Podcast appearances and mentions of William H Reid

Part 3: The trial of James Holmes unfolds with gripping tension as the jury deliberates whether he was insane during the tragic act that claimed 12 innocent lives and inflicted countless injuries. Should they find him sane, a critical question looms: Is the death penalty warranted? The atmosphere in the courtroom is charged with emotion as courageous survivors and grieving family members share their poignant stories, each one a testament to resilience in the face of unimaginable loss. As the community embarks on a heartfelt journey of healing, they are united in their determination to honor the memories of that Dark Night In Aurora by rebuilding their lives with hope and strength. This heart-wrenching scenario prompts profound and unsettling questions: Who are these mass shooters? What drives them to commit such dreadful acts? More importantly, what actionable steps can we take to prevent future tragedies? In her quest for understanding, Jill immerses herself in the research, seeking not only answers but solutions. CRIMECON DENVER 2025: Friday, Sept 5, 2025, 9 PM MT- Murder Shelf Book Club Meetup- Embers Lounge Bar!   Buy A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the  Colorado Mass Shooting by Dr William H. Reid, MD   Buy AURORA: The Psychiatrist who treated the Movie Theater Killer Tells Her Story by Dr Lynne Fenton and Kerrie Droban. Sources, photographs, recipes and drink information can be found Jill's blog: www.murdershelfbookclub.com July 2025 Contact:  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, or X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  Join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book! Join Jill on Creators Row at CRIMECON DENVER 2025! Get your Murder Shelf Book Club merch!    

Part 2: Neuroscience graduate student James Holmes is in therapy with psychiatrists Dr. Lynne Fenton and Dr. Robert Feinstein. He struggles with anxiety and intrusive, violent thoughts, but withholds crucial information from his psychiatrists, including his purchase of weapons. His lack of transparency leaves the psychiatrists concerned but unable to take action. After failing his preliminary exams, James withdraws from school and quits therapy.  Now, he focuses on his ‘mission' to unleash carnage and commit mass murder. Enacted, the Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado erupts in bloodshed and death. Immediately arrested, the police begin the investigation, as a traumatized community struggles to cope with the horrific reality that has engulfed their community, pleading to understand ‘why' 70 people were grievously wounded, and 12 murdered. Note: While editing this episode, I realized that instead of saying "End Quote" as I have hundreds of times, this time, I said "End Twelve". It was entirely unconscious, a pure Freudian slip, and an all too grim example of the very unconscious factors that I've attempted to explain.  I didn't correct this, I left it, because it was all too accurate, my heartbreak bleeding through.  Buy A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the  Colorado Mass Shooting by Dr William H. Reid, MD   Buy AURORA: The Psychiatrist Who Treated the Movie Theater Killer Tells Her Story by Dr Lynne Fenton and Kerrie Droban. Sources, photographs, recipes and drink information can be found Jill's blog: www.murdershelfbookclub.com July 2025 Contact:  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, or X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  Join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick our next book! Join Jill on Creators Row at CRIMECON DENVER 2025! Get your Murder Shelf Book Club merch!

Part 1: Just in time for Crimecon Denver 2025~ July 20, 2012: The Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado, transformed into a scene of unimaginable horror when a man donned in a gas mask and body armor unleashed gunfire upon the 400 men, women, and children immersed in the thrill of the new Batman movie. In mere moments, the aisles turned into rivers of blood as chaos erupted, with bullet casings strewn across the ground among the fallen and the wounded. James Holmes, in a chilling act of violence, claimed the lives of 12 innocent individuals and left 58 others grappling with injuries. Amidst the heart-wrenching cries of pain and sorrow, the universal question of “Why?” was cast heavenward, pleading for answers. This compelling trilogy, inspired by the insights of psychiatrists who encountered and analyzed James Holmes, delves into the complexities of the shooter's life, exploring his family dynamics, educational experiences, behavioral nuances, and psychological state. Insightful psychological theories and explanations seek to unravel the enigma surrounding a troubled mind. Part 1 introduces us to the shy boy who grows into a college student, grappling with the struggle to connect deeply with friends and professors, choosing instead to keep his innermost thoughts shrouded in silence, all because he “just wanted to keep it private.” Our CRIMECON DENVER meetup is Friday, Sept. 5, 2025 in the Gaylord Rockies Hotel, Embers Lodge Bar at 9 pm MT. CRIMECON IS COMING! GET your MURDER SHELF BOOKCLUB MERCH! Sources, photographs, recipes, and drink information can be found on Jill's blog at www.murdershelfbookclub.com –July 2025. Contact:  jill@murdershelfbookclub.com, or X,  Facebook,  Instagram or YouTube.  Join Jill on PATREON for $4 and help pick the next true crime book to be featured on the podcast!  

