Colorado Tragedy and History Prove Motive Not Always Necessary

CLEVELAND - Ever since James Eagan Holmes went on a deranged shooting spree during a midnight showing of a Batman film in a Colorado movie theater on July 20th, both the news media and law enforcement have consistently worked overtime dissecting his actions that fateful night in search of a possible motive. Without question, we desperately want to understand what drove this unassuming (according to numerous reports) Ph.D student to author the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, which injured 58 people and killed 12.

Maybe, he had no motive.

Holmes, 24, made his first court appearance today (July 23) and looked dazed, disturbed and...like the last place winner of a Ronald McDonald look-a-like contest. With red-orange dye in his hair and a sometimes blinking, sometimes bug-eyed demeanor, Holmes almost seemed to be making a desperate effort to appear insane. According to receipts and various other sources, he spent several weeks leading up to the massacre purchasing and obviously calculating his tour-de-force murderous rampage. Despite everyone's assumption that something triggered him to carry out this despicable blood bath, it seems at least possible that Holmes did what he did simply because he wanted to. Upon his arrest, he reportedly told authorities that he was "The Joker," a reference to the villainous character from the Batman comics. That bizarre declaration seems to indicate that the shooter may have suffered from a mental illness when he launched his deadly plan. However, he was stable enough to meticulously design this elaborate scheme and execute it with precision, so mental deficiency is highly unlikely.

Holmes seems to be just another in a long, historical line of amateur terrorists who have committed brazen, criminal acts on a large-scale, then blame their actions on something ridiculous. Charles Manson is one of the most popular examples of this as he ordered the savage murders of actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969, hoping an "apocalyptic race war" would ensue.

Serial killer Ted Bundy is another iconic criminal of the past 50 years. His senseless killings (which also included sexual assault) were often highly methodical and extremely gruesome, and ultimately led to his death by electric chair in 1989.

The huge spike in school shootings during the past 15 years have also featured this disheartening trend. The 1999 Columbine shootings, arguably the most high-profile of this group, was masterminded by two misfits who apparently were driven to kill their classmates as a result of being bullied. They also had a strange fascination with Adolf Hitler, according to news reports at the time. However, the Columbine killers were said to be anything but outcast or bullied and their extreme methods seem to suggest a disjointed mindset that turned deadly as opposed to an actual motive.

Now, James Holmes is in the same spotlight that his criminal predecessors cultivated. If history is any sort of guide, then he is just another ordinary person who did what he did just because he wanted to.

No motive required.