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Article snippet: BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Signs of a deeply disturbed family life kept surfacing from the well-kept house with the pale sun awning and the pretty flowerpots off a gravel road here. One of James T. Hodgkinson’s foster daughters killed herself in a gruesome fashion: by dousing herself with gasoline and setting herself on fire. Another described herself as “more of a hindrance than a daughter.” And when Mr. Hodgkinson dragged his grandniece by her hair and tried to choke her, the police were called in, and he was charged with battery. In previously sealed court papers obtained by the local newspaper, she described him as an abusive alcoholic who hit her repeatedly. Elsewhere in America, people learned this past week who Mr. Hodgkinson was: the seemingly deranged gunman who, fueled by leftist rage, opened fire on a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., grievously wounding Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip, and three other people. He was carrying a list with the names of at least three Republican lawmakers and had pictures of the ballpark on his cellphone, law enforcement officials said on Friday. But here in Belleville, a quaint little city where flags fly on Main Street and the movie theater marquee is set off in lights, Mr. Hodgkinson, 66, who was killed when Capitol Police officers returned his fire, was known to some friends and neighbors as a volatile figure. “Is it shocking?” asked Doug Knepper, whose son is married to one of... Link to the full article to read more