The New York subway shooter’s private hell

A common theme among America’s spree killers is a fondness for rambling online. Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger griped about his inability to get a girlfriend. Troy Sesler made videos about anime that grew increasingly dark before he flipped out and killed his family. Randy Stair made numerous sketches and vlogs detailing his fondness for serial killers, his issues with his body image and his problems with his masculinity before massacring several of his co-workers. 

The shooter who injured ten people on the New York subway this week did not become a spree killer, but only because of his blessedly incompetent aim. Frank James, the waddling sexagenarian suspect, was arrested a day after the shootings. How an obese, apparently alcoholic man evaded capture for so long remains to be determined. The police had better have a good excuse. 

James was a prolific YouTuber, who, posting under the names ‘Prophet of Truth 88’ and ‘Profit of Doom 8888’ among others, rambled quasi-coherently about his black nationalist beliefs from thirty minutes to an hour at a time.