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Holmes' academic reputation called into question
James Holmes, suspected gunman in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting rampage, is seen here in a police booking photo. / CBS/Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office
(CBS/AP) More anecdotal evidence emerged Wednesday calling into question the academic prowess of the man accused of shooting midnight moviegoers in a deadly rampage at a Denver-area theater, with a former researcher who James Holmes listed as his mentor calling him a "mediocre" student.
That reputation adds to a still-incomplete portrait of Holmes, the 24-year-old grad-school dropout being held in isolation while awaiting charges stemming from Friday's shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 others injured in Aurora, Colo.
As investigators start to examine Holmes' computer, authorities are still uncertain about the possible motive behind the shooting. Weeks before the massacre, Holmes failed part of his first-year exam and dropped out from graduate school at the University of Colorado-Denver, CBS News correspondent Anna Werner reports.(Watch a report at left)
Special Section: Colorado Movie Theater Massacre
Holmes received thousands from grad-school grants
Gun sales spike after Aurora shooting
A resume posted on Monster.com paints a picture of a brilliant young man brimming with potential: He worked as a summer intern at the renowned Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., in 2006, and mapped the neurons of Zebra finches and studied the flight muscles of hummingbirds while an undergraduate at the University of California, Riverside.
Even though a California administrator described Holmes as a "top of the top" honors student, a former researcher at Salk told the Los Angeles Times that Holmes wasn't a good worker and shouldn't have ever been accepted into the summer program.
"His grades were mediocre. I've heard him described as brilliant. This is extremely inaccurate," John Jacobson said.
Jacobson, who Holmes listed as a mentor but said he merely ran the lab in which Holmes worked,, said he was accepted into the camp because he had a background in computer programming. But when he was tasked with writing code for an experiment, he failed.
"What he gave me was a complete mess," he told the paper.
Another researcher at Salk said Holmes had acquired a reputation as a "dolt," though he admitted he never knew Holmes personally.
Shooting rampage in Colo. theater
David Eagleman, who currently runs the Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law at Baylor University, said a widely circulated video of Holmes making a presentation at the institute was misleading. Eagleman said the words were prepared by his advisers.
"He was just given the presentation to read," Eagleman told USA Today. "He wasn't any sort of superscientist when he was 18."
Still, Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates said the booby-trap found at Holmes' apartment which intended to kill police officers was unlike anything he had seen before.
Also, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reported that the shooter had a hit ratio twice of what a police officer might have engaging with armed assailants in a street setting. That suggests that the suspect -- who is believed to have planned his assault with precision -- must have practiced shooting prior to the attack.(Watch at left)
Holmes spent a year in Colorado's small doctoral program, surrounded by scientists and roughly three dozen classmates delving into the inner workings of the brain.
The university isn't saying if it had any warning signs.
Eagleman told The Associated Press, however, the intimacy of the program and its focus on the brain may not have been enough for staff and students to detect that Holmes was on a course leading to what he's accused of doing.
Supported by the prestigious federal grant, Holmes was studying such topics as how the brain works or malfunctions, or helping develop drugs to treat epilepsy and other disorders.
But it is not behavioral science or psychology, experts note.
Eagleman said some neuroscientists are experts in mental illnesses and aberrant behavior, but others spend most of their time studying molecular chemistry.
"It's really only a fraction of professors" who could identify a simmering mental disorder, Eagleman said. "Many people in neuroscience are not specialized in the issue of picking up mental illness ... There are plenty of people who just study mice and cats and stuff like that."
The school refuses to say what specifically Holmes studied. But an online syllabus listed him as making a presentation in May during a class called "Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders."
"He had, as is now common knowledge, excellent academic credentials," said Barry Shur, dean of the university's graduate program.
Shur said the graduate program is "like a family" in which faculty carefully monitor students' progress.
"It would be a logical step to assume there were people in that program who worked closely with him and would have the expertise to assess his behavior," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a former FBI profiler and the author of the book "Dangerous Instincts: How Gut Feelings Betray Us."
"But being able to recognize concerning, troubling behavior does not mean you can prevent a mass homicide," O'Toole said. "There are many people at a university level who act quirky and strange and don't go out and commit mass murder."
Academics studying the human brain may not have the same ability to size up threats as someone who makes his living spending time with people firing guns, O'Toole said.
