Batman Massacre

THE ULTIMATE MUGSHOT:

JAMES EAGAN HOLMES THE JOKER

AS THE SLURPEE MUG “WAR MACHINE” CHARACTER

(SLURPEE WAR MACHINE THEORY FOR THE HOLMES MASSACRE

OF 7/20/2012 IN AURORA, COLORADO, USA)

By Gloria Merle Huffman

7/22-29/2012 (lightly edited 8/5/2018)

3,700 words

[DISCLAIMER: The Slurpee War Machine Theory is the development of a purely speculative idea by Gloria Merle Huffman, and has not been tested or substantiated.]

James Eagan Holmes the Joker, acting out as a Slurpee mug “War Machine” character, shooting moviegoers July 20, 2012, in the Century 16 theater in Aurora, Colorado, would be immediately arrested and become The Ultimate Mugshot: The Mug That Shot. Holmes’ warped sense of dark humor and his megalomaniacal quest for fame in the fields of neuroscience and science fiction fantasy were given a push in the wrong direction by his studies of fantasy versus reality, which he described in 2006 at a science camp.

Pertinent facts about James Eagan Holmes (b. 12/13/1987):

1. Enjoyed soccer and games of strategy

2. Studied subjective experience with his mentor in 2006

3. Studied a temporal illusion which he said was a type of illusion that “allows you to change the past”

4. Dream: “to own a Slurpee machine”

Working Hypothesis: The motive for James Holmes’ massacre was that he wished to demonstrate the merging of fantasy with external reality in a unique way that no one else had ever done before, casting himself as a genius. He may also have been obsessive/compulsive about this plan.

Clue leading to this hypothesis: His 2006 statement that his dream was “to own a Slurpee machine.”

Why the clue was noticeable: It seemed incongruous that a “brilliant” young science student in neuroscience would make a statement that on the surface sounded so juvenile. It could be interpreted in any of several ways: he was seriously underdeveloped in his maturity level, he wanted to make money from owning a Slurpee-making machine, or there was something else behind his words (such as a smug and calculatedly enigmatic revelation of his plans to massacre superhero movie fans).

How to analyze the clue: Translate James Holmes’ seemingly benign statement, “My dream is to own a Slurpee machine,” with the benefit of hindsight.

1. Dream: A fantasy, not reality. (Be brave enough to bring your fantasy into reality.)

2. Slurpee: A machine that makes slushy drinks with crushed ice. A business partnership with Marvel Comics put images of superheroes on the cups, including the 1963 Iron Man character (see the 1977 Slurpee cup collectible series), whose later partner was a character called “War Machine.” Both Iron Man and War Machine were good guy heroes, saving people.

"Marvel 7-11 Slurpee cups and 1977 art version" - http://stlcomics.com/cover_gallery/categories.php?cat_id=424&sessionid=8d9ed7a6222c30522ddab55bce683878&page=3 [accessed 7/27/2012]

3. Own: Computer slang, “to completely dominate to the point of humiliation; to take over a computer system so that you are in total control with administrator privileges.” (Dominate “War Machine,” the good-guy superhero, taking complete control of the character from the inside out, vanquishing it.) 

"Owned:” Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owned [accessed 7/27/2012]

4. Ownage: The noun for the computer slang term “to own.” The new slang for the old term “turkey shoot,” an unevenly matched adversarial situation where one side heavily outmatches the other side to the point of blatant unfairness. On a turkey shoot, the hunter intentionally scatters the flock of birds and waits for the birds to come straggling back one at a time. Then the hunter can easily shoot each defenseless bird as it returns. Shooting a flock of defenseless people who are caught off guard in a cage-like theater is the same as being on a turkey shoot (“owning” them). 

“turkey shoot:” Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_shoot [accessed 7/27/2012]

5. Machine: An ambiguous word. Out of context, it is a Slurpee machine that makes slushy ice drinks. After disambiguation, it is understood to be an unspecified “machine” that is associated with the Slurpee drinks. In context, it refers to “War Machine,” one of the good guy Marvel Comics superheroes. Since “Iron Man” had already been depicted on a Slurpee cup in 1977, and since Holmes as a superhero fan was aware that the movie “Iron Man” had been in production since 1990 with a target date of 2006, he could safely assume (after Marvel Comics reacquired the movie rights to “Iron Man” in 2006) that the movie would indeed be made, and that the good guy superhero nicknamed “War Machine” would also soon be depicted on a Slurpee cup. Hence, he said “Slurpee machine” in 2006 to ambiguously refer to the superhero character “War Machine,” an upcoming design on a Slurpee cup.

Translation of Holmes’ 2006 sentence (“My dream is to own a Slurpee Machine”): “My dream is to completely dominate the fictional good guy superhero, “War Machine,” a character whose image I expect to appear on a Slurpee cup in the near future.”

Translation of Holmes’ 2006 sentence with additional 2006 clues and 20/20 hindsight (“My dream is to own a Slurpee Machine,” "I've been working with a temporal illusion. It's an illusion that allows you to change the past." "[My mentor has an interest in fantasy vs. reality. He also] studies subjective experience, which is what takes place inside the mind as opposed to the external world. I've carried on his work in dealing with subjective experience."): “My dream, which I intend to bring into reality by merging vicarious fantasy with horrifying facts, is to take on the fictional good guy superhero “War Machine” (whose image I expect to appear on a Slurpee cup in the near future) by dressing like him in a suit of armor, and then to completely dominate this character by turning him into an evil guy who kills people instead of saving them, all in the dimension of external reality while fantasy is playing out on a movie screen. People go to such movies to experience horror vicariously because they are cowards. Let them experience horror in reality. I have been shy, but now I am changing my past, brave enough to create and implement the strategy that will merge fantasy with reality, killing in the dimension of reality. I plan to massacre people at a superhero movie, where the audience will have the mindset that a staged movie massacre is a fantasy, an illusion crafted for pleasurable consumption with no real consequences and therefore no real guilt. My demonstration will show them the reality of what they are seeing on the screen, and prove that they have split their own minds in order to murder and kill without being an active physical agent. Are they not guilty of murder in their hearts? ("As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." "Whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.") The moviegoers will also experience the temporal illusion that time is passing more slowly than is the actual case. By my research into how to stage this event and my success in performing it, I will have created a stunning simultaneous interplay of fantasy, reality, illusion, and the relativity of time. The scientific discovery inherent in this experiment is that it will be necessary to put the audience on trial as murderers in the realm of subjective experience, and not just myself as someone who by my hands shifted the fantasy through the veil into reality.”

Question: Why did he pick a Batman movie?

Speculative Answer: Probably because he was foiled in 2006, initially intending to commit the massacre at the 2006 Iron Man film that didn’t come out until 2008, and because he wasn't prepared to do it in 2008 or even for the Iron Man 2 sequel film of 2010 (he graduated with his master's degree in 2010). Iron Man 3 was too far off into the future, and he saw that with the Batman premiere in 2012 he could add a new level of complexity by mixing his War Machine combat costume with the claim that he was Batman’s adversary, the evil Joker, in disguise. Holmes obviously thought it humorous that the juxtaposition of the two superhero characters, Batman and War Machine (Iron Man’s pal), could be understood as a big joke pulled off by Batman’s evil nemesis, The Joker. Being unemployed gave Holmes the spare time he needed to take his old idea, develop his strategy for it, and plan the staging of it. All he needed was the money, which he had acquired by 2012 (perhaps from his grant for 2011-12, which paid his tuition and gave him $21,600 per year in monthly installments for living expenses). Conditions were ripe for a 2012 massacre. Even the Batman movie title, Dark Knight Rises, dovetailed with his plan, as a dark spirit was rising in him in sharp contrast with his past personality. This was too good to pass up. He had to do it. The premiere of the new Batman movie, Dark Knight Rises, was most likely an alternate and superior “venue of opportunity” for a crime he had perhaps planned for the first Iron Man movie, which was originally scheduled to be released in 2006 (the year of Holmes' enigmatic clues).

Question: How could he kill innocent people?

Speculative Answer: He probably tends to live entirely inside his head in his bookish existence, with very little experience interacting with other people in a normal way. The idea of playing with ideas and clarifying philosophical concepts in a reality-based demonstration (which would surely bring him notoriety if not fame) was a stronger influence on his actions than the (for him) foreign concept of human empathy or the reality of a bloodbath. If his lack of empathy is not the result of being abused and neglected at home, then he has an inherent (or drug-induced) inability to grasp reality and to put himself in other people’s shoes. Also, his being so shy could have come from an overwhelming fear of other people, a fear that he couldn’t conquer to his own satisfaction except in an explosive way. Since he was historically shy and given to few words, it is possible that he had a dramatic imbalance between his capacity to visualize complex concepts and his capacity to describe them verbally. His communication in that case would tend to be physical dramatization of (or acting out) what he could see internally. Without the tempering influence of better-developed left-brain language, his mind lived closer to the animal world of right brain immediacy, with no gap between thought and action. Stockpiling weapons and stage props would be no more premeditated than a squirrel repetitively hiding nuts for the winter. ("Think nut, get nut. Think nut, get nut.") The results of shooting real people with real bullets were obviously less important to him than communicating in public the complex jokes and twisted superhero plots and interrelationships he had so masterfully imagined. Some part of him surely wanted a standing ovation for that. It probably wasn't about rage or unemployment or exam failure or a psychotic break. It was about giving the audience in bigger-than-big-screen material reality what they had paid to see in comforting nonreality. It was about the body of a man with the mind of a precocious seven-year-old boy playing shoot-'em-up. In terms of the present American culture, it was just another prelude to training people to cheer when a lot of people die.

SLURPEE WAR MACHINE THEORY FOR THE HOLMES MASSACRE OF 7/20/2012 IN AURORA, COLORADO, USA

Chronology of the Batman Massacre (Holmes Massacre):

1. 1963: Iron Man (comic book superhero): First appearance: Tales of Suspense #39, March 1963 (Marvel Comics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man [accessed 7/27/2012]

2. 1977: Slurpee cups: Marvel Comics Superheroes (limited edition collectibles) including “The Invincible Iron Man.”

http://www.lukespromocollectibles.info/iron-man/ [accessed 7/27/2012]

Photo credit: Luke's Promo Collectibles

Fig. 1. The Invincible Iron Man – (1977 Slurpee cup)

3. 1979: War Machine (comic book superhero, nickname for fictional character James Rupert Rhodes):

James Rupert Rhodes, a fictional character, first appeared in Iron Man #118 (January 1979). The War Machine armor became Rhodes’ signature armor, and he took on the nickname “War Machine.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Machine [accessed 7/27/2012]

Photo credit: Adi Granov

Fig. 2. War Machine

4. 1987: James Eagan Holmes, born 12/13/1987, intelligent but shy.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/07/20/denver-shooter-profile.html [accessed 7/27/2012]

5. 1990-2006: Iron Man movie in development since 1990 at Universal Pictures, 20thCentury Fox, and New Line Cinema. In December 2004, director Nick Cassavetes was attached to the project for a target 2006 release. After two years of unsuccessful development, Marvel Studios reacquired the rights in 2006.

"Iron Man (film):" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man_(film) [accessed 7/27/2012] 

6. 2006: James Holmes graduated in 2006 from Westview High School, San Diego, California. His yearbook photo showed the parkinsonian feature of wide-open eyelids that don’t cover the top of the iris of the eyes (a symptom he may have faked in anticipation of using neurologically-based mental illness as a cover for the mass murder he was planning to commit but couldn't when the first Iron Man movie wasn't released on schedule in 2006).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/20/james-holmes-photos-released_n_1690005.html [accessed 7/27/2012]

Photo credit: 2006 yearbook for Westview High School, San Diego, California