Now if this is what the New York Daily News says it is — this audio is chilling.
"I thought I’d bring up Travis the chimp. Do you remember him?"
"Some little thing he experienced was the last straw and he was overwhelmed by the life that he had and he wanted to get out of it."
According to a New York Daily News exclusive— that's the voice of Adam Lanza.
Who police say shot and killed 20 children and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut in December of 2012. (Via ABC)
The New York Daily News says the audio is from a December 2011 call Lanza made to a radio show called "Anarchy Radio." If you listen to the whole thing, the caller identifies himself as Greg, but the Daily News says two old friends say it's actually Lanza.
In it, the caller sounds obsessed with the case of a Connecticut chimpanzee named Travis — that ripped a woman's face off. (Via CBS)
The caller compares the brutal chimp attack to quote "random acts of violence ... committed by humans." Now here's the thing:
Headlines from the likes of New York Magazine, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast pretty declaratively identify the caller as Lanza.
But the source of authority for that is a former classmate who apparently spoke to the Daily News and said he recognized the voice.
Another classmate who wasn't even identified, but cited by the Daily News as a source, was less sure, telling the paper "It does sound like something he would say. But he is talking funny."
CNN was a little more careful to qualify. Kind of. While on the one hand the network warned it wasn't able to independently verify the voice was in fact that of Adam Lanza, on the other hand it still featured a criminologist who offered this analysis:
"The subtext of what he's saying is violence is inate and instinctual to humans, and really should not be punished because it's their natural basis. ... And the parallel to himself is obvious."
Adam Lanza was 20 years old when police say he killed 26 people at Sandy Hook before killing himself.
