S8-E78 The Dark Knight Rises-Mass Shooting

Murder + Horrific = Murderific.


Colorado... A town affected many times by mass shootings - again suffered on May 20, 2012, by a man who destroyed 12 lives and injured 70 others at "The Dark Knight" movie premier.

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SOURCES:

A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Theater Shootings

by William H. Reid MD MPH

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Murderific True Crime podcast,hosted and created by Bernadette from the state
of Maine. We have everything atrue crime connoisseur could ask for. Remember
murder plus horrific equals murderiffic three fifteenand three fourteen. First shooting at Century

(00:44):
Theaters fourteen, three hundred e StellarmeterAvenue for seeing somebody shooting in the auditorium
three fifteen and three fourteen millions atleast one person that's been sought, but
they're seen as hundreds of people justrunning around. Three Mars sixty Mortis prince
An inside of theater nine. Welcometo Murderific True Crime podcast. My guest

(01:12):
today is howdy folks, it's Casey. I wanted to cover this case,
another mass murder case, not toglamorize the killer, because there is no
glamorizing that, but to see howhorrible things like this happen, What leads
up to it, What are thewarning signs? What can we do differently

(01:34):
so it stops happening. Not thatwe know the answers. I'm just a
podcaster and a florist. But whyare there so many mass murders? Mental
illness, societal decay, the availabilityof guns, so many reasons, but
like I said, we don't havethe answers. We're just here to tell
a story, and that's why Iwanted to take a deep dive into the

(01:57):
Aurora, Colorado mass shooting and theshow James Holmes. Colorado in the United
States unfortunately has a long history ofgun violence with many mass shootings. Not
only the century sixteen movie theater shootingswere discussing, but of course Columbine High
School, where fifteen people died andtwenty four were injured from two shooters who

(02:19):
were students there. And the massshootings have increased significantly since the Aurora Theater
massacre, when twelve people were murderedand seventy injured during the premiere of The
Dark Night Rises on July twentieth,twenty twelve by James Holmes. The community
is Scarred. My source for thisepisode is the book A Dark Night Rises

(02:42):
by William Reid. So let's talkabout James holmes upbringing. James Holmes,
also known as Jimmy as he wascalled by his family, was born December
thirteenth, nineteen eighty seven, California, to our and Robert. Arlene was
a registered nurse and Robert was astatistician. They were a successful couple work

(03:07):
wise. It does appear that someserious mental conditions were on both sides of
the family, including schizophrenia, OCD, depression, psychosis, and various inhospital
stays. James had a younger sisternamed Chris, and here is a clip
from James's trial where Chris describes theirfamily life. How would you describe your

(03:32):
parents to this jury? Oh,my parents are incredible. Yeah. I
feel like I'm luckier than most tohave the parents that I do. I
think my brother and I are bothreally lucky. I mean, they've always
put a shelter over our heads.They've worked really really hard to always put
food on the table and send usto the best schools and support us and

(03:53):
music for sports and whatnot. Soyeah, I love both my parents.
I think they're incredible. Do youthink that they were involved in your life,
in your school and things like that. Absolutely. Yeah. They always
checked my homework at night and thingslike that. And they were at every
concert and every practice, sports practice, or sports game, whatever it happened

(04:14):
to be. They were always there. Did your what did your dad help
you with your homework? Yes?My math, homework and what about your
mom? My mom was more ofthe English literature, essay writing helper.
Did you see them do that withyour brother as well? Um? Yes,
I saw my dad help a lotwith my brother. I'm not sure

(04:38):
if my mom helped my brother,to be honest, but with a schoolwork
and such. Yes, um,in your in your memory looking back at
your your life with your family,were your parents you said they came to
like concerts and things that you did. Yes. Did they do the same
with your brother? Yes? Yeah, my dad coached his soccer team and

(04:59):
things like so. Yeah, theywere both actively involved in what he was
doing. Okay. And you alsowent a lot to some of those events
when they were going. Is thatright to my brother's events? Yes?
Yeah. I would tag along andhand out oranges and things like that at
soccer games. Yeah. Do youthink that Did your parents make you feel

(05:27):
loved? Yes? When James wasseven, the family moved to Salinas,
California, where the sister and brotherhad lots of room to play. They
had lots of fun holidays with thefamily. In nineteen ninety six, when
James turned eight, his parents beganto notice that their son was very fixated
on his Nintendo more than the normalchild, and he barely spoke at home.

