People Magazine: Who Was Vester Lee Flanagan, the Man Who Allegedly Shot 3 People on Live TV?

by AndersonsInfo 9 Replies latest jw friends

  • AndersonsInfo
    AndersonsInfo

    http://www.people.com/article/vester-lee-flanagan-bryce-willams-the-man-who-allegedly-shot-3-people-live-tv

    People Magazine: Who Was Vester Lee Flanagan, the Man Who Allegedly Shot 3 People on Live TV?

    A Close Family

    Born in 1973 in Oakland, California, to Vester and Betty Flanagan, he was raised as a strict Jehovah's Witness. Life seemed stable. His mother was a teacher for 37 years. He had two sisters, Vicki and Valerie. "His family was close," says childhood friend Shaun Barton. "Both of his parents came from pretty big families, so he had a lot of cousins, too. The family would have a lot of get-togethers, and I always got the feeling that he liked that."

    When his mother died in 2008, Flanagan took the loss hard. "That's when we fell out of touch," says Barton. "He just withdrew to himself and cut off all contact with anyone from his past. You could tell he was in a lot of pain."

    lucent6408d2 hours ago

    Hi, could Anyone tell me please tell me
    what denomination was the shooter that killed all those people in the movie
    theater? What about the shooter from the elementary school? Or the guy that
    killed a police officer yesterday in LA or the guy that shot that guy in NC? Or
    the recent shooting at the church. Even that was not religious related but a
    hate crime based on race only. I don’t remember their religion ever becoming a
    factor AT all. please don’t make this an issue about religious and blame JWs.
    regardless of who you are and what you are, what you choose to do is on you and
    you only and if is a matter of mental faculties, then is that and only
    that. Terrorism can be blamed on religion because is about that. This
    senseless killing is about a sick man and nothing more

    Danny Haszard lucent6408dan hour ago

    Orwellian Watchtower World.
    Coping & reasoning skills are lacking among folks who are raised JWs.According to US studies, "Jehovah's Witnesses are more likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospitals than the general population".


    "As a writer in the American journal Free Inquiry puts it: 'Either the Jehovah's Witness sect tends to ATTRACT an excess of pre-psychotic individuals who may then break down, or else being a Jehovah's Witness is itself a stress that may precipitate psychosis. "'Possibly both of these factors operate together ...'" The religion in their very own literature will ADMIT to Jehovah's Witnesses members *high stress levels* in other words manifestation of member mental illness: PTSD, depression,suicidal ideation,anxiety etc....

    They ADMIT to this when propaganda serves them to advertise the *hardships" and *persecution* associated with being in the *one true religion*.

    Do a search google*Jehovah's Witnesses* scroll past their 'official' propaganda page and find out what others who have had dealings with them say.

    Mickey Hudson6 hours ago

    While no one can really know what was going on inside his head, there are a couple of points in this article that, growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, I understand all too well.


    Some other articles I have read, share stuff about him that is more related to mental illness in general and not a by product of being a JW, but I can honestly say, being a JW doesn't help anyone. They discourage (discourage is a euphemism for forbid -encourage is a euphemism for a command, in JW speak) outside help, their idea of help is "pray more, study more, and go door to door more", that doesn't help anyone who is having mental health issues, it makes it worse. "Jehovah told me to shoot them" for example.

  • problemaddict 2
    problemaddict 2

    Being a homosexual black man whose world view was in part shaped by a fundamentalist religious background that is as exclusionist and judgement as JW's have to be a lethal trinity of personal complex creation.

    Still.....he didn't shoot people because he was raised a JW.

    Danny Hazard should stay off the internet. He does much more harm than good.

  • WingCommander
    WingCommander

    How much money do you want to bet that the "childhood friend", Shaun Barton, who was mentioned in the article, is a full-fledged JW from the Congregation of the shooter's youth? How can you guess this? By his choice of wording. How many "worldly" people use the term, "get-togethers"? This is JW terminology. "Worldly" people use the terms, "picnic, family reunions, BBQ's, and parties", not "get-togethers".

