Coulter points out a couple of things that don't make sense about the media's portrayal of Stephen Paddock. First, unlike with real poker tournaments, where a skillful player can make money, you can't be a consistent winner with video poker. And while you can win from time to time, it's certainly not, as the Los Angeles Times claimed, "a steady income over a period of years."
So, why would he be spending that much time playing it, and getting, at best, a 99 cent return on each dollar he spent, if not to launder money for some illegal business?
Coulter also asks why Paddock would be wearing gloves if he had been planning to commit suicide? And why did it take eight days to figure out when he checked into the hotel? And have any other mass shooters ever had girlfriends?
There's too much about this shooting that doesn't make sense.
Coulter then offers the following scenario:
[T]he probable illicit business requiring money to be laundered that leaps out at us in Paddock’s case is illegal gun sales. If true, it would not only explain the arsenal in his hotel room, but also raises the possibility of either an accomplice or different perpetrator altogether.
If this were a movie script, a terrorist would go to Paddock’s room on the pretense of buying guns, kill Paddock, commit the massacre, put his gunshot residue-covered gloves on Paddock’s dead hands and slip out of the room when the coast was clear.
Coulter then says there is no evidence for that theory, but at least it doesn't require us to believe that Paddock was making lots of money from video poker.
This makes sense for a couple of other reasons that Coulter doesn't mention. According to David Newton, an officer with the LVPD, when police first entered Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay, they found "an armory. So many guns, so many magazines, stacks and stacks of magazines everywhere just in suitcases all neatly stacked against pillars that were in the room, all stacked up, rifles placed all throughout. All kinds of monitors and electrical equipment he had in there. It just looked like almost a gun store."
Paddock couldn't possibly have used all of those weapons in one shooting spree. So why did he have them all there, neatly arranged, looking like "a gun store?" Maybe because it was?
The answer to that might be that the person or people posing as the gun buyer(s) might have rented the rooms for him, offering to pay for them, and Paddock just figured he'd take advantage of the freebie.
All we know so far is that there is no apparent motive for this killing. In the meantime, Coulter is right: there are a lot of questions about Paddock, many of which remain unanswered.
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29 comments:
I'ma disagree slightly about "you cannot win money playing video poker" (video poker is the same as slot machines in this context) and I am not saying so because I am a devotee of the genre (I ain't, I count cards at blackjack)...my understanding is that if you devote yourself exclusively to the particular organized slot machine or video poker tournaments, and you are generally competent, you can kinda make a little money...better off doing something else though in my view
http://www.videopokerballer.com/articles/video-poker-tournaments/
now I am not saying that the above article is accurate, merely that it accords with what casino lizard types do say
and I think I read that Paddock only did tournaments...but you might as well be a FOREX trader or a day trader in the stock market, also still sketchy...(I always meet people who say they are day traders BUT I THINK they are just mental and basically got the money from their parents, heehee)
====GUINEA HENWEED
GUINEA HENWEED --
A tournament is where you play against other human beings, but isn't most online poker done against a computer? I've never done either, so can't speak with any authority, but if it's against a computer, I'd guess those computers would be be programmed to pay out something on the order of 97 to 99% of what they take in. But you're right, if you're playing against other humans, it would be different.
I am delighted to read this theory. We all perceive ourselves as expert class profilers on serial killers now- special thanks to Anthony Hopkins for chatting up Jodie Foster ( "Well Clarice .. have the lambs stopped screaming ??" and years of TV/movies and articles about these killers. and yet my reaction to the news describing this guy as the killer is Huh? what happened to living with Mom? where are the beheadings of chipmunks and then cats ? where is the egotistical bragger? what about collecting trophies ? the superficial charm? on one point i can see a fit with the expected profile - the guy looks average and does not stick out in crowd. but there is no evidence this guy was a junkie for power or manipulating people left and right. This guy does not fit anybodys profile of mass killer. Even rookie profilers would not define this guy as the perp.
I am glad to see this get attention because I would rather not re -read Silence of the Lambs. but maybe the FBI ought to bring out some of those profilers to using the words of OFF " to find the real killers"
Dave --
Yeah, there's a lot missing here. People, especially if they're rich and have a girlfriend, generally don't just go off the rails at age 64. It makes no sense.
This guy was a mass killer, not a serial killer, and the two groups have different profiles (the former are more likely to be somewhat autistic, with a huge grudge against the world, or the US, where the latter are always sociopaths with a sexual kink who consider their own orgasms more important than other people's lives). But Paddock fit neither.
