Mass killer was on Valium after bad investment ‘drove him crazy’

LAS vegas gunman Stephen Paddock was prescribed anti-anxiety drug valium and was ‘descending into madness’ in the weeks before the mass shooting, it emerged yesterday.

The multi-millionaire, who killed 59 people and wounded hundreds more, was believed to have been taking the drug since June, as his mental state deteriorated.

A former business associate told the Mail Paddock, 64, was ‘driven crazy’ after a bad property investment, inspired by his antibig government zeal, cost him up to £18million. The former estate agent added: ‘This guy spent 60 years in solitude. I think he got fed up with the world and wanted to go out with a bang to show people, “I’m here”.’

Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort. But there were claims he may have planned to target a bigger music festival in the city the previous weekend. He is reported to have rented flats in a high-rise residential building overlooking the Life Is Beautiful Festival, featuring New Zealand singer Lorde and US star Chance the Rapper.

The gunman had been prescribed 50 10mg diazepam tablets by a doctor on June 21, according to the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Programme. He bought the drug under its brand name valium that day.

Diazepam is used to treat anxiety disorders and alcohol withdrawal symptoms. But the family of drugs can sometimes trigger an increase in hostility and aggression.

Investigators suggest Paddock’s mental state was deteriorating before the shooting as he lost weight and appeared more slovenly than normal. He also became fixated with the ex-husband of his girlfriend Marilou Danley, ABC News reported. Paddock is believed to have been devastated after missing out on quadrupling his fortune.

He switched his property portfolio – then worth £4million-£6million – from California to Texas in the mid 2000s because he wanted to live in a low-tax state with no rent control and relaxed gun laws. But the market flatlined in his Dallas suburb, while in the liberal area of California he had left it rose 300 per cent. ‘I think that really drove him crazy,’ said his former estate agent.

The agent added: ‘He didn’t like government, he didn’t like being with anyone … He did have girlfriends, but in moderation … He was a loner. There was no red flag, nothing to suggest he was dangerous, he was just a little socially inept.’

Paddock’s brother eric said the killer ‘expected people to wait on him’, apart from Miss Danley, adding: ‘He would defer to her in the way that he wouldn’t to the rest of humanity. even me.’