1. Mark James Robert Essex was an American serial sniper and black nationalist known as the "New Orleans Sniper" who killed a total of nine people, including five police officers, and wounded twelve others, in two separate attacks in New Orleans on December 31,1972, and January 7,1973.
Mark Essex is believed to have specifically sought to kill white people and police officers due to racism he had previously experienced while enlisted in the Navy.
Mark James Robert Essex was born in Emporia, Kansas, on August 12,1949.
Mark Essex's father was a foreman in a meat-packing plant and his mother counseled preschool-age children in a program for disadvantaged children.
Emporia, the community in which Mark Essex was raised, consisted of 19,000 people and prided itself in a long tradition of racial harmony.
Mark Essex developed a passion for hunting and fishing in the rivers and streams within and around the city, and developed ambitions to become a minister in his teens.
Mark Essex was popular among his high school peers, and refrained from trouble as a teenager.
Mark Essex is known to have dated both black and white girls in high school, on one occasion telling his mother he did not "see much difference" between girls of different races.
An average student who performed best in technical subjects, Mark Essex graduated from Emporia High School in 1967.
Shortly after graduating from high school, Mark Essex briefly enrolled at Emporia State University.
Mark Essex dropped out after just one semester, and briefly worked in the same meat-packing plant as his father as he considered his next career or educational move.
Mark Essex enlisted the Navy on January 13,1969, committing himself to a four-year contract at advanced pay.
Mark Essex performed his compulsory training at the Naval Training Center with exemplary results.
Mark Essex's superiors recommended he enroll in the Navy Dental Center.
Mark Essex accepted this advice and was apprenticed as a dental technician in April 1969, specializing in endodontics and periodontics.
Mark Essex soon formed a close and ongoing friendship with his white supervisor, Lieutenant Robert Hatcher.
However, Mark Essex soon learned that bigotry from many of the white servicemen towards blacks was a general everyday occurrence for blacks serving within the Navy.
Shortly after his enlistment, Mark Essex obtained a job as a bartender at an enlisted men's club named the Jolly Rotor, where he discovered that certain rooms were off-limits to blacks.
Shortly thereafter, Mark Essex formed a close friendship with a black colleague named Rodney Frank; a self-described black militant who worked in the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department.
Frank encouraged Mark Essex to read literature about individuals such as Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who together had founded the Black Panther Party.
Mark Essex returned via a Greyhound bus to Emporia, and remained AWOL until November 16,1970.
One month after his desertion from the Navy, Mark Essex's family persuaded him to return to Imperial Beach.
Mark Essex was given a general discharge from the Navy for general unsuitability on February 11,1971, at the age of 21.
Mark Essex soon began referring to himself as "Mata", and embraced the extremist content of the 1968 book Black Rage.
Sometime around late-April 1971, Mark Essex returned to his family in Emporia.
Mark Essex moved home four times between 1971 and 1972 before relocating to a two-room apartment at 2619 Dryades Street in Central City in early November 1972, and saw first-hand the poverty of those living in the city's housing projects.
Mark Essex was accepted into the program, and chose to enroll in classes specializing in vending machine repair.
Mark Essex began a course of African studies in 1972, and would memorize African terms and dialects as he sat alone in his apartment.
Mark Essex was living an increasingly solitary existence, and battling severe depression.
Mark Essex's demeanor was upbeat and enthusiastic, leading his parents to believe he had recovered from his bitter experiences in the Navy.
Mark Essex was disturbed and outraged by the harsh response of police to this student civil rights demonstration.
Mark Essex made a specific point of talking to each family member in succession, and conveyed no sense of distress.
Mark Essex hid behind parked cars in a poorly illuminated parking lot across from the busy central lockup and began firing at a 19-year-old cadet, named Bruce Weatherford, as he walked toward the gatehouse to report for duty.
Mark Essex ran into an industrial area of Gert Town; an area known for high crime and hostility towards police.
Mark Essex then fired several further rounds at the car, shattering the windshield.
The stock boy reported Mark Essex had walked across the street and into the local church.
Mark Essex drove Albert's vehicle to the 17-story Downtown Howard Johnson's Hotel at 330 Loyola Avenue in New Orleans' Central Business District, across the street from City Hall and Orleans Parish Civil District Court.
Mark Essex parked the vehicle on the fourth level of the hotel's garage and climbed the fire escape stairs directly across from the garage in an effort to gain illegal entry via an unlocked door, but each successive door he attempted to open, he discovered to be locked.
Mark Essex then entered the Steagalls' room; he soaked telephone books with lighter fluid and set them ablaze beneath the curtains before dropping a Pan-African flag onto the floor beside the bodies of the couple as he ran toward one of the hotel's interior stairwells.
Mark Essex shot and killed the hotel's assistant manager, 62-year-old Frank Schneider, who had proceeded to the 11th floor to investigate employees' reports of an armed intruder on this floor.
Mark Essex then ignited another fire on the 11th floor before descending to the 10th floor, where he encountered the hotel's general manager, Walter Collins, attempting to warn guests about the spreading fires.
Mark Essex shot and fatally wounded Collins, who shouted to a guest to shut her door and call the police.
At about the same time, Mark Essex shot 43-year-old hotel guest and broadcasting executive Robert Beamish in the stomach as he walked close to the eighth-floor swimming plaza.
Mark Essex remained in the water for almost two hours before he was rescued.
Shortly thereafter, Mark Essex shot and wounded a 33-year-old sheriff's deputy named David Munch in the leg and neck as he took aim at the hotel from the eighth floor of the nearby Rault Center.
Mark Essex then descended to the fourth floor parking lot, possibly with intentions to flee the hotel in the vehicle he had stolen that morning.
Mark Essex then returned to the 16th floor where he observed a 33-year-old traffic officer named Paul Persigo attempting to divert onlookers to safety outside the hotel.
Mark Essex was pronounced dead on arrival at Charity Hospital.
Mark Essex immediately turned and ran in the direction of the hotel roof.
In each instance Pitman flew away from the hotel to reload, Mark Essex returned fire at the helicopter.
Mark Essex's strategy was to keep the sniper pinned in the cubicle in an effort to erode his morale.
An autopsy later revealed Mark Essex had received more than 200 gunshot wounds.
An examination of Mark Essex's rifle revealed he had only two remaining bullets at the time of his dash from the cubicle, indicating his final act was likely one of symbolic suicide.
Mark Essex's family authorized two wreaths to be placed upon his coffin.
Mark Essex wanted to change it himself now, not wait another five hundred years.
In both incidents, Mark Essex shot a total of 21 people, nine of whom died.