If anyone ever needed proof that society -- for all its technology and sophistication -- is still at the mercy of a single act of madness, it surely came when Frank Eugene Corder crashed a stolen Cessna through a holly hedge and a magnolia tree and into the home of the most powerful man on Earth. No one could explain why the 38-year-old ended his life at the White House, but clues seem to lie in a history of alcohol, drug use and depression. Cocaine was part of his life; so, too, were bottles of Mad Dog wine. Recently -- after his small trucking company collapsed, his father died and his marriage failed -- he seemed to withdraw even more. Equally disturbing was how the plane evaded Secret Service defenses. Radar at nearby National Airport picked up the Cessna, but no one called the White House. The air- traffic-controllers union says the two controllers on hand were tending "administrative duties in preparation for the heavy morning traffic flow" and were not responsible for monitoring radar screens continuously in the wee hours, when the airport has hardly any traffic.
