James Helm
Appearances
Murder In America
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Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.
Murder In America
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For the next few years, James seemed to be doing really well. He was an excellent student at Castroville Elementary and was always on the honor roll. One of his teachers, Ann Hestand, remembered him vividly. She told several newspapers that he was intelligent, smiling, active, helpful, and sweet.
Murder In America
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In addition, she noted that he wasn't extroverted, but he also wasn't really introverted either, and he was actually pretty popular with his fellow students. Another teacher, Paul Carer, stated that James was balanced, like a Renaissance kid, meaning he was very well-rounded and curious. Now, he was in Mr. Carr's classroom from the age of 10 to 11, and he showed zero red flags.
Murder In America
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That year, he and another student were given special privilege to create a class website using a computer code that they had become enamored with learning about. This was in 1998, when coding wasn't on most kids' radar whatsoever. So James Holmes was a student who really stood out. However, according to James himself, it's around this time when dark thoughts began to infiltrate his mind.
Murder In America
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Now, in the year 2000, shortly after these violent thoughts began to pop into James's head, he got some unfortunate news. His parents decided that they were ready to move back to San Diego. This time, it was Arlene's parents who were sick. And luckily for them, Bob was even offered a job in San Diego, so it was an opportunity they couldn't pass up.
Murder In America
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But this time around, moving was a lot harder for James. At 12 years old, his whole life was in Salinas. He already had his friend group established. He was familiar with his school and he was involved in different sports. But one night, his parents sat them down and told them they were leaving.
Murder In America
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And to make matters worse, there were only two weeks left of school and James wouldn't be able to finish out the school year with his classmates. No end of the year parties, no summer neighborhood hangouts or anything. He would now have to start his life over in a city where he didn't know anyone.
Murder In America
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After moving to San Diego, James was really struggling. Without any friends in the city, he spent that summer completely isolated. He would later say that other than spending time with his family, he mostly sat alone in his bedroom closet reading books. He also played video games and watched television. His mother encouraged him to play with the neighborhood kids, but he didn't show any interest.
Murder In America
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Then, soon enough, the school year began. James was starting the 7th grade. Now, according to him, he did make some friends who invited him to play a game called Magic the Gathering. He was grateful to be invited into the group, but he said that he felt really awkward around them.
Murder In America
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And I'm Colin Brown.
Murder In America
EP. 203: COLORADO - The “Dark Knight Rises” Movie Theater Shooting (PT. 1)
One of the boys from this group would later say, Jimmy was very quiet, very soft-spoken, not warming up or even talking to you until you get to know him. James himself said that he was painfully awkward around this time.
Murder In America
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He said that he often turned to video games for an escape, and at home, his parents noted that he was irritable and unwilling to talk to them, which is pretty common around this age. But his mother Arlene said that he couldn't even talk to people on the telephone. Every time the phone was handed over to him, he would just freeze up, unwilling to speak.
Murder In America
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She would even make him scripts to use during the phone calls, but still, he couldn't do it.
Murder In America
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Dr. Reed wrote, There's a lot of psychological evidence that Jimmy was afraid of letting his angry feelings get out of control, that those emotions might hurt others or drive them away. That's a routine childhood fear shown in different ways by children of all ages, and it was of great concern to Jimmy.
Murder In America
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For example, like all kids, sometimes he got mad at his mother and sometimes he felt that he hated her. He was so afraid of those feelings or that he would lose control that he made a pact with himself never to hate her. It wasn't acceptable to be angry at her, he told me. If a kid gets really angry at his mother, she could treat you differently and maybe ignore you.
Murder In America
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He wants to know how graphemes are mediated in spatial frequency channels.
Murder In America
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When James started college at UC Riverside, he moved into the Pentland Hills Residence Hall, a freshman dorm building. And while there, he really thrived. His grades were phenomenal, and he even met a group of friends that he grew close to. Ryan LaCroix, one of his best friends during his years at UC Riverside, said that James was shy, but that he fit in well with their friend group.
