Something is really off about the whole thing, and I think the mystery ties into the $100,000 he sent to the Phillipines and his girlfriend. I keep thinking she's a legitimate player in this scenario and I'm really surprised she came back to the US.
None of us know all the details yet, but note that beyond crime scene photos leaking, everyone is being tight lipped and using generic terms to describe the investigation. That means (at least to me), they've found something and are following it up.
My guess - dude was disaffected by something and an event we barely understand (or even know about) set him off. Looking at the arsenal he had, this thing has been cooking for a long time, it's not impossible to believe he was self-radicalized (to what ideology we won't know yet, but as an example, think San Bernadino) and kept it together but we won't know for a while.
Something doesn't add up, that's for sure.
What we think we do know about the guy is based on interviewing his brother. I'm starting the think his brother doesn't know him very well.
not to get into LV's 4 chan linked tweet thread (that really just goes back to the fast and the furious theory plus ISIS and the FBI gunwalking or something)
BUT... thinking more about it, while having a whole bunch of guns, as Dryden pointed out, isn't a predictor for the behaviour, but, on the other hand they appear to be a bunch of the same kinds of guns which is different than collecting (maybe)
Then... we have the gambling and the large number of federally reported transactions above 10K. That adds up to a shit ton of cash flow. (Meanwhile his brother is saying he won 40K at slots one time, or some such thing? Do pro poker guys play slots?)
So, we have a dude with a whole lot of cash, that owns multiple houses, 2 airplanes, doesn't have a job other than pro gambler who may or may not have been a real estate investing whiz (this is unclear to me admittedly) whose work history is working for the IRS and being an accountant for some other places.
Addition after the fact here:
Stephen Paddock attended Cal State Northridge, and his family said he was an accountant. According to federal records, he worked several government jobs from 1976 to 1985: as a postal worker, an IRS agent, and an auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency. He was employed at a predecessor to the defense contractor Lockheed Martin for three years in the late ’80s. He also owned rental properties across the country,
including spots in Los Angeles and a suburb of Dallas, Texas.
Eric Paddock said he and his brother shared a real-estate business for decades, and when they sold it Stephen made about $2 million. “He’s a multimillionaire,” Eric said. “He helped me become affluent, he made me wealthy.”
But I mean, there was a shit ton of gambling:
In the last three years alone, more than 200 reports about Paddock’s activities, particularly large transactions at casinos, have been filed with law enforcement authorities, ABC News was told.
While some of the reports centered around "suspicious activity," most were "currency transaction reports," which casinos are required to file with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network when a person withdraws or deposits more than $10,000 in cash.
And this is just the shit that he ran through casinos I'd assume (where he'd need chips or won slots jackpots and don't tell me homeboy is coming out ahead on slots) so, there's 2 million right there, maybe he's an awesome poker player, no idea but... that's got to be a lot of money for him.
Meanwhile we're getting stories like,
In the months before his deadly rampage, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock was a man “descending into madness,” according to a person briefed on new findings in the investigation.
More details are emerging, investigators say, that suggest Paddock’s mental state was deteriorating before the shooting — significant weight loss, an increasingly slovenly physical appearance and an obsession with his girlfriend’s ex-husband.
All of which is another way of saying, "Dude didn't look so great, and didn't like his ex's husband" Talk about not a marker of mass murder. I mean, you just described Akron.
On a more serious note from that, I will say I've been suspecting that some sort of illness (terminal brain cancer kinds of things, not necessarily mental) might have played a role here... but... why wire 6 figures to the Philippines and go out in a blaze of whatever (didn't want to say glory)
But if nothing else, the guy was clearly, by the gambling interested in finding ways to make a quick buck, so, I don't have a problem thinking something else was going on too.
Maybe not, maybe he's a garden variety psycho that just decided it was time to seize his 15 minutes.
... but why the fuck is he wiring 100K to the Philippines?
