The documents were released by the FBI after a Freedom of Information request by the AP.
The FBI released additional documents about the Oct. 1, 2017 Mandalay Bay shooting by the high-roller Stephen Paddock. The new documents include details involving Marilou Danley, Paddock’s girlfriend, as well as Paddock’s accumulation of a bump stocks for his AR-15 rifles.
Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of Mandalay Bay shooter Stephen Paddock, told FBI investigators they would find her fingerprints on ammunition, because she sometimes helped her late boyfriend’s ammunition magazines. Danley’s admission is one of several new facts released on court documents made public on Friday.
Those documents show that Marilou Danley was not arrested when she returned to the United States from the Philippines days on Oct. 3, two days after the Oct. 1 Las Vegas shooting. The documents show that Danley was cooperating with investigators. Part of that cooperation was providing a DNA sample to the FBI’s investigators.
No Criminal Involvement for Danley
FBI investigators told U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey that there was no evidence that Marilou Danley had “criminal involvement” in the Mandalay Bay shooting, though they were leaving the door open to the possibility. In the hours immediately after the shooting, authorities had worked on the theory Danley might have been involved, because Stephen Paddock used her credit card to rent his suite at the Mandalay Bay. Her trip out of the country proved to be a solid alibi.
Despite the new revelations, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Breault in Las Vegas said her agency could provide no other details in the ongoing investigation. Authorities are still trying to learn what motive Stephen Paddock had in the case, which involved the death of 58 concertgoers and over 500 other attendees of a country music concert at a venue next to the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The details released in court documents on Friday led to as many questions as answers. The Associated Press (AP) and other media organizations had fought for the release of Stephen Paddock’s emails, which were disclossed in unsealed aaffidavits.
Stephen Paddock’s Bizarre Email Thread
Paddock’s emails showed that he received an email from a Gmail account in July 2017 encouraging him to try an AR-style semi-automatic rifle before purchasing one. The email said “we have huge selection” in the Las Vegas area. In reply, Stephen Paddock said he planned to try several scopes and types of ammuncation.
The email reply suggested Paddock try out a bump stock on the rifle, along with a 100-round magazine. The bump stock is a device which became notorious in the wake of the shooting, because it turns a semi-automatic rifle into a fully automatic rifle, at cost of accuracy. Because Stephen Paddock fired into a crowd of 22,000 concertgoers, accuracy was no issue during the shooting. Some lawmakers had called for the ban of bump stucks after the Mandalay Bay shooting.
The Gmail attempt trying to sell the bump stocks to Stephen Paddock has a similar name to Paddock’s personal email, leading authorities to wonder why Stephen Paddock might have been having an email conversation with himself — and trying to sell himself weapon supplies.
Marilou Danley’s Facebook, Instagram, Email
The documents show that the FBI wanted access to Marilou Danley’s Facebook, Instagram, and email accounts. The AP and other media groups have requested that U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey release other documents involved in the FBI investigation. Prosecutors have said they do not object to the release of those documents, given they probably will never need to prosecute any individual involved in the crime.
A separate Nevada state judge is scheduled to hear arguments on whether Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department documents should be released in the case.
Las Vegas Shooting Details
Stephen Paddock was a high-stakes gambler with VIP relations in several Las Vegas casinos, despite living about an hour away. Casino management said that Stephen Paddock played high-stakes video poker for years. While he was a premium player spending $10,000 or more a session, Paddock was not a whale.
In fact, the records show that Stephen Paddock — who was wealthy from a successful real estate business in Nevada, Florida, and California — had been on a 2-year losing streak at the casinos. Investigators do not know if Paddock’s losses contributed to his decision to fire into a crowd of country music fans or not. No solid motive has emerged, as Stephen Paddock still had enough cash to wire Marilou Danley $100,000 in the Philippines to buy a home there. Paddock also was a notable country music fan.
Danley Thought Paddock Was Breaking Up
For her part, Marilou Danley seems to have been shocked by the revelation her boyfriend had committed the largest mass shooting in modern American history. Paddock paid for Danley’s trip to the Philippines, where her family lived. When her boyfriend wired the money for her to buy a house, reports in the weeks after the shooting indicate that Danley thought Paddock might have plans to break up with her and may have been paying her off to leave him alone.
Details of the couple’s relationship have varied. Danley herself suggested Stephen Paddock was kind to her, though a barista at a Starbucks in their home town suggested Paddock treated Danley contemptuously — and used the money he spent on her as an obligation. A brother also claimed Paddock was friendly, if somewhat secretive, though old neighbors suggested the imprisonment of Paddock’s father when Paddock was 7 years old might have had an effect on the shooter’s life. In the 1960s, Stephen Paddock’s father was on the FBI 10 Most Wanted List.
