THE MENTALLY UNSTABLE gunman who shot up a cinema in the American state of Louisiana last summer left a rambling, hate-filled journal in which he called the US. a “filth farm,” railed against women, gay people and blacks, and thanked a man accused of killing nine churchgoers in South Carolina for his “wake up call.”
The hand-written, 40-page journal released today doesn’t explain why John Russell Houser decided to kill two people and wound nine at a screening of comedian Amy Schumer’s “Trainwreck” last 23 July.
He didn’t say a word as he opened fire, killing Jillian Johnson, a 33-year-old musician and business owner, and Mayci Breaux, a 21-year-old student.
He shot himself dead before anyone could question him.
But the contents suggest Houser expected to die, and knew others would read the words he left in his room at a Motel 6.
Shortly before the shooting, Houser wrote on the last page that he was leaving the journal “in hopes of truth, my death all but assured.”
Under that he wrote: “Trainwreck.”
Houser, a 59-year-old drifter, also shared his “random thoughts” on politics, the news media, the presidential race, the Ten Commandments, his favorite movies and music and his view of the future.
“If you have not stood against filth, you are now a soft target,” he wrote on the lined pages of the notebook.
America is in the midst of celebrating filth, and as such they are the enemy.
Houser described Dylann Roof — a young white man accused of killing nine people inside a historic black church in Charleston just weeks earlier — as “green but good.”
“Thank you for the wake up call Dylann,” he added.
Investigators described the shooting in gruesome detail in reports that totaled 589 pages.
They determined that Houser entered the cinema with a handgun hidden in his pants, and waited several minutes before pulling it out and opening fire. Police swiftly responded, and eventually interviewed 70 witnesses.
One described seeing Houser walking down the steps, firing rounds at victims before shooting himself in the head. Another said she heard someone scream “He’s reloading!” before she ran out.
Authorities also shared findings of their investigation into Houser’s troubled past. In social media posts, Houser talked about his political beliefs and “anti-government tendencies,” they noted.
Comments posted in his own writing revealed his ideals and that he had battled his local government and had a hatred for the United States Government.
Houser’s interests also included ‘Golden Dawn’ which is a Greek organization with neo-Nazi beliefs.
Houser had a long history of erratic behaviour in the Georgia and Alabama communities where he lived before drifting to Lafayette, a city where his uncle had lived decades earlier.
In 2008, a Georgia judge ordered him detained for a mental evaluation after relatives claimed he was a danger to himself and others.
But that judge did not have him involuntarily committed, which could explain how he passed a federal background check in 2014.
He legally bought the .40-caliber handgun he used in the shooting from a pawn shop in Phenix City, Alabama, where he became estranged from his family, lost his businesses and faced eviction from his home.
Before he was finally forced out, he ruined the property, pouring concrete into the plumbing and glue into the fixtures, police said. His estranged wife, Kellie Houser, filed for divorce in March 2015, saying he had repeatedly threatened her.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft has said Houser visited the cinema more than once, perhaps to determine “whether there was anything that could be a soft target for him.”
Investigators found wigs and disguises in his room, raising the possibility that he had considered making an escape after the shooting.
Police said he did try to blend in with the fleeing crowd, but turned back and killed himself as police approached.
Houser’s journal contains language which some readers might find offensive, but you can read it by clicking here.
Contains reporting by the Associated Press.
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