Stephen Craig Paddock was born on April 19, 1953, in Clinton, Iowa. His family later moved to Tuscon, Arizona and Sun Valley, a Los Angeles neighborhood where he was raised by his mother Dolores Irene Hudson alongside his three younger brothers. His father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock was arrested in 1960 for bank robbery when Stephen was just seven years old. Benjamin Paddock escaped from prison in 1969 after being convicted and sentenced to a prison term that placed him on the FBI’s most wanted list between 1969 and 1977.
Stephen enrolled to study Business Administration at California State University, Northbridge and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1977. He was a retired accountant, real estate investor, amateur property manager pilot and also a well-known poker player .
At 10:05 p.m. on October 1, 2017, a fire broke out on the Las Vegas Strip during the Route 91 Harvest Music concert that left 58 dead and 851 injured (422 shot) and Stephen Paddock was the man responsible of that inhumane act which today is recorded as the deadliest mass shooting by a single man in United States history.
After the shooting, he was found dead by a self-inflicted bullet to the head on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, where he was staying on September 25, six days before the shooting. With all the investigations, there has been no clear reason why he did what he did, and he never had a criminal record prior to the incident, other than a minor traffic citation, which was ultimately settled by the court.
Who was his girlfriend before his death?
Stephen Paddock lived a normal life like any other man. While living in Los Angeles County, California, he married twice; first in 1977, which ended in 1979, after which he remarried in 1985 and divorced again in 1990. According to his family members, he continued to be on good terms with his ex-wives .
After both of his marriages failed, he decided to give marriage a break, but that didn’t stop him from having a woman in his life as he reunited with Marilou Danley, a dual citizen of the Philippines and from Australia. Marilou became a person of interest after the shooting, as she was Stephen’s girlfriend at the time and they were thought to have been together for a very long time.
The duo met many years ago in Reno at AtlantisCasino Resort Spa, Club Paradise where she worked as a high profile hostess, and they had been together ever since. They are believed to have started dating while she was still married to ex-husband Geary Danley, whom she married in 1990. They eventually divorced in February 2015 after being married for more than twenty-five and the marriage producing a daughter.
Stephen Paddock has traveled extensively and his girlfriend, Marilou has accompanied him on most of his trips. According to his brother Eric, Stephen was very much in love with Marilou and dotted with her. But contrary to Eric’s statement, a cafe supervisor said their relationship was not as it seemed, as she was actually being abused by him even in public.
According to her, he told her to leave UnitedUnis and he got her a ticket to the Philippines. She left the United States on September 15, 2017 – two weeks before the incident – although some reports say she left on the 25th. Many believe he did it so she wouldn’t interfere with his plans for mass murder. The sum of $100,000 was paid into an account in the Philippines by Stephen a few days before the shooting, and is believed to belong to him, presumably so that she could have enough to live on and like any other person, Marilou Danley claims being at sea as to what his reason for the attack might be.
Stephen Paddock – Brother
Stephen Paddock is the eldest of four boys. He never really had a close relationship with them, but you could tell he had a better relationship with just one of them – Eric Paddock. They ran a real estate business together and most of the information given regarding the shooter was provided by Eric who believes something must have pushed his brother to such an act. Right now he’s playing his part to see if he could be of any help by giving exclusive interviews and trying to raise money ($1 million) for the victims.
According to Bruce Paddock, his other brother who is accused of child pornography in Los Angeles, he called Stephen a father figure he knew and also a controlling brother who disciplined them more than their mother and thinks he may have had a “good reason” to do what he did. Bruce also confessed that he regrets not having a better relationship with his brother, as he probably could have helped prevent the incident, since they haven’t spoken in ten years.
Another brother, Patrick Paddock, said he had not seen Stephen for over twenty years and wanted nothing to do with any of them, therefore had no memories/life history with his brother.