    Of course Shaun's going to paint a rosy JW picture of bliss, he's an indoctrinated JW zombie! Wonder what the worldly relatives of this shooter's family have to say about the JW cult members? Probably NOT good things. You'd probably get the real "truth" from them. How the shooter was a closeted homosexual, even in his youth, and fought against those feelings his entire life.

    This guy was WHACK, and after 41 years he snapped. Too bad he took innocent people down with him. Sad all around.

  • Doubting Bro
    Doubting Bro

    WC - I totally agree. And the reason why they mention his religion is because it's a non-mainstream cult which makes it interesting. If he were a regular Baptist, Catholic or whatever then its not interesting. But, a JW, LDS, really strict Evangelical or Muslim, that makes for interesting reading.

    He didn't flip out because he was raised a JW and I'll bet this guy would have snapped regardless of his religious affiliation. However, its bad publicity for the WTS so I'm glad they casually mention it.

  • Billyblobber
    Billyblobber

    If he was bipolar, which is a strong possibility, being raised in an environment of ARMAGEDDON IS COMING EVERYONE IS AGAINST YOU EVERYONE AROUND YOU THAT IS WORLDLY IS WORTH NOTHING AND WILL DIE YOU WILL DIE FOR GAY SEX is one of the absolute worst environments to be raised in to feed that kind of paranoia. Once he cut off family contact, he had no one to keep him in check and it went way downhill from there, unfortunately.

  • truthlover
    truthlover

    Come on now.. my cousin is bi polar and had nothing whatsoever to do with Armageddon, or everyone is against you.. That mental issue is inherent in those with emotional, psych issues.. and there are stats on the fact 1 out of 3 now has the tag of some type of mental illness -- look over your shoulder....

    Cutbacks in hospitals, psychotherapists, putting those with mental illness on the streets, homeless, families cant handle them, pills... and on it goes,... they cant find or hold employment, persecution disorders, persecution complexes, things too many to mention....

    Theyneed help and there really, honestly isn't any.

  • SuziDrums
    SuziDrums

    I think Danny and Mickey's comments are dead-on.

    No, the guy didn't snap because he had been a jw. But he would have been vulnerable to their machinations in more ways than one. Plus, losing his mother at a relatively young age added a major life crisis that he probably never got over.

    The witness factor is relevant. Anti-gay, they would have shunned him once he came out if he were active. The judgement day looming over their heads takes a while to fade even for those who leave on purpose.

    Yes, it's very relevant. It should not be ignored.

  • LisaRose
    LisaRose

    It's impossible to know how much his Jehovah's Witness upbringing contributed to his issues, it's probably a mixture of both his his upbringing and his bi-polar condition. If he was bi-polar it's likely he would have had issues no matter what his upbringing, but being raised in a doomsday cult can't have helped any that's for sure. The Watchtower engages in very extreme, black and white thinking, not a good thing for people with mental health issues. Perhaps early intervention with a good diagnosis and treatment could have helped, but of course that is discouraged in the religion. We will probably never know what could have prevented this tragedy if anything.

    I worked with a woman who had this condition, it was heartbreaking watching her decent into madness. She become more and more manic, decorating her cubicle with plants pictures and rugs, just stuff everywhere, then she photocopied all her poetry, diary, doodles and musings of the last twenty years and gave a copy to everyone in the building, over 100 people, then sent a long email to everyone she knew, including higher ups, listing the many problems of her team and the many failings of her manager. She also had an affair with a married man and nearly destroyed his marriage. It was hard seeing a smart, beautiful woman fall apart, she finally went into depression and never came back.

  • bellasmile
    bellasmile

    Come on. Stop being manipulated by the liberal Democrat media. It is absolutely ridiculous to link this incident to JWs. Look at the HUGE population of mentally ill, violent, criminals in this country, or the whole world and you jump on this little bone? It is only a matter of statistics. Get a real fucking education. Serious? You can not do any better?

    This losers mental illness was NARCISSISM so get over it. No one wants to hold criminals responsible for their own behavior so the criminal then becomes the victim? Congratulations liberal media! You have now managed to completely dishonor the ACTUAL victims. Their names were ALLISON PARKER and ADAM WARD btw.

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams
    Vester Flanagan used the phrase "white [deleted]!" and shot two defenceless white people. This suggests at least some racism on the part of the criminal.

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