IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Judge Rules Docs Taken from Sandy Hook Shooter's House Must Stay Secret

A judge has overturned a decision to release a spiral-bound notebook that the mass murderer called "The Big Book of Granny."
Image: Adam Lanza in student ID
Adam Lanza in student ID.Western Connecticut State University

Many of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza's darkest secrets are going to stay secret.

A Connecticut judge has overturned a decision by the state's Freedom of Information Commission to release a spiral-bound notebook that the mass murderer called "The Big Book of Granny" and into which he poured his thoughts, The Hartford Courant reported Tuesday.

Image: A police cruiser sits in the driveway of the home of Nancy Lanza
A police cruiser sits in the driveway of the home of Nancy Lanza in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 18, 2012.Jason DeCrow / AP, file

The judge also nixed the release of a spreadsheet of earlier mass killings that Lanza created, according to the Courant, which had requested the items.

The FOIA, Judge Carl Schuman wrote, does not apply to "documents that were private property before seizure by the police and that a court would ordinarily order returned to the rightful owner by the end of a criminal case."

Schuman agreed that if Lanza had been tried for the December 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, the items The Courant requested would likely have been made public.

But there was no trial because Lanza killed himself after gunning down 20 first graders and six staffers with a .223-caliber Bushmaster Model XM15 assault rifle at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. He also murdered his mother.

Items taken from Lanza's home through a search warrant should remain confidential, Schuman ruled.

A Bushmaster rifle in Room 10 at Sandy Hook Elementary School after the December 14, 2012 shooting rampage, taken on an unspecified date in Newtown, Connecticut .
A Bushmaster rifle in Room 10 at Sandy Hook Elementary School after the December 14, 2012 shooting rampage, taken on an unspecified date in Newtown, Connecticut .Connecticut State Police / Getty

"We are disappointed in the decision and are currently assessing our options," said Courrant editor-in-chief Andrew S. Julien.

Lanza wrote his "Granny" book at age 10 for a fifth-grade class assignment, the Connecticut State Police revealed earlier.

It included characters who killed kids, carried bags full of guns, and said they enjoyed hurting people — “especially children.”

That description was part of an 11,000-plus page report on the tragedy the state police released a year after the killings. It includes investigative files, 911 call transcripts, crime scene reports and thousands of photos, including that of the mass murder weapon and the Glock 20 pistol he used to kill himself.

The report quotes an unnamed witness who says that Lanza may have targeted the nearby school because his mother Nancy had once worked there.