James Holmes has been spitting at prison guards so much that he's being forced to wear a special protective mask. 

The mask is simple and lightweight, but forms an effective barrier, preventing inmates from spitting on guards. It goes over their heads, blindfolding the inmate and disorienting them. It's tied firmly on the back of their head, and because the inmates hands are handcuffed behind them, they can't take it off.

Police have used the mask to subdue a prisoner in court during an insanity hearing.

It's a grim reminder of the mask worn by Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and it has earned the 24-year-old accused killer the nickname "Hannibal Holmes."

Fox News is reporting that Holmes mailed a chilling and detailed plan for the shooting, illustrated with stick figures, to a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado. But it remained unopened in the mailroom for a week and was not discovered until after the massacre.