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Museum Shooter Was Growing Despondent

Struggling Von Brunn warned people that they wouldn't see him again

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 11, 2009 4:25 AM CDT

(Newser) – Acquaintances of James von Brunn say the 88-year-old man who witnesses saw open fire in the Holocaust Memorial Museum had grown increasingly unhappy in recent weeks, reports the Washington Post. One fellow white separatist said von Brunn "was barely making it" after his Social Security payments were cut, which he blamed on "someone in Washington" looking at his white supremacist website. Von Brunn also told readers of his periodic emails that they should expect not to hear from him again.

Von Brunn was living hand-to-mouth and was on the verge of giving up his computer—his primary connection to a network of racists and conspiracy theorists. His neighbors described him as a loner who would, unprompted, frequently express his belief that the Holocaust never took place. Hate group monitors have substantial files on him dating to 1981, when he took a gun into the Federal Reserve.

[Images (6)]

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An unidentified man speaks to local and federal officials yesterday outside the Annapolis, Md. condominium building believed to be the home of James Von Brunn. (AP Photo/ Steve Ruark)

DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier wipes her forehead after talking with the media near the US Holocaust Museum in Washington after a shooting there yesterday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Washington police chief Cathy Lanier talks with reporters outside the Holocaust Museum after a shooting there yesterday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Traffic coming from Virginia over the 14th Street Bridge is blocked off by police not far from the Holocaust Museum in Washington after a shooting there yesterday. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

A helicopter flies over theUS Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

This screenshot shows James von Brunn, who is believed to have opened fire in the capital's Holocaust Museum yesterday. (AP Photo/holywesternempire.org)

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Von Brunn is obsessed with Jewish people. He had equal contempt for both Jews and blacks, but if he had to pick one group to wipe out, he'd always say it would be Jews. - Todd Blodgett, an extremist group monitor who met Von Brunn regularly

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 3 comments

brawne

Jun 12, 2009 5:16 AM CDT

What a horrible thing. What a tragedy for the family of Stephen Jones. But, why was this very ill man who had shown his instability many times walking around with a firearm? What is the point of all the neuroscience advances we have made if we pay them scant heed? When will we accept that deep psychological flaws are too often organic in nature? Is it just easier to blame. than to try to learn from these events? If von Brunn had a high IQ then he is not so different from the Unibomber. It is a scientific fact that the smarter the brain the longer it takes to mature. This would be the flip side of genius: you're smart but it now takes well into your twenties for your brain to fully develop. A lot can go wrong in that time and it looks like a lot did. The problem with scientists is that they are so absorbed in their word and they have little patience to talk out of their peer group. So we as the tax payers who fund most of their work are left to decipher what they don't go on talk shows and share: extremist views to the point of killing--temporal lobe glitch. Shit can crazy Unabomber--frontal lobe viral mess. Does this excuse their actions? Of course not. But i would really help if the people who knew about these things took the time to explain them in a way that would benefit us. What good does it do to know that the the V Tech shooter's selective mutism was actually a symptom of a real deep-seated organic dysfunction unless we apply it? It's easy to blame the person, but until we blame the brain that person is answering to we will never prevent this crap. Again, he's responsible for his actions but it helps to understand that he's broken beyond repair, before he destroys innocent people. This was decades of crazy. screaming and nobody listened. I'm sick of it.

riffran

Jun 11, 2009 10:14 AM CDT

I am a firm beleiver that no race (or gender for that matter) is superior or inferior to anybody else....some individuals of any race will stand out in contrast, but it NOT due to skin pigmentation, or some other intangible l so called racial" heritage"......This guy needs to croak already, along with any other "supremacy" group that follows that sick ideology

Alexandria

Jun 11, 2009 10:03 AM CDT

I'm really surprised that people reading those emails didn't take them as a call for help. Hindsight 20/20 I guess.

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US • Crime & Courts

Washington • racism • Holocaust Museum • white supremacism • shooting • anti-Semitism • James Von Brunn

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Museum Shooter Was Growing Despondent