VIDEO Police read the notes left behind by Barton (July 30) Windows Media 28K 80K Barton, described by friends and neighbors as normal, left notes on the bodies of his family. CNN's Mike Boettcher reports. (July 30) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K A review of the killings, from CNN's Brian Cabell (July 30) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell announces that the suspect in the shootings has committed suicide (Courtesy WSB) (July 29) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K Campbell gives details on what he has been told about the shootings (Courtesy WSB and WXIA) (July 29) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K The CEO of All-Tech Investment Group, Harvey Houtkin, talks about the Atlanta shootings (July 29) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K RELATED AUDIO: Charles Carter, who works at Two Security Center, describes what he saw (July, 29) 370K/31 sec. AIFF or WAV sound A witness who works on the third floor where the shootings occurred (July, 29) 156K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Another witness talks about being caught up in the pandemonium (July, 29) 228K/21 sec. AIFF or WAV sound MESSAGE BOARDS: Message Board INTERACTIVE: Images of the Atlanta Shootings  ALSO: Excerpts from the letter found in the Barton family living room Notes left with bodies Emergency response to trauma makes life or death difference Atlanta gunman remained suspect in '93 Alabama killings Victims in the Atlanta shootings

July 30, 1999
Web posted at: 11:48 a.m. EDT (1548 GMT)

In this story: Motive? Family killed first Suspect in 1993 killings 'Trail of blood' RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- As Atlanta-area authorities tried to find a motive for a massacre, two buildings housing brokerage firms reopened Friday, the morning after day trader Mark Barton, possibly upset by financial and marital difficulties, shot 21 people, killing nine of them.

Hospitals were caring Friday for 10 of the wounded, seven of whom were in critical condition. Other wounded people were treated and released.

Barton, 44, who is also believed to have killed his second wife and two children in the days leading up to Thursday's rampage, later committed suicide in his van when cornered by police at a gas station in suburban Acworth, Georgia, taking the death toll to 13.

A .45-caliber and 9 millimeter handgun were found in Barton's van, the same kind of guns he allegedly used in the Atlanta shootings, authorities said.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, who had said the chemist-turned-day trader was upset about his stock market losses, told CNN Friday it may be impossible to learn the full story behind the carnage. "Quite honestly, I don't know if we'll ever know what the true motives of Mr. Barton were," Campbell said.

Linda Lerner, an attorney for All-Tech Investment Group, a day-trading firm Barton once used, said there was nothing unusual about his trading activities and that he was "going through a difficult divorce."

"He was a customer until a couple of months ago and then he went to another firm to trade," she said in Montvale, New Jersey, where All-Tech is headquartered. "We're going through his account now to determine what his trading gains and losses were."

"Day trading does take place in a high pressure environment, but I understand from the firm where he had been trading until two days ago that there was nothing remarkable about his trading," she said.

"I don't know that you can necessarily tie his trading to these killings," she said.

Lerner says there was nothing remarkable about Barton's trading activities

Police in Stockbridge, Georgia, south of Atlanta, said they had evidence that Barton's 27-year-old wife, Leigh Ann, died Tuesday and the children, 12-year-old Matthew, a son from his first marriage, and 7-year-old stepdaughter Elizabeth Mychelle, were killed Wednesday.

A handwritten note was left on each body, and a computer-generated note left in the living room explained "why he did what he did," Henry County Police Chief Jimmy Mercer said.

Mercer said authorities would not know what killed the three until they received the medical examiner's report. "If the contents of the note were to be believed, it appears the individuals died of blunt force trauma," he said.

With the notes was a list indicating Barton had intended to kill at least three more people.

Police in Stockbridge, Georgia, remove the bodies of Barton's wife and two children

Suspect in 1993 killings

Barton was also a suspect in the murders six years ago of his first wife, Debra Spivey Barton, 36, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, 59.

The women were beaten to death with a sharp instrument at a campground in Cherokee County, Alabama, about 100 miles from Atlanta.

Barton, who is believed to have taken out a $600,000 insurance policy on his first wife before she was killed, was never charged in that crime.

No charges were ever filed in the case, but Barton was the lone suspect, authorities said.

Georgia authorities said that, in the notes found with his second wife and children, Barton denied he was the killer in the Alabama case.

The office buildings where Barton shot 21 people are located in the upscale Buckhead area of Atlanta

'Trail of blood'