INSIDE EDITION has a personal portrait of the man who opened fire at a political event in Tucson, Arizona over the weekend that has shocked the nation.
A disturbing portrait is emerging of accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner.
He erected a chilling shrine with a replica human skull, shriveled-up oranges and candles in his parents backyard. The house is just five minutes from the scene of the shooting rampage.
Inside the house, police found rambling notes Loughner wrote. One says: "I planned ahead." Another says: "My assassination," and ominously: "Giffords."
Ben McGahee taught Loughner math at Pima Community College. Loughner was suspended for his strange and disruptive behavior.
"Jared Lee Loughner is a very sick person, psychologically," said McGahee.
He was a loner who claims his favorite books include Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, and The Communist Manifesto.
McGahee said, "Every time I was writing on the whiteboard I would look out of the corner of my eye keeping a close surveillance on him, just to make sure he didn't pull out a weapon."
Some classmates were terrified of him. One wrote in a diary, "Hopefully he will be out of class soon and will not come back with an automatic weapon."
But Loughner wasn't always that way. Loughner played the saxophone in his high school band. Julie Blanco played in the band with him and remembers him as talented, but a loner.
Blanco told INSIDE EDITION, "I couldn't believe that the same Jared I spent so much time with in marching band was this crazy, crazy person who could do such a horrific act on these people. I could not believe it."
In 2009, he tried to join the army but was rejected because he failed a drug test.
His grudge against Congresswoman Gabby Giffords reportedly began when he asked a rambling and incoherent question at a rally and was rebuffed.
And a video posted on Youtube shows a man believed to be Loughner, dressed in a hoodie, his legs are covered by a trash bag, and he's wearing a Scream mask over his face.
A heavy metal song called Bodies plays in the background with lyrics that say, "Let the bodies hit the floor," as Loughner sets fire to the American flag.
