IN THE HOLE:Jared Lee Loughner has been locked up away from his fellow inmates in a special isolated unit dubbed “The Hole” at the federal prison in Phoenix, according to staffers. (ABC15)
Arizona’s most notorious new prisoner showing no remorse at all for his heinous actions, sources told The Post.
Psycho killer Jared Lee Loughner’s eyes look “dead — he’s pure evil,” one prison worker told a visitor.
Another person who was inside the federal prison in Phoenix, where Loughner is being held, said the madman with the ghoulish grin is living up to his image as a coldblooded murderer.
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“He’s shown no remorse. No crying or anything,” said Beverly Gomez, 49, who visited a relative in the prison and asked a guard about the killer. “He’s segregated, but when he’s out, he’s, like, with six guards.”
Loughner, 22, is accused of killing six people and wounding 14, including US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whom he shot in the head, in a rampage at the congresswoman’s meet-and-greet event in Tucson on Jan. 8.
He now faces a grim existence, locked up 23 hours a day in a “special housing unit” inmates call “The Hole.”
A prison official yesterday said Loughner takes his meals through a slot in his cell door, has no contact with other prisoners and can leave only for an hour a day to shower and exercise.
Inmates in The Hole, the official said, have their own outside recreation area that other inmates can’t see into — and they can’t see out of.
“There’s a wall around it. They take him out by himself in leg irons and put him in a pen,” the source said.
Loughner is required to wear a bright-orange jumpsuit instead of standard prison khakis to distinguish him from the general population.
Another prison worker said Loughner was kept in The Hole both for his and the other inmates’ protection.
“We’re not going to subject anyone to undue harm. We’re here to protect him from the community and the community from him,” the source said.
For now, the only visitors permitted to see him are his defense team and the prison chaplain. It was unknown if Loughner had sought counsel from the man of the cloth.
Neither Loughner’s parents nor anyone else has apparently tried to visit him, the source said.
Yesterday, his parents’ home appeared deserted, and their whereabouts were unclear.
The disturbed suspect had reportedly been at odds with his parents for months.
After arguing with them, he would frequently check into a Motel 6 in Tucson.
In fact, he went to the hotel 10 hours before the massacre, a desk clerk said — and acted particularly creepy, pacing back and forth in front of her and signing his name as “Jared Jared” in the registry.
Meanwhile, as the picturesque desert community of Tucson tried to heal, a memorial of flowers sprang up over the weekend outside the Safeway supermarket where Giffords was shot during her “Congress on Your Corner” event.
And the funerals for Loughner’s victims, which began last week, continued.
An emotional service was held for Dorwan Stoddard, the retired construction worker who died while shielding his wife, Mary, from the hail of bullets. Mary Stoddard, hit by three shots, was recovering.
Meanwhile, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain crossed party lines to praise President Obama’s unifying speech to the nation last week — while taking a not-so-veiled shot at his former running mate, Sarah Palin.
McCain, writing in The Washington Post yesterday, said Obama delivered a “terrific speech” and chided those who’ve exploited the tragedy for political gain.
Palin has had to defend herself over one of her Web sites, which had cross hairs over Giffords’ district, as well as others, before the shooting.
Additional reporting by Brigitte Stelzer and Post Wire Services