Columnists

PERRY: Aurora’s mass murderer by any other name is still James Eagan Holmes

Every person who is clamoring to strike his photo from news coverage of the tragedy couldn't take their eyes off his glowing-orange weirdness as he sat there in court like a bobble-headed troll doll.

BY DAVE PERRY, Aurora Sentinel Editor 07/24/12 9:42 am :: Last updated: 07/25/12 7:49 am

There’s a name for catastrophe in Aurora. It’s James Eagan Holmes.

It’s not, “The Suspect,” “The Shooter,” “Suspect ‘A,’” or “He Who Shall Not Be Named,” as a growing number of people are insisting, including Gov. John Hickenlooper.

And Holmes is now a bug-eyed, whacky looking shell of a human being, as made clear by pictures of his court appearance on Monday.

There’s a growing push for the Aurora Sentinel and every other newspaper, TV and radio station in the country to quit referring to the suspect of Aurora’s horrific July 20 theater massacre by his name, or run his picture.

That’s as crazy as Holmes is. Have no doubt, Holmes is crazy. It is, however, yet unseen as to just what flavor and degree of crazy the guy is. It’s unclear whether he’s “not-guilty-crazy” or “Son-of-Sam-crazy.” Reading anything into it past that would at this point only be an assumption. And the biggest assumption so far is that Holmes did it — at least in part — for the media attention.

That’s a pretty sane assumption. If I were to go to these kind of lengths to murder a lot of people, It would have to be to get everyone to pay attention to me. But it’s a huge leap to think that Holmes was craving attention and could only think of this as a good way to make that happen. He’s crazy, so we don’t know what the hell he was thinking.

In the mean time, I can GUARANTEE you, that everyone who doesn’t want to utter his unimaginative name was as anxious as the rest of us to find out what it is. And every person who is clamoring to strike his photo from news coverage of the tragedy couldn’t take their eyes off his glowing-orange weirdness as he sat there in court like a bobble-headed troll doll.

Mass murders may well be narcissists, but narcissism doesn’t turn people into mass murderers. There are so many things to understand and deal with in a catastrophe like this. Understanding who Holmes is and why he did what he did could well help us prevent someone like him from striking somewhere else.

What’s more, our job on the news side of the paper is to tell the news as completely, fairly and objectively as possible, without political pressure.  And we strive to be clear and complete. By electing to run the identification of some criminals and not others is bad business for journalism, and bad for our readers. On the opinion side, which is where my byline lives, we’re more free to point out our opinion of what a creep Holmes is, no matter how crazy he turns out to be. On the news side of the paper, it’s important our stories be concerned about news, facts, clarity, fairness and truth.

There are endless reasons to hate Holmes. My instinct is to believe that he was intentionally cruel and malevolent. But that’s a leap we can’t make on the news side yet. For now, I just know that heinous has a name, and it’s James Eagan Holmes.

Dave Perry is editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at dperry@aurorasentinel.com or at 303-750-7555.

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  • kazimir

     
    I think all theaters need to put an alarm on an  exit door in a auditorium so that when it is opened it goes off. That way no one can do what this guy did. Prop it open and come back in.

    I have been in theaters which have an alarm and some that don’t. I have been watching a movie and suddenly been blinded by a door opening and sunlight pouring in pitch black theater.

    I think the theater industry should make this a mandatory safety feature. Just an alarm like a lot of emergency exits have. Nothing fancy.

    Maybe we can start a petition to movie theater companies????? Or letter writing campaign??? Any ideas???

  • Pingback: Victims’ families urge less usage of Holmes’ name – Aurora Sentinel

  • Thepatricia1

    Dangit, David. I’m agreeing with you a lot these days.

  • http://www.facebook.com/lovita.sheri Lovita Sheri

    THEY CAN DRAW MONEY FROM THE LOTTERY EVERYDAY AS LONG AS THEY STAY BELOW THE REPORTING AMOUNT.
    CHILDREN AND OTHERS ARE KILLED AND MOLESTED, SOME! INDIVIDUALS OF MULTIPLE BIRTH-TWINS TRIPLETS, ETC. SEE THESE CRIMES AND WILL NOT HELP SOCIETY TO PREVENT THEM      ALL!!! INDIVIDUALS OF MULTIPLE BIRTHS- READ MINDS! AND SEE INTO THE FUTURE, AND WATCH THESE CRIMES OCCUR– WHY? FOR LARGE MONEY VENTURES! MONEY! THE LOTTERY- #1. THEY CAN DRAW MONEY FROM THE LOTTERY EVERYDAY AS LONG AS THEY STAY BELOW THE REPORTING AMOUNT.  THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE FROM CRIME AND DEATH, Movies,  TV crime stories  (Caylee and Casey). ONLY A FOOL WILL Continue to BELIEVE  ONE CAN SEE DEATH AFTER A CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED BUT NOT BEFORE or during that is a lie.. They (some) are deceitful liars, for whatever reason. TIRED OF THE HARASSMENT TO KEEP THIS INHUMANE SECRET. Individuals of multiple births lead the unaware (those of us who can’t read minds and see into the future) to believe that they can only see death after a victim has been killed. What kind of fools do they think we are to keep believing this lie? There is money in crime –too many reality shows, programs, movies, etc.  Child-individuals of multiple birth are excluded (from this writing)

