The father of the Las Vegas shooter was the most wanted criminal in the United States. Las Vegas shooter's father was on the FBI's list of the most dangerous criminals

The United States is closely studying the identity and circle of acquaintances of Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old native of Iowa, who carried out the most mass execution of random people in the history of the United States. So far, he is the only suspect in the murder of 59 people on the Las Vegas Strip in the American metropolis of the same name. Another 515 people were injured. At the time when Paddock started shooting, there was a concert of a popular country artist. The shooter himself, who fired at people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, committed suicide before the special forces of the police broke down the door to the room where he was.

Investigators later determined that Paddock was well prepared for the crime. He carried 23 weapons into the hotel room, including an M249 SAW army light machine gun, Colt AR-15 self-loading rifles, and carbines made on the basis of the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle. The shooter had at least 1600 cartridges of various calibers at his disposal, and he had already stocked magazines for high-capacity rifles. He also acquired devices for firing bursts from self-loading rifles. In addition, Paddock placed several video cameras in the corridor in front of the entrance to his room, so he could see the movement of special forces soldiers to his door.

With such careful planning, the motive for the crime is still unclear.

Shortly after the news of the mass murder, banned in Russia and several countries of the world claimed responsibility for this crime, but so far the FBI has not found any evidence.

As it became known later, Paddock's childhood passed in the city of Tucson, Arizona, and in California's Sun Valley. The father was almost never involved in raising his son, and the boy was raised by his mother, Dolores Irene Hudson. He graduated from Polytechnic College and later California State University with a degree in Business Administration. The man was married twice (from 1977 to 1979 and from 1985 to 1990), but, as far as is known at the moment, there were no children in both marriages.

At various times, Paddock lived in California and Texas, worked as an internal auditor for various organizations, including the large aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corporation. Since 2013, the future killer retired, having managed to earn a rather big fortune, and lived in various retirement villages. Since 2016, he has lived in Mesquite, Nevada with his Filipino girlfriend named .

At the time of the crime, all Paddock's relatives - brothers Eric and Bruce, mother Hudson, and Danley's girlfriend - were far from the scene of the bloody events. His girlfriend was in the Philippines, and relatives in Florida. When Paddock's girlfriend found out about the incident, she interrupted her trip and urgently flew to the United States, after which the woman was immediately interrogated by the FBI. However, she could not tell anything of value to them. According to Danley, Paddock was a kind and non-aggressive person. She also explained that he had found cheap flights to the Philippines for her so she could go and visit her family. “What's more, he gave me $100,000 to buy a new house for me. It was very noble of him, but I became worried after such a gift that this was just a way to get rid of me. But, in any case, I could not even think that he was planning to commit violence against anyone, ”said the attacker’s beloved.

Later, her sister's young man, who also knew Paddock, explained to reporters that he knew the intruder as an educated, intelligent and generous person who knew how to make money and showed an interest in weapons.

Also, Paddock was well versed in legislation on the purchase of firearms and ammunition for it.

Christopher Sullivan, director of the Guns & Guitars gun shop, where the man sometimes bought weapons, also told American journalists about Paddock's love for shooting. In particular, two days before the execution of people, he bought a bolt-action rifle there, which Paddock did not use in his crime. “We also cleaned his barrels for money after he fired them. He shot a lot, he had a large arsenal, a lot of rifles like AR-15. I personally cleaned a lot of his weapons. Unfortunately, he used some of them on October 1, ”Sullivan explained. He added that he still cannot get over the shock after what happened. “I replayed in my head all the circumstances of our acquaintance and communication many times in order to try to understand what I did not see in the character of Paddock,” Sullivan said.

The store manager added that after the shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, he received anonymous threats from relatives of the victims of the tragedy, who are sure that Sullivan was indirectly involved in the crime. “They think I should have alerted the police to the fact that Paddock has a large arsenal. But by law, I must only do this if I know about a large arsenal of pistols. But if a person has a lot of long-barreled weapons, and I became aware of this, I do not have to tell the policeman anything, ”the gunsmith justifies himself.

The only people who have negatively characterized Paddock are the employees in Mexit, where he often visited with his girlfriend. They explained to the investigators that Paddock was rude in communication and mean, and also constantly humiliated his beloved in the presence of other people.

The Paddock family has a rich criminal tradition. The fact is that his father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, was repeatedly convicted of a number of crimes. So, in 1946, a man was found guilty of ten car thefts. The court also found him involved in five facts of fraud by breach of trust. Paddock Sr. spent five years in Illinois State Prison. After that, he was sentenced to three years for petty fraud.

In the period from 1959 to 1961, Benjamin robbed three banks in Arizona, the total amount of damage was more than $ 25 thousand. The man was detained while trying to rob a fourth bank, and during the operation to capture him, the criminal tried to knock down an FBI officer in a car. As a result, the court sentenced the robber to 20 years in prison.

In 1968, the criminal escaped from a prison in Texas, and the FBI placed him on the list of the ten most wanted criminals in the United States. According to established practice, people from this list can be caught within six months, but Paddock Sr. has been hiding for almost ten years.

