Today, jurors heard more from James Holmes, the man who opened far in a Colorado movie theater. Witnesses say Holmes fired into the air and then started shooting into the crowd. At that moment, I just remember thinking, I'm not going to die in here. Me and my kids, we are not going to die in here. I need to get them out. From James Holmes to Lorraina Bobbitt to John Heackley Jr. Some of history's most notorious criminal defendants are
linked by a common thread, the insanity defense. Lorraina Bobbit goes on trial for maliciously wounding her husband and a lot of people are watching. She went to the kitchen, she sees a knife, she grabs it. She cuts off his penis while he is asleep. The basic dynamic of that case for some people is going to be he deserved it. He had it coming to him. I mean, as a matter of law, he didn't have it coming
to him. Each season on the Thread, we unraveled the stories behind some of the most important lives and events in history to discover, essentially how one thing leads to another. We turned back the clock, one story at a time to reveal how various strands get woven together to create a historic figure, a big idea, or an unthinkable tragedy. He decided that he would assassinate Ronald Reagan when he
was giving a speech at the Washington Hilton. The defense of you was that the President was just a bit player in this drama that was being, you know, played out in Hinckley's mind. In season four of The Thread, we explore some of the most high profile criminal cases in history through the lens of the controversial legal defense that unites and binds them all not guilty by way of insanity. Will journey back in time to witness some of the most extraordinary but largely forgot crimes and trials
in history. Were they bad? Or were they mad? People thought that the gunshots were part of the show at first, but he said to his attorney's no way, I'm perfectly saying I did. I did the act, and in fact I should have been given a medal. And he decided the only thing that he could do to stop this was to shoot the Prime Minister. Yeah. I mean literally, if it was an episode of House of Cards, you
wouldn't believe it, right, But it really happened. How can you ever know what somebody knows right, We couldn't go back in time and be there with him, inside his brain at the time that he was pulling the trigger. Bad or mad. Subscribe now to the thread on Apple Podcasts or wherever you list