[Music] fire fire on January 7th 1973 New Orleans became a war zone gunshots rang out from a rooftop police officers fell and an entire city watched in horror The Man Behind The Massacre a former US Navy sailor named Mark Essex but the story of Mark Essex doesn't begin with the Bloodshed it begins long before in a place where he was supposed to find discipline Brotherhood and honor instead he found hatred racism and rejection was this a man pushed to the edge or a killer waiting to strike Mark Essex was not born into ha hatred he was not raised to be a killer by all accounts he was an ordinary kid before Mark Essex became a name whispered in fear before the sniper rifle before The Siege at Howard Johnson's there was a boy a boy growing up in what seemed like the ideal American town a place where black and white lived side by side where Community meant something and where racism if it existed at all was something distant something happening somewhere else or at least that's what he believed Mark Essex was born on August 12th 1949 in Emporia Kansas the second of five children in a workingclass religious family his father was a foreman at a meat packing plant his mother cared for disadvantaged children Emporia was a town that prided itself on racial Harmony a place where black and white lived side by side where racial violence seemed distant essics grew up believing in this harmony he hunted fished played the saxophone and even considered becoming a minister he had friends of all Races dated both black and white girls and saw no difference between them to him the world felt fair but was this real or was Essex simply seeing the world through rose-colored glasses mistaking the absence of overt racism for True equality Emporia wasn't the Deep South it wasn't the violence segregated North but was racism truly absent or just hidden his only brush with the law came in 1965 when a cop pulled him over assuming he was too young to Drive Essex saw it as a mistake an inconvenience but was it or was it a warning a glimpse into the world that lay Beyond Emporia by 1967 Essex had outgrown Emporia small town life had its charm but it also had its limits he enrolled at Emporia State University but dropped out after a semester he worked with his father at the meat packing plant but he knew he was met for more at 19 he was ready to leave his father a World War II veteran warned him against the Army instead Essex chose the Navy believing it would offer him stability discipline and opportunity on January 1369 he raised his right hand and swore an oath to serve he believed he was stepping into a future of honor and equality but what he didn't know was that the illusion was about to be shattered Emporia had sheltered him but the world the world had other plans when Mark Essex enlisted in the US Navy in 1969 he believed in the promise of equality 21 years had passed since Truman desegregated the military on paper black and white sailors served his equals but promises are easy to make and even easier to break at first it seemed like the Navy would reward his discipline he trained as a dental technician earning the respect of his white supervisor Lieutenant Hatcher but beyond his small circle the reality was different he believed rank would earn him respect but as he rose the insults and isolation continued he endured it quietly until he couldn't anymore by 1970 Essex had had enough a white NCO joked about how a [ __ ] at Sea belonged in the galley Essex struck him the incident was buried but his harassment intensified he turned to sedatives and then he found Rodney Frank Frank didn't believe in patience he introduced Essex to the Black Panthers to the idea of armed resistance the frustration Essex had swallowed for years began to harden into something Danger dangerous October 19th 1970 Essex didn't report for Duty he didn't demand Justice he just left I'm coming home I just need time to think but home didn't heal him it only made his anger grow his family convinced him to go back Lieutenant Hatcher his only real supporter defended him at his hearing the Navy gave him 30 days restriction and a fine but the message was clear we don't want you here the Navy had stripped him of his future when he left he carried more than just his discharge papers he carried a grudge against the system against the country against the people who had made him feel like nothing was the Navy responsible for the man he became or was this always his fate February 11th 1971 Mark Essex walked away from the US Navy of Freeman but he wasn't free at all he wasn't just discharged he was discarded stamped unsuitable and cast aside by an institution that had promised him discipline respect and equality but delivered humiliation instead did the Navy push him toward radicalization or was he always destined to Rebel if someone had intervened could his rage have been channeled into change instead of Destruction back in Emporia essex's restlessness grew he was no longer the boy who had believed in racial Harmony that illusion had been shattered 2 months after his discharge he ordered a Ruger 44 caliber semi-automatic carbine a weapon Built For War but who was his enemy did he truly believe he was in a war or was this just anger searching for a Target could someone have pulled him back from the Edge by August 1971 without a word to his parents Essex left Kansas for New Orleans the city was boiling with poverty police brutality and racial Injustice he saw black community suffocating under oppression and he believed America had already declared war on them was he right to see himself as a soldier or was he creating a war that only existed in his mind November 16th 1972 the moment everything changed police in Baton Rouge shot and killed two unarmed black students protesters at Southern University Essex watched in Fury as America Justified their deaths he wrote Africa this is it mom even bigger than God the white man is my enemy did America's racism radicalize him or did he let his anger consume him how many others watching the same injustices chose a different path days before New Year's Eve 1972 Essex wrote a Manifesto and sent it to ww L TV I will strike on December 31st Vengeance for my two Fallen Brothers was there still a chance to stop him could one conversation have changed his mind or had he already decided there was no going back 10:55 p.m. Essex crouched in the darkness outside NPD headquarters finger on the trigger he wasn't aiming at a symbol he wasn't aiming at a system he was aiming at a man he crouched in the shadows outside NPD headquarters waiting the world moved as it always had cops coming and going the city pulsing with life unaware of the terror about to unfold then the first shot the young Cadet fresh in uniform fell before he ever had a chance to understand why one bullet One Life ended one city thrown into chaos as Sirens filled the night Essex moved Vanishing into the darkness climbing fences sprinting across the I 10 Expressway his presence masked by the fireworks of New Year's Eve but this wasn't a celebration it was a distraction did Essex see himself as a warrior or was he just a man lost to his own rage he found refuge in gertown a place where even police feared To Tread a warehouse door stood in his way four shots from his Ruger 44 in the metal groaned open inside the industrial hum of machines and silence until the alarm shrieked a K9 unit arrived first officer Edwin Hosley senior stepped out reaching for his German Shepherd 1 second one bullet to the back did Hosley even know what hit him his partner officer Harold blappert reacted fast radioing for backup bullets shattering windshield as he ducked Essex wounded but not stoed vanished again leaving behind only blood stains and discarded rounds by Sunrise Police were everywhere but Essex was nowhere Essex had spent a week in hiding his anger festering sharpening when he stepped out that morning he had one final mission at Joe's grocery he leveled his rifle at the owner you come here the man ran ESS down then he stole a car and drove straight into history the Howard Johnson's hotel 17 stories of Steel and glass it wasn't just a building it was a stage the moment guests realized something is wrong inside bullets found their marks a doctor and his wife dead Hotel managers dead fires consumed the hallways smoke choked the stairwells and as police surrounded the hotel Essex turned his weapon to the streets below officers crumpling under his fire one after another New Orleans was under siege one man one rifle and an entire city held hostage for 7 hours Essex owned the skyline he moved like a ghost ducking between flames and shadows taunting the police below helicopter blades cut through the smoke US Marines arrived authorized to kill come down brother don't die today Essex stood his right fist raised his rifle pointed forward come and get me 200 rounds ripped through him his body flew backwards lifeless before it hit the ground was this suicide a last Act of defiance or had he become the very thing he fought against just another executioner When the Smoke cleared nine people were dead five were police officers 13 more were wounded but was it Revenge or was it Madness markk essex's name faded from history but his rage that never left did America make him did the system break him and if someone like him stood on the edge today what would we do differently some fight for justice some fight for Revenge Essex believed they were the same thing but what if he was wrong rage can burn or it can build which one will you choose oh