NARRATIVE OF EVENTS - PART 3

Six months before his release, Hidell registered a complaint with his ward supervisor, accusing another inmate of aggravated assault in the community shower. After in investigation by the supervisor, the accused boy was transferred to another ward. Following this incident, Hidell became "withdrawn" and "uncommunicative" according to reports of counselors. Although he had only one course to complete, Hidell failed to earn his high-school equivalency diploma.

Upon his release from El Paso de Robles on April 1, 1994, Hidell was assigned a probation officer, whom he never contacted. Hidell possibly moved to Los Angeles during the month of April, as a letter to [name expunged] from that period bears a Hollywood postmark. Due to his often solitary lifestyle, Hidell's whereabouts from the period of April to December, 1994, remain unclear. Some sources indicate that Hidell may have engaged in narcotics dealing in the West Hollywood area, although there is no record of any arrests in 1994.

Hidell held several jobs throughout the period from January 1995 to December 1999 and moved often between Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles. Among the jobs Hidell secured in the Los Angeles area were positions as an assistant layout artist at a pornographic magazine distributor in Van Nuys; as a second-shift security guard at an electronics manufacturer in San Fernando; and as a car detailer at a Mercedes dealership in Beverly Hills. In King County, Washington, Hidell held positions as a custodian at map printer in Seattle; as a chef at a family restaurant in Tacoma; and as an attendant at the Sure Shot gun range outside Tacoma, where he frequently assisted novices and was considered an expert marksman.

Among reasons for his dismissal by his various employers throughout this period are "failed to show up for work"; "found sleeping while clocked in"; "has difficulty concentrating"; "discovered smoking marijuana or similar substance on company property"; "continues to bother co-workers with political propaganda despite repeated documented warnings." Hidell's behavior in this period, particularly as documented in employment records, is consistent with drug abuse and addiction.

There is evidence that Hidell developed a strong interest in the Worker's Socialist Party upon meeting Roaul Perry, his supervisor at the Seattle map printer, in March 1996. Perry, a party leader who has run for election as a candidate for four offices in King County, states that Hidell was not well-schooled in the specific principles of the party but "was hungry to learn" and soon had "read more books and could talk more about" the history of socialism than "most people who called themselves members" of the party. Perry and Hidell maintained a relationship through 1998, and it was Perry who in June 1997 referred Hidell to a friend who secured him employment at the Sure Shot gun range. Several photographs taken at official King County Worker's Socialist Party events show Hidell's presence between 1996 and 1998. There is no Los Angeles branch of the Worker's Socialist Party.

Alek Hidell's official relationship with the Worker's Socialist Party came to a public end on August 16, 1998, when Hidell denounced Roaul Perry at the party's annual executive meeting. Witnesses present at the meeting report that Hidell, who failed in his effort to be elected treasurer of the party, screamed loudly at Perry and attempted to engage him in a physical fight. Hidell was forcibly ejected from the meeting by sergeant-at-arms V.T. Bringuier, who filed and later dropped assault charges with the King County Sheriff as a result of the incident.

While investigating the assault charge, sheriff's deputies discovered seven grams of marijuana in Hidell's apartment in Seattle. Hidell was arrested and after pleading guilty to possession of an illegal substance served two days in King County jail.

Perry states that after Hidell's forcible expulsion from the Worker's Socialist Party, Hidell continued to telephone Perry and hector him about past disagreements. Hidell "was always accusing me around that time of being afraid to work outside the system," states Perry. Perry further asserts that Hidell "was toward the end of his membership in the party preaching revolution nonstop." Hidell was in Perry's opinion "far more interested in taking extreme action than in the traditional measures we employ in the party." Hidell's suggestions at the time, according to Perry, included "hanging dummies of twelve CEOs in effigy off of the Space Needle" and "kidnapping a prominent business person the way the guerrillas do it in Colombia."

