Samantha Bell Says Father Joe Stack Was a Hero For Crashing Plane into IRS Building

(billyeli.com)

(KTVT-TV)

AUSTIN, Texas (CBS/AP) When Joe Stack crashed his plane into an Austin IRS building killing one and injuring 12, he acted as a hero who was trying to call attention to what he thought was an unjust government, according to his daughter, Samantha Bell.

Photo: Joe Stack.

PICTURES: Austin Plane Crash

Speaking by phone from Norway to Good Morning America Monday, the 38-year-old Bell acknowledged that Stack's actions were "inappropriate" but said that at least now "people will listen."

Bell spoke about the loving, caring father who cherished his grandchildren, and said that he showed no sign of the growing resentment for the government.

Photo: Vernon Hunter was killed when Joe Stack flew his plane into an office building in Austin, Texas.

PICTURES: Austin Plane Crash

"He may have been somewhat frustrated, but he was a very quiet man," Bell told the morning show. "This man who did this was not my father … he must've kept this bottled up all these years."

But for the son of Vernon Hunter, the man who died in the attack, Stack is far from a hero.

"How can you call someone a hero who after he burns down his house, gets into his plane ... and drives it into the building to kill people?," Ken Hunter told "Good Morning America." "My dad Vernon did two tours of duty in Vietnam. My dad's a hero."

Before burning down his house and steering his plane into an Austin, Texas building that housed the IRS, Stack posted a rambling "manifesto" that railed against the Catholic Church, the IRS and taxes of a "totalitarian" government.

Bell, who lives in Norway, told Good Morning America that she agreed with her father's views on America's "very faulty" government and said she hoped that her father's attack will change "everything."

"Rome was not built in one day, but one small step at a time, Bell told the morning show.

But Ken Hunter says he believes Stack's actions won't change anything.

"The only difference he made was he took away from my family and murdered a 20-year U.S. Army vet," Ken Hunter said.

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PICTURES: Joe Stack
PICTURES: Austin Plane Crash

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