent suicide note made no reference to insanity or weakness.
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