In this episode host Yvonne Battle-Felton is joined by Dr. William H. Reid who will be reading from and talking about his book, A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings.

About the book: 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 in addition to unfettered access to prosecution, defense and law enforcement investigations. 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 people were dead and fifty-eight wounded, young children and pregnant women among them. A few minutes later, officers called to the scene found the man calmly getting into his car behind the theater. He was arrested without resistance.

           In the court case that followed, only Dr. William H. Reid, a distinguished forensic psychiatrist retained by the presiding judge, would be allowed to video his nine interviews with the defendant. Reid would also read Holmes’s notebook, investigate his phone calls and text messages, interview his family and acquaintances, speak to his victims, talk with prosecution and defense experts and review over 75,000 pages of interviews, photos and other evidence in an effort first to arrive at the opinions he expressed during a week on the witness stand at Holmes’s trial, and later to write this book.

           Those findings, including Reid’s twenty-three hours of unredacted interview transcripts and additional research, bring the reader 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.

About the Author

William Reid, MD, MPH, is among the most experienced forensic mental health professionals in North America. A professor at three Texas medical schools, he has received both the Manfred Guttmacher Award for forensic writing and the Seymour Pollack Award for Distinguished Contribution to Education in Forensic Psychiatry, and is a past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Dr. Reid has written, co-authored, or edited 16 professional volumes and over 200 professional articles and book chapters, many on antisocial behavior, terrorism and forensic practice. Dr. Reid was one of two psychiatric experts retained by the presiding judge in People of the State of Colorado v. James Holmes, and the only psychiatrist allowed to record interviews with Holmes and access the unredacted videos and transcripts for this book. He currently resides in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.

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