The case that James E. Holmes, who committed mass murder at an Aurora, Colorado theater, is an addict.
James E. Holmes Murders 12 in an Aurora, CO Theater: Another mass murderer, another undiagnosed substance addict
I used to say, “While the vast majority of mass murderers in U.S. history have been alcohol or other-drug addicts, I’m sure there are exceptions,” and used as my prime example Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. However, I eventually learned I was wrong: McVeigh was a methamphetamine addict.
In the Top Story of issue # 29 of TAR, I suggested that Cho Seung-Hui, who murdered 32 and injured 25 in a shooting spree at Virginia Tech, was no different. I examined an article by Bob Unruh entitled, “Are meds to blame for Cho’s rampage?” in which he, like many, blamed anti-depressants (which are not psychotropic drugs) on mass murder. He listed 20 school shooters, all of whom he said were on one or more of these anti-depressants, including Luvox and Prozac. Bear in mind journalists don’t have a clue as to the critical importance of addictive use of alcohol and other psychotropic drugs and authorities are often reluctant to release toxicology reports; therefore, proof of addictive use is often elusive. Despite this dearth of information, I found that at least eight of the 20 shooters—four times what we’d expect of a random sample of the population—were known heavy alcohol users (i.e., “alcoholics”) or on Xanax or Valium, both of which are psychotropic drugs capable of causing distortions of perception and memory in susceptible individuals. Another three mass murderers were on Ritalin, a commonly-prescribed amphetamine, which was one of Judy Garland’s favorite drugs. A 12th shooter was described as being on “a variety of prescriptions,” which were not likely limited to just the anti-depressants. The rest were old enough to have used alcohol or other drugs addictively; such use generally begins by age 13. I concluded that “since 80-90% of convicts are alcohol or other-drug addicts and it’s so darned difficult to obtain actual evidence of use even on the Internet, the idea that only 11 [65% of these] mass murderers were such addicts strains credulity.” If journalists actually understood the role of alcoholism, they would look for and report it in the first paragraph of news stories, rather the 27th, if at all.
The fact that many shooters are on anti-depressants could be coincidence. Many mass murderers are not on these drugs and there were countless such killings long before they were invented. Consider the alcoholic Ivan the Terrible who, using sleighs, had at least 15,000 citizens of Novgorod chained and dragged to their deaths in the Volkhov River in 1570—and drowning was among the most humane ways he murdered his subjects (see James Graham’s Secret History of Alcoholism). Anti-depressants also could serve as a trigger for alcohol and other-drug addicts, potentiating their effect. I would argue, however, that psychotropic drugs, including alcohol, are all-but-essential in creating such horrific behaviors and that anti-depressants are not an essential component. The fact that shooters are often on anti-depressants may be simply coincidence: psychiatrists may prescribe anti-depressants to full-blown alcoholics without identifying the true source of the patients’ problems, instead misdiagnosing alcoholism for mental illness as therapists did to my long-ago ex-fiancée (the story of which I tell in Drunks, Drugs & Debits).
Elsewhere (issue # 13, issue # 24, and issue # 53 of TAR, along with my article on bin Laden shortly after 9-11 at ), I’ve made a case that suicide bombers—mass murderers of a different stripe—are high on a cocktail of psychotropic drugs, possibly either an amphetamine-tranquilizer combo or khat (Scrabble® players may spell it “qat”) or some combination.
In the worst of recent shootings, James E. Holmes’ murdered 12 and wounded 58 in an Aurora, CO theater. Journalists and pundits have displayed their usual ignorance of the likelihood that addiction is the best explanation for the deadly behaviors. The evidence, however, leads the addiction-aware to a near certainty that Holmes’ actions were, in fact, driven by alcohol or other-drug addiction-fueled egomania.
The behaviors alone suggest at least 80% odds of addiction to psychotropic drugs, most likely alcohol and / or an amphetamine-tranquilizer drug cocktail, capable of causing distortions of perception and memory in susceptible individuals; two manifestations of this are impaired judgment and an inflated sense of self—a God complex. Holmes clearly exhibited both in spades.
