Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast · Ben Gibson

Mark Barton - The Killer Day Trader

·56 min·3 clips

Mark Barton attacked Leanne with a hammer, then hid her body in the master bedroom closet.

1. Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast covers Mark Barton and the July 1999 Atlanta killings tied to his home life and day-trading losses. 2. Ben and Nicole host the episode, and their back-and-forth matters because they narrate the case while reacting to the evidence, dates, and notes. 3. The episode asks how Mark Barton moved from a chemistry graduate to a man linked to family deaths and two brokerage shootings. 4. Barton was born on April 2nd, 1955 in Germany, where his father Truman Barton was serving in the U.S. Air Force. 5. He grew up in Sumter, South Carolina, as an only child in a structured military household and was described as strong in math and science. 6. The hosts say classmates saw him as quiet, socially isolated, and emotionally distant, not disruptive or aggressive. 7. By his mid-teens, Barton was using hallucinogens, later overdosed multiple times, and entered psychiatric treatment after a reported mental breakdown. 8. He attended Clemson University and then the University of South Carolina, where he was charged with burglary and placed on probation. 9. He graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and then worked in chemistry-related fields before moving to Atlanta. 10. He married Deborah Spivey, later helped start TLC Manufacturing in Texarkana, and by the late 1980s was president earning about $86,000 a year. 11. The episode says Barton and Deborah had two children, Matthew in 1988 and later Michelle, while their marriage deteriorated. 12. After Barton left TLC Manufacturing in 1990, police arrested him on burglary-related charges after a break-in involving proprietary formulas and erased computer files. 13. The charges were later dropped after a board member said an agreement had been reached, and the hosts note there was no conviction. 14. Barton later worked at a chemical company, began an affair with receptionist Leanne Lang in 1993, and changed his appearance with new clothes and tanning beds. 15. He took out a life insurance policy on Deborah worth roughly $600,000, then Deborah and her mother Eloise Spivey were found dead inside a trailer near Lake Weiss, Alabama, during Labor Day weekend. 16. Investigators found cash and valuables left behind, used luminol on Barton’s car, and later noted his refusal to give blood, DNA, or a polygraph. 17. The episode says Leanne was reportedly spending nights at Barton’s house within a week of Deborah’s death, and Barton married Leanne in 1995. 18. A daycare worker later reported Michelle had said her father touched her inappropriately, and a psychologist in the custody process reportedly said Barton was quote, certainly capable of homicide. 19. The hosts use a tense, conversational style with repeated reactions, cross-talk, and detailed scene-setting around the apartment and brokerage floors. 20. People interested in true-crime timelines, financial crime, and workplace violence should listen; people wanting a light or short episode should skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast