Loughner: Obsessed, isolated

Friends say Jared Lee Loughner began losing touch with reality at about age 16.

At a “Congress on Your Corner’’ event held by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords three years ago, a young constituent named Jared Lee Loughner asked a question: “What is government if words have no meaning?” Confused, Giffords didn’t know how to respond, and Loughner, longtime friend Bryce Tierney told MotherJones.com, was quietly furious, convinced she was “just trying to cover up some government conspiracy.” From that day on, police said this week, Loughner, a 22-year-old social outcast, was focused on Giffords, leaving behind handwritten notes that said, “I planned ahead,” “my assassination,” and “Die, bitch.”

Loughner grew up an only child in a middle-class neighborhood of Tucson, in a family that neighbors avoided. “They were like the Addams Family,” neighbor Stephen Woods told the New York Post. Loughner’s father, Randy, often got into disputes, neighbors said, and could frequently be heard yelling at his son. Friends remember Loughner as “sweet’’ and “shy’’ into his early high school years, but at about the age of 16, he began to lose touch with reality, said USA Today. By the time Loughner began taking classes at Pima Community College, he had become convinced authorities were trying to control him. “The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar,” he wrote in a video he posted on YouTube.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us