James Holmes Trial: James Holmes’ Diaries Read In Court

James Holmes’ diaries were read in court on Tuesday in the trial of the Aurora theater killings.

James Holmes Trial: Notebook Details An “Obsession To Kill”

Holmes, who is on trial for the 2012 mass murders at a Colorado screening of The Dark Knight, wrote about his plans for mass murder in the notebook. Aurora Police Sgt. Matthew Fyles read excerpts for the jury on Tuesday, detailing how Holmes planned his attack.

“The obsession to kill since I was a kid, with age became more and more realistic,” Holmes wrote.

Passages from Holmes’ diary reveal that he was consumed by his belief that life is meaningless. “Terrorism isn’t the message. The message is, there is no message,” Holmes wrote.

Prosecutors are using the notebook to combat Holmes’ defense – Holmes has entered a plea of not guilty due to reason of insanity. Prosecutors are arguing that Holmes planned his attack, which resulted in 12 deaths and over 50 injuries, thoroughly, suggesting the mass murder was not, as the defense is trying to show, the result of a psychotic episode.

In fact, many passages in the notebook detail how Holmes planned his attack. Holmes contemplated using a nuclear bomb or biological weapon for his attack. Holmes decided against biological weapons, writing that he was “too impatient.” He also wrote about the possibility of committing a string of serial killings, but nixed that idea, listing serial murder cons as “too personal, too much evidence, easily caught, few kills.”

Once he had decided on committing a mass murder, Holmes went about deciding on a location. In the notebook, Holmes wrote about settling on a movie theater before settling on the Century Aurora 16 investigating the possible screening rooms his massacre could take place. He drew detailed diagrams of screens 12, 10 and 9 – the massacre took place in theater 9. He also estimated the time it would take police to respond to the scene and reminded himself that his victims should be killed at random. “The cruel twists of fate are unkind to the misfortunate,” Holmes wrote.

Holmes’ notebook also contained passages of self-diagnosis. Holmes wrote that he had been obsessed with killing for 10 years and had tried to suppress it. “So anyways, that’s my mind. It is broken. I tried to fix it. I made it my sole conviction but using something that’s broken to fix itself proved insurmountable,” he wrote.

As for why he committed a mass murder, Holmes wrote that there was no reason other than his mind. “Most fools will misinterpret correlation for causation, naming relationship and work failures as causes. Both were expediting catalysts, not the reason. The causation being my state of mind for the past 15 years,” he claimed.

Holmes mailed the notebook to his psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, prior to his attack.