(05:51):
James went to counseling three times andit appeared that James got better.
He was diagnosed at the time withopposition old defiant disorder, which is really
just a generic diagnosis. His teachers, though, described James as quote right,
helpful, sweet, intelligent, andalways smiling unquote and I cannot stress

(06:14):
enough how loving james parents were.They had family dinners, it was a
very stable home. James loved sportsand animals and music in school. He
definitely came from a family of privilege. The family moved to San Diego when
James was twelve. Around age ten, though, James's thoughts became overly focused

(06:34):
on nuclear bombs. He had recurringthoughts about it, but he said it
didn't concern him too much, andthat would be a pattern sort of in
James's life, like he would havethese intrusive thoughts, but he was very
detached from the thoughts, if thatmakes sense. The move didn't do James
any good. James had a hardtime making friends and he became immersed in

(06:58):
the game Magic the gathering. Hewas socially awkward. He became very obsessed
with video games, and by fourteenhis parents brought him into counseling again.
He began thinking about killing people inearly teenage years, not in a hate
type of way. It wasn't againstanyone's specific just thoughts of death. Some

(07:20):
of James's thoughts were about saws killingpeople, kind of the same thing I
was saying about being detached. Hethought about killing people, but not anyone
specifically. He just had thoughts ofviolence. James also began freezing up when
he was anxious or in any sortof social situation, which as a child

(07:42):
is everything. You're in school,you're in sports, you're around kids all
the time, so you become overlyanxious. And prior to that, he
was actually a pretty social kid.According to some people, it's not like
he was always socially awkward. Heparticipated in a various school at ease.
By fourteen, James himself knew thatsomething was wrong with him mentally, but

(08:05):
he kept those thoughts to himself.He was still doing extremely well in school,
but he began gravitating towards violent videogames. In two thousand and six,
James started college. He stayed ina co ed dorm, but the
rooms themselves were same sex. Afterfreshman year, he lived on an on
campus apartment and he made lots offriends with kids with similar interests like World

(08:30):
of Warcraft or Halo. He lookedand seemed normal, though others said that
James had a spaced outstare a lotof the time, or that he was
a little bit strange and a loner. He did have female friends and crushes,
but he didn't date in college untilgraduate school. James had a full
scholarship and his parents paid for allof his other expenses. Again, very

(08:54):
privileged. James graduated from college intwo thousand and ten with outstanding grades.
He wanted to get a graduate degreein neuroscience and he went to the University
of Colorado and moved to Aurora ina one bedroom apartment. He stopped calling
his parents at this point and heonly started emailing them, so he couldn't

(09:16):
even handle the interaction of a phonecall with his parents, so he's very
much detaching from people, though apparentlywas able to keep his grades up.
He had actually applied to many graduateschools. In some of those cases,
he was brought in for an interviewand was so awkward and detached, or

(09:39):
something was so awry with the wayhe was handling himself. Many graduate schools
declined him or declined to admit him. Wow James dated a girl from a
biology class. She said he waspainfully shy, and they broke up because
she felt that he was emotionally lacking. He started talking about killing people,

(10:01):
though she thought he was joking.She told him he should get professional help.
After the breakup, Holmes became depressedand started seeing flickers out of the
corners of his eyes, which wouldfight each other with weapons and guns.
In twenty twelve, James began seeingpsychologists doctor Lynn Fenton. She saw him

