Chris Walton at Philocrites has news concerning Jim David Adkisson, who attacked a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist congregation with a shotgun last July, killing two and injuring six. Adkisson, who defined himself to neighbors as a “Confederate” and a “believer in the old South”, plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. The Knoxville News Sentinel also got to read Adkisson’s four-page manifesto, where he calls the UU church his ex-wife once attended “a den of un-American vipers” and bemoans the fact that he couldn’t kill every Democrat in Congress.

“This was a symbolic killing,” Adkisson wrote. “Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate and House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I knew these people were inaccessible to me. “I couldn’t get to the generals and high-ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chicken (expletive) liberals that vote in these traitorous people.”

By all accounts Adkisson was remorseless during the trial, and while his defense attorney claimed he could have argued an insanity plea, prosecutors say they had clear evidence of extensive planning and premeditation before the murders. For extensive coverage of the shootings, check out the Knoxville News Sentinel’s special page devoted to the incident. With this murderer behind bars forever, here’s hoping that healing and closure can come to the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and the friends and family of those affected by this tragedy.

Tags: shootings, Tennessee, Unitarian-Universalism, UUA