Omar Mateen was born in 1986 in New York. His parents were Afghan immigrants. Mateen exhibited behaviors that should have been considered red flags as far back as elementary school. He was known to be rude, aggressive, and a poor student. He exhibited a sense of entitlement throughout his life. He was sent to alternative school for having dozens of incidents in high school. His father claimed to be the president of Afghanistan in exile, and also had a sense of entitlement. After the 9/11 attacks, he mimicked crashing planes and sang the praises of the perpetrators. In later years, he would claim to know the Boston Marathon bombers. He cheated on his wife with multiple women, while making disparaging remarks about women in general. He stalked people, including people who rejected his third application for the police course and women. He also used steroids which could not have possibly helped his attitude and mental capacity. There were so many red flags about this guy, it is insanity that the FBI closed TWO investigations of him. He was able to buy weapons, thanks to lax gun laws and the stupidity of the FBI. He used those weapons to kill 49 people and injure 53 others. He would eventually be killed by police.

There has been considerable debate about his radicalism. There has been considerable debate about having a homophobic motive and targeting Pulse for this reason. There has also been debate about being at Pulse on Latin Night to target the Latin community. It is my personal belief that this dude had mental problems and was also a product of his raising. He did not seem to be very devout or fanatical in his beliefs. There has been no solid evidence to point to the fact that he was in the closet or having same sex relationships with men. By a review of the facts, it appears he had a completely different target in mind to attack. It didn't work out so he went to Pulse. There is no firm evidence he had ever been to Pulse previously, and nothing on his phone to indicate it hit on the cell tower near it before that night. Pulse was open in the middle of the night, people were there, so it was. The narrative presented by the media has really done a lot to damage the LGBTQ+ community, and that is a tragedy on top of a tragedy. It is also my personal belief that his father is a terrible person, a terrible parent, and a scumbag in general. He was also an FBI informant. I do not like to be a conspiracy theorist, but the FBI closed two cases against Marteen and never called his father as a witness. Marteen's FBI file remains "open" so the public cannot view it, which really does lead one to believe the FBI has something to hide, because we all know they are not an honest and forthcoming bunch. Their mishandling of this is atrocious. It is also my personal belief that his first wife should have never been splashed about in the media, as she divorced him after two years of enduring his abusive behavior and had nothing to do with this event. His second wife's handling by law enforcement was also atrocious, and, while I do not believe she aided him or hindered the investigation, I believe she knew something. Perhaps she did not know what he was up to that very second, but she absolutely knew he was abusive, manipulative, and weird. She probably knew he went and bought weapons. She probably knew he wanted his name in the history books one way or another. It is also my firm belief that he did this horrible act because he wanted to be like the people he idolized. He wanted his name in the news, he wanted his face on the internet, he wanted a bigger kill count than those who came before him.

This took only about four hours to listen to. It is currently available on Audible Plus. There are a few things to consider before listening to this. It reads more like a podcast miniseries than a traditional audiobook, which did not bother me, but may not be for everyone. It also includes 911 recordings and recordings from people inside Pulse at the time of the incident. Otherwise, I found this book to be a valuable resource for information about the perpetrator. I also appreciated that it gave a fair amount of time to other people involved, including victims who were willing to give statements, people that knew the perpetrator, lawyers, and law enforcement. It was not a one-sided book, and the investigative journalist who wrote it brought a lot to light about false narratives and FBI shenanigans.