He managed to get hold of forged documents in the name of Bruce Warner Erickson. According to him, for some time he worked as a truck driver, as well as an employee of a drug rehabilitation center. In 1977, the criminal received a license to organize a lottery office and opened it a year later. However, he was soon caught. In 1987, having already been released from prison, he was again prosecuted for fraud, but got off with a fine. Benjamin died in 1998. He was diagnosed with "psychopathy", which did not exclude his sanity.

He himself practically did not see his father, since he was constantly either in prison or on the run. But, as the forensic psychologist explained to Gazeta.Ru, this disease could well be inherited. “Let's start with the fact that the term “psychopathy” is now withdrawn from circulation, since there are quite a lot of varieties of diseases that used to be united under it: excitable, depressive, manic personalities. This is a number of diseases that were previously included in the concept of "psychopathy", that is, the weakness of a person's mental activity. Now, instead, the concept of "accented personality" is used. A number of diseases are inherited, symptoms can appear already in adulthood, ”the specialist said.

According to Vinogradov, Stephen Paddock may have had psychopathic symptoms for a long time, but he had a high degree of control over his disorders. “These symptoms often appear before the age of 45 (in women) and 55 years (in men) simply as a bad temper, and from this age they already acquire the character of a mental pathology.

But the most important thing is that a hereditary mental illness can also manifest itself in old age, ”the expert concluded.

Confirmation of his words may be the fact that Patrick Paddock, Stephen's brother, was also repeatedly judged. He was involved in the crimes of their common father. Another brother of the killer, Bruce, is suspected of a financial scam. Immediately after the execution on the Las Vegas Strip, he was detained because, without a good reason, he did not appear at a court hearing in his criminal case.

The father of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, who shot music festival visitors from the hotel window, was on the list of the most dangerous American criminals according to the FBI.

This was reported by CNN with reference to information from local law enforcement agencies and the words of the criminal's brother.

Benjamin Hoskins Paddock was on the list of the most dangerous criminal elements from June 10, 1969 to May 5, 1977. The description of the secret service said that he is a "psychopath", has "suicidal tendencies" and "participated in robbery attacks with firearms on banks."

Benjamin Paddock was listed by the FBI after he escaped from a federal prison in Texas in 1960. He had previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison for bank robbery. The father of the "Las Vegas shooter" was listed in crime reports under various names, including Bruce Eriksen.

On October 2, the brother of the shooter, Eric Paddock, on the threshold of his home in the city of Orlando (Florida), told reporters that he was born when his father was hiding from law enforcement agencies.

“I didn't know him. We didn't know him. He has never been with our mother,” he stressed.

According to him, he called his brother five days ago. At the same time, Eric Paddock insists that his brother does not belong to any religious or political organizations.

Law enforcement officials in the United States have already denied the information about the involvement of the “shooter from Las Vegas” in terrorist groups.

Earlier, the media wrote that the militants of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for what happened in the state of Nevada. In particular, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the activity of terrorists on social networks, reported that IS claimed responsibility for the bloody shooting in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, in Washington, US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump observed a moment of silence in memory of those killed in the Las Vegas shooting. The funeral ceremony was held on the South Lawn of the White House.

In front of the official residence of the head of the American state, several dozen employees of the White House apparatus also gathered and a guard of honor was put up. None of the participants in the ceremony, which lasted several minutes, made speeches, the first couple of the state only bowed their heads after the bell struck three times.

Late in the evening of October 1 (in the morning of October 2, Moscow time), during a performance by the famous American country music artist Jason Aldin on the open-air stage next to one of the entertainment complexes, the attacker began indiscriminate shooting. The tragedy happened during the Route 91 Harvest festival.

According to preliminary data, the offender personally brought weapons to the hotel. At the same time, it was reported that shortly before he started shooting, one of the hotel employees came into his room, but did not notice anything suspicious.

The shooter is 64-year-old Stephen Paddock. His body was found in a hotel room, from the balcony of which, according to preliminary data, he fired from automatic weapons.

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According to Business Insider, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, officially recognized by doctors as a psychopath with suicidal tendencies, robbed banks and stole cars.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison after several armed attacks on banks in Arizona, but escaped in 1969 and was wanted for several years.

Paddock Sr. passed away a few years ago.

We add that law enforcement agencies are studying the biography of Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, because they still do not understand why his son opened fire on visitors to the country festival. Despite the fact that ISIS (banned in the Russian Federation) called Paddock Jr. a "soldier of the Caliphate", the FBI denies his involvement in terrorists.

Investigators are still investigating the cause of the attack. In turn, forensic psychiatrist Mikhail Vinogradov suggested that the reasons lie in the easy availability of firearms in the United States.

“There are states in America where firearms are illegal. In our country, it is allowed only to hunters, on a hunting license, after a special check, which is now being carried out by the police. Unfortunately, there are many real weapons. People buy a small-caliber rifle for hunting an animal, and use it on the streets, or buy a gun on the black market, saw off the barrel, and get a sawn-off shotgun from which you can kill. Therefore, both in America and in our country are now actively engaged in ensuring that weapons do not fall into the hands of the mentally ill, criminals and be registered, ”the expert noted in an interview with