Hidell's only known written journal begins with an entry on September 1, 1998, apparently written while on a bus traveling from Seattle to Los Angeles. In this first entry, Hidell writes disparagingly of Perry and then states, "How can you look at histery and underestimate the value of class war???" Later entries, the frequency of which averages three per week and end on November 22, 1999 (at which point the remaining pages have been apparently torn out by hand), record Hidell's desire to form a Los Angeles branch of "The True Socialist Party" and to "look into gun running/L.A." An entry on June 6, 1999, states, "I am depressed and adrift and need to do something to make a mark for myself," and another undated entry from October, 1999, states, "It only takes one big thing to get cw started, but someone has to step up and do it. What when who where how????--I know why already."

It was on December 1, 1999, that Alek Hidell most likely decided precisely how he would make his mark and start the class war he had been contemplating for at least three years. While neither Bill Gates nor Microsoft had formally announced Gates's planned appearance in MacArthur Park, news of the event had leaked to several websites focused on the technology industry as well as the alt.fan.bill-gates Usenet discussion group and three discussion board systems on the World Wide Web.

Security video recordings from the parking structure of the Sunset Blvd. apartment building in which Alek Hidell lived on December 1, 1999, show that he last entered the building at 6 p.m. Records from Hidell's personal computer indicate that a connection to an Internet service provider was made at 7:10 p.m., that the computer accessed the World Wide Web via Microsoft Internet Explorer software and Usenet via NewsWatcher software. The session lasted forty-three minutes, and following the session the Web "cache" from that period--the record of the sites visited during that time--were moved to the "trash" portion of the hard disk and deleted. Partial reconstruction of those records indicates that among other areas of the Web, Alek Hidell visited the now-defunct Windoz Watch, an anti-Microsoft site that as of 7 p.m. on December 1 contained an item about "rumors" of Gates's surprise appearance at the Literacy for Life event. The site advised that "some sort of trouble might be possible," gave the time of the event as "noon" and requested that all Los Angeles residents bring whistles and "anti-monopoly" placards to the event.

Security video recordings from the apartment parking structure show that Alek Hidell, carrying a large gym bag, entered his Ford Pinto at 9:45 p.m. and drove out of the structure. Hotel records from the Park Plaza Hotel check-in desk record a signature of "A.J. Lee," which is consistent with Hidell's handwriting. The time of check-in was approximately 10 p.m. The attendant, Bonnie Ray Jarmon, remembers Hidell signing in under the false name and "carrying a heavy bag" and "insisting" that he didn't need assistance in carrying his luggage to his room, Number 801. Although Hidell paid cash for the double-occupancy rate, Jarmon states that Hidell was alone at check-in and "I don't recall anyone else going up to his room."

The Park Plaza Hotel does not employ any surveillance video cameras, and no witnesses claim to have seen Hidell between 10 p.m. December 1 and the time of the assassination the next afternoon. A paper bag with the remains of a chicken lunch and a soft drink can were later found in Hidell's room on the eighth floor, indicating that he may have eaten breakfast in his room as he lay in wait for Gates. No phone calls were made from the room.

Hotel maintenance supervisor Norman Williams was on the roof of the Park Plaza Hotel at "about noon" and walked from Stairwell One to the center stairwell to inspect the elevator equipment housed in that area. He recalls that "if anyone had been up there, I'd have seen him, and I didn't see anybody." Williams left the area "after about five minutes."

At some point after Williams's departure, Hidell entered the roof area carrying a Mauser 7.65 millimeter rifle loaded with five cartridges. Laying in wait on the southeast area of the roof, he would have been out of sight but still able to hear Copley-Smith's introduction of Gates. At some point before Gates's appearance, Hidell rested the weapon on the roof ledge and upon Gates's entry on the stage below fired two shots, hitting Gates in the shoulder and chest. Hidell immediately fled to Stairwell One and ran down six flights of stairs. At the fifth floor, where Stairwell One jogs through a hallway to the north and east, Hidell encountered Officer Baker, struggled with him, and shot Officer Baker in the head with Baker's service weapon. Hidell then fled to the center stairwell.

In the basement, Hidell encountered Officer Powell, who ordered Hidell to "hold it" and to "drop the weapon." Hidell turned his rifle to shoot at Officer Powell, who fired four shots in self defense. Two shots hit Hidell in the head and hip area. Hidell lost consciousness immediately and died at County-USC Medical Center within 90 minutes. An autopsy declared "heart failure" related to his injuries as the primary cause of death.