{"id":268110,"date":"2023-04-08T13:06:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T18:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=268110"},"modified":"2023-04-08T13:06:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T18:06:44","slug":"letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on ‘Shooting Rampage’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend of his may have had specific knowledge of the massacre before it occurred.<\/p>\n

\"\"
In an image taken the morning after the Las Vegas massacre, windows broken by Stephen Paddock indicate the location of Room 32-135 at Mandalay Bay, from which Paddock used stockpiled automatic weapons to kill 60 people in the deadliest mass shooting by a lone shooter in US history. (Image: John Locher\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI can get someone for you who can help you,\u201d the friend, Jim Nixon, wrote Paddock in a letter dated May 27, 2017. \u201cPlease don\u2019t go out shooting or hurting people who did nothing to you. I am concern about the way you are talking and believe you are going to do something very bad. Steve please please don\u2019t do what I think you are going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

On October 1, 2017, Paddock opened fire from his Mandalay Bay hotel suite onto the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest festival. The 64-year-old fatally shot 60 concertgoers before taking his own life.<\/p>\n

Ten letters sent by Nixon to Paddock were released this week by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in response to a request from the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> newspaper. Dated between 2013 and 2017, the handwritten missives were reportedly discovered in late November 2017 by the new owners of an abandoned office building in Mesquite, Texas.<\/p>\n

In a letter dated June 1, 2017, Nixon pleaded with Paddock: \u201cPlease don\u2019t go on any shooting rampage like some fool.\u201d Another letter inquired: \u201cWhat kind of killing are you going to do?\u201d and \u2018Why concerts?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another letter pleaded: \u201cSteve, you said that I was the one who kept you from doing something bad for the past four years. Why not wait until I get back and you and I will sit down and discuss it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paddock\u2019s arsenal of weapons is the subject of many references, including one in which Nixon asked him to \u201ccall ATF to request clearance on the guns,\u201d referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.<\/p>\n

Late last month, the\u00a0FBI released documents<\/a> indicating that Paddock harbored a grudge against several casinos to which he lost \u201cthousands\u201d in the months leading up to the massacre. The documents included summaries of the letters from Nixon, but the information was heavily redacted by the FBI, which cited confidential sources and an invasion of privacy.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas police released the letters to the R-J<\/em> on Thursday with no redactions. The last of the letters was dated the day before Nixon was to return to prison for 15 months in June 2017, for violating his probation. In the letter, he instructed Paddock to write to him in Arkansas, where he would be serving his time.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook buddy I can get you some help,\u201d Nixon wrote. \u201cYou need to talk to someone who know how to deal with dreams. Don\u2019t listen to what the damn dreams tell you. I will help you all I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Nixon Has to Say Now<\/h2>\n

In an interview conducted this week by the Review-Journal,<\/em> Nixon claimed that no one in law enforcement contacted him after the massacre — despite how much information he seemed to have about Paddock\u2019s evil plans.<\/p>\n

Nixon, 75 — a disabled Vietnam War veteran who told the newspaper he once served prison time for tax fraud — said he met Paddock more than 10 years before the shooting. Paddock stayed at Nixon\u2019s homes in California, and the two fished at Lake Mead after Nixon moved to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did what he did and I feel bad I couldn\u2019t have stopped him,\u201d Nixon told the newspaper. \u201cI didn\u2019t know he was going to do what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nixon’s letters suggest otherwise, however.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend of his may have had specific knowledge of the massacre before it occurred. \u201cI can get someone for you who can help you,\u201d the friend, Jim Nixon, wrote Paddock in a letter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":268111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,81886],"tags":[82528,82523,85781,85780,82526,82525,82770],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLetters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on 'Shooting Rampage' - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on 'Shooting Rampage' - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-08T18:06:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/\",\"name\":\"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on 'Shooting Rampage' - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-08T18:06:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-08T18:06:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\"},\"description\":\"Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp\",\"width\":900,\"height\":506},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Las Vegas\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on ‘Shooting Rampage’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\",\"name\":\"Corey Levitan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Corey Levitan\"},\"description\":\"Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corey-levitan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on 'Shooting Rampage' - Casino.org","description":"Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on 'Shooting Rampage' - Casino.org","og_description":"Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-04-08T18:06:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":506,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Corey Levitan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Corey Levitan","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/","name":"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on 'Shooting Rampage' - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp","datePublished":"2023-04-08T18:06:44+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-08T18:06:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09"},"description":"Newly uncovered letters sent to Stephen Paddock, before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, suggest that an ex-convict friend","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/john-locher-ap.webp","width":900,"height":506},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/letters-to-las-vegas-shooter-begged-him-not-to-go-on-shooting-rampage\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Las Vegas","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Letters to Las Vegas Shooter Begged Him Not to Go on ‘Shooting Rampage’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09","name":"Corey Levitan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png","caption":"Corey Levitan"},"description":"Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corey-levitan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}