IRS Bomber Update: Victim's Family to Sue Stack's Estate?

As if things need to get even more twisted.... God help us when lawyers get involved!

Last week, the adult daughter of Joe Stack from a former marriage made headlines by calling her father a "hero." Stack was the pilot of a plane, which deliberately crashed into Austin's Echelon building, killing IRS employee, Vernon Hunter, and injuring several others The building housed offices of the IRS and the crash killed both Stack and IRS employee Vernon Hunter. Said Bell, "His actions at the end were extremely horrific and I'm deeply sorry for my father." While admitting his actions were wrong, she added, "But if nobody comes out and speaks up on behalf of injustice, then nothing will ever be accomplished. But I do not agree with his last action with what he did. But I do agree about the government." She agreed her father was a hero and said, "Yes, because now maybe people will listen."

Understandably, Hunter's family was outraged. Ken Hunter told Fox News, "Are you telling me that an American citizen committing an attack of terrorism against the United States is heroic?" Hunter went on to say that his father, a Vietnam veteran, was the only hero.

Bell later recanted her statement saying, "We are mourning for Vernon Hunter."

Then it came out that the Hunter family was going to file a lawsuit against Stack's estate and named Stack's widow, Sheryl as part of that lawsuit as executrix. Said Hunter family's legal representative, Daniel Ross, "My client of course has stated that her heart goes out to Mrs. Stack and she considers Mrs. Stack as much a victim in this as anyone else," Ross said.

Right, except that now you want to take anything, she has left. I have total sympathy for the Hunter family, but going after his widow, who is also a victim in this, is just wrong.

Ross claimed money was not the motivating factor, but then said it was his job to discover if there was anything left in the Stack estate such as insurance policies. He also wanted to question Stack and speculated that, had she talked to authorities that night, the attack might have been prevented. Mrs. Stack and her daughter had allegedly stayed at a hotel the night Joe Stack set fire to their house.

Sheryl is a single mother, who's homeless after her husband flipped out and burned down their house before crashing his plane filled with fuel into a building. She's probably going to have to deal with the IRS if over any joint or business bank accounts over any non-payment of Stack's taxes, which she may not have even known about previously. And now you want to pile on? For all the talk of 'she's a victim, too' she's not exactly being treated like one.

A few days later, the attorney reported they are removing Sheryl Stack from the lawsuit as they have reached an agreement regarding keeping Hunter's autopsy private. It has not been said, however, that they are dropping the lawsuit. No doubt, lawyers have had enough time to find Sheryl Stack's pockets are not deep enough. The question is, who are they going to sue now? The IRS? The airplane manufacturer? The Echelon building's engineers?

But it's not about the money....

Funeral services were held for Hunter Friday.

Austin Echelon Building Hit by Plane - Employee: "It felt like a bomb..."

Update (9:00 p.m. CST): Two bodies have been recovered. No identities released, but it's assumed that one is Stack's. The other is likely the missing, unidentified employee. Two other employees were taken to the hospital in unspecified conditions, but said to be suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. Eleven others were treated for minor injuries.

Update (6:00 p.m. CST): Stack's six-page letter has been removed from his site at the request of the FBI. An archive of the letter is at The Smoking Gun here.

Austin, Texas: The Echelon building in Austin was stuck by a single engine plane. Joe Stack, the named pilot, left a rambling, anti-government manifesto which said, "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man...take my pound of flesh and sleep well." He left his name and the dates (1956-2010) and today's date at the end.

One IRS employee described the crash. "It felt like a bomb blew off. The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran." Others related that the plane was flying just above the treeline and accelerated, hitting the building deliberately.



Stack was a contract software engineer who had a vendetta against the IRS. Reading through his sprawling statement, it is difficult to understand exactly what happened, but it becomes obvious that he felt personally persecuted for decades. His statement goes back to the 1980s and his complaints run the gambit from the IRS to Arthur Andersen, Enron, GM Executives, Senator Patrick Moynihan and President Bush.

Between the lines, however, it sounds like Mr. Stack blamed a lot of his own problems on the government and others.

"Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement."

Some time after 911, he moves from California to Austin, but complained he had a hard time finding work and that the pay was low.

"To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice."

For all his complaints regarding money, Stack was a licensed pilot and the owner of the single-engine aircraft that he ran into the building. Early reports that the plane might have been stolen, were incorrect. There is no official word if his body has been found.

Earlier, this morning, Stack also set fire to his house with his wife and daughter inside. A neighbor saw the flames and helped get the mother and daughter out unharmed.

At the end of his diatribe, Stack wrote:

"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed."