Family, friends shed light on lives of Nancy and Adam Lanza

[FarCenter]

Ryan Lanza, Adam's older brother, worked at My Place for about two years during high school. Nancy was enough of a regular at the bar that the Tambascios — Mark, his brother John, and their mother Louise — say they'll dedicate a barstool in her honor. Nancy would occasionally bring Adam to My Place for dinner.


"He was very quiet and reserved," Mark Tambascio said. "Tough to communicate with. It wasn't like he couldn't speak. He didn't have a speech impediment. He was just a highly intelligent kid." Louise Tambascio, too, described Adam as the polar opposite of his older brother. Both boys were "very, very brilliant," but that's where the similarities ended.
 "Ryan is outgoing, he socialized with the customers," Louise said. "Adam wouldn't socialize. He was different. He was shy. We knew he had a problem. He didn't want to talk. You couldn't have a conversation with him."

...

"She took it up as a hobby about three years ago, target shooting," Mark Tambascio said. "She didn't talk much about it to me. Just, 'Oh, I went shooting today,' you know. Nothing else." He and his brother John insist she wouldn't have left her weapons unlocked or otherwise available for the taking. They said they weren't sure whether she ever invited her sons to a firing range. Hanoman said Nancy Lanza told him she introduced guns to Adam as a way to teach him responsibility.

...

Ginger Colbrun, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said it's still not clear whether Nancy Lanza brought her son to the range or whether he ever fired a weapon there.

...

Those who knew Nancy Lanza recall her as very generous, often giving money to those she met and doing volunteer work. Mark Tambascio recalled the time Lanza invited him and his brother to attend a Boston Red Sox game, buying them tickets atop the outfield wall known as the Green Monster, and refusing any talk of repayment.


Public records show Nancy and Peter once jointly owned the house where Nancy's body was found on Friday, but Mark says Peter never lived there. The two were "definitely" not together when the Nancy and her sons arrived in Newtown some 17 years ago, he said.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2012/12/17/news/doc50cf5c873ff72366313235.txt?viewmode=fullstory

[gollygee]

1. He could have killed her and then taken her keys

Who knows. I just wish he weren't getting so much attention.

[LisaL]

2. He killed her with a gun.

[gollygee]

6. Oh yeah!

Duh LOL

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I want to know EVERYTHING

Seriously. I want to know why, how, who, when, and where. The more information the better.

[gollygee]

12. Yeah the problem is focusing so much on him

is what he was after. And other depressed young men who want to go out "with a bang" are watching and hoping they'll get a lot of attention.

[whathehell]

8. What "whitewash"?

You want to demonize her because she made a mistake?

A serious one, admittedly, but there's no reason to believe she

did it in bad faith. I doubt she wanted to raise a killer or BE killed

by her own weapons, so I'd say your Hitler analogy is a tad over the top.

[bongbong]

16. Not over the top

> I doubt she wanted to raise a killer or BE killed

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, either.

Guns are what allow a personal bone-headed action to turn into a national tragedy.

Demonizing her will help put things in perspective about the danger of having guns.

[whathehell]

17. Of course it is.

and before you expect it to "help put things in perspective"

you might want to explain the meaning of

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, either,"

It's completely incomprehensible.

[SoCalDem]

4. Last paragraph makes no sense

Public records show Nancy and Peter once jointly owned the house where Nancy's body was found on Friday, but Mark says Peter never lived there. The two were "definitely" not together when the Nancy and her sons arrived in Newtown some 17 years ago, he said.

Peter =is the father, so wouldn't he have been "there" 17 years ago?

Early in the article it says that Peter left the family home...for her to live in...in 2008

[Glimmer of Hope]

7. I just woke up and thought it was just me. It doesn't make sense!

[HangOnKids]

5. Odd That Peter And She Lived Apart As Long As 17 Years Ago

That would make Adam 3 at the time. Interesting, as the media keeps talking about the couple being divorced since 2008. I'm sure the story will get stranger as the truth unrolls.

[HooptieWagon]

9. They could have been living apart for some reason,

such as work. Or could have been separated, but didn't file for divorce until several years later.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. A high school kid worked at a bar?

That doesn't compute.

[Autumn Colors]

13. It's a restaurant with a bar

He would have been allowed to wait or bus tables or work in the kitchen, but wouldn't be allowed to serve drinks. We had the same rules for employees younger than drinking age at Howard Johnson's when I worked there ..... a REALLY long time ago.

http://www.myplacepizza.com/

[KharmaTrain]

14. As Long As He Didn't Serve Liquor...

...a close friend of mine's family owned a bar. He grew up in the place...starting working there when he was in high school. He bussed tables and did everything BUT pour the drinks. Now he owns the bar...and has his son (whose well over 21) also working with him. Many taverns and bars are family businesses...

[slackmaster]

15. An 18-year-old who works in a restaurant here in California can serve drinks

There is no federal law prohibiting it.

[cali]

18. They're going to dedicate a bar stool to her? Say what?

Am I the only one who finds that surreal?

[WI_DEM]

24. I believe it was that she went so often to the bar that they could have

dedicated a bar stool to her. Not that they are going to.

[deutsey]

19. I'm reminded of "Citizen Kane" as I read all these various accounts of these two

People's memories of them are all over the place.

We'll probably never have the clarifying "Rosebud" moment where the mystery of who they were and why this happened is revealed.

I thought this was an odd new bit of information about the shooter:

Adam Lanza also was “an organic vegan” with a conservative worldview, he said.

“He was actually politically aware for a teenager,” he said. “… He was always very free-market economics and capitalism, as I think most people are in this country.”

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/17/15976160-new-details-emerge-on-private-lives-of-school-gunman-adam-lanza-and-his-mother

[gollygee]

20. "As I think most people are in this country?"

Libertarians annoy the heck out of me.

[deutsey]

21. Yeah, that really irked me

[llmart]

22. Yes, especially since most everyone has said.....

that he rarely spoke or socialized. How the hell did they know all this then? He had a conservative view. He was an organic vegan. He was politically aware. How would you even know all that if he just sat there and couldn't converse or even make eye contact?

These stories are garbage. Could even be people who just want their 15 minutes of fame.

[reformist2]

23. I think it paints a picture of a mother and son that were very individualistic, maybe too much so.

As to the specifics - was he a "vegan"? Was he a "libertarian"? We just don't know.