Murder In America
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They spent most of their time together playing Mario Kart, watching Lost as it premiered every week, and going on fun trips together. James went snowboarding, out to dinner, on hikes, and played video games late into the night with his friends. While his friends liked playing Halo, they recalled that James wasn't a fan of aggressive first-person shooters.
Murder In America
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Instead, he preferred strategy games like World of Warcraft 3. And again, the people around him thought he was pretty normal.
Murder In America
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two of james's female friends noted that he was a bit strange but never in a way that made anyone feel threatened a former roommate said that he would often lie in bed at night not sleeping just staring at the ceiling unmoving as he sat there in deep thought but nothing that they noticed was extremely alarming
Murder In America
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This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.
Murder In America
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I suffer. Other people suffer. We'd all be better off if everyone on earth dies. Hey everybody, Courtney and I have a favor to ask of you. If you love Murder in America, you love our show, please leave us a five-star review wherever you listen to your podcasts, whether that's Apple Podcasts, Spotify.
Murder In America
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If you love our show and you wanna help us grow, definitely consider leaving us a five-star review. Also, it helps the show so much when people share out links to our program. So if you're listening and you're loving what we're doing here, share us on your Instagram story, shout us out on X,
Murder In America
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Post one of our shows on your Facebook and let the world, your friends, your family know that you're listening to Murder in America. It seriously helps us so much. It helps us grow the show. We couldn't do this without all of you listening at home. Seriously, thank y'all. But let's get back to the story.
Murder In America
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Thank you.
Murder In America
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The science said victim services unit, children something.
Murder In America
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uh-huh yeah yeah what about that there wasn't any children hurt now obviously we'll get more into that in part two but by 2010 james graduated in the top one percent of his college class his gpa was 3.949 the kind of grade that will get you into any graduate school of your choosing at least in theory following graduation james applied to eight graduate schools with doctoral neuroscience programs
Murder In America
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He had several reference letters from past professors, including one that read, A very effective group leader brings a great amount of intellectual and emotional maturity into the classroom. However, out of the eight schools he applied to, James was rejected by all of them. And it was largely due to his essay that he wrote.
Murder In America
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These essays are supposed to give a glimpse into the student, their personality, beliefs, and goals in life. But for James, it gave a glimpse into his psyche. In his essay, he spoke at length about using clairvoyance to solve challenging scientific equations. At one point, he stated that he "...invoked the infinite vastness of indefinite knowledge."
Murder In America
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and the colleges he applied to were not impressed. Now, there was one staffer at Montana State who considered accepting James, but apparently James had left them an unsettling voicemail, and from there they went down a different direction. But this entire experience was really hard on James. He hadn't taken the rejection well, and from there he would go on a dark downward spiral.
Murder In America
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At this point, James was around 23 years old. On average, men with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder are diagnosed in their late teens to early 20s, and symptoms that may have been flickering throughout the teenage years often become hard to ignore by this age.
Murder In America
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According to some psychiatrists, they believe that this is exactly what was happening to James at that time, and his family did have a history of schizophrenia. However, there are other professionals who don't believe that James was suffering from schizophrenia, but from severe OCD instead.
Murder In America
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I have always been fascinated by the complexities of a long lost thought seemingly arising out of nowhere into a stream of awareness. I have an unquenchable curiosity, a strong desire to know and explore the unknown, and a need to persist against the odds.
Murder In America
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When James made the move to Aurora, Colorado, I'm sure he was filled with hope. This was a new chapter, the start of what would hopefully lead him to a successful career in neuroscience. And like we mentioned, James did really well in school. His undergrad years had been a very pleasant experience for him. He had friends, he had made good memories, and school was easy for him.
Murder In America
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However, he had no idea that graduate school would be the complete opposite experience. When classes began that year, a lot of the students were eager to start off strong. They got familiar with the other students in the class, introduced themselves to their professors, and did everything they were supposed to do. But not James.
