Barton killed 12 people before taking his own life  THE NOTES: Excerpts from the letter found in the Barton family living room Notes left with bodies Police read the notes left behind by Barton (July 30) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K RELATED VIDEO: 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 To view the latest video streams, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K 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: Motive unclear in Atlanta massacre 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: 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT)

In this story: 'Words can not tell the agony' 'I have come to hate this life' RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- By the time Mark Barton shot to death nine people in a pair of Atlanta office buildings, he already had killed his wife and two children with blows from a hammer as they slept.

Barton, 44, put them face down underwater in a bathtub to "make sure they did not wake up in pain," he wrote in a note describing how earlier this week he bludgeoned his second wife, Leigh Ann, 27, his two children from his first marriage -- 11-year-old Matthew and 7-year-old Elizabeth Mychelle.

The stock market day trader killed himself in his van Thursday night in the northern suburb of Acworth as police closed in on him about five hours after the office building shootings in Atlanta, taking the death toll to 13.

The weapons found at the suicide site, .45-caliber and 9 millimeter handguns, are the same kind of guns Barton is believed to have used in the Atlanta shootings.

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

The two office buildings reopened on Friday.

Barton's computer-written note, read aloud to reporters by Henry County Police Chief Jimmy Mercer, was found in the living room of his family's apartment in suburban Stockbridge, south of Atlanta.

Barton's words reveal how tortured he felt at the time of the killings, but do not fully explain his motive.

Authorities are investigating his alleged financial and marital difficulties, but the note does not specifically link those problems to his actions.

"Words can not tell the agony," the note reads.

"I have been dying since October," Barton wrote. He said he was "so terrified that I couldn't be that afraid while awake. It has taken its toll. I have come to hate this life in this system of things. I have come to have no hope."

"I killed the children to exchange them for five minutes of pain, for a lifetime of pain. I forced myself to do it to keep them from suffering so much later. No mother, no father, no relatives."

He expressed his love for all three in the note as well as in shorter, handwritten messages found with the bodies of his wife and children. Those notes appear to ask God to take care of them.

But in the longer note, Barton also calls his wife "one of the main reasons for my demise."

"I don't plan to live very much longer, just long enough to kill ... the people that greedily sought my destruction," he wrote.

MORE DETAILS TO COME