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Raising Adam Lanza: Investigating The Life Of A Mass Killer

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A photo of Adam Lanza courtesy of Frontline.
A photo of Adam Lanza courtesy of Frontline.

The Hartford Courant and Frontline are piecing together the lives of Nancy Lanza and her son Adam, who killed his mother and 26 first-graders, school officials and teachers during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.

We're learning that Adam attended Sandy Hook as a first-grader, but his mother pulled him out of the school and several other schools over the course of his childhood.

In addition to Asperger's syndrome, Adam from an early age also had sensory integration disorder, which left him unable to handle loud noises, pain and crowds - but which is not a universally accepted medical diagnosis.

By his teen years, after his parents divorced, he spent days alone in the basement of his mother's home playing graphically violent video games.

And his mother, who took her two sons to shooting ranges when they were growing up, had bought four guns in the two years before the mass shooting.

Guest:

  • Andrew Julien, editor of the Hartford Courant. He tweets @andrewjulien.

This segment aired on February 19, 2013.

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