Mark Hulsether.
Last July there was a brief splash of media attention on the town where I live—Knoxville, Tennessee—because a local man named Jim David Adkisson walked into the Sunday worship of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (TVUUC), which on this day featured a play performed by its children. He opened fire, killing two people and wounding several more. He told police that he did this because he "wanted to kill liberals," and the TVUUC had a reputation as one of Knoxville's key gathering places for people who are liberal either in a theological or political sense.
In the past week the story has returned to the news here in Knoxville, and—since the national media has not picked up the story, at least as I write on February 10—it may be useful to update readers of RD. Yesterday Adkisson appeared in Knox County Criminal Court. His lawyers had arranged for him to plead insanity, but he chose to plead guilty to murder. The deal includes him serving a life sentence without parole. The overall impression is a complete lack of remorse—almost a continuing pride—in what he did.
Especially noteworthy is that Adkisson released to the Knoxville News-Sentinel the full text of a four page handwritten letter—variously described as his suicide note or manifesto. In the past the police had talked about it only in general terms. This document (available here) is sobering reading.
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