And yes, so far the FBI and LVPD haven't come up with any coherent theory. It's possible that they know more than they're letting on but just don't want to let any info out publicly because it might hinder their effort to catch some guilty parties. But it's also possible that they just don't know. Al we know so far is that the whole thing's really not making much sense.
I question if this could have been a false flag event, perpetrated by the Shadow Government.
- birdie
Birdie --
As much as I hate the Deep State, I can't imagine they would have orchestrated this. And, given that they're generally composed of Obama supporters, they would have wanted to make the Right look bad, and shooting up a country music concert isn't the way to go there.
YES EXACTLY Mister Craig, the tournaments are competitive among a pool of patrons (generally known and invited, like Paddock was a KNOWN PERSON to casinos) unlike playing a video poker machine in the random normal method, where you would be playing against the house (for a less than 100% return, obviously)...so the casino only has to make sure that the payout in prizes (and room comps et cetera) for the WHOLE GROUP is less than 100% of the entry fees (or whatever, there's all different wrinkles) but individual more able members of the group can indeed make more than 100% of their expenses...I could probably express myself better but you follow me
the thing is though, you have to be kind of a weird tense geek, to focus so hard, to be a more able video poker player...a lot of these free-money-gambling-type-gigs are not fun and glamorous BUT KIND OF A GRIND much like being a bum walking around all day picking up aluminum cans to recycle...that's "free money" too...
====GUINEA HENWEED
I should have excerpted this (from the article in my first comment) to begin with, my bad:
"Tournaments are different from normal video poker games because in a tournament, you're playing with fake credits and hoping to accumulate the most credits out of all the players in the tournament. Instead of putting money into the machine you pay a tournament "buy-in", which is a fixed fee that every player pays to enter the tournament. Then, each player plays for either a set amount of time or hands, and at the end the players with the most credits win the prizes. Usually the top 10-25% of the field receives a prize."
and again there are various strategic considerations WHICH VARY because the different casinos have different rules
====GUINEA HENWEED
This week, I learned about a woman named Rebekah Roth, a flight attendant who's written a book about 9/11 events, Methodical Illusion (her book). If you watch her on YouTube, she makes a good case for the Shadow Government orchestrating 9/11 events. It's sad to say, but I believe governments are capable of anything.
- birdie
GUINEA HENWEED --
I used to know a guy who'd been a professional blackjack player/card counter back in the 70's when they didn't guard against that kind of thing that closely, and he basically described it to me as a grind, too. When he first told me about it, I envisioned Sean Connery saying, "Bond, James Bond" to Sylvia Trench in Monte Carlo (while dressed in a tuxedo). But it's not that way; this guy said that after a while hanging out in casinos is sort of depressing, it's an unhealthy lifestyle filled with unhealthy people. I went with him a couple times to Las Vegas, and it was sort of cool to see all the lights and excitement for maybe a day, after that it palled. (And this guy was treated as a whale by the casinos, too.)
"You have to be kind of a weird tense geek..." to write a blog, too, believe me.
Birdie --
I read "The New Pearl Harbor" (about possible 9/11 collusion) when that came out, and I have to admit, it made a convincing case too. And yes, governments are capable of anything. But even the people who believe in a 9/11 conspiracy generally don't believe that it was the work of the US government, they just say that certain elements of the US government knew about the attack ahead of time, and did nothing to prevent it because they wanted the US to get more involved in the Middle East conflict vs. various Muslim entities.
But this Paddock Las Vegas shooting makes no sense from that perspective. Whom would it have benefitted, and how? No Deep State operative would have wanted to do it for the sake of gun control legislation, there are already enough shootings for that. And if they wanted to make Paddock look like a Right winger, wouldn't they have gone after more liberal victims than a group of country music fans (who, as that CBS producer said, DO tend to vote Republican)?
Another theory is that he made sure that no motive would be discovered so that the focus remained on the weapons. He wanted the guns to be the story. That's also why there were so many guns- to bring attention to them. He chose country music fans as his victims, the very demographic that is most pro gun. According to this theory, he wanted to do something drastic that would lead to gun control. He might even save more people than he killed in the long run, and the people that he chose to sacrifice (or punish) were the pro gun people. Maybe he felt they deserved it.
Steven --
That one doesn't sound right to me. Who would want to honor an anti-gun activist who tried to make his point by killing as many people as he could? And if he was anti-gun, why did he have so many guns at his two courses as well? And how many anti-gun types are there who would be good shooters, understand bullet trajectories at 400 meters, and know how to mount a bump stock?
Also, if he felt that the country music people were pro gun and therefore deserved to die, why would he have rented that hotel room in Chicago overlooking the Lollapalooza Festival in August? Or why not just attack a gun show crowd from a distance?
