In 2010, a lone single-engine plane crashed into the Echelon office complex in Austin,
Texas. Thoughts the crash may have simply been an accident gave way to fears that this
was a terrorist attack, and there may be more to follow. However, a lengthy note left behind
by the plane's pilot, revealed the truth nature of the incident - it was no accident, and
he had his reasons for the attack.
Andrew Joseph Stack the Third or Joe Stack, as I'm going to call him, was born in 1956.
Growing up in Pennsylvania, Stack was orphaned at age four - that's a sad but promising start
to a protagonist's life. Following movie logic, the more traumatic your childhood the greater
your potential - that means Joe probably developed super powers in his teen years, and I'll probably
never amount to anything because my parents provided me a stable childhood.
Stack studied engineering in college, before moving out to California to pursue a career
in software engineering. This began his illustruous relationship with the tax authorities - a
relationship that would span decades and see the closing down of two of Stack's software
companies, fines that wiped out his retirement savings on numerous occassions, and eventually
his death. A relationship the IRS would probably call a resounding success, or business as
usual.
In the early 80's, Stack was introduced to a group of people who were studying tax code.
They were researching the special tax exemptions that religious institutions benefit from.
Y'know, the type that make it possible for suspect preachers to set up what is ostensibly
a business free of tax to become massively wealthy. Why do you need a mansion to do God's
bidding anyways? Hiring some of the best tax lawyers in the
business, the group decided to make use of these exemptions themselves, both to avoid
tax and as an act of protest, an attempt to force authorities to re-evaluate unfair tax
laws. They would be abusing the law in the same way corrupt religious figures do, but
making sure they followed all the rules and made it all transparent. In accordance with
this, Joe Stack began claiming his home was a church, and as such he didn't have to pay
taxes on any business conducted from it. Despite Stack claiming they followed the law
and didn't do anything the big money-making churches don't do, the IRS was less than impressed.
When they found out what was going on, it cost Stack 40,000 dollars.
"I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and
one for the rest of us…"
For the rest of the 80's, Stack worked as a contract software engineer. Then in 1986,
a tax reform act was passed that made it harder for software engineers to label themselves
private contractors. Of course a private contractor is taxed a little differently than an employee,
so this could really disrupt your business if all of a sudden your tax status had changed.
Stack couldn't believe it. It was almost as if they wrote a law just to fuck with him.
He spent thousands of dollars and months of his time trying to raise awareness and rally
protest against this law. He spoke and wrote to politicians and anyone who would listen,
he attended meetings, he organised professional groups. Keep in mind that all this time spent
campaigning was lost income for his business. But it was all a waste of time and money anyways.
The law stuck. After losing so much money fighting the regulation,
and now having that regulation impact his bottom line - Stack was once again in a precarious
financial position. He began working 100-hours a week. However, by the 1990's, his business
suffered under economic depression. The .COM crash and restrictions on travel after 9/11
crippled his business. As a contractor, Stack had to regularly fly to meet with customers
- and this was now very expensive and impossible in some cases with airport security on high
alert. Stack then watched the government give billions
of dollars in aid to affected airlines, while he got nothing. Ironically the government
had basically shut down an industry he depended on, which destroyed his business, and then
used his tax dollars to fund that same industry. After losing his business and going through
a divorce, Stack decided to move to Austin, Texas. Coming from California, Texas was surely
paradise for a man struggling with tax and the government, right? Not exactly. Stack
found that the work for a software engineer in Texas was not quite as plentiful or fruitful
as it was in California, imagine that. Stack toiled away for years, taking on work
when he could find it. To survive he was forced to dip into his savings. After one particularly
bad year, Stack failed to file a tax return. Why? Because he didn't make a cent. No income.
He thought this spared him from filing a return but mercy is not a word in the government's
lexicon. Unfortunately for Stack, by the time he was notified the government wasn't happy
with him, it was too late to file a protest with the court, so he had to just sit and
take his 10,000 dollar fine.
By the late 2000's, Stack had another business, and another marriage - he obviously didn't
learn his lesson the first time. After his troubles with taxes in the past, he decided
to get an accountant to handle his currently undocumented income, that way no more mistakes
would be made and he could just get on with his life.
Unfortunately for Joe, feels like I've said that more than a few times now, his accountant
neglected to report his wife's income too. Stack had no idea he was underreporting income
until the government decided to audit him. Disaster.
By now, Joe Stack was completely disillusioned with the government. He believed the freedom
the United States provided him was a blatant lie, and that he was nothing more than a slave
to the system, which made him jump through hoops just to protect his hard earned savings,
and in the end they could just wipe it all out if they felt like it.
Throughout his life, he was a mild-mannered man. He was a father. He was a hobbyist pilot.
He had a love of music and played bass in a band. But now, at 53 years of age, Joe Stack
was at the end of his rope. His anger at his situation grew increasingly frightening for
his wife, who took her daughter to a hotel for some space on the 17th February 2010.
The very next day, Joe Stack would act on his frustrations, in an attempt to defy those
who had wronged him.
Oh yeah, that's right, you spent all this time listening to me drone on about finances,
you're ready to get to the action. Admit it, you didn't click on the video to hear about
taxes. In all honesty, I didn't choose this topic to talk about them either. Take it away,
Mr Stack. On the morning of February 18th 2010, Joe
Stack posted a manifesto/suicide note to the internet. In it he details his lifetime struggle
with the IRS and his growing cynicism with the American system.
"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."
Joe Stack then set his house on fire, and left for the airport, where he rented a hangar
for his Piper Dakota aircraft. At 9:45am, he took off. His last words to the control
tower were "thanks for your help, have a great day".
Around ten minutes later, the same aircraft travelled at full speed into Echelon I, a
business complex which housed IRS offices. The craft exploded on impact, causing much
damage to the building and starting a fire. Joe Stack was killed on impact. IRS manager
Vernon Hunter was also killed. 13 others were injured, two critically.
Though they were able to eventually resume operations at Echelon I, between the loss
of documents and manhours of work, the attack cost the IRS millions. They spent further
millions on improving security at their offices all across the US. Most of that just went
into employing more security guards though, so unless they came equipped with anti-aircraft
weaponry, it wouldn't do much to stop a similar attack. This is the US we're talking about
though so you never know. In all, the IRS reportedly spent 38.6 million dollars.
So, did anything change? No, not that I'm aware of. You know how you sometimes hear
people call a regrettable expenditure a tax write-off? Well this is basically the equivalent
thing for the tax man. Business is good enough that they can foot the bill for the occasional
suicide attack. As long as their business makes more money than suicide attacks, they're
doing alright. Joe Stack was well aware of this, of course,
in his manifesto he admits he knew business would continue as usual after his attack,
he just hoped enough people would take notice, and maybe one day, there'd be too many people
done with the IRS to ignore.
Maybe this video has elicited some admiration from you, maybe even some inspiration. But
I would advise you not to fuck around with the IRS - or your country's equivalent - because
one thing is universally certain - the tax man does not fuck around. Think back to any
of my previous videos where I mentioned someone was having trouble with their taxes. How did
that end for almost every single one of them? But hey, if you want me to do a video on your
tragic demise, be my guest. And if you want to hear a similar tale of
a man taking all he could stands until he couldn't stands no more, why not check out
my video on the Killdozer, where a man made a tank out of a bulldozer and went on a rampage
- or my video on Shawn Nelson, who made a tank out of a tank and went on a rampage?
I even have another video of a pilot flying a small aircraft into a building over perceived
wrongs. Yeah I have so many videos now it's like I've got one for every occassion. And
if you've already seen all those videos, well firstly thank you for the support, and second,
subscribe you miserable bastard.