After graduating with highest honors in the spring of 2010 with a neuroscience degree from UC Riverside, Holmes enrolled in the neuroscience Ph. D. program at the University of Colorado-Denver, but withdrew unexpectedly. Alcohol or other-drug addiction usually explains the inexplicable, including bizarre behaviors that have us shaking our heads and asking, “What’s he thinking?” It also usually explains huge changes in behavior, especially from “good” to “bad,” with the converse occurring when an addict gets clean and sober.
A furniture mover, who obviously didn’t know him (“I figured he was one of the college students”), said he had drinks with Holmes at a local bar two days before the shooting. So, he was at a local bar on weeknight talking with a furniture mover, with whom a doctoral student is likely to have little in common other than sports. Drinking must have been very important to Holmes. When drinking is that important, there is addiction.
Holmes went to that bar by himself. While heading to a local bar by oneself on a weeknight is not always indicative of alcoholism, it usually is. As a good friend pointed out, “This was not social drinking with friends. This is, ‘I need to drink, and I’ll chat with whoever is there.’”
A neighbor “often” saw him at the bar. There you go.
Glenn Rotkovich, who owns a gun range where Holmes wanted to practice shooting, reviewed Holmes’ application, made a routine call to invite him for an orientation and got his answering machine. According to Rotkovich, Holmes had a “bass, guttural, rambling, incoherent message that was bizarre, at best.” It was so bizarre Rotkovich decided he didn’t want him shooting at his range.
While described as brilliant by many, a grad student who oversaw him during an internship at a computer lab at the Salk Institute at UC San Diego, said “His grades were mediocre….Holmes was enormously stubborn and refused to follow instructions [for a project].…He never completed the project. What he gave me was a complete mess.” Mental confusion and/or arrogance that manifests in stubbornness and a refusal to follow rational and appropriate instructions, which these appear to have been, are excellent behavioral indicators of substance addiction.
Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist. While many non-addicts see psychiatrists, we suspect the odds of addiction in a person seeking such medical help are much greater than in the overall population.
Holmes’ psychiatrist, 51-year-old Dr. Lynn Fenton who, to her credit, reported to authorities she was concerned about him a few weeks before the tragedy, was disciplined by the State of Colorado medical board in 2005. She had prescribed medications to herself, her husband and an employee without maintaining proper medical charts; the medications included the psychotropic drugs Vicodin, Xanax, lorazepam (Ativan) and Ambien. She was ordered to complete more than 50 hours of medical training and to promise not to prescribe medications to family members or employees. There is no record of her being diagnosed as an addict or required to enter a program of sobriety, but the addictionologist would likely ask, “Why not?” We might hypothesize that addicted MDs are more likely to prescribe addictive drugs than non-addicted ones even if she may have stopped prescribing for him, based on the fact she warned the University of Colorado about Holmes’ potential for violence several weeks before the shootings.
Finally, Holmes’ pupil size in court, even several days after the shootings, strongly indicates addiction. Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Thomas Page wrote to me regarding this picture: “The pupils are very dilated, probably about 8.5 millimeters in diameter. This compares with pupils of about 4.0 mm in normal room light and is especially noteworthy since courtroom light is usually quite bright. Stimulants, hallucinogens and, to a lesser degree, marijuana and the so-called ‘synthetic cannabinoids’ cause dilation. Since these photos were taken four days after the shootings, during which time he was in police custody, it’s crucial also to note that withdrawal from narcotics such as heroin and OxyContin can also cause pupil dilation to this degree.”
In terms of behavioral proof, the mass shootings indicate a near-certainty of addiction. The other behaviors further confirm the hypothesis. Short of blood testing, pupil size is probably the single best physiological proof of addictive use. Holmes’ drinking patterns, other behaviors and pupil size allow us to conclude that psychotropic drug addiction, once again, is the underlying cause of barbaric actions.
Headline of the month:
“The Suspect: ‘Shy guy,’ brilliant scholar, mystery; 24-year-old clean-cut doctoral student offers no clue to bizarre acts.”
See Top Story, above, for numerous clues to why the “shy guy,” James E. Holmes, would engage in “bizarre acts”: alcoholic egomania. Just don’t look for a “reason,” since addiction requires nothing other than a need to inflate the ego at the expense of others. You just need to know to look for it.