(10:22):
seven times over three months. Fentonmentioned that James had an odd, staring,
bugeye look in the first session,but he said he had thoughts of
killing people. He said it asa vague and bland statement. I asked
if he had any particular targets,but he didn't reveal any to me.
I could not get him to sayhe was angry about a person or a

(10:45):
group of people, So James saidthat he had no plan, just fantasies.
So he didn't say the I'm goingto kill someone, I'm planning something
so then the psychologist would be underobligation to do something. He always kept
everything very vague, and he mayhave done that on purpose. James said

(11:05):
that he had no guns or weapons, and doctor Fenton found him paranoid and
hostile. Fenton said that james admissionsof violent thoughts were not enough to keep
him under a mental healthhold. Toget a seventy two hour hold, you
would have to give specific threats,or be suicidal, or be so psychotic

(11:26):
that you cannot take care of yourself. James did not meet the requirements for
a mental healthhold, so a lotof people would give doctor Fenton a hard
time after this, saying why wasn'tJames admitted why didn't you do something?
But he didn't legally say any ofthe things that would make it so that

(11:46):
she could put him in a psychiatrichospital. She also went on to say
that he was one of the moreunique and more disturbed individuals that she had
ever dealt with. Seven weeks inthe treatment, James stopped making any eye
contact. The doctor believed James mayhave been having delusions but not saying anything.

(12:07):
Her first diagnoses were OCD. Thesociophobia were the possible schizoid personality disorder.
He was prescribed zoloft and antidepressant.James admitted to his doctor that he
was playing over one hundred hours ofDiablo three a week, which is a
crazy amount. And in no wayare we saying that video games had anything

(12:31):
to do with this, because thatis fucking ridiculous. But he was focused
on violent video games. That washis obsession. One hundred hours a week,
that's like more than fourteen hours aday. That's sleep in play games,
and that is it. In earlyJune twenty and twelve, James failed

(12:54):
an important exam in school, whichwas very unlike him, and he just
dropped out like that. Great.He's in graduate school. He worked his
whole life and he's like, I'mdone. James sent a text to one
of his friends saying he was ina mania and to stay away from him
because quote, he was bad newsbears. Un that's one of my favorite

(13:16):
expressions. It's pretty funny and Idon't even know where it comes from.
You. I know what bad badnews bears is, but I don't know
why you would say that in thatcontext. James also told his ex girlfriend
that he wanted to do something evillike kill people. He had one last
mental health visit in June that doctorFenton said made the hair on her arms

(13:41):
stand up. The doctor spoke tocampus security, who did a background check
on Holmes, but he had nowarrants or past issues with the law.
You have to imagine for a psychiatristto say something like that. I mean,
she's seen a lot of people andshe's saying that she's afraid of James.
I think her purpose in the backgroundcheck was she wanted him off campus.

(14:03):
She thought that he was dangerous andwas trying to see what avenue she
had to keep him away. Afew hours after James had failed the exam,
he went and bought his third gun. This time it was a Smith
and Wesson brand of R fifteen,a semi automatic. He later put a
sight on the gun to use inthe dark. James purchased this gun legally.

(14:28):
On June thirteen. James was buyingammunition over one thousand dollars worth ten
extra thirty round magazines for his MMPfifteen rifle, a special one hundred round
drummag and his ammo was jacketed hollowpoint, a bullet type that expands on
impact, which means a larger wound, and he was trying to cause the

(14:52):
most damage he could. Over thenext couple of weeks in June, he
was buying as much AMMO as hecould. He bought a combat ballistic helmet.
He bought some contact lenses called spiritlenses. They made his eyes look
almost black, and you've probably seenthese pictures. At the time. James

(15:13):
would like take pictures with his gunsand he would have these contact lenses in
and he looked very, very evil. Late June, James also dyed his
hair shocking bright orange red. Throughearly July, James continues to buy more
weapons, AMMO, a knife,bullet resistant pants, by the way,
all on his parents' dime. Healso began buying some incendiary devices. He

