The Dark Knight gunman sent a notebook filled with details and drawings about how he was going to kill people to his university psychiatrist one week before the shooting - but it sat unopened in the campus mail room. The revelation will undoubtedly lead many to come to the awful conclusion the massacre could have been prevented and 12 lives could have been spared. A law enforcement source told said that the package was only discovered on Monday but they suspect it had lain there undetected since July 12.
Bizarre behavior: James Holmes, pictured at his first
court appearance on Monday, was involved with a number of prostitutes in the
months before the massacre.
Panic: Emergency services were called to the University of
Colorado medical school because of a possible suspicious package on Monday -
which turned up the notebook sent to a psychiatrist one week before the massacre.
Bomb scare: Although that package turned out to be from
someone else and harmless, a search of the Campus Services' mailroom turned up
another package
Disturbing: A poster on the wall is seen inside the
apartment where accused killer James Homes lived, the same apartment he rigged
with explosive devices
James Holmes' name was written in the return address box. The package was turned up after an extensive search of the campus' mail room. It is not known why it was not delivered to its intended recipient. Authorities then obtained a warrant from a district judge to open the package, which is when its chilling contents were discovered.
Experts believe Holmes cracked under the pressure of
following in his father Robert's overachieving footsteps
The source said: 'Inside the package was a notebook full of details about how he was going to kill people. 'There were drawings of what he was going to do in it - drawings and illustrations of the massacre.' The spiral-bound pad was said to be filled with gun-wielding stick figures blowing away other stick figures. The notebook is now in the possession of the FBI but it has fueled speculation that an earlier discovery could have prevented the senseless tragedy which unfolded at a Colorado movie theater less than a week ago.
Police and FBI agents were called to the University of Colorado's Anschutz medical campus in Aurora on Monday morning after the psychiatrist and professor at the school reported receiving a package believed to be from the suspect. Though the package in question turned out to be from someone else, this prompted an extensive search of the campus mail room which uncovered the notebook.
It is not yet clear whether or not the psychiatrist had any previous contact with Holmes but it is likely, considering that the 24-year-old studied various mental health issues before he dropped out of the university's neuroscience program.The psychiatrist was also a professor at the college.
It was reported that Holmes even asked a prison guard if he had watched The Dark Knight Rises yet and how the film ended. The 24-year-old bought a ticket to the midnight screening but allegedly left after half an hour to put on the body armor stored in his care before returning to the theater and opening fire.
A jail employee said that Holmes's voice was flat and his eyes glazed over when he asked, and repeated the question when he was ignored.
Victim: Rebecca Wingo was one of 12 people killed in the
July 20 shooting at Century Cinema during a midnight screening of The Dark
Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado
Colorado shooting victim Jonathan Blunk with Chantel Blunk
in this undated family photo. He made the ultimate sacrifice for his girlfriend
Jansen Young in the Batman massacre
Tears for victims: Family members depart after a memorial
service for Gordon Cowden, pictured above, which took place today in
Denver
A sad day: Movie-theater-shooting-victim Gordon Cowden's
family walk out of the Pathways Church Denver after a memorial service on July
25, 2012 in Denver, Colorado
WHAT HAPPENED JAMES HOLMES? BY HIS FORMER TEACHER
When I knew James Holmes, the Colorado
shooter, he was Jimmy. I was his fifth-grade teacher and he lives in a tiny town
of 5,000 called Castroville. Recalling him at school, he was well-dressed,
neat, wore glasses, liked to read and excelled in all academic areas. He had two
really good friends, both sharp like him — in fact, top of the
class.
What happened to him? James had everything going for him. He lived in the wealthy part of town; I’m pretty sure both of his parents had white-collar jobs.
How can we know what happened ?” Perhaps he became psychotic. It shows up in people in their 20s. Maybe he used wicked sanity-eating drugs like OxyContin, meth, crack, and it destroyed his mind. I don’t know. Some people will always snap. They’ll commit crimes of passion, commit dark acts under the influence of drugs, anger, lust, misperception, racism, ignorance and poor or wrong decision making.
I fear that in schools somewhere out there, more people like James Holmes are festering.
What happened to him? James had everything going for him. He lived in the wealthy part of town; I’m pretty sure both of his parents had white-collar jobs.
How can we know what happened ?” Perhaps he became psychotic. It shows up in people in their 20s. Maybe he used wicked sanity-eating drugs like OxyContin, meth, crack, and it destroyed his mind. I don’t know. Some people will always snap. They’ll commit crimes of passion, commit dark acts under the influence of drugs, anger, lust, misperception, racism, ignorance and poor or wrong decision making.
I fear that in schools somewhere out there, more people like James Holmes are festering.
A jail employee said that
Holmes's voice was flat and his eyes glazed over when he asked, and repeated the
question when he was ignored.
'He was trying to look like he was sincerely curious. Like he had no idea why there was anything wrong with what he was saying. It was sick...I think he’s trying real hard to act crazy.' Holmes remains in solitary confinement in the Arapahoe County Detention Center. He was moved to the infirmary Tuesday for his own protection, sources said.Prison officials fitted him with a black plastic face guard to stop him from spitting on guards.
It emerged today that three days before he dropped out of university, Holmes failed a key exam, prompting him to buy a terrifying arsenal of weapons. Experts have suggested that it may have been the stress of failing the exam coupled with the pressure to follow in his brilliant father's over-achieving footsteps which triggered an underlying mental illness.
Robert Holmes, 61, has degrees from Stanford, UCLA and Berkeley and currently works as a senior scientist at FICO in San Diego. Holmes' fifth grade elementary school teacher wrote a letter to the New York Post wondering what had happened to his former student he recalled as being sharp, neat, well-dressed and top of the class.
He laments as to how or why he suddenly snapped when he came from such a normal, stable background.
Questions: Holmes has been uncooperative since arriving at
jail, which is at odds with the man who told police he had rigged his apartment
with explosives (pictured) after his arrest
Explosive: More than 30 homemade grenades, ten gallons of
gasoline, improvised explosive devices (IED's) and trip wires or trigger
mechanisms were secured from the apartment
Police believe the attack was meticulously planned and Holmes had been collecting and storing the weaponry - which included 6,000 rounds of ammunition and several automatic rifles and hand guns - months in advance. It is also believed that the Century 16 theater was not his original intended target.
The National Enquirer reported that an initial police investigation showed the Colorado gunman planned on traveling to New York City for the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises so he could shoot dead the stars of the movie.
University of Colorado spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said she was not aware of the contents of the package or who had sent it.
From left: Actors Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Gary
Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and
director Christopher Nolan at the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in New
York
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