Exclusive: Jared Loughner Radically Changed Before Alleged Shooting, Friend Says

ABC News ^ | Jan 9 2911 | Lee Ferran, Jason Ryan, Emily Friedman and Richard Esposito

[worst-case scenario]

A longtime friend of Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in custody following the murder of six people in an apparent assassination attempt on Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said there was a mysterious, significant change in him a year before the shooting. More Video 1 2 3 4 PreviousNext VIDEO: A total of 19 people were wounded by gunman Jared Lee Loughner's attack. Watch: Tragedy in Arizona: Timeline of Rampage VIDEO: Dr. Steven Rayle and Ken Penner describe the scene at the Safeway supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. Watch: Eyewitness Accounts of Arizona Shooting VIDEO: Tilman Fertitta talks about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' personal side. Watch: Giffords' Close Friend Speaks Out

"He was a good person that just somehow changed so much," former classmate and friend Tong Shan told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "I don't know what the hell happened to him."

When she heard news reports of Loughner's arrest in connection with the deadly attack, she said, "I was shocked, but I believed it was him."

According to court documents released today, authorities discovered a safe in Loughner's home with a thank you letter from Giffords for attending a Congress on Your Corner event in 2007 -- the same kind of event Loughner allegedly assaulted Saturday. Another envelope said "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and "Giffords" and bore what appears to be Loughner's signature, the documents said.

[ETL]

And from just DAYS before the shooting...

KOS: My CongressWOMAN [Giffords] voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!
dailyKOS via google cache ^ | BoyBlue

Posted on Saturday, January 08, 2011 6:39:18 PM by Jim Robinson
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2653556/posts

[ETL]

meanwhile...

Sarah Palin's Culpability in Attempted Assassination of Giffords
by BJ Rudell
Sat Jan 08, 2011 at 12:23:13 PM PST
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/8/934315/-Sarah-Palins-Culpability-in-Attempted-Assassination-of-Giffords

[Taffini]

effects of dope bump

[ETL]

Here's a screen grab from the Huffington Post. Note that two of the lunatic's favorite reads is THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO and MEIN KAMPF. The Nazis were of course socialist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/08/jared-lee-loughner-gabrielle-giffords-shooter_n_806243.html

[ETL]

Here's a screen capture of the lunatic's supposed acquaintances on Twitter...

[Deo volente]

Unfortunately, we're going to be hearing a lot about this guy for a long time to come. The Unabomber’s lawyer has already signed up as his attorney. Expect a full-scale insanity defense, a long trial, and a courtroom circus.

[ETL]

The Unabomber’s lawyer has already signed up as his attorney.

From SFGate.com:

Unabomber essay urges attacks on 'techno-industrial system'
July 27, 2002 | By Dan Eggen, Dominic Gates, Washington Post

In an article published this spring by Green Anarchy, a radical environmental newsletter, [unabomber Ted] Kaczynski calls on revolutionaries to "eliminate the entire techno-industrial system" by "hitting where it hurts" and disparages the activities of most radicals as "pointless."

http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-07-27/news/17554242_1_contention-that-modern-society-radical-environmental-newsletter-kaczynski-kaczynski-s-views

[ETL]

____________________________________

Joe Stack (IRS plane crasher) sums up his “manifesto” with this, a popular Karl Marx quote and a stab at Capitalism...

“The communist creed:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed:
From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.”

-Joe Stack (1956-2010)
____________________________________

Full text here: (CNN PDF file)

******************************************************

"The woman accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville [Amy Bishop] was a suspect in a 1993 attempted mail bombing, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

The report broke the day after it was learned that Bishop fatally shot her brother in Braintree in 1986. ..."

http://www.necn.com/02/14/10/Amy-Bishop-at-time-of-1993-mail-bomb-inv/landing.html?blockID=180453&feedID=4215
_________________________________________

"A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was "obsessed" with President Obama to the point of being off-putting."--Boston Herald, February 15, 2010

'Oddball' portrait of Amy Bishop emerges:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100215oddball_protrait_emerges_suspects_family_pals_offer_clues/srvc=home&position=0

******************************************************

From the Wall Street Journal
NOVEMBER 24, 2007

Oswald was a dedicated communist who had defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 out of disgust with American capitalism. After becoming disillusioned with Soviet life, he returned to the U.S. in 1962. In early 1963, he bought a scoped rifle through the mail and soon used it to fire a shot (which missed) at retired general Edwin Walker, the head of the John Birch Society in Dallas. In the summer of 1963, Oswald was active in street demonstrations in support of Castro. In September 1963, he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City seeking a travel visa that would allow him to travel to Cuba.

Oswald was among the radicals of the time who saw Third World revolutionaries like Castro as the wave of the communist future. He was well aware of Kennedy's efforts to overthrow Castro's regime. As a Senate investigative committee suggested in 1975, Oswald shot Kennedy to interrupt his administration's plans to assassinate Castro or to overthrow his regime in Cuba.

Ignoring Oswald's communist links, journalists and political leaders quickly claimed the president was a martyr to civil rights. Earl Warren said that Kennedy had "suffered martyrdom as a result of the hatred and bitterness that has been injected into the life of our nation by bigots." Martin Luther King said the assassination had to be viewed against the backdrop of violence against civil rights marchers in the South. James Reston wrote in the New York Times that "something in the nation itself, some strain of madness and violence, had destroyed the highest symbol of law and order."

The consensus opinion was that Kennedy was a victim of hate and bigotry, a casualty of his support for civil rights. The Cold War and Kennedy's ongoing feud with Castro were rarely mentioned as factors behind the assassination. The reasons? Mrs. Kennedy wanted her husband remembered as a modern-day Abraham Lincoln. Lyndon Johnson feared complicating relations with the Soviet Union. Liberals feared a replay of the McCarthy period, when the Wisconsin senator inflamed public opinion about fears of domestic communism.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119586848318702756.html

[Gene Eric]

The Left has no tolerance for those that stray to the Right of the Commie Plantation.