(15:39):
also bought spike strips in case thepolice followed him after then he could stop
them. He began looking on theinternet for info on napalm and bombs.
On July fourth, two and twelve, james parents called him concerned because they
found out he had dropped out ofschool and he had no job. They

(16:00):
sent him five thousand dollars and gentlysuggested that he should be in counseling.
Well, yeah, you can't forceanyone to do anything. They don't know
the extent, They don't know whathe's doing, they don't know what he's
thinking or definitely not shaming his parentsat all. Like we said, a
lot of times people with mental illnessdon't say what they're planning. They don't

(16:22):
say it out loud. But hedid give warnings and at the same time,
when you hear someone say something likethat, like I'm going to kill
people, most of the time youdon't believe what they're saying. You don't
believe that because your brain will notallow you to. On July eleventh,
James would take selfies with his gunsand his scary contacts. The photos were

(16:44):
of him smiling with an obscene lookinggrin close ups that he thought would be
in the newspapers after he committed hisunforgivable act, which they were. Later.
James would say he wanted to beremembered as dangerous. James had a
notebook and began writing his thoughts andactions about killing people. He detailed this

(17:04):
plan for a shooting in a centurysixteen movie theater. He drew out the
way the building looked and the exitsin his notebook. He tried to figure
out how to get the most kills. That was his goal. He wrote
that he thought murdering people would helpget rid of his depression, which doesn't
make any sense. But when you'rementally ill, the things you think don't

(17:29):
make sense. Holmes would write inhis notebook, quote, terrorism isn't the
message the messages, there is nomessage, unquote, and that sounds like
a mentally ill parson. That makesno sense at all. July sixteenth,
James was trying to make homestyle bombsand incendiary devices, trying to rig his

(17:51):
apartment get fireworks in the gasoline.James had no bomb making skills. This
went on for three days, withJane still in the flammable apartment. On
July eighteenth, James checked his adultFriendFinder and match dot com profiles for the
last time. No women had writtento him. On July nineteenth, in

(18:14):
the am, James set up detonatorsin his apartment. He set trip wires,
and then he mailed the notebook thathe had been working on for weeks
to doctor Fenton, his psychiatrist.Some of the last words in the manifesto
of sorts says, quote, can'ttell the mind rapists my plan. Oddly,
they don't pursue or delve into harmfulomissions. I was fear incarnate,

(18:38):
love gone, motivation directed to hate, an obsession. Embrace the hatred our
dark night rises. James planning wasmeticulous in some ways, but he never
thought about his getaway plan. Henever thought about how he was going to
get out of that situation. Heplanned everything up to and during, but

(18:59):
not how to get away. Hejust had one plan about getaway, and
that was what the spike strips hadhe gotten into a high speed chase with
police. After this, he'd throwdown the spike strips and hopefully get away.
I don't think he had money.I don't think he had food to
get away. I don't think hehad any more thought about that. I
believe that he thought he would becaught or that he would die. Around

(19:22):
eleven PM, James set up allof his trip wires devices and poured gasoline
and oil all over his carpets.He took his weapons, AMMO, and
everything else he had purchased, andhe drove to the Century sixteen Theater in
Aurora, Colorado. James got tothe theater in the early morning of July
twentieth, twenty twelve, which wasjust after midnight. He parked his car

(19:45):
near the rear exit of Auditorium nineand then went to the entrance. He
was wearing normal clothes as he wentinto the midnight showing of The Dark Knight
Rises. The premiere of the moviethe previous started and families were excited to
see the new Batman movie. Wewent to the premiere of The Dark Knight
Rises the same night and I fellasleep. You did fall asleep. But

(20:08):
because of this act, every timewe go to the movies now and the
movie theater is full, I lookaround to see it's scary now. You
never know who has a gun.It's definitely in the back of my mind
when we go into the theaters now. James went to the very front of
the movie theater and sat down.He took his cell phone out and pretended

(20:30):
to take a call. James left, going outside an exit door, and
he put a clip like a tableclothclip in the exit door so that you
would be able to come back in. James went to his car and put
on his body armor. He tookout his preloaded weapons. He then stopped,
took out his phone and called amental health crisis hotline. Mistakenly.