Murder In America
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He seemed like he didn't really care to be there, or that he was too smart to have to try. One classmate would later say, What struck me was that he was kind of nonchalant. According to his professors and classmates, James would often come to class early.
Murder In America
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after a few weeks James started leaving his labs early he wove nonsensical jokes into his presentations skipped class and seemed completely unconcerned with the tasks given to him now you might just be able to get away with that in undergrad but not here James couldn't just study right before the exam and ace the class
Murder In America
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In graduate school, there are endless presentations, group projects, and lab rotations. You have to put in the work to succeed, and James wasn't doing that. For his entire life, he had been really good at school, and what was once a fulfilling distraction for him was clearly no longer working. In his book, A Dark Night in Aurora, Dr. Reed suggests, Maybe James was impatient.
Murder In America
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Maybe his studies weren't moving him fast enough towards his goal of figuring out what was wrong with him. But during this time, James also had another distraction, his very first girlfriend.
Murder In America
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Now, when he and Gargi weren't in class, they hung out at James' apartment, a small one-bedroom on the third floor of an apartment building near campus. This apartment building would, in a matter of months, become a literal ticking time bomb. But from October 2011 to February 2012, it was James and Gargi's little escape.
Murder In America
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They watched SNL reruns, had sex, played video games, and ate dinner together. On dates, they sometimes visited the Century 16 movie theater, the same theater that would become the center of James' demented plan. But despite having a love interest for the very first time in his life, James was still struggling with his mental health.
Murder In America
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His social anxiety had gotten pretty bad, and because of that, he was having a hard time with his presentations in class. Then on top of everything, it seemed like his homicidal thoughts had gotten worse.
Murder In America
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By February 2012, James was still happy and in love with his girlfriend Gargi. For Valentine's Day, he even set up this nice evening together. He lit candles in his apartment, he bought her carnations, and he cooked her a nice chicken dish. Then, after they watched Netflix together...
Murder In America
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For James, the relationship was going so well, he even sent an email to his parents telling them about his girlfriend and the Valentine's Day they spent together. But Gargi wasn't feeling the same. She would later say that over the Christmas break, she had started questioning her relationship with James.
Murder In America
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From the beginning, she told him that she didn't want anything serious, that she was just interested in a casual relationship. But over time, James' feelings were growing stronger.
Murder In America
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was clear that he liked her way more than she liked him so that month she asked james if they could pull back the reins a little bit she didn't want him completely out of her life she was even still okay with having a sexual relationship with one another but she didn't exactly want to be boyfriend and girlfriend and not wanting to lose her james agreed to be friends with benefits
Murder In America
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but he would later say that this was a huge loss for him. Afterwards, he became even more depressed and said, my mind was kind of falling apart. One day, he opened up his journal and wrote that he had lost his last battle with biology, his last battle of falling in love.
Murder In America
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But before their session, James would participate in some typical college activities. On March 17th, he and Gargi went to a bar to celebrate St. Paddy's Day. While there, everyone was drinking and having a good time, including James. That is, until a guy walked up to Gargi. Now, keep in mind, they are no longer together. But upon seeing this, James got upset. He even confronted the guy.
Murder In America
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But Gargi quickly shut that down. She told him, We are not boyfriend and girlfriend, so you can't control who I talk to. And James was upset about this. A few days later, on March 21st, he would have his first session with Dr. Fenton. Here's her talking about her first impression of him.
Murder In America
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I don't have relationships with people. They have relationships with me.
Murder In America
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My OCD symptoms are the worst they have been. The solution to the biological problem is eliminating the problem, homicide. But you can't kill everyone, so it's not an effective solution.
Murder In America
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Mental health is a complicated topic, and we do want to state that someone's mental health condition is not an excuse for slaughtering a room full of people, but it does play a part in this story. However, before we get into that, we have to tell you the story of James' parents. Robert Holmes was described as an intelligent, very analytical man.
Murder In America
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No, I wouldn't hurt myself.
Murder In America
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However, she couldn't have been more wrong. Following their appointment, James wrote in his notebook. He wrote that in these therapy sessions, he would continue deflecting any incriminating information. He also kept talking to his ex Gargi. He told her that he was doing poorly in his classes, that he skipped an assignment, and that his professor got pissed off at him.
Murder In America
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Then, during one conversation, James started talking to Gargi about how valuable life is. He said that taking someone's life away took away their experiences, memories, and their potential. But then he went on to say that taking someone's life gave you human capital. Gargi said, what do you mean by that? How do you get human capital from taking someone's life?
Murder In America
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And James said, you'll have a more meaningful life. So his girlfriend asked, well, if taking someone's life adds more to your life, then why don't you kill me? And James said, if I did that, I would get caught and then I couldn't go kill more people.
Murder In America
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But he went on to say that he wasn't inherently evil and that going to kill people was his plan B. On March 25th, he and Gargi had the following text conversation. Well, what I feel like doing is evil, so can't do that. What do you feel like doing? Video games are the next best thing through escapism.
Murder In America
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Kill people, of course.
Murder In America
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He had graduated from Stanford with a bachelor's in mathematics and earned his master's at UCLA. Then from there, he went on to the University of Berkeley to get his PhD in statistics. In the 70s, Robert was in his late 20s, and while at Berkeley, he crossed paths with a woman named Arlene. She was everything he had ever wanted in a woman.
Murder In America
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That's why you kill many people.
Murder In America
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My OCD symptoms, the thoughts of killing people, haven't changed. And my anxiety is pretty much the same too. I took the Klonopin before my lab because I was anxious about it, but it didn't help. It just made me really tired. I don't want to take it anymore.
Murder In America
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After leaving Dr. Fenton's office that day, James writes another journal entry. It reads, The mind is a prison of uncertainty, trillions of cells guarded for eternity. Oh, where art thou, Master Key? Destroy the mind and be free. A few days after this, on April 2nd, James texts Gargi and tells her that he can't be friends with her anymore. It's too hard for him. Gargi responds, okay.
Murder In America
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The following day, on April 3rd, James sits through a class on schizophrenia, something he's very interested in. When quizzed on the material, he does really well. And then on that same day, he meets with Dr. Fenton again.
Murder In America
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The propranolol seems to be working. I do feel a little less anxious, but I'm having a hard time remembering things.
Murder In America
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I am feeling a little tired throughout the day.
Murder In America
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Now, it's around this time when James' classmates began to notice a difference in him. They said he stopped smiling. He was no longer making those weird jokes in class. And if you were to have taken a look into James' journal at the time, you would have seen some disturbing entries. One read as follows. The obsession to kill since I was a kid, with age, has become more and more realistic.
Murder In America
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First obsession, onset, started more than ten years ago. So, anyways, that's my mind. It's broken. I tried to fix my mind. I made it my sole conviction, but using something that's broken to fix itself proved insurmountable. Neurosciences seemed like the way to go, but it didn't pan out. In order to rehabilitate the broken mind, my soul must be eviscerated.
Murder In America
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I could not sacrifice my soul to have a normal mind. Despite my biological shortcomings, I fought and fought. There is one more battle to fight with life. To face death. Embrace a long-standing hatred of mankind and overcome all fear. Certain death.
Murder In America
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At the time, she was earning her English degree, she was very hardworking, driven, and she shared the same core values as Robert. It was clear from the very beginning that Robert and Arlene would be a very successful couple. And they were. In 1981, after Arlene graduated, she started working as a staff writer at the Berkeley Gazette.
Murder In America
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Well, I broke up with my girlfriend and I'm doing okay, but I did have an increase in my obsessive thoughts.
Murder In America
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I'm having an increase of obsessive thoughts about women. I have three categories of obsessive thoughts. One that has to do with women, one that has to do with men, and one that has to do with everyone.
Murder In America
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An inconvenience, Fenton?
Murder In America
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That same year, Robert graduated with his PhD after writing his dissertation, Contributions to the Theory of Parametric Estimation in Randomly Censored Data. And for the first few years of their relationship, everything was going really well. Then, finally, on August 10th, 1985, the two got married in Los Angeles.
Murder In America
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The thorn in my side is well worth the rose. I don't see the glass. I see beyond the glass.
Murder In America
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The cues on the symbol were fists. It represented me punching you in the eye. Violence. Is that what you need to hear?
Murder In America
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I know, it was dumb. I shouldn't have done that.
Murder In America
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You'd see it in a utilitarian way.
Murder In America
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You'd want to eliminate that. You'd have to see it that way.
Murder In America
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Oh, it'll be to lock me up.
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You do certain things like crinkle your nose, which means dislike. You have an unconscious and that makes you do things.
Murder In America
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Too regulated. People would be suspicious of me.
Murder In America
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I'm not smart enough for all that. I'd have to buy chemicals that are traceable.
Murder In America
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Too personal. Leaves behind too much evidence. And I'd only get to kill one person at a time.
Murder In America
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I'm not used to using guns. They are primitive in nature, but that would be the way to kill as many people as possible. Another con is you have about a 99% chance of getting caught.
Murder In America
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-"I'm prepared enough. I know what I'm doing. I've done this before. I'll be fine."
Murder In America
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I've also been reading about the Tylenol terrorist attack.
Murder In America
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No. No.
Murder In America
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Too much security. I don't want my peers to think of me as a terrorist. I'm not trying to send a message of any kind. This is just the way my brain has been for the last 15 years.
Murder In America
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Theater, isolated, lots of people inside, about four miles away from my apartment.
Murder In America
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Can't tell the mind rapists my plan. If plan is disclosed, both normal life and ideal enactment on hatred foiled. Prevent building false sense of rapport. Speak truthfully and deflect incriminating questions. Oddly, they don't pursue or delve into harmful omissions. I was fear incarnate. Love gone, motivation directed to hate and obsessions. Embrace the hatred. A dark night rises.
Murder In America
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Look up firearm laws and mental illness. Buy body armor. Learn how to shoot guns.
Murder In America
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The weak are most likely to perish in trying times. Likewise, the strong are most likely to overcome. Why do the average and strong support the weak? This is easily answered. In trying times, the weak will fall. They act as a buffer. Furthermore, when the weak die, the average and strong become weaker.
Murder In America
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On June 7th, James failed one of his oral exams. He had never been good at those. Public speaking made him nervous. And in the weeks before the exams, he had been too focused on planning a mass shooting and he wasn't prepared. So he failed. Following the exam, he messaged that girl he had been talking to.
Murder In America
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he told her he had flunked it then later that day he went to a nearby town to purchase a rifle two days later his professor messaged him letting him know that he was going to have to retake his exams but james responded with this dear sirs i regret to inform you that i will be discontinuing my graduate studies in the neuroscience program effective immediately regards james holmes
Murder In America
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His professor would later respond that that was probably in his best interest, as he clearly hadn't been making that much of an effort. James would later say that he was upset that no one tried to talk him out of quitting, but in reality, he had already made up his mind by this point.
Murder In America
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He was done with school, and all of his focus was now towards the massacre, but he would still attend his final therapy session on June 11th, 2012.
Murder In America
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I failed.
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I'm not going to retake them. I'll probably just drop out of the neuroscience program.
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All children are innocent, and James was no exception. His parents were completely over the moon after his birth. After leaving the hospital, he was brought back to his parents' home in the affluent neighborhood of Rancho Penasquitos, just north of San Diego. It's a community that provides everything you could want to raise a family.
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I have about 10,000 in savings that I could live off of, and I plan on getting a job.
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No, my lease here doesn't end until November, so I'll probably find a job here.
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No, but I plan on telling my parents. I don't think they'd be surprised. I've kind of been giving them hints that I haven't been doing well.
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His caginess in discussing any details regarding methods, targets, and timing. 3. In later interviews, James told professionals, I don't think I made it clear enough that I was mentally ill. I'd already started getting weapons, and then I started thinking they were going to be frightened of me because I had weapons.
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Dr. Reed supposes in A Dark Night in Aurora, a part of him believed, and a part of him hoped, that they somehow knew his thoughts and his plans without his revealing them.
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There's the magic of nearby beaches with their towering sunset-colored cliffs and warm surf. There are miles and miles of hiking trails, biking trails, and even horseback riding trails that wind through the Chaparro Hills. There's even Christmas Card Lane.
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But even after speaking to James's mother, Dr. Fenton said she was still worried.
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If you love Murder in America, you love mysteries, you love true crime, you love murder stories and the unknown, then I have a new show for you. It's called The Conspiracy Files, and it's hosted by me, Colin Brown, from Murder in America and The Paranormal Files. On The Conspiracy Files, we explore everything from bizarre deaths to freak paranormal events,
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a path of over 200 houses that decorate for christmas each year with elaborate displays that illuminate the streets with holiday cheer so that coupled with security and attentive parents james holmes was set up with a really great life in addition it seemed as if his parents were really compatible which is essential when having a peaceful home
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pedophile rings, government corruption, ritual sacrifice, no topic is untouched on this show. Everything that we talk about on The Conspiracy Files is backed up with fact. I release reference sheets with every single episode that we do so you guys know everything we're talking about is confirmed to have happened and be real.
Murder In America
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It's a completely different type of show than anything else you've ever seen about conspiracy theories.
Murder In America
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instead of a bunch of conjecture and theories we're presenting you people with facts telling you the story walking you through the story just as detailed as we do with murder in america and then letting the listener decide what they think anyways you should definitely give it a listen it's called the conspiracy files the links are in the description of this show and you can find it on apple podcasts spotify or wherever you get your podcasts and now let's get back to our story
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Just two days after his final therapy session, James buys hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a laser sight, hearing protection, and magazines for his weapons. Then a few days after that, he officially returned his student badge. It's also around this time when he and his parents send some emails back and forth.
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After his mom got the call from Dr. Fenton about him leaving school, they messaged James and let him know that he's welcome to come back home to San Diego. But he tells them that he didn't want to come home yet. So his dad suggests that he apply for unemployment. And he does. He messages his dad that week, telling him that he applied and he's ready to become a lazy bum.
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His emails seem pretty normal. and given this big life change he was going through, he seemed to be in good spirits. In one email, his parents talk about a trip they're taking to Mexico, and James responds, Hasta la vista, baby.
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Pro. Pro. You can lock the double doors with handcuffs, trapping the victims, increasing casualties. With the exit doors, there might be too many escapees.
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Now, at the time, Arlene was working as a registered nurse, but she was also still a writer for the Imperial Beach Star News. She would write in the newspaper's life section. In certain articles, she would write about her husband's silly quirks and gifts they would give each other over the years. In 1987, she wrote a piece titled, She Has Found Him the Perfect Gift at Last.
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Over the course of the next few weeks, James took several pictures both inside and outside of the Century 16 theater. He buys more ammunition. He also finds out that his unemployment had been denied, but he was doing okay on money. On June 29th, he even walks into his apartment's leasing office and hands in his rent check. A few days after that, he dyes his hair that infamous orange color.
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Now, later on, many people believed that he did this to represent the Joker in the Batman movies. That he was this evil force. But James himself would later admit that this wasn't true. In fact, he only chose the Batman movie because he knew a lot of people would be at that showing. There was no hidden meaning behind it. In his journals, he wrote...
