AURORA, CO - JULY 22: Greg Zanis (L) of Aurora, Illinois, prays with Aurora, Colorado, Mayor Steve Hogan at the twelve crosses Zanis made for a makeshift memorial to the victims of last weekend's mass shooting at the Century 16 movie theater July 22, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. A carpenter by trade, Zanis made the twelve white crosses that were placed near Columbine High School after a mass shooting there in 1999. Zanis said he made these crosses as fast as possible and drove all night across the country to place them across the street from the theater. Police in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, say they have James Holmes, 24, in custody after he killed 12 people and injured 59 during a midnight screening of 'The Dark Knight Rises' last Friday. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)The Aurora, Colorado Shooting: Echoes of MK-ULTRA?
Accused shooter James Holmes.
Another lone nut gunman has struck, this time in Aurora, Colorado. The grandson of a U.S. Naval veteran, the 24-year-old neuroscience student James Holmes murdered 12 people and injured dozens of others on July 20, 2012, at a screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.
Many questions surround the shooting (for one, where did he get the money to pay for all his paramilitary equipment?) and some of the answers will no doubt emerge over the next few days. However, for the moment, this article will touch on some of the historical coincidences and other side-aspects of this terrible incident. These things may turn out to be related or not, but for the moment we will be scanning the possibilities.
First is the location: Aurora, Colorado, is less than 20 miles from Littleton, Colorado, where another famous shooting took place on April 20, 1999. There were a number of odd factors in that incident, mostly surrounding the witness statements (identifying several other shooters) and the murders that took place in the ensuing weeks after the initial crime. April 20 is, of course, Hitler’s birthday.
July 20 is the anniversary of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler, in which a bomb killed members of his staff but left him virtually untouched. The story was told in a recent film, Valkyrie. It alsohappens to be the 30-year anniversary of an IRA bombing incident in England that killed 11 people. Otherwise seemingly unconnected, it is interesting to note that the person arrested for this crime turned out to be a 27-year-old graduate in physics.
Although it is too early to tell, it is also remarkable to note the behavior of Holmes, who calmly shot dozens of people in a theater and then calmly surrendered himself to police. This calm echoes the behavior of some other past “lone nut” shooters. Mark David Chapman, who shot John Lennon, is a classic example. After killing him, he sat down and began to read a paperback he’d brought with him, The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, who served in U.S. Army Counterintelligence during World War II and whose commanding officer was Henry Kissinger. This unit, incidentally, was where the Nazi Klaus Barbie was recruited and aided in his escape after the war into South America.
Chapman remained reading at the scene despite being exhorted to leave by the doorman, Jose Perdomo, who coincidentally turned out to be an anti-Castro Cuban involved in Operation 40after the Bay of Pigs.
The University of Colorado, Denver is mentioned as one of the institutions involved in the MK-ULTRA project of the CIA, which focused on controlling the minds of ordinary citizens so as to induce them into performing assassinations. An account of one such experiment, from all the way back in 1954, showed that it was possible to get individuals to fire a gun and then forget about it. (Incidentally, this is precisely the pattern evinced in the Sirhan Sirhan shooting.Sirhan fired a pistol in the general direction of Robert Kennedy, but then after being apprehended was never able to remember anything about the case.) The New York Timesreported on the MK-ULTRA mind control program in 1978, following the wake of the Church Committee Hearings.
Many universities and hospitals were involved in the program and took money to perform the experimentation. The doctors involved in hypnoprogramming American citizens were at the top of their fields – such figures as, for example, Ewen Cameron and Jolyon West.
Related to these incidents is a very interesting book written by Emile Franchel in 1957 called 254 Questions and Answers on Practical Hypnotism. Franchel was perhaps the most famous hypnotist of his time and his book has some quite interesting information in it. For example one of the questions is “I have heard you say many times during your television programs that a subject under hypnosis ‘Cannot be made to do anything that is against his moral or religious beliefs.’ How can you say that now?” His answer:
“I am afraid you have not been listening too closely to what I was saying. The only similar remark I have made is, ‘IT IS SAID that a person under hypnosis cannot be made to do anything that is against their religious or moral beliefs.’ I trust the implication is clear.” (77)
He is also asked this broader question:
“Has hypnotism ever been used on masses of people, far larger than any auditorium can hold?” His answer:
“From what I can see at this time, hypnotism is being practiced on millions of people at this moment, both inside and outside this country. The hypnotic techniques being employed at present make the hypnotic technicians of the ex-Nazi regime look like well-meaning psychiatrists…One of the great dangers of hypnotism is its simplicity of operation and how easily it can be disguised.” (63)
My heart goes out to the victims of this tragedy. It remains to be seen what the final answers will be, but this background may help knowing what to look for.
