Vegas killer described his unusual habits in 2013 testimony

He was a nocturnal creature who gambled all night and slept all day.

He took Valium at times for anxiousness, and had the doctor who prescribed it to him on retainer.

He wagered up to a million dollars a night, but wandered around glitzy Las Vegas casinos in sweatpants and flip-flops, and carried his own drink into the high rollers' area because he didn't want to tip the waitresses too much.

Portraits of the Las Vegas shooting victims

This was Stephen Paddock as he saw himself four years before he opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers, killing at least 58 people in the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

The details are contained in a 97-page court deposition obtained exclusively by CNN. Paddock was deposed October 29, 2013 as part of a civil lawsuit against the Cosmopolitan Hotel, where he slipped and fell on a walkway in 2011.

What otherwise would have been a mundane proceeding offers fresh details about Paddock's life and habits -- for the first time -- from the killer's own mouth. The document has been turned over to the FBI, according to sources.

Paddock's testimony offers little insight into what could have prompted last week's attack. He said that he had no mental health issues, no history of addiction and no criminal record.

He said he was prescribed Valium "for anxiousness" by Nevada internist Steven P. Winkler. It was unclear how often he took the drug, but he estimated that he had 10 or 15 pills remaining in a bottle of 60 that were prescribed a year and a half earlier.

Rage, aggressiveness and irritability are among the possible side effects of taking diazepam -- better known as Valium, according to a manufacturer of the drug. It is not known when Paddock last took the drug.

Some of the testimony centered on his gambling.

 

He described himself as being, at one point, the "biggest video poker player in the world."

"How do I know that?" Paddock asked rhetorically. "Because I know some of the video poker players that play big. Nobody played as much and as long as I did."

At the height of his play in 2006, he testified, "I averaged 14 hours a day, 365 days a year."

"I'll gamble all night," he said. "I sleep during the day."

Asked if he ever visited the hotel pool, Paddock replied, "I do not do sun."

Paddock said he rarely drank alcohol when he gambled, because "at the stakes I play, you want to have all your wits about you, or as much wit as I have."