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Most fools will mistake correlation for causation. The message is there is no message. The causation is my state of mind for the last 15 years. He would also say, I didn't really have a reason for dyeing my hair. I did it to stand out. I guess to be like exotic, I guess. I dyed it red because I thought it would look better than green or blue.
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Now, another huge part of James' plan was booby-trapping his apartment, and it's around this time when he started buying more supplies for that, including a remote-controlled vehicle, a boombox, batteries, and chemicals. But interestingly, he also signs himself up for a bunch of dating websites, with one being called HornyMatches.com.
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That week, he uploaded pictures of himself with his new orange hair with captions that read, He would later say, It's unusual to have dyed hair like that and contact lenses like that. It's more likely I'd be remembering something unusual than something mundane. Now, that week, he also texted that girl from his classes.
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She asked if he was still in Aurora, or if he had moved back home, and James said that he was still in town, but he warned her. Look, you should avoid me. I'm bad news bears.
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It read, I have learned that cute but feckless Valentine's gifts are not the way to go. When you are married to a practical man, be practical. This year I played it safe. Bob is out of town this week on business, but when he returns, he's going to just love his new pastel flowered skirt and blouse ensemble. Arlene's articles were humorous, and they gave a small glimpse into their lives.
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That night he got out at least $400 in cash, and he spent some time burning each of the bills. He then put them in an envelope, along with his journal which he had been using to plan the attack. Then he made his way to the post office. You see, James was going to send this package to his therapist, Dr. Fenton.
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He knew it wouldn't get to her until after the attack, but he clearly wanted to send her a message.
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now people have debated back and forth between what the burn dollar bills represented some people believe that it was because james had lost his student insurance and could no longer use her services because he wasn't a student anymore and then of course he sent his journal likely to taunt dr fenton to show her that the entire time they had been seeing each other this is what he had been planning so after sending out the package james finished booby trapping his apartment
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He had set up a trip wire right in his front door. Over to the side was a thermos filled with glycerin. According to James' plan, when authorities would come into his apartment, they would trip over the wire, and that thermos would pour the glycerin into this pan that was laying there. The pan was coated with potassium permanganate, and when those two mix, it's supposed to create a flash fire.
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He also covered the floor with gasoline and oil. So when that flash fire ignited, it would start a massive fiery blaze. He also sprinkled magnesium on the floor. And the reason he did that is because magnesium fires get worse when water is put on them. So when the firefighters would come and try to put the fire out, it would burn even harder.
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James also considered the possibility that no one would walk right through the tripwire. So it's here where he came up with another plan by making a launch control box.
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James would later describe his parents' relationship by saying, You could see the love between them. They showed it. And as a child, he had no problem doing the same thing.
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Now, soon after James left his apartment, one of his neighbors actually heard the music blaring from his unit and she went over to confront him. It was almost midnight and their apartment had quiet hours so no one was supposed to be playing music this loud. So, she walks over and bangs on the door. However, no one answers.
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now this girl said she actually grabbed the doorknob and noticed that it was unlocked she was about to open it and tell the person inside to turn the music down but something inside of her told her not to do it instead she went downstairs told her boyfriend about what she saw and together they called the police but nothing happened by the time the police realized what was going on it would be too late
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While in the car, James quickly put on a bulletproof vest, a ballistic helmet, bullet-resistant leggings, a throat protector, a groin protector, and tactical gloves. He also put on a gas mask. But while he was putting everything on, he actually heard something right outside his door. When he looked out, he saw a worker throwing something in the dumpster.
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Now, James had put a tint on his windows before the shooting, but you could still see the inside of his vehicle. He would later say that he thought his plan was about to be ruined, and he was fully prepared to shoot the worker if they walked over to him. But they never did. They walked back inside the theater without ever noticing him.
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Join us next week as we walk you through everything that happened on that horrific night. For today's episode, we will be making a donation to Sandy Hook Promise. And Courtney and I both encourage all of you listeners out there to make a donation of your own as well. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America.