Yeah, I'm sure you're right. By the same token, if he is just a guy who goes to hotel rooms to sell guns, why did he keep looking into hotel rooms overlooking festivals?
Steven --
Yes, I mentioned that in the post. I guess one possible answer might be that he wasn't the one who booked those rooms, it was his prospective "buyers" who did so.
I wonder if we'll ever find out what the real story was.
You'd think they'd have cameras in the hallways which could clear this theory up pretty quickly. Either someone went into and left his room or they never.
Steven --
I was wondering about that too. A place like the Mandalay Bay would have security cameras everywhere.....you'd think.
Frankly, my impression of his life was that it was sort of sad and pathetic. I would rather work at my blue collar job than play video poker all day. Really, if that is what early retirement is about, you can have it. Maybe he came to think his life was sad and pathetic, so the suicide doesn't seem that hard to believe. What in his life grounded him? Too much time staring at a video screen. Also, he did seem to have a strange childhood. In the end he took care of his girlfriend who had some fondness for, and went out in a blaze of stupidity. That is my theory.
ONE explanation for Paddock might be that he was a regular high-functioning psychopath, with the wit to keep out of trouble, and just puttering along until...
he received a bad diagnosis like pancreatic cancer, imminent Alzheimer's, something where he no longer was deterred by any human punishment because HIS BODY WAS ALREADY DOOMED SOON
and he decided, "hey, why not go out with a bang, I got nothing to lose, let the world know the name PADDOCK and tremble," et cetera
if you are dying anyway, and you don't believe in the afterlife, a mass killing might seem like a NICE CLIMAX to the story of your life...if you are grumpy, anyway
THIS IS WHY I am eager to hear of Paddock's autopsy (I have been busy working though, maybe it's already happened and I missed it), not merely looking for a brain tumor like Charles Whitman's that would derange him, but also looking for pancreatic cancer and other death sentences that might have altered Paddock's risk/benefit calculus in favor of a mass killing scenario
====GUINEA HENWEED
Mark --
That's possible too, and it may be the story we're eventually given. But if he did do it like that, he'd be the first guy of his age to become a mass shooter, the first guy with a girlfriend (that I know of) to become one, and the first guy who was relatively rich to become one too. It just doesn't fit with what we know about mass shooters. And, btw, there are plenty of other people whose lives could be seen as equally meaningless. Most of us, as a matter of fact.
GUINEA HENWEED --
That's a good thought. I read somewhere that they performed the autopsy and found nothing wrong with his brain a la Charles Whitman. I didn't see anything about whether he had some disease, not even sure if they checked for that. But you'd think that would be one of the possibilities they'd consider. To date no doctor has come forward with any info like that that I know of.
A photo purportedly leaked of Paddock's dead body lying on his back in the hotel room. It looks like he blew his brains out. So brain abnormalities won't be revealed in the autopsy. As of a few days ago, officials hadn't released the autopsy report.
Mark --
The Sun ran this article:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4681147/cops-ship-the-brain-of-las-vegas-gunman-stephen-paddock-to-special-facility-to-be-screened-for-abnormalities/
Which included the following quote:
“There has been an autopsy performed on Mr Paddock, the suspect, and in an early evaluation there was no abnormalities observed visually," Sheriff Lombardo from the Las Vegas Police Department said on Friday.
"As as a matter of practice in forensic science his brain has been shipped to an appropriate evaluation facility in order to take a microscopic evaluation of the brain.
"The initial report that there was no abnormalities was a visual inspection of his brain so it’s yet to be known whether there are any abnormalities to be presented at a later date."
The expression "blew his brains out," which is commonly used for suicide-by-gun, always implies a sort of explosion which would leave little brain matter intact, but a single bullet isn't generally going to destroy that much of the brain, and apparently there's enough of Paddock's brain left to be analyzed. Of course, I guess it's always possible that the lesion, if it existed, could have been in the path of the bullet, so we may never know for sure.
I'm only guessing, but I'm still leaning toward Coulter's proposed theory -- for which, as she pointed out, there's no evidence, even as it makes more sense than the lone gunman theory.
Hi John,
Don't have much time to post write now but just wanted to leave a note about the gloves. I remember reading in a couple of articles that I believe were quoting his girlfriend and/or his brother that they said Paddock wore latex gloves at many times due to some phobia or allergy to dust or something like that. If you haven't tracked down anything on it by the next time I stop by your blog I'll see if I can locate the article(s) in question via my browser history.