The case of James Eagan Holmes, the mass shooter who took the lives of 13 individuals and injured over 70 people is a tough one. I include multiple disclaimers and trigger warnings throughout. The book, A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings. by William H. Reid, MD, MPH was very influential in my research More sources can be found at www.addictedtocrime.org (as well as Merch, a link to join the PATREON to support the show, and a place to listen to episodes). I will be back in two weeks with a brand new episode. Stay safe! RIP to the victims of this senseless, horrific act Jonathon Blunk, age 26Alexander "AJ" Boik, age 18Jessie Childress, age 29Gordon Cowden, age 51Jessica Ghawi, age 24John Larimer, age 27Matt McQuinn, age 27Micayla Medek, age 23Veronica Moser-Sullivan, age 6Alex Sullivan, age 27Alexander Teves, age 24Rebecca Wingo, age 32  

On July 20, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, James Holmes entered a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises with a tactical shotgun, a high-capacity assault rifle, and a sidearm. He threw a canister of tear gas into the crowd and began firing. Soon twelve were dead and fifty-eight were wounded; young children and pregnant women were among them. Unlike most mass shooters, who commit suicide or provoke a deadly shootout with responding police officers, Holmes was found calmly waiting at his car and was arrested without any resistance.   In the court case that followed, only Dr. William H. Reid would be allowed to record interviews with the defendant. Reid would read Holmes’ diary, investigate his phone calls and text messages, interview his family and acquaintances, speak to his victims, and review tens of thousands of pages of evidence and court testimony in an attempt to understand how a happy, seemingly normal child could become a killer.   On this episode of The Forensic Psychiatrist, we not only have a chance to get an inside look at the mind of a mass murderer, we get to see what it’s like to be a forensic psychiatrist in action. William Reid, MD, MPH, is among the most experienced forensic mental health professionals in North America. He has received both the Manfred Guttmacher Award for forensic writing and the Seymour Pollack Award for Distinguished Contribution to Education in Forensic Psychiatry, and is a past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Dr. Reid has written, co-authored, or edited 16 professional volumes and over 200 professional articles and book chapters, many on antisocial behavior, terrorism and forensic practice. Dr. Reid was one of two psychiatric experts retained by the presiding judge in People of the State of Colorado v. James Holmes, and the only psychiatrist allowed to record interviews with Holmes and access the unredacted videos and transcripts.

Dr. William H. Reid is board-certified in general and forensic psychiatry, a professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the University of Texas Dell Medical School.  He is a former medical director of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and a past president of both the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law, and the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians. He has authored or co-authored over 300 publications and abstracts, and 16 professional books and he consults nationally. He graduated with a BA in psychology and MD from the University of Minnesota. He did his psychiatric residency at the University of California, Davis, with a pause to serve in the military, and afterwards, obtained a Master’s in Public Health from UC Berkley. Dr. Reid is a fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians, and he is a distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a longtime advocate for patients and for good mental health and developmental disabilities care. He’s especially concerned with improving recognition, assessment, protection, treatment and management of suicidal patients. In his forensic practice, spanning 40+ years, he has worked in at least 35 US states and internationally—including adult civil and criminal matters, for both plaintiffs/prosecutors and defendants, and sometimes for judges themselves. Many of those cases have involved “mass” killings, filicides, and suicide in the context of malpractice lawsuits. In this episode we discussed “forensic psychiatry 101” in general, to set the context for better understanding his work, and in particular, we will discuss his latest book, A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings. We have known each other for likely two decades and even co-authored a little here-and-there together, and in this episode chat about an overview or “101” of forensic psychiatry, including the M’Naghten Rule and how it came about, NGRI and how insanity is a legal not psychiatric  term, the concept of guilty but insane, the forensic unit of Elgin State Hospital and getting patients fit to stand trial and mental health court, infanticide and that in England the maximum charge is manslaughter if withing 12 months post-partum but it’s the most common charge those in our maximum security state hospital for women in Illinois, that Kansas, Montana and Utah have abolished the insanity defense, and more. Bill’s latest book, A Dark Night in Aurora, has been described by Daniel Patinkin, author of The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter said about your book, "Stunning, scrupulous, and relentlessly gripping . . . a triumphant work of investigative nonfiction . . . Reid is brilliant—as deft a storyteller as he is a scientific communicator." New York Times Best Selling author, Robert Kolker, said “anyone searching for insight into our nation’s crisis of mass shootings should start here.” Bill had a very rare and broad level of access to James Holmes—he was the only psychiatrist allowed to video interviews, he worked with the case for over a year, reviewed 75,000 pages of material and hundreds of CDs and DVDs, interviewed dozens of witnesses and other sources, and he spent over 23 hours interviewing Holmes himself on video. He shares how he got involved with the case, and we do a deep dive in to all aspects of the case, his work, and the book and what spurred him to write it. I’m not going give any spoilers as to his perspective on James, but do check out the episode to learn what Bill’s perspectives are in terms of the trial verdicts and follow-up. Bill also is a bit of a polymath in living his life in full. He’s also working on a children’s book and one on firearms with his brother—but not children and firearms(!). He also composes and performs music, and four of his five Bill Reid and The Fewer Sorrows Band albums have been on Grammy ballots in various categories. He has also written a symphony that is still under wraps. This episode is not to be missed with such an amazing person, professional and friend.

Lis talks with Dr. William H. Reid about mental-health awareness and his new book, “A Dark Night in Aurora: Inside James Holmes and the Colorado Mass Shootings”, and the extensive interviews the forensic psychiatrist conducted with the Aurora, Co. movie theater shooter.