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James Holmes: Post-its in courthouse bathroom promote film that says he was set up

Accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was in court yesterday for a short hearing to determine whether lawyers were ready to proceed with what will likely be a revealing preliminary hearing next week. (They are; the hearing starts Monday, January 7 at 9 a.m.) After the hearing, we used the...
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Accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was in court yesterday for a short hearing to determine whether lawyers were ready to proceed with what will likely be a revealing preliminary hearing next week. (They are; the hearing starts Monday, January 7 at 9 a.m.) After the hearing, we used the women's bathroom -- and found the walls plastered with neon Post-it notes bearing this web address: www.tinyurl.com/truthnow2.

That address leads to a YouTube page with an hour-and-a-half-long film called The James Holmes Conspiracy (2012 Full Documentary). There's also a warning from YouTube that reads, "The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised."

When we clicked on the video, it wouldn't play. But we Googled the name of the video and found it embedded on a website called Top Documentary Films.

Here's how the video is described on that site:

The James Holmes Conspiracy is for those who do not believe the story being told by the government and media.

James Eagan Holmes is the suspected perpetrator of a mass shooting that occurred on July 20, 2012, at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. He had no known criminal record prior to the shooting.

Topics discussed include the second suspect, weapons, police audio analysis, James Holmes education and bio, LIBOR scandal, MK Ultra, Project Gunrunner, and several other important elements.

The video smacks of both paranoia and poor taste. It includes news clips from the July 20 shooting at the Century 16 theater that left twelve people dead and seventy injured, as well as a tasteless clip of Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight, the prequel to The Dark Knight Rises, which was showing when the shooting occurred.

The film's narrator points out that some witnesses saw someone hanging around the emergency exit through which Holmes entered the theater, suggesting he didn't act alone. (The police say he did.) The narrator has even more bizarre theories: mind-controlling drugs and devious government programs and the suggestion that Holmes, who was a neuroscience student at the University of Colorado, was working on sensitive medical research. His conclusion seems to be that Holmes was set up to kill by the government for sinister reasons having to do with the banking industry and gun control.

Absurd as that may be, the filmmaker isn't the first to spout such theories. Inmate Steven Unruh told Westword in November that he spent hours talking to Holmes in jail after Holmes's arrest in July -- a circumstance that jail officials say would have been impossible. Unruh says Holmes told him "he felt like he was in a video game" during the shooting and claimed to have been "programmed" to kill by an evil therapist.

Similarly, a bizarre court motion filed in August asserted that "James is being framed by [Denver billionaire] Philip Anschutz, police chief Dan Oates, and the illuminati."

The last frame of the video directs viewers to the YouTube page of Mark Howitt, whose other films include Eye of the Illuminati and a 33-part documentary about "assassinations and murders that throughout history have been lied about."

As for this film, the Post-it promoter should find another place to hang handwritten advertisements. While the toilet may be a fitting location, the courthouse -- where victims of the tragedy often attend hearings -- is not.

See another photo of the Post-it notes in the bathroom below.

More from our Aurora Theater Shooting archive: "Aurora theater shooting: Bizarre court filing blames massacre on police chief, Illuminati."

Follow me on Twitter @MelanieAsmar or e-mail me at [email protected]

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