Murdering a SIX YEAR OLD GIRL means FUCK your grade point average.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I am specifically calling out 3TV Phoenix.

STOP this fucking bullshit. STOP turning these assholes into celebrities, whether it boosts your ratings or not.

This "man" murdered a 6 year old girl and eleven others.

He's not a rock star, he is most certainly NOT "brilliant"...he's a cold blooded murdering MOTHERFUCKER who deserves the maximum penalty under Colorado state law.

Colorado suspect was brilliant science student

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Colorado-suspect-was-brilliant-science-student-163289506.html

DENVER (AP) -- James Eagen Holmes came from a well-tended San Diego enclave of two-story homes with red-tiled roofs, where neighbors recall him as a clean-cut, studious young man of sparing words.

Tall and dark-haired, he stared clear-eyed at the camera in a 2004 high school yearbook snapshot, wearing a white junior varsity soccer uniform - No. 16. The son of a nurse, Arlene, and a software company manager, Robert, James Holmes was a brilliant science scholar in college.

The biggest mystery surrounding the 24-year-old doctoral student was why he would have pulled on a gas mask and shot dozens of people early Friday in a suburban Denver movie theater, as police allege.

In the age of widespread social media, no trace of Holmes could be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter or anywhere on the Web. Either he never engaged or he scrubbed his trail.

[pnwmom]

1. He might also be a mentally ill person, a paranoid schizophrenic with no control

over his delusions -- not a cold blooded murdering anything.

And this wouldn't be incompatible with his high I.Q.

[LisaL]

3. Oh give me a break.

There has been nothing to suggest anything of the sort.

[pnwmom]

4. I disagree. His actions themselves were similar to other men who have acted

out of paranoid delusions. As I said, time will tell.

[yardwork]

12. Everything he just did suggests exactly that.

These are not the actions of a sane person.

[thelordofhell]

2. He's certainly no Ted Kaczynski

[pnwmom]

5. T.K. is just one person. We don't know enough about Holmes to know

what was or wasn't going on in his mind.

[Igel]

6. Inquiring minds and all that.

But somebody can be brilliant and a psychopath. They're different kinds of things, like having short hair and speaking Spanish.

Similarly, you can know a lot and lack intelligence and be a fool. You can be wise and not very intelligent. You can be intelligent and be a fool. All different things. We're unable to maintain the three-way distinction--it's way complicated for many 'inquiring minds'--so we conflate them.

[Odin2005]

7. I am betting $100 that he had a psychotic break.

He is at the later end of the age range in which overt symptoms of Schizophrenia usually start.

[JoePhilly]

8. Since we are in the SPECULATION phase ... I'll speculate this ...

My bet is that he has a multiple component mental disorder.

So what components?

My speculation is ...

1) Some Bipolar disorder ... basically some form of manic depressive illness.
2) Some obsessive compulsive disorder
3) Some Paranoid Schizophrenia

From what we've heard so far, for the most part he's been functioning at a relative high cognitive level. Pretty good grades, made it to grad school. Lots of bipolar folks can be high functioning, particularly is they have an OCD aspect. Basically the OCD aspect helps them manage the "depressive" states, and also helps them control the mania. But its a tight rope. The OCD helps them into a rhythm, or predictable pattern, and so they can function. Lots of OCD folks are successful because the behaviors they repeat are beneficial in some way (not endless handwashing).

The paranoid schizophrenia can also help them stay functional. They don't trust anyone, but the paranoia also keeps them from going off. To stay safe, they behave as normal as possible. They are trying to hide in plan sight from the people who would potentially hurt them.

These people can plan. And can be very detail oriented. They are protecting themselves.

If they "snap" its usually because something significant changes. The pattern is thrown off. And in a manic stage, they can decide to shift from a passive stance, to an aggressive stance, relative to the scary others. Mania gives them the energy to act.

Side note: The same thing can be seen in the suicidal individual who is depressed. They often don't kill themselves because they lack the energy to act. The depression prevents it. And so, the most risky time for many suicidal depressed people is when they start to feel better. Their energy level has increased, and if the wrong event occurs, that extra energy turns into the energy to attempt suicide.

My current speculation is that this guy has been hiding in plan site, suffers from multiple complimentary illnesses, and the right set of events existed to set him off.

The conditions surrounding the fact that he was withdrawing from medical school strikes me as a potential "life change" that might have knocked his pattern off balance.

But this is again, all speculation.

[canoegirl]

10. well thought out

I'm curious as to what the next few day/weeks will tell us about this young man. What you have described sounds plausible.
I have immediate family members that suffer from bipolar and major depression, and I can relate to what you have described in theory. Thankfully no one is of the mindset to cause anybody else harm, (at least that I'm aware of) but there has been threats of suicide that were caught in time to get proper care. Mental illness is so hard to deal with, more difficult than a physical illness just for the fact that treatment is so hard to pinpoint.
I feel so bad for everyone involved in this tragedy. Maybe one day we will see changes for the good result in such a horrific thing.

[JoePhilly]

11. I'll be watching closely too.

I've also seen some of these same diagnosed illness in my family. With threats of harm to others.

But I doubt anyone can predict these things. Too much mental illness soup to wade through.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. AP said 'was', not 'is'

and there is a difference. As for the 3TV report you linked to, it says far less about him. Where are you seeing the 'rock star'-style claims? Neither the TV report nor the AP article mentions anything about the penalty he should get.