The harrowing news this week of a retired truck driver and Vietnam veteran in Alabama killed by authorities — who were attempting to rescue the 5-year-old boy the man had kidnapped and held hostage for nearly a week in a homemade bunker — sent shock waves across
the nation.

According to news reports, 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes was described by neighbors as an “isolated loner” who once beat a dog with a lead pipe and had threatened to shoot children who set foot on his property. No one knows exactly why Dykes boarded a school bus last week and demanded to be given two boys between the ages of 6 and 8, killing the bus driver after he refused Dykes’ demands.