A Dark Night in Aurora

Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings

By: William H. Reid MD MPH

Narrated by: William H. Reid MD MPH

James Holmes killed or wounded seventy people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Only one man was allowed to record extensive interviews with the shooter. This is what he found.

On July 20, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, a man in dark body armor and a gas mask entered a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises with a tactical shotgun, a high-capacity assault rifle, and a sidearm. He threw a canister of tear gas into the crowd and began firing. Soon twelve were dead and fifty-eight were wounded; young children and pregnant women were among them. The man was found calmly waiting at his car. He was detained without resistance.

Unlike the Columbine, Newtown, San Bernadino, and Parkland shootings, James Holmes is unique among mass shooters in his willingness to be taken into custody alive. In the court case that followed, only Dr. William H. Reid, a distinguished forensic psychiatrist, would be allowed to record interviews with the defendant. Reid would read Holmes’ diary, investigate his phone calls and text messages, interview his family and acquaintances, speak to his victims, and review tens of thousands of pages of evidence and court testimony in an attempt to understand how a happy, seemingly normal child could become a killer.

A Dark Night in Aurora uses the twenty-three hours of unredacted interview transcripts never seen by the public and Reid’s research to bring the listener inside the mind of a mass murderer. The result is chilling, gripping study of abnormal psychology and how a lovely boy named Jimmy became a killer.

©2018 William H. Reid (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved

Good listen

Great detail and storytelling. Very informative. A real look into the mind of James, and what went on after.

Very well told

This was a fascinating look at the psychological study of the killer and how the case was presented in court. Told of the deaths in the theater in a respectful way. Very unbiased.

Very Informative

Excellent review of mental capacity of the defendant. This literature demonstrates the way the media lies by omission when reporting on cases of national interest. I was particularly impressed by the epilogue and the author’s discussion of mental illness and crime, another topic of ridiculous political rhetoric IMO.

Informative

There’s a lot of interesting information here that I didn’t know before. I like that it’s read by the author. I don’t like nonfiction that’s read by someone else. I’d rather just read it in that case.

Captivating

Really well written and well performed. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a mass murderer.