(20:55):
The phone call was disconnected after nineseconds, and Home said himself that if
anyone had helped him or anyone hadspoken to him, that he would stop
what he was doing. So hewas like looking for a sign to stop,
and then unfortunately that phone call gotdisconnected. Holmes got out of his
car and stood there for a fewminutes. Again. He would later say

(21:18):
that he was waiting for anyone tostop him. So the next part of
this podcast will be graphic discussing violenceand murder. James went into the exit
door he had propped open and activateda tear gas canister. Many people thought
a firework had went off, likeit was a prank. James began shooting.
It was dark and the movie wasstill playing loudly. He used a

(21:42):
twelve gage gun, shooting people inthe left corner of the theater, and
he heard screams. The shots wereevery two to three seconds. James then
dropped the shotgun and used an MMPfifteen automatic rifle. James said later that
he had tried to fire at anyonewho was trying to flee for their lives.
People all around we're trying to layon their family members to save them.

(22:04):
James walked down aisles, firing atpeople ducking behind seats. The seats
were no protection from the bullets.Bolm stood out front of the theater on
purpose. He did not want tobe rushed by the crowd, and he
knew people would be running out ofthe other exit, So he was at
the front of like the movie theaterwhere the movie plays, and you know,

(22:26):
when you leave the theater, everyoneruns out the back, which is
exactly what was happening, and hedidn't think anyone would rush to the front
to get him. And hearing youtalk about how the shooting started, I
can't even imagine how much terror thepeople in that crowd felt to be sitting
and not knowing where the shots arecoming from, or trying to lay on

(22:47):
your family members to protect them.That seems fucking horrible. Yeah, first,
they all thought it was a gag, like a part of the premiere.
What else would they think. Youcertainly wouldn't think that somebody's there to
shoot you. Holmes rifle jammed,and he was so focused on using this
high powered weapon that he tried tounjam it for up to two minutes.

(23:08):
Instead of picking up another gun.He had this fantasy of using this particular
gun, and it wasn't working outfor him. And at that point,
James simply walked out of the exitdoor and he dropped his gun on the
ground. Police were at the scenein about a minute because of all the
nine one one calls, forty twocalls and all, for example, this

(23:30):
call which last twenty eight seconds,and you can still actually hear the shooting
taking place. I can't hear.Holmes later said, quote, I accomplished

(24:07):
what I set out to do.Twelve people were murdered, seventy wounded,
some disabled permanently, not to mentionall the survivors and first responders that have
to live their life with the traumaforever. James began to take off his
body armor. Second officer Jason Sweeneyand Jason wat spotted him with its gas

(24:30):
masks still on. James was calmbut detached. They were able to subdue
him without much effort. James washandcuffed. The scene outside the theater was
absolute chaos, as you might imagine, so many cars at the ambulance had
a hard time getting in. Jamesat that time informed the officers there were

(24:51):
explosives in his house. James washeld in prison under suicide watch. Of
course, he was in solitary confinementfor his own protection due to the media
and the crimes that he had committed. He was given a public defender.
He never looked at the judge once. The formal chargers were twenty four counts
of first degree murder and one hundredand sixteen counts of attempted murder, inciting

(25:17):
violence, and possession of explosive devices. On August ninth, two and fourteen,
Holmes attorney said that his client wasmentally ill and he needed to be
assessed by doctors. By September nineteenth, two twelve, more charges were added
and the tally was now one hundredand fifty two. The trial was delayed
many times because of suicide attempts byJames and James not being allowed to plead

(25:42):
guilty by reason of insanity to avoidthe death penalty. So because of all
of these legal things, it tookforever to get a jury together. For
obvious reasons, the media coverage whichwas everywhere, he couldn't escape it.
The trial began on April twenty seventh, two and fifteen, that's three years

