A COURT IN Colorado has entered into evidence the personal notebook and diary of James Holmes, who is on trial for a massacre at a cinema in July 2012.
Holmes opened fire during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and wounding dozens of others.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his long-awaited trial got under way in April.
This evening, prosecutors distributed copies of the 27-year-old’s diary, which include long passages portraying an obsession with murder, and toying with the idea of attacking an airport or becoming a serial killer.
TheJournal.ie has obtained a copy of the notebook, which you can read in full below.
As the New York Times reports, the diary could become a crucial piece of evidence in the trial.
Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, presented it in court today as proof that Holmes was calculating and carefully planned his attack, sketching out the cinema and considering different methods of killing.
Biological warfare: Too impatient, requires extensive knowledge, chemicals and equipment.
Serial murder: Too personal, too much evidence, easily caught, few kills.
Venue: Airport or movie theatre. Airport – Substantial security. Too much of a terrorist history. Terrorism isn’t the message. The message is there is no message.
Entered into evidence along with the notebook, were a number of PayPal receipts, detailing Holmes’ purchase of the weapons used in the cinema massacre.
Lawyers defending the former neuroscience student, however, pointed to bizarre and incoherent parts of the diary – extensive formulas, and an apparent obsession with the concept of infinity.
Seven consecutive pages of Holmes’ diary are simply filled with the word “Why?”
In one section, he conducted a “self-diagnosis”, and concluded that he suffered from dysphoric mania, social anxiety disorder, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia, among others.
Holmes appears at times to be highly self-aware, and at one point discusses how his eventual killings would be analysed:
Most fools will misinterpret correlation for causation, namely relationship and work failure as causes.
Both were expediting catalysts, not the reason. The causation being my state of mind for the past 15 years.
Scroll down to read the notebook in full, or if you’re on a mobile device, read it by clicking here.
http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2015/05/holmesnotebook.pdf
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say