Previously, I had promised to speak of James Holmes' family, but that post will have to wait. We have received some fascinating new data:
1. The doctor. Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, a specialist in schizophrenia. A number of people are now asking a very reasonable question: Did she prescribe drugs? If so,
which drugs, and what kind of side effects are associated with them?
It is possible that he had only one or two sessions with her. It is possible that she prescribed nothing. On the other hand, shrinks are pretty quick to recommend drug therapy these days. The "talking cure" is a thing of the past, or nearly so.
I suppose conspiracy buffs will read much into the fact that Fenton used to work for the Air Force.
2. The bloody trail. Photos of the crime scene -- specifically, the back of the theater -- reveal a couple of anomalies which should cause even the most resolutely non-paranoid to raise an eyebrow. The spadework has been done by some hard-core conspiracy spotters who, alas, have a bad habit of reaching their conclusions by way of the broadjump.
That said, we must give credit where due. So check out two videos (
here and
here) by a guy named Thomas Brinkley, about whom I know nothing. Please apply your own personal filter to separate the wacky observations from the worthwhile ones.
First: There is a strange blood trail behind the theater, one which the official story does not cover. Go
here for a very clear photo of the scene, which was the basis of the first image below.
These photos clearly show a trail of blood beginning some ways away from the presumed attacker's vehicle. (The white car belonged to Holmes.) The blood spatter indicates direction: The victim ran
toward the theater.
(
Added note: When interpreting blood splatter, keep in mind that scallops, spines and secondary stains
always point in the direction of travel, as
this forensic handbook makes clear.)
We know that we are dealing with a female because pink shoes (flip flops?) were left near the doorway. Brinkley believes that the shoes belonged to a
little girl, and that Holmes or a partner dragged her off to be raped. I do
not accept that reconstruction. For one thing, the shoes look like they belonged to an adult. The length of the stride also indicates an adult victim.
Clearly, an unknown female victim was shot or wounded
outside the auditorium, in the parking lot behind the theater, and she ran for safety toward the theater. Since the average width of a parking spot is 8.5 feet, we may calculate that she was wounded roughly 45 feet away from the suspect's car, and perhaps 65 feet from the exit door.
Why did she take the shoes off? Tentatively, I would suggest that she tried the theater back door, discovered that it was locked, didn't want to get trapped on the rear stairs, and thus desperately climbed the nearby wall.
The media has told us nothing about this victim, or what happened to her.
Most reports indicate that that killer exited the theater (for as-yet unknown reasons) and almost immediately ran into the cops, to whom he quietly surrendered. But something else must have happened.
This conundrum becomes stranger and stranger the more you think about it. We may one day receive a sensible explanation for that bloody trail, but right now we face a haunting mystery.
3. The gas mask. A
gas mask was found a surprising distance away from Holmes' car.
Brinkley thinks that this is a
second gas mask. Maybe, but I've seen no proof: It could be the same gas mask Holmes wore inside the theater. Still, the location is very odd. One snippet of a police dispatch includes
the following exchange:
cop 1 – “I need a marked car behind the theater, Sable side, suspect in a gas mask”
dispatch – “we need cars south side. suspect in a gas mask”
cop 2 – “Is that the dude in the white car nearby?"
So cops quietly went behind the building and saw Holmes sitting in his car. If the gas mask found on the ground was the one Holmes wore, then it looks like he got out of the car -- still wearing the mask -- and tried to run off to his right. He got about 210 feet away from the vehicle before taking off his mask.
But would those two cops just sit there and watch a guy a gas mask do this? Doubtful. So it seems more reasonable to posit that
before any cop car showed up, Holmes walked or ran that distance, dropped his gas mask, and then -- for whatever reason (perhaps because he saw a cop car arriving) -- decided to go back to his vehicle and wait inside.
I'm still bewildered. Why would he run? Why didn't he simply leave the theater, go straight to his car and drive away? Did he
chase a victim out of the theater? If so, why did he pass her and go 150 feet further?
The official story is that Holmes was arrested as he calmly stood beside his car.
When was the female shot or stabbed? It's hard to believe that Holmes would try to kill a woman in full view of two cops; the cops would be obligated to do something.
Again: We may one day have reasonable answers to these questions. Right now, we have a perfect right to ask:
What the hell happened outside that theater?
If you can come up with a scenario that makes sense, please share with the rest of the class. I'm very grateful to Thomas Brinkley, even if I cannot go along with many of his presumptions.
(Note: I've somewhat rewritten this post -- especially the last bit -- since original publication. In fact, I've rewritten twice
. Apologies! Normally, when I revise to improve the style, I don't bother informing the reader. But in this case, the revisions went beyond style.)
