Dr. Lynne Fenton - Aurora: The Psychiatrist Who Treated the Movie Theater Killer Tells Her Story

This is the story of Lynne Fenton, MD, the treating psychiatrist of mass murderer James Holmes, whose horrific crimes have left us all reeling and asking, Why? He was unique among mass shooters for deliberately surviving his massacre, to be publicly prosecuted and condemned to serve an eternity as a case study in evil. Dr. Fentons legacy is equally extraordinary, as the only psychiatrist in the history of the United States to have been publicly outed, vilified by the press and media, her life threatened, and subjected to an internal investigation by her own university. For nearly three years, she was under court order to remain silent for the integrity of the prosecution. Now, for the first time, the trial judge having lifted the gag order and unsealed all confidential records, Dr. Fenton shares her harrowing experiences as the target of public wrath and reveals her chilling sessions with Holmes, a patient who she believed personified evil.

Wherever possible, names have been changed to protect identities and privacy. In addition to hundreds of hours of interviews with Dr. Fenton and her colleagues, this book relies on more than seventy-five thousand pages of discovery, which include police reports, Holmes infamous notebook, hundreds of audio and video recordings, countless expert evaluations, transcripts, trial testimony, witness interviews, emails, texts and G-Chats between Holmes and others, and Holmes nine video-recorded pretrial interviews (nearly twenty-three hours in length) with his court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. William Reid, offering what Dr. Reid described as an unprecedented look behind the curtain into his memories, thoughts, explanations and impressions as expressed in his own words.

The many quotes and excerpts from transcripts you will read, while sometimes graphic and disturbing, are intended to verbally paint the picture that twelve innocent people lost their lives and countless others (including Dr. Fentons) were forever changed, forever scarred, by a highly intelligent, ruthless killer whose chosen field of study was his own mind. Even more chilling was the fact that Holmes, surrounded by the brightest university academicians, selected for one of the most strenuous and prestigious neuroscience programs in the country and treated by nationally renowned and highly respected psychiatrists, eluded them all.

As a former prosecutor and capital defense attorney, I am well versed in death penalty litigation and the many challenges of bringing justice to the victims of horrific crimes. But after spending more than a year writing about one of the most monstrous minds of this century, it will take me many more years to recover. And though the lives of all those tragically impacted by Holmes senseless massacre will never be made whole again, and the twelve who died at his hands are lost forever, it is our hope that Dr. Fentons story may bring some answers and encourage us all to continue to share our determination, strength, and experiences to effect lasting change.

Kerrie Droban