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So, Courtney and I have been wanting to tell this story for a long time. It is such a detailed story with so many things that were missed, and it's just infuriating. I don't know, it really is frustrating telling these stories time and time again and researching these stories and having our team write these cases up and help guide us through them.
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And you realize that each one of these cases is almost a carbon copy of the one before and the one after. People always miss the warning signs. Nothing changes in our country. And it's just so sad. You feel like you can see these events coming from a mile away. But the common theme that you hear from everybody usually involved in these things is that nobody really saw it coming.
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So, yeah, thank you for joining us this week. If you guys want to support our show, please consider joining us on Patreon. If you don't like the ads and you want to get early access to each episode of the show, you can get that on Patreon. You can also get access to bonus episodes of Murder in America that will never go live on our main feed.
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If you've never signed up before and you sign up today, there are over 100 bonus episodes of the show, full-length episodes featuring Courtney and I, music, sound effects, The whole thing, they are exactly like the episodes you hear here on our main feed, but just exclusively for patrons who helped make this show what it is.
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So yeah, Courtney and I can't thank you guys enough for helping us build the show to where it's at and for everything you guys have done for us over the years. We hope that we're doing right by y'all. Also, follow us on Instagram at Murder in America to see photos from every case that we cover here on the show. And please leave us a five-star review wherever you listen to this podcast.
Murder In America
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Anyways, guys, we will be back next week with part two of this sad but true story. I'm Colin. Thank y'all for tuning in and I'll catch y'all in the next one.
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Now, some sources claim that these were early hallucinations that James was having, but having irrational fears like this when you're small is pretty normal. I remember when I was a kid, I watched an episode of Goosebumps, and I thought a ventriloquist dummy was going to come out of the book that I had in my closet and attack me in my sleep.
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So, the fact that James was afraid of being kidnapped and these nail ghosts isn't really alarming, and according to everyone that knew him, he was a very normal kid. Neither his parents nor anyone else who was around him has recalled him having unusual behavior around this age. But soon enough, the Holmes family decided to move from the home James grew up in.
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He was just seven years old when they packed up and moved to Salinas, California, about 450 miles north of San Diego. At the time, Bob's mother was ill, and the family wanted to be closer to her so that they could help. And that's the kind of family that James was raised in. From the get-go, being together, being there for each other, and making memories was the most important thing.
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Now, according to them, the move from San Diego to Salinas was a pretty smooth transition for them, as the kids were still young. And again, they continued to have a really good life there. Their family would often visit their aunt and uncle in Chico, where they would explore the foothills of the mighty Sierra Nevada mountains. They would fish, ride horses, and have bonfires.
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Growing up, James was not a withdrawn kid. He was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities like soccer, basketball, track, and martial arts. By no means was he a standout athlete, but according to his coaches and teammates, he was a team player who was a really good sport and always took losing with grace. Which is how a lot of the neighborhood kids described him as well.
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The Holmes household was located at the end of a cul-de-sac, and James was always running around with friends having a good time. Their backyard had this long stretch of vacant land with a gully where they would all play capture the flag and flashlight tag. They would dig pits, fill them with water, and then jump in, pretending that they were in a water park.
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James was, in many ways, one of the core members of this group of kids. As an adult, he remembered them fondly, and the feeling was mutual. According to everyone who knew him around this age, James was well-liked by kids, teachers, and adults alike. He was even known to have a lot of empathy for a kid his age.
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A neighbor, Catherine Barrett, would later talk about a time when all of the neighborhood kids went to a water park together.
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they had been waiting in line forever but finally they had made it to the front however when they did one of the workers told james's little sister that she was too small to ride the ride but instead of leaving his sister behind james told her that's okay i'll stay with you he then put his arm around chris and walked her back down while the other kids went on the ride many neighbors recounted that chris looked up to james and that even when she was too little he always made it a point to include her in their games