(26:03):
later. The defense said that Jameswas the shooter, but was mentally ill
and that he suffered from schizophrenia atthe time of the shooting. The prosecution
included testimony from survivors and words fromJames's own notebook. On July sixteen,
two thousand and fifteen, the jurydeliberated for twelve hours, finding Holmes guilty

(26:26):
of all the counts of first degreemurder. On August seventh, Almos was
sentenced to life in prison without thepossibility of parole. He barely missed getting
the death penalty due to three jurors. The formal sentence twelve consecutive life sentences
in an additional three thousand, threehundred and eighteen years tacked on for attempted

(26:48):
murder and explosive possession charges. Thejudge stated, quote, it was the
intention of the court that the defendantnever sets foot on free society again.
James was at Colorado State Penitentiary,but due to assault by other inmates,
he's been moved to an undisclosed prisonout of the Colorado area. So some

(27:12):
of my thoughts while doing the research, I watched many hours of the video
of James with his psychiatrists or psychologist. Is the disconnect from what he did
and him talking about it. Hisdemeanor is meek and respectful. Yeah,
under it all, there's a lifelongpattern of thoughts of killing or self destructive

(27:34):
thoughts. So even children who growup in the most stable, loving homes
can't escape the grasp of mental illness. It's not like this kid wasn't brought
up well and that's why he's mentallyill. Mental illness can strike any family
and does. For James, thiswas literally a game to him, and
his victim count was a score inhis made up game. My thoughts are

(28:00):
again just a podcaster or whether hewas mentally ill or not. He belongs
in jail because he hurt so manypeople and you never know what could happen
in the future, and sometimes youjust have to pay for what you've done.
Last, but most important, hereare the names of the victims who

(28:22):
lost their lives, many shielding theirloved ones at the theater that night.
Veronica Mosa Sullivan six years old.She had blonde hair and blue eyes,
and she just graduated from kindergarten andher mother was also injured. Alexander AJ
Boink eighteen years old. Alexander hadjust graduated from college. MICHAELA. Medick,

(28:48):
aged twenty three. She was astudent in college. Jessica Redfield twenty
four. Jessica was a sportswriter andof note. She had escaped a shooting
in Toronto and ended up dying inthis way. Alexander Tevez twenty four years
old. Alexander had just gotten hismaster's degree and he shielded his girlfriend and

(29:14):
saved her life during the shooting.Jonathan Blunk aged twenty six. Jonathan was
in the Navy. He also saveda friend during the shooting, and he
was a father. John Larmer agedtwenty seven. John was a sailor from
Illinois. Matt McQuinn aged twenty seven. Matt also shielded his girlfriend, who
survived during the attack. Alex Sullivanaged twenty seven. Alex was at the

(29:40):
Dark Night premiere celebrating his twenty seventhbirthday. Jesse Childress aged twenty nine.
Jesse was in the Air Force.Rebecca Wingo aged thirty two. Rebecca was
trying to get her college degree andwas a mother of two. Gordon Codin
aged fifty one. Gordon was attendingthis movie premiere with his two daughters.

(30:03):
Also, we cannot forget the seventyothers who were injured, some permanently.
It affected them directly, and thentheir families and those who were in the
theater that night as well who madeit. But we'll have PTSD forever.
Also how much it hurt Aurora,Colorado as well. The trauma has ripple
effects to the point whereas Americans,as we were saying, when you go

(30:26):
to the movies now, you lookaround and you think about what happened to
these people, and you're afraid.Thank you for being my guest, Casey.
Thanks for having me and I alwayslove having you on the show.
It's a rarity, I know,but you're really good at it and I
appreciate how are articulate you are andyou've always brought so much to the show

(30:51):
and I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode
of Murderific True Crime Podcast. Thankyou to all of my patrons through the
last five years who have made thisshow possible and have allowed us to be
independent for five years. It's beena blessing. We appreciate you. Thank

(31:12):
you. Bye bye. You've reachedthe end of another Murderific True Crime podcast.
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(31:32):
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