Damacio Ybarra Torres, declaring himself "a victim of a medical conspiracy, " decided to launch an all-out assault on the Emergency Room of the LA County USC Medical Center. His five-hour siege left three doctors in critical condition. Damacio lived in Room 432 of the Ford Hotel on the fringes of Skid Row in downtown LA. According to a neighbor Torres was a neat man who kept his room clean and orderly. However, the room was left in disarray after the police search. In it they found a note that said, "I am dying. No one seems to care." With it there was a list titled "Things to remember" in which he wrote, "take knife," "burn pictures," and "write a note on the mirror." They also found a small telescope, a gas mask, a German helmet, the memoirs of Gen. George Custer's widow, a lighter shaped like a tiny hand grenade and manuals entitled "Boobytrap" and "Survival." Recently Torres had gone through visible changes. He used to wear his hair long but two months before the rampage he shaved his head.