I think all of this stuff with the shifting timelines, the unavailability/lack of info on Jesus Campos, etc., is strange but I'm not ready to buy into any conspiracies involving who did the shooting just yet. I do wonder if the hotel has gotten in LVPD's ear to get them to shift their timeline to match theirs, though, given that LVPD suddenly says Campos was shot 40 seconds before the crowd was fired upon rather than a full 6 minutes. At the very least there has never been another mass shooting like this where so little was known about EVERYTHING a full 2 weeks later!
Keeup up the good work,
J.R.
J.R. --
Thank you, and thanks for that piece of the puzzle. (I'm happy to take your word on the latex gloves.) I guess that would explain them -- though it's still possible that this particular set was put on him after the shooting by someone else.
I"m not "buying into" the conspiracy theories just yet either; I'm just saying that they're possible, and that Paddock doesn't fit the mold for mass shooters. I'm not ruling that out yet either, just saying there's doubt.
another reason Coulter's theory has some credence...why did he stop shooting after 11 minutes ? He still had plenty of ammo and guns...although the cops had arrived around 10:20 , it seemed he had already stopped shooting...and the police did not enter his room until around 11:15 , an hour after he stopped shooting.
also notable that his girlfriend did state that his mental state was deteriorating before the shooting while he underwent significant weight loss, an increasingly slovenly physical appearance and was drinking more alcohol over the last year..
Mandalay Bay has about 3,000 cameras, hotels put cameras on bottlenecks like elevator banks. “Typically they want to see who’s coming onto the floor and off the floor, and they can tell now who goes into rooms with the keycards,” the expert said. Yet no video footage of paddock has emerged yet...why ? Why is the media disseminating photographs of Paddock from 30 years ago and not images of him checking into the hotel ? Or getting off the elevator with his luggage ?
After 911 we had images of the terrorist checking in at the airports disseminated nightly...yet with Paddock no such images have been released. They supposedly have hundreds of videos of him walking around Mandalay Bay , and this information would certainly be more helpful to the public than a photograph taken in 1987 and the other image was taken in 2012. Not recent images of Paddock have been released. Why ? What are they hiding ? Could he walk properly ? was he emaciated ? Did he have a Taliban inspired Beard ?
Jova --
You're right, that 45 minute gap makes no sense either; if his intent was to kill as many people as possible in a suicide mission, he could have killed many many more before either shooting himself or committing suicide by cop.
I hadn't heard that about the significant weight loss; that adds credence to GUINEA HENWEED's theory about him being diagnosed with some fatal disease and deciding to take as many with him as he could.
And yes, why no pictures from that night?
Some of this *may* have to do with the LVPD or the FBI knowing more than they're letting on but not wanting certain information public yet because it would hinder their investigation/pursuit of other suspects.
I'm glad people are paying attention and not letting this get buried quietly. Even if it is eventually buried.
John,
Apologies if in my previous comment I came off as saying I thought you were somehow being duped or were "buying into" a conspiracy theory. I did not mean to imply that and was really only speaking for myself as I try to make sense of this whole thing. I am very much on the fence about what I believe to be the truth of the matter. I probably should've waited until after my morning meeting and workout to comment since I was in a hurry, as evidenced by all the typos ("write now?" "Keeup?" I can't believe as obsessive as I am about grammar, spelling, etc., that I made so many glaring errors in one comment!), so I hope you didn't think I was trying to paint you as gullible due to my phrasing. I do think Ms. Coulter's theory is an interesting one and I believe it is very likely that Paddock was involved in some sort of illegal activity or activities and was gambling in part to launder his money.
Thanks for taking my word re: the gloves in spite of my sloppy comment, and here's hoping we'll get some satisfying answers about this thing. As I alluded to before I'm feeling a bit cynical about the way the LVPD's timeline has shifted (again) so that it is now compatible with that put forth by the Mandalay Bay resort's parent company and I'm beginning to get frustrated with the whole thing (where is Campos? As you and Jova and others have said, where is the new footage and recent photos?).
Oh, and one last thing while I'm at it: I've also seen it written about his increasingly slovenly appearance and weight loss... but also seen it reported as weight gain. Why is that the news sites and even official sources can't seem to agree on anything where this shooting is concerned?
Take care,
J.R.
J.R. --
Absolutely no apologies necessary. It takes a lot to offend me, and you didn't even come close. As far as the typos, I rarely proofread my own responses to comments, and have plenty, so don't worry. (I DO proofread the posts, but still have occasional typos there, too.)
Now it's weight gain as well? The truth seems to get fuzzier as time goes on, not clearer.
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