  • http://www.facebook.com/lovita.sheri Lovita Sheri

    THEY CAN DRAW MONEY FROM THE LOTTERY EVERYDAY AS LONG AS THEY STAY BELOW THE REPORTING AMOUNT.
    CHILDREN AND OTHERS ARE KILLED AND MOLESTED, SOME! INDIVIDUALS OF MULTIPLE BIRTH-TWINS TRIPLETS, ETC. SEE THESE CRIMES AND WILL NOT HELP SOCIETY TO PREVENT THEM      ALL!!! INDIVIDUALS OF MULTIPLE BIRTHS- READ MINDS! AND SEE INTO THE FUTURE, AND WATCH THESE CRIMES OCCUR– WHY? FOR LARGE MONEY VENTURES! MONEY! THE LOTTERY- #1. THEY CAN DRAW MONEY FROM THE LOTTERY EVERYDAY AS LONG AS THEY STAY BELOW THE REPORTING AMOUNT.  THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE FROM CRIME AND DEATH, Movies,  TV crime stories  (Caylee and Casey). ONLY A FOOL WILL Continue to BELIEVE  ONE CAN SEE DEATH AFTER A CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED BUT NOT BEFORE or during that is a lie.. They (some) are deceitful liars, for whatever reason. TIRED OF THE HARASSMENT TO KEEP THIS INHUMANE SECRET. Individuals of multiple births lead the unaware (those of us who can’t read minds and see into the future) to believe that they can only see death after a victim has been killed. What kind of fools do they think we are to keep believing this lie? There is money in crime –too many reality shows, programs, movies, etc.  Child-individuals of multiple birth are excluded (from this writing)

  • http://twitter.com/bigmikecruz16 Mike Cruz
  • disabled veteran

    Is there any truth to the rumor that the Century 16 Theater has a ‘no weapons’ or ‘no guns’ policy?

    • Simba

      The whole municipality of Aurora has a “gun ban.”

  • Eyelean101

    I totally agree withh your comments Mr.Perry.   uuuuuuummm I am wondering who the parents are….as in position held in their jobs…..

    Secondly,please encourage the precious folks of Aurora not to let fly free balloons….PLEASE Balloons kill so many animals.  Consider sending up a group song,the music will reach Paradise . I send my deepset condolescenses.
    E. Curran,Pa

  • Arizona_Patriot

    The
    2nd Amendment: “… the right of the people to keep and bear arms
    shall not be infringed” except in Illinois, and a dozen other states. While Colorado
    allows concealed carry of weapons many cities in the state have passed laws prohibiting
    it, some going so far as to state that weapons may not even be carried in your
    vehicle – such is Aurora!

     

    How
    is that NOT infringement? Had someone with the audacity to carry concealed in
    that Aurora Theater been able to take out James Holmes before he wreaked the
    mayhem and misery that he did, they would be guilty of a felony.

     

    So in Aurora, Colorado, a beautiful picturesque
    city, horror erupts in a darkened theater as the caped crusader vanquishes evil
    on the wide screen while the citizenry’s fragile belief of peace and safety is
    shattered by death and destruction by a lone deranged gunman – and for what? A
    liberal world view that all that has to happen for evil to be vanquished is to infringe
    the 2nd Amendment. If anything, Aurora should teach us that gun
    control does NOT work and the need to return the full implication of the 2nd
    Amendment rights to her citizens!

  • BarbaraCrystal

    Vision and Witness… of the “Violet Flame Heart” Aurora, Colorado
    July 22, 2012
    It was time for bed, and I sat on the edge of my bed and began to say my nightly prayers. As I was saying my prayers I began to experience the whole room being frozen in time, all had stopped including myself, and then a soft voice said, “You are the witness”. The room in front of me began to part… I could see the Movie Theater in Colorado, and was able to see inside the theater and all twelve souls that had lost their lives, they were all still there.
    Then my attention was drawn to the outside of the movie theater and looking very high above the theater, the top part of a very large outline of a Red Vibrant Heart began to appear flowing downward until the bottom tip of the heart extended deep into the ground covering the entire theater. As I watched… In the center of the Heart, a large burst of violet light appeared and the Violet Consuming Flame began to fill the entire Heart, Theater and Grounds.
    I turned my head to the right, and could see in the far distance a large beautiful Rainbow Arrow of Light moving very fast toward the Heart. I then turned my head to the left, and saw the killer, James Eagan Holmes. I turned my head back to the right and saw the Rainbow Arrow of Light shoot straight through the Violet Flame Heart, into the killer’s heart. I then looked back to the movie theater and I could see all twelve Souls again, they were at Peace and Happy. The Souls then held each others hand and all began to move upward into the “Light” until they were gone.
    I then saw the “Violet Flame Heart” surrounding the movie theater, expand larger and larger until the “Violet Flame Heart” covered all of Colorado.
    Then a soft voice said “Let not, hurt nor grief fill your heart, for your love ones are with us now… let love and forgiveness be in your heart now and forever”.
    As the vision ended a tear rolled down my cheek… O’ God, thank you for such a beautiful vision.
    Barbara Crystal
     

  • run4kelly

    I understand your point and I don’t agree that people are fascinated by his appearance. His name is part of the story, we do not need to be bombarded by his picture. What troubles me is it is his name and picture however grotesque that will be remembered as time passes, not the faces and lives of the people who went to a theater to enjoy movie…

  • katie

    get rid of theater 9 seats keep theater put holmes to death ! that simple aurora ! DO NOT GIVE HIM PAROLE .