President Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was born without making a sound on Sept. 20, 2003, a trait that would follow him right up to the end of his short life when the 20-year-old died in a hail of Secret Service gunfire seconds after missing Trump’s head with a bullet by a hairsbreadth.
asserted
old → bear → hairsbreadth
“When Thomas was born he did not scream and he was always quiet from that point on,” his father, Matthew, told feds in newly unearthed documents about the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Penn.
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father → bear → Butler
The fresh documents were provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as part of his ongoing inquiry into the Butler assassination attempt and exclusively reviewed by the New York Post.
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documents → provide → Post
The trove of files includes FBI interviews with Thomas’ father, Matthew, who revealed he “never really had a father/son bond” with the gunman, and that his stoic son rarely expressed strong emotions, hardly laughed and was very difficult to read.
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son → include → emotions
Thomas occasionally acted out in elementary school because “he was bored,” his father said, recalling one instance in which he damaged a desk and other school property in a bid for attention.
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he → act → attention
By the time he got to middle school, Matthew said both he and his wife, Mary, “thought Thomas had ADHD” and were concerned he had fallen in with a “bad” group of kids for a brief period.
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he → get → period
Matthew’s frustration with his son’s dispassionate nature once boiled over at home after Thomas dumped an entire container of fish food into his sister’s betta tank after an argument.
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Thomas → boil → argument
He said he “pushed” Thomas to the point he started crying, just trying to elicit some kind of an emotional reaction from the boy.
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he → say → boy
Between his freshman and sophomore year of high school, Matthew noticed a shift in his son’s behavior — he had grown “a little more quiet and reserved” and started having “issues with speaking to his teachers.”
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he → notice → teachers
He said he frequently caught Thomas talking to himself, however, a quirk that “became more noticeable over the years.”
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that → say → years
Matthew lamented the fact that “work schedules” hampered his ability to pick up and drop Thomas from extracurricular activities, expressing sadness that if he had done so, it may have been a positive social outlet for his lone-wolf son.
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it → lament → son
Thomas threw himself into college prep courses because he “feared he may not get into college,” Matthew said.
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Matthew → throw → college
“He was putting a lot of pressure on himself.”
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He → put → himself
Despite his lack of social graces and “street smarts,” as Matthew described, Thomas could have been a promising student.
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Thomas → describe → graces
He scored a 1400 on his first attempt at the SAT without studying, and later improved to a near-perfect 1500.
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He → score → 1500
Matthew said Thomas expressed vague interests in certain professions over the years, but with little, if any, real commitment.
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Thomas → say → commitment
“At one point, Thomas wanted to join the military to work in nuclear submarines, but this was more of just an idea as Thomas thought it would be ‘cool,'” according to FBI notes from an interview with the gunman’s father.
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it → want → father
Thomas never seemed to have a love interest, and “never showed interest in girls.”
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Thomas → seem → girls
He “repeatedly denied” being gay over the years, Matthew said.
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Matthew → deny → years
Growing obsession with guns
Thomas started getting into shooting and guns as a teenager, though he had little interest in the outdoorsman life — Matthew said he briefly took interest in hunting but said he couldn’t envision him actually killing an animal.
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him → grow → animal
He also “hated” fishing.
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He → hat → fishing
Matthew said his conversations with Thomas during this period were usually brief and gun-related, such as the then-teen wondering if “he would have to do a background check” to buy his dad’s Glock, a question he told investigators he considered “odd.”
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he → say → investigators
He also asked if he could have his grandfather’s guns.
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he → ask → guns
Thomas started going to the gun club around the time of the pandemic and was a “terrible” shot — “he could not hit the paper [target],” Matthew told investigators, estimating it took 4-5 years of practice before he could even do that.
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he → start → that
Eventually, with practice, Thomas became a better marksman, coming home with range targets showing off to his dad how well he did with a target placed over 100 yards away.
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he → become → target
After he questioned his son about why he was “going out so far,” Thomas explained, “he wanted to see how far he could shoot with rudimentary sights.”
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he → question → sights
He found he was able to shoot even further distances after he bought a prism sight, eventually becoming “very knowledgeable” about how to measure and zero-in on a target, and knew exactly how many clicks it would take to change the specific angle on the sight.
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it → find → sight
As Thomas’ interest in guns grew, he started buying large numbers of Amazon packages, including “parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle.”
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he → grow → rifle
He took to using the pseudonym “Bob Dole” for his delivery address, a bit of misguided paranoia he picked up after his father’s Citizens Bank checking account was hacked and several fraudulent BetMGM charges were made on his account.
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charges → take → account
Matthew said Thomas believed if one were to purchase items under a pseudonym, such as the ex-GOP presidential candidate’s moniker, the buyer could never be hacked.
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buyer → say → moniker
The father explained that wasn’t how it worked, and that even under an assumed name for deliveries, the charge is still being made to a bank account under his name.
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charge → explain → name
Thomas dismissed his dad’s logic and continued using pseudonyms to make his online purchases, believing he was shielding his accounts from being compromised.
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he → dismiss → accounts
He also coached Matthew how to use identity-obscuring software like CyberGhost VPN and the Bravenet Browser — which Thomas would argue made them “less likely to be compromised by outside actors.”
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them → coach → actors
Matthew further recalled Thomas using multiple different, privacy-focused encrypted email providers, including GMX and Mailfence.
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Thomas → recall → GMX
It was around this time Thomas obtained a 3D printer, and once brought home a large container of an unknown substance he claimed was needed to clean it.
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he → obtain → it
Matthew said he once tried to fashion his own handgun, which nearly ended in disaster.
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which → say → disaster
“Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,” Matthew told investigators.
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Matthew → use → investigators
But he said after he discharged a single round from it, he feared the frame would explode, and would not allow Thomas to use it.
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Thomas → say → it
Thomas also built a gaming PC, after dismissing his father’s suggestion that a laptop would serve him better, and a security camera using a Raspberry Pi — a simple, low-cost microcomputer.
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laptop → build → Pi
Asked by investigators about Thomas’ role model, Matthew indicated it was likely the Marvel Character Iron Man.
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it → ask → model
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