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It shows CBS's lack of journalistic ability when it quotes someone just because he worked at the Salk "but not at the same time" as Holmes.
Eagleman has been a self-publicizing researcher for some time and his willingness to be quoted here adds more fuel for that fire. The other person probably has some issues himself as many of the odd personalities of science do.
This unfortunate soul Holmes probably had some potential at one point in his life. Although in science his merits may have been commonplace for a graduate student (along with his paltry $21K salary, again CBS shame on you for trying to make his measly salary some sort of issue, all science grad students get paid this amount). He probably had the ability to work well and accomplish things like graduating from an honors program with honors at one point in his life. Something no "DOLT" could ever do.
His descent may have started, like many people with psychosis, when exposed to increased stressors perhaps at the Salk which may have increased when he moved away to Colorado. Joacobson's quotes may only expose him as someone who was not skilled enough to see that "mess" as a sign that things were unravelling in someone's mind. For him to gloat about this now, further shows Jacobson's lack of insight and his lack of civility and class.
As someone who has taken care of people undergoing psychotic breaks and as someone who has witnessed a friend descend into this sort of madness, I can tell you it is a heartbreaking situation which you pray will only affect the individual involved. In this case it unfortunately had terribly tragic results for hundreds.
Most people with a diagnosed mental illness- even scary ones like psychosis will NEVER ever hurt someone. The mentally ill are much more likely to be victims of violence than the perpetrators.
It is about as likely to say psychosis caused this as to say "he's left handed" or "he's allergic to peanuts" and have that be the "reason" for this act. You increase the stigma and fear of the mentally ill by accepting this as the sole reason for an act of violence.
1. What was the nature of his relationship with his parents?
It seems as though Holmes did not attract much attention. This was probably purposeful, and is often a result of low self confidence. Low self confidence = trying to attract attention to gain confidence/recognition (if given the right provocation). Holmes previously found confidence through his academic studies (or I assume so, as he was in a pretty rigorous program), and when he failed (which, knowing the competitive nature of the grant he received, probably would have caused him to lose this funding) he completely snapped.
Similarly, his concentration was the biological basis of abnormal, psychiatric disorders. I have read that that was the case from a variety of other sources, even if administrators at Colorado-Denver are denying it now (I think that this is an attempt to shirk the responsibility of his crimes, as they can hardly argue there were no warning signs of his psychosis if he was surrounded by psychiatric specialists all day).
If I have learned anything from Charles Kuhn and his long-winded theology on the "Structure of Scientific Revolutions", it is that scientists (including Holmes) draw inspiration for what they study from personal, life factors. Most people who have an interest in psychology, psychiatry, or anything of the like have at least one close, crazy family member.
2. What other summer programs/internships/studies was Holmes involved in?
In the article, his interaction with the neurons of animals is emphasized by officials at the University of Colorado-Denver. I think that this is an attempt to, again, lessen their liability. By accentuating this aspect of his studies, aren't they also implying that he didn't spend as much time around professors/psychiatrists that could have noticed symptoms? Why would he be teaching a course in abnormal behavior if his concentration was animal neuroscience?
3. Does Holmes actually have any connection to Batman?
As in, was he an avid reader of the Batman series? Is that why he chose this premiere? Or was it merely an opportunity to carry out his plans?
James was studying "Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders." He was trying to figure himself out.
"for profit heath care is vastly inferior to nonprofit health care. When non profit health care is re investing in itself, they tend to put money into patient care, best practices and infrastructure."
Really? When did our government become 'not for profit'? Anyway, the Congressional Budget Office reported that it expects that the IRS and the DHHS will spend up to an additional $200 billion over the next decade on administering Obamacare in addition to the estimated $1 trillion (for 2014-2019). Much of the money will go to hiring bureaucrats to administer Obamacare over the next decade.
How is that helping us?
Also, until the passage of Obama's health care law, Congress was the only entity allowed to change what Medicare paid physicians and other health care providers for treating Medicare patients. Now, that power will be handed off to a group of unaccountable political appointees. Do you seriously think they would put more money into patient care?
Some of us are defending the concept of "due process", but that isn't quite the same thing as defending HIM. It's damn obvious he's wacked in the head, but "due process" isn't always about guilt or innocence, it also involves finding underlying motives and understanding LARGER issues.
Now, is there any other spoon-fed spin you want us to clarify and to make simpler to understand?