Six days after 65-year-old loner Jim Dykes boarded a school bus, fatally shot the driver and grabbed a 5-year-old boy, FBI agents stormed the makeshift bunker where Dykes was holed up, rescuing the kindergartener. Dykes is dead. The standoff lasted more than 140 hours, making it among the longest in recent memory involving a single hostage taker.

Some other lengthy standoffs:

About 104 hours

— March 28-April 1, 1999: Willie Southern, 34, went into a Jackson, Miss., hotel room with his two sons, saying he feared for his life because he believed there was a plot to kill him for insurance money. Southern finally emerged from the motel five days later with his 9-year-old son in his arms. He allowed his 14-year-old son to leave on the second day of the standoff.

98 hours

— March 18-21, 2000: After a 10-day manhunt for quadruple-murder suspect Joseph Palczynski, police in Baltimore County, Md., storm the apartment where he'd held a couple and their 12-year-old son hostage. Officers shot Palczynski 27 times.

68 hours

— Dec. 9-12, 1997: Continued...