Mark Barton (Atlanta Killer) associated with Jehovah's Witnesses

Quote from August 9, 1999 Newsweek, p. 27, 28

In his suicide note last week, Barton denied that he had killed his first wife and her mother. He went on to say, "I have come to hate this life in this system of things." His marriage was in trouble by fall of last year. In October Leigh Ann moved out and rented an apartment in a neighboring town. Barton's cyberspace "profile" as an America Online subscriber was, in retrospect, slightly ominous. In his first entry, about a year ago, he wrote, "Enjoy day to day stock trading" as a hobby. His personal quote was "A dollar earned is a dollar saved." But in early 1999, he no longer listed himself as married, and his hobbies now included "Guns, Day Trading." His personal quote was from the Clint Eastwood shoot-'em-up "Dirty Harry": "Make my day."

 

Searching for help, Barton went to the Jehovah's Witnesses for instruction. His wife had left him over money, he told his minister, but he couldn't stop gambling on stocks. "It was a fever that he had," the minister, who did not wish to have his name used, told NEWSWEEK. Barton said he was waking up in the middle of the night, and feared that he had inherited some kind of undefined mental imbalance from his father. From the Bible, he began reciting from Revelation 21:4 ("and there shall be no death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be anymore pain").

Whether Mark Barton was a baptized member of the Jehovah's Witnesses or a disfellowshipped member has not yet been determined.

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