Louisiana movie theater shooter John Russell Houser had history of mental illness, praised Hitler in online posts
BY
MEG WAGNER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Friday, July 24, 2015, 12:07 PM
Updated: Friday, July 24, 2015, 2:10 PM
699
72
25
SHARE THIS URL
LINKEDIN.COM
Lafayette cinema shooter John Russell House had a history of mental health issues, which prompted his family to seek protection against him, officials said.
The Louisiana movie theater shooter had a long history of mental health issues — which once prompted his wife to hide his guns after he made violent threats in an attempt to stop his daughter's wedding — and posted a bizarre Christmas Day rant against the “financially failing filth farm called the US.”
John Russell Houser, who celebrated Adolf Hitler’s “pragmatism” in online message boards, killed himself inside Lafayette’s Grand Theatre Thursday night after his
rampage during a showing of "Trainwreck."
Two women died in the shooting, and nine more people were injured
Houser — an Alabama native who was estranged from his family and living in a Lafayette motel at the time of the attack — had a “volatile mental state” and "a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder," his relatives said in 2008 court paperwork.
COPS: 'DRIFTER' GUNMAN JOHN HOUSER KILLS 2 IN LA. THEATER SHOOTING
His wife at the time Kellie removed all of his guns from their home and petitioned a judge to involuntarily commit Houser, the 2008 documents showed.
The family grew fearful of the 59-year-old dad after he made violent threats, apparently outraged at his daughter’s engagement.
His daughter, 23-year-old Kirbey Ellen Houser, was set to wed 26-year-old Andrew Michael Broome, but Houser felt they were too young to marry.
“He has exhibited extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements” that their marriage would not occur, the filing said. He was living in Phenix City, Ala., and most of his family was in Carroll County, Ga., so he drove across the state line and "perpetrated various acts of family violence."
Houser also took his complaints about the marriage to Carrollton police. Chief Jimmy Bearden said he “couldn’t tell by just talking with Rusty if he was a mental patient or was just a concerned parent,” documents showed.
MAYCI BREAUX, VICTIM IN LOUISIANA THEATER SHOOTING, MOURNED
A judge granted the family's request to have him involuntarily committed to a hospital as “a danger to himself and others.”
But he was still violent when he got out, the family said. So his wife, daughter and other relatives also obtained a protective order preventing him from coming near them.
An Alabama sheriff’s office denied Houser a pistol permit in 2006, again citing his mental health,
the Acadiana Advocate reported.
His criminal history, which dates back to a 2005 domestic violence complaint, included harassment, theft and traffic offenses.
TEACHERS HAILED AS HEROES DURING LAFAYETTE THEATER SHOOTING
Houser became a "drifter" after estranging from his family. Last year he was evicted from him home. He later went back to break its windows and put dead fish and feces inside,
according to a reporter from WRBL.
Police aren't sure why Houser ended up in Louisiana.
"It just seems like he was kind of drifting along," Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said. He had an uncle that once lived in Lafayette, but he died 35 years ago.
The 59-year-old was known for his radical, often angry opinions that he spouted on a call-in radio show and his social media profiles.
A former local television host in Georgia said he featured Houser on his show numerous times in the early 1990s because his radical opinions would “make the phones ring.”
Houser’s condemned women in the workplace and encouraged violence against people involved in abortions, said Calvin Floyd, who used to host a morning call-in show on WLTZ-TV in Columbus, Ga.
Floyd described Houser as an "angry man" who made "wild accusations" about all sorts of local officials and topics.
PreviousNext
Enlarge
BRAD KEMP/AP
Police surround the Grand Theatre following the deadly shooting.
More recently, Houser seemingly reveled in the U.S.’ impending “death” and celebrated Adolf Hitler for his “pragmatism” and “accomplishments.”
“The bible doesn't ask me to like what it says, only to obey it. Death comes soon to the financially failing filth farm called the US,” he wrote on Christmas Day 2013, commenting on an article about why women shouldn’t hold leadership positions in the church.
“The end to the modern day Rome comes soon,” he wrote on the same day, citing an article about weak leadership in the church.
On other online forums, Houser voiced his support for neo-Nazism, the Southern Poverty Law Center
reported on its Hatewatch Blog.
“Hitler is loved for the results of his pragmatism,” he wrote last year on a stateofmind13.com message board. “There is no question of his being the most successful that ever lived. At this time the US is no more than a financially failing filth farm. Soon the phrase ‘ruling with an iron hand’ will be palatable anew.”
Houser — who acted alone in the Thursday cinema rampage — once posted about the “power of the lone wolf” on a forum for Golden Dawn, Greece’s neo-Nazi party.
“Do not mistake yourselves for one minute, the enemy sees all posted on this website. I do not want to discourage the last hope for the best, but you must realize the power of the lone wolf, is the power that come forth in ALL situations,” he wrote.
Houser earned a law degree from Faulkner University in Alabama in 1998, the school confirmed Friday.
On his LinkedIn page, the 59-year-old described a storied career: He owned two bars in Georgia, flipped properties in Alabama and once persuaded 685 people to buy T-shirts from a phony weightlifting federation, he claimed.
Police are still investigating the Thursday shooting.
With News Wire Services
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
mwagner@nydailynews.com
