FBI’s most dangerous hostage crisis: The Vietnam veteran who stole a child

ON A cold January day in rural Alabama, a Vietnam veteran with a grudge against the world climbed on to a school bus, shooting the driver and abducting a five-year-old boy to his underground bunker.

Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old former truck driver with a terrifying reputation, held Ethan Gilman captive for a week in what has been called one of the most dangerous and difficult hostage cases the FBI has faced.

More than two years on, The Wall Street Journal has gone back inside the heart-stopping standoff, using interviews, recordings, photos and documents to tell the story of an angry man with nothing left to lose. Dykes had no relationship with his two daughters and ex-wife, and had gained a reputation for his vicious treatment of local pets — threatening neighbours, and a deep resentment of the government.

...the FBI Critical Incident Response unit sent a Boeing 727 packed with criminal profilers, bomb experts, attack dogs, crisis managers and the Hostage Rescue Team, who set up at an old building that had been an antique store, restaurant and strip club.