Jim Adkisson
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| “ | I'd like to encourage other like-minded people to do what I've done. If life ain't worth living anymore don't just kill yourself. Do something for your country before you go. Go kill liberals. | „ |
| ~ Adkisson in his manifesto. |
Jim David Adkisson (born on 25 June 1950) is an American mass shooter who shot up a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tennessee on July 27, 2008, killing 2 and injuring a handful of others. He was a far-right conservative and hoped to kill "liberals" as well as Democrats. He himself described the act as a hate crime in his manifesto.
Biography edit
Adkisson was a former private in the United States Army from 1974 to 1977. After his arrest, he said that he was motivated by hatred of Democrats, liberals, African Americans and homosexuals. According to an affidavit by one of the officers who interviewed Adkisson on July 27, 2008, Adkisson stated that he had targeted the church because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of major media outlets. Adkisson made statements that because he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them into office. Adkisson stated that he had held these beliefs for about the last ten years.
Additionally, one of Adkisson's former wives had been a member (in the 1990s) of the church where the attack occurred.
Adkisson's manifesto also cited the inability to find a job. His manifesto stated that he intended to keep shooting until police arrived and expected to be killed by police. Adkisson had a waist satchel with more ammunition, totaling 76 shells of #4 shot.
In his manifesto, Adkisson also included the Democratic members of the House and Senate, and the 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America of Bernard Goldberg in his list of wished-for targets. David Neiwert has written that anger over Barack Obama's candidacy was also a factor as Adkisson had written "I'm protesting the DNC running such a radical leftist candidate. Osama Hussein Obama, yo mama" comparing candidate Obama to the fictional chimp Curious George. He complained about inter-racial couples: "How is a white woman having a niger [sic] baby progress?"
On February 4, 2009, Adkisson plead guilty to two counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.