BTW, no mention of Oswald’s connection to Communism was ever made during my K12 years.

[MacMattico]

You are so right. I have a distant relative that has bipolar disorder and becomes delusional when in a severe manic state. In the 1970’s her husband could have her committed and medicated when necessary and with doctor's approval. Since the late 70’s when NY changed their laws, she can only commit herself unless she is an immediate danger to herself or others. And I mean immediate. I have been there when the Police have been called and refuse to do anything because she isn't acting suicidal at that moment, although several people tell them she was on the verge of overdosing 5 minutes ago, and had been telling people she was going to kill herself. This woman has never been violent to anyone but herself in the past, but who's to say what her behavior could be the next time around? And also, even after committed, meds are all voluntary and when I was the only distant relative willing to visit her in the mental hospital, I watched as they came around with the med cart and all those seriously ill said “no” to their meds! I feared for this woman's safety as well as my own and that of the staff on the floor, who at night seemed like just a bunch of kids willing to work for a little more than minimum wage to supervise the crazies. And I'm not talking football player types but 120 pound women. Sooner or later there will be a mass murder at one of these hospitals. And also many of these patients were nonviolent in with people that you could tell could turn violent at anytime, sharing detailed info. About where they lived, their kids, etc because they weren't thinking clearly. How many outside crimes happen because of this, especially after many are released after 72 hours???? Ok, rant off...

[ETL]

no mention of Oswald’s connection to Communism was ever made during my K12 years.

Same here. Also with the SLA (Patty Hearst kidnapping), the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground (even TODAY Sean Hannity rarely if ever describes the WU as being communist revolutionaries), the massacre at Jonestown (a communist camp set up committed communist Rev Jim Jones), on and on and on... The SLA were comrades of the Weather Underground, as were the Black Panthers. All were communist revolutionary domestic terrorists. Hannity only referred to the WU and Ayers as "domestic terrorists", despite the fact that they openly described themselves as communist revolutionaries.

[agere_contra]

Thank you for your informative post.

FWIW I was nearly run down by a carload of pot-smokers in 2010. They were openly paranoid and unhinged.

[DemforBush]

No slams coming from me, either. It’s clear this guy is mentally ill, and I think your analysis makes a lot of sense.

[DoughtyOne]

Of course we don’t for sure. In fact I believe someone just posted to me that one of the guys who took him down was carrying. (people shouldn’t read this as a definite statement on the subject though)

At any rate, they may not have been positioned to take him out, or as you say it may have happened too quickly. IMO, if the guy killed six, he wasn’t just firing as rapidly as he could pull the trigger. He was targeting people.

How do you kill a nine year old, just because you’re angry at a politician? God what a wing-nut...

[DoughtyOne]

I saw one of the guys who took him down on the tele this morning. He was asked what one statement he would like to say to the shooter after all this.

He thought for a moment (seriously, for two to five seconds) and said, “I’m glad I didn’t shoot you. I want to see him answer for what he has done, thinking of all the relatives and friends...”

Ah, my statement would have been, I’m sorry I didn’t vaporize your ass ASAP after the first shot. I would have liked to have stopped you before killing more people.

[SuziQ]

Whether AZ has the death penalty is beside the point. With the murder of a Federal judge, it puts the crime in FEDERAL jurisdiction, and there is a death penalty for Federal crimes. That’s why the FBI is involved.

[Lazlo in PA]

The Federal Judge does not factor in to this legally. He was not at the event as a duty to his position. He was just a bystander saying hi to a friend from all accounts. The only way the Feds have any authority is if he was doing his job as a judge when he was shot. A Federal Judge being killed at Starbucks during a robbery does not make that a federal case.

This is an AZ deal and the Feds have no jurisdiction. They are just there to assist. As for AZ, they have the Death Penalty, but the sheriff seems to be screwing up this case enough to get the guy a trip to a mental hospital.

[worst-case scenario]

I’ve seen that alreasy and it’s not convincing as a motive.

He also read “Gulliver’s Travels” and “The Republic,” as well as the anti-Soviet and anti-Socialist classic, “We The Living.” He was nothing if not eclectic in his reading. We have no idea when he read these books (”The Wizard of Oz”?) or why he was impressed by them.

You can pull any one thing out of context and use that as an explanation of what motivated him. Personally, I think that you are grasping at straw in an attempt to make any sense out of this guy’s rantings. He’s not a “Leftist Lunatic” or a “Right Wing Nut.” He’s a *paranoid schizophrenic.*

The latest info is that *lately* he’d been reading a lot of anti-government conspiracy stuff on the Internet.

I’m far more convinced that whatever he’d been paying attention to in this past year, since you schizophrenia apparently started, then what books he read in grade school or high school.

A person who is descending into a paranoid schizophrenic mania does NOT have a sensible political agenda. They pull conspiracy theories out of the general discourse and weave a mad scenario that only they understand.

Back in the 1960s, guys like this were talking about the Blue Book Project.

[worst-case scenario]

Aw, come on! That’s one guy posting, using a common metaphor. When we say someone is “dead to us,” do we mean that we wantto see them *killed*? Let’s get real, here.

This diary, and my point, were that Loughner is a schizophrenic.

[ETL]

When we say someone is “dead to us,” do we mean that we want to see them *killed*? Let’s get real, here.

The point of bringing those remarks to light was precisely that: to show the left that they're way off base accusing Sarah Palin of provoking someone to shoot one of the democrats that she put a "bullseye" on. Shoe on the other foot in order to shut them up.