Disturbing letters written by a friend of the deadliest mass shooting in US history provide a glimpse into the gunman’s terrifying psychology in the lead-up to the massacre.
Months before Stephen Paddock killed 60 people and injured more than 860 when he opened fire at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in 2017, his ex-boyfriend Jim Nixon, 75, pleaded with him not to shoot or kill innocent people.
Handwritten letters to the killer, released by the police in response to a request for records before Las Vegas Review JournalIt shows Nixon pleading with his old friend not to follow through on threats of massacre.
He wrote, “I can get you someone who can help you.” Please don’t go out shooting or hurting people who have done nothing to you.
I’m concerned (sic) about the way you talk and I think you’re going to do something very bad. Steve, please don’t do what I think you’re going to do.
Stephen Paddock became the deadliest mass shooting in US history when he opened fire on concert-goers in Las Vegas from his hotel room in 2017, killing 60 people and wounding more than 860.
The letters, to which DailyMail.com had requested access, were found in late November 2017 by the owners of an abandoned office building in Mesquite, Texas, where Paddock owned property prior to the murder.
Nixon told CNN that he exchanged letters with Paddock several times a year, revealing that he had expressed concern about his friend’s disturbing mentality in the years leading up to his “plan.”
In one ominous letter from August 2014, Nixon wrote: ‘You said you’d be ready in three years and your plan would show up in Nevada, California, Illinois, Texas, New York and other cities… What are you doing? mean?’
Investigators found that Paddock had amassed a huge stockpile of firearms leading up to the shooting, bringing several of them to his Mandalay Hotel room before firing more than 1,000 rounds into the party-goers below.
Nixon alluded to his worrying spending spree in another letter dated May 2, 2017, writing: ‘You should go (sic) hunting with all those guns you’re stocking up on.
Three weeks later, in another letter revealed by the Las Vegas outlet, Nixon again appealed unsuccessfully to Paddock for help before going through with his vicious threats.
‘You are a good person,’ said he, ‘and I want you to know that I am concerned (sic) about you and your well-being.
I think you are lying to me and that you are going to hurt someone or kill someone. You sound like a real madman on the phone tonight.
Paddock was a retired Postal Service worker, accountant, and real estate investor who was known for his high risk. He was the son of a psychopathic bank robber who was on the FBI’s most wanted list.
Nixon said he and Paddock had exchanged many letters in the years leading up to the massacre. Pictured is a sample handwritten correspondence
Paddock fired more than 1,000 rounds in an 11-minute shooting spree from his Mandalay Bay Hotel room
Paddock stored several firearms inside his 32nd-floor hotel room, pictured, in the lead-up to the massacre
Concertgoers pictured crying following shooting at Route 91 Harvest music festival in October 2017
Nixon’s concerns about Paddock’s mental state are evident throughout the letters, including one in which he wrote: “Remember that you have to answer to God Almighty for your earthly crimes.”
“Looks like my friend is going to kill or kill someone or some people,” he wrote in another message from June 2017.
“Please, whatever it is I would like to talk to you about and we can discuss. Please don’t keep shooting like some fool.
Nixon, a disabled Vietnam War veteran who was reportedly imprisoned for decades for tax fraud, said he met Paddock more than 10 years before the shooting. Paddock continued to stay at Nixon homes in California, and when the veteran moved to Las Vegas, the two would go fishing on Lake Mead together.
No definitive motive has been given for the horrific Paddock massacre, Nixon said CNN He believes his former friend has become “bitter with the system” and has begun “talking too much about death”.
Although he said he became increasingly concerned when Paddock talked about “going to the mail”, Nixon never notified the authorities because he “didn’t know[Paddock]was going to do anything” and “couldn’t read his mind”.
Nixon added that he initially did not believe reports of Paddock as the killer when the crime shocked the nation, and said he believed “damn it, that idiot” when it was officially confirmed as the gunman.
Paddock, right, was the son of a notorious bank robber who was once on the FBI’s most wanted list. He is pictured with his brother Eric, left
The massacre shocked the nation more than five years ago. Pictured: Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil a week after the mass shooting
In January 2019, more than a year after the shooting, the FBI released a report detailing its investigation into his motives, finding “no single or obvious motivational factor.”
According to the document, which was compiled by the bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, Paddock “made great efforts to keep his thoughts private, and this extended to his final reasoning regarding this mass crime.”
The FBI confirmed that he acted alone as he shot concert-goers in an 11-minute shooting spree, and maintained that he was not motivated by religious, social, or political resentment.
The report adds that he may have been inspired by his father, notorious bank robber Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, who found himself on the FBI’s most wanted list in 1968.
The report concluded, “Paddock’s father devised a front to conceal his true criminal identity and conceal his diagnosed psychopathic history, and in doing so eventually achieved significant criminal fame.”
FBI files released this year also found he lost $1.5 million gambling in the weeks before carrying out the mass shooting, which one gambler said could have easily caused the gunman to “fall out.”
