Louis D. Hastings

Louis D. Hastings, is an American mass murder, who in an attempt to disrupt the Alaska pipeline, killed six of the 22 residents of McCarthy, Alaska, on March 1, 1983, with a .223 Ruger Mini-14 rifle.

Early life Hastings had received psychiatric care as a child in Atlanta, Georgia, which detailed parental "insensitivity", and what Hastings later dubbed "a dysfunctional family" noting his parents both fought to be dominant. Both his parents were also mental health patients.

Life in Alaska Hastings dropped out of university, and worked as a freelance computer programmer for several years before moving to Alaska.

In Alaska, Hastings married an Aleutian wife but the marriage faltered after six months as his business also began to fail.

When Hastings arrived at Christopher Richard's cabin at 8:30am, he was invited in for coffee but shot Richards in the neck and near his eye - causing Richards to stab Hastings in his left leg while Hastings begged "Look, you're already dead, if you'll just quit fighting I'll make it easy for you". Richards survived and ran out of the cabin to wave down a neighbour to bring him to the airstrip where he hitched a ride on a departing plane to Glennallen, Alaska, where he reported the shooting. An unknown resident also phoned in an emergency to State Police.

At some point, Hastings killed Harley B. King whose snowmobile was marked with bullet holes on the trail leading to the airstrip.

Hastings killed Les and Flo Hegland who owned the cabin near the airstrip, and Maxine Edwards' body was found in the same cabin. Hastings hid in the cabin awaiting the mail plane and shot at anyone approaching the airstrip. Police seized his computers, which contained a list of approximately 200 public officials, police officers and others - leading to speculation it may have been a hit list.

There was a three-day hearing on Hastings' mental health with the defence unsuccessfully presenting Dr. Joseph Satten to support a finding of mental insanity, and the State relying on Dr. David J. Coons and Dr. Irvin Rothrock.

Hastings was the subject of the Discovery Channel's Alaska Ice Cold Killers episode "Frozen Terror".