One of the places to which Poplawski turned, according to his best friend, Edward Perkovic, was Alex Jones. In the realm of conspiracy, Jones defies the traditional left-right paradigm. When I described his site as “far right” in an article recently, I was inundated with indignant e-mails. Jones might have made his chops with documentaries about the Waco siege, but he views himself as a libertarian, not a right-winger.

His site, Infowars, where Perkovic says Poplawski sought his news, is a pastiche of links to reports from far and wide, all seemingly driven by the need to get a real story Jones doesn’t think is being told. In that sense, it seems almost apolitical. In another, it’s about finding the hidden “other” that is running the show.

“All it is is mainstream links to government documents calling for one-world government,” Jones said of his site.