Church shooter described as helpful but filled with hate

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The man who is accused of a deadly church shooting is described by family members and long-time acquaintances as a troubled loner who hates "blacks, gays and anyone different from him."But those who know Jim David Adkisson also depicted him as a man with a "heart of gold" who, when not consumed by anger, was happy to help his neighbors out.Adkisson, 58, who has been charged with first degree murder for killing two people and wounding seven others Sunday at the Tennessee Valley Universalist Unitarian Church, also spoke of his resentment of his parents for forcing him to attend church as a child, of his belief that the Bible is full of contradictions, and of his antipathy to liberals and their ideas.A four-page letter police recovered from Adkisson's 2004 Ford Escape indicated he had been planning the shooting for about a week, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen said. The letter described Adkisson's frustration at not being able to obtain a job, and how much he hated the liberal movement.Adkisson also had a personal connection to the church he picked for his bloodbath. His ex-wife, Liza Alexander, of Powell, Tenn., was a former long-time congregant at the church, which embraces gay rights and other liberal views.The Adkissons' marriage disintegrated some eight years ago after Adkisson had been drinking heavily and put a gun to Liza Alexander's head, said Carol Smallwood of Alice, Texas.Smallwood said today she has known Adkisson for "25 to 30 years" and helped Alexander move Adkisson's possessions out of the house in Powell after the incident with the gun."He always had the attitude the government was trying to get him," Smallwood said. "He disliked blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him. He's a very intelligent man but he couldn't get in the mainstream and hold a job," Smallwood said. "He's not a beast. He needed help a long time ago and never got it."I think he's got a heart of gold when he's good, but he has so much anger inside of him. He didn't go into that church to harm any children because he loved children."Smallwood said after the marriage to Alexander unraveled, "He got on a motorcycle and went west." She said she got to know Adkisson through her now ex-husband because the two men rode motorcycles together.She described Adkisson as a "very accomplished guitarist.""He was just the life of the party," Smallwood said, "but then those dark periods would hit and you didn't want to be around him. They would go on for weeks. Everything was negative. You couldn't talk him out of it."Dolores "Dee" Adkisson said she and the suspect are cousins, though she is much older, and Jim David Adkisson called her his aunt. "He had problems through the years," she said. "He just didn't seem to find his niche in life. He was always kind of a loner."Police chief Owens said Adkisson's criminal history included two drunk driving charges. As a youth, Jim David Adkisson disliked being forced by his parents to attend First Christian Church in Harriman, Tenn., his cousin Dee Adkisson said.But she and others who knew him said he could be warm-hearted and generous. He sometimes volunteered to change his neighbors' tires. He let neighbors store their property in his garage. He was the guy everyone could count on to help out when they needed a hand."He was a very nice guy. He said he used to be a truck driver, but in the past six months to a year, he wasn't driving any more," next-door neighbor Melissa Coker said. "From my understanding, he was retired."Some saw another side.Neighbor Karen Massey recalled a lengthy conversation she had with him a couple of years ago.Massey's daughter, Cameron, had just graduated from Johnson Bible College, and Massey was eager to share the news. But when Massey told Adkisson, he didn't react as she had expected., and she ended up having to explain to him that she was a Christian, triggering an outburst that lingered in her memory."He seemed to get angry at that. He said that everything in the Bible contradicts itself if you read it, Massey recalled.Knoxville News Sentinel staff writers Bob Fowler, Frank Munger, Hayes Hickman, Don Jacobs and Amy McRary contributed to this story.Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.