Mark Essex

Mark Essex

Mark Essex Navy ID

When Mark Essex was in the Navy, he said he wanted to become a dentist. Two years later he gunned down 19 people, including 10 police officers.

Thirty years before a pair of serial snipers terrorized Washington, D.C., Mark Essex prowled the streets of New Orleans with a .44-caliber Magnum rifle. During a weeklong reign of terror, he launched a series of surprise attacks against the city's police department, its citizens, and its visitors.

Essex's rampage ended in the bloodiest shootout in New Orleans history and the deadliest day ever for its police department.

Map of Louisiana with New Orleans

As the events of that day were broadcast live on television, 12-year-old John Allen Williams, who would later change his name to John Allen Muhammad and become one of the beltway snipers, lived less than 70 miles away.

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1. Mark Essex
2. The First Attack
3. The Escape
4. Hate As Ammunition
5. The Second Attack
6. A Possible Trap
7. Tracking A Killer
8. Back to Joe's Grocery
9. The Howard Johnson's
10. The Police Arrive
11. The Siege
12. Tightening the Noose
13. Help Arrives
14. Death From Above
15. Aftermath
16. Photo Gallery
17. Bibliography