Dave Cullen: Columbine

The family backgrounds of psychopaths turn out to be surprisingly consistent with those of the overall prison population. In both cases, the incidence of significant family problems is high. With nonpsychopathic criminals, a troubled youth correlates closely with the age and seriousness of the first offense. Those with family trouble appear in court by age fifteen, on average. Those without show up nearly a decade later, at twenty-four. Psychopaths arrive earliest of all—at fourteen, on average—and their family background shows no effect on that number whatsoever. But the home life has a huge impact on the type of crime committed by psychopaths. Those from unstable upbringings are far more likely to be violent. In the rest of the prison population, a troubled home seems to drive criminals toward earlier and more serious offenses, but not violence.

screening device for juveniles:It is called the PCL:YV, for “Youth Version.”

stated desire for a career in the Marines:In March 1998, Eric answered the “Career Goals” question on his Diversion questionnaire with “Marine or computer science.”

Dr. Kiehl repeated:Summaries of Dr. Kiehl’s work were based on his published work, as well as phone and e-mail correspondence with me and my researcher.

therapy often makes it worse:This is a widely recognized conclusion. Many studies have confirmed it. One found that convicted psychopaths who took part in therapeutic programs were four times more likely to commit violent crimes than those who did not.

CHAPTER 41. THE PARENTS GROUP

the FBI organized a major summit:Scenes from the Leesburg summit were described to me by several participants. Quotes were based on their recollections.

Several of the experts continued:Several continued studying Columbine. Drs. Fuselier, Ochberg, and Hare agreed to several interviews for this book and were of great assistance. Others requested anonymity but continued conferring behind the scenes and provided valuable insights not attributed to any individual.

The Bureau firmly prohibited:All agents were forbidden from speaking about the case, including those at headquarters, such as Mary Ellen O’Toole, who organized the Leesburg summit. All journalists, including me, were rebuffed repeatedly; 60 Minutes sued for information and lost. An exception was made for Agent Fuselier to participate with Jeffco officers in the Rocky ’s “Inside the Columbine Investigation” series—discussing his role in the investigation, but not his conclusions.

Jeffco commanders were lying:After several years of withholding, Jeffco released documents that proved commanders had been lying on several counts—including repeated denials about possessing the documents.

Investigator Mike Guerra noticed:The actions of Guerra, Kiekbusch, and Searle came from the grand jury report. Guerra described his actions. Searle described actions by her and by Kiekbusch.

Anne Marie Hochhalter:Her progress was drawn from news accounts, particularly Bartels’ “A Story of Healing and Hope.”

Students reached the opposite consensus:The depiction of diverging attitudes among students and parents that spring and summer were based primarily on my numerous interviews and trips to the area at the time and interviews I conducted years later. I also pored over news coverage from the period.

Brian Fuselier was heading:The description of Brian’s reactions that summer initially came from my interviews with both his parents; I confirmed them with him several years later.

It was an emotional day:I spent much of the day outside the school, interviewing students coming and going, and observing.

“This is not about money!”:The description of the Shoelses’ press conference was based on my observations.

CHAPTER 42. DIVERSION

their junior yearbooks:Scans of the yearbook pages were released by Jeffco.

Eric launched a new charm offensive:Diversion counselors documented each meeting—roughly two a month—which provided a more detailed record of the boys’ activity for the last year. Both boys had also acquired day planners by this time, though Dylan used his more.

His grades dropped briefly:The school released grade reports indicating progress within each semester. For Diversion, the boys were also required to have teachers fill out monthly progress reports, with grade projections and comments.

write apology letters:Jeffco released Eric’s letter.

Then he quit:Months later, Eric would resume using the planner, documenting much of his daily existence. Dylan filled in his planner as well. Jeffco released scans of the full contents of both.

Dr. Albert switched him:Eric’s medications and his responses to them were recorded in his Diversion file. He had completed the switch from Zoloft to Luvox by May 14, 1998.

They got to make movies:Jeffco released many of their videos other than the Basement Tapes. The depictions here were based on my viewing.

Eric was gobbling up literature:Eric kept many of his school assignments, including papers on all the items cited in this chapter. I reviewed them all.

CHAPTER 43. WHO OWNS THE TRAGEDY

There is a house, outside of Laramie:Linda described their retirement plans, including the house, in an interview with me.

Columbine was set to reopen:I attended the Media Summit and the Take Back the School rally. Only pool reporters were permitted inside the human shield at the rally, so I relied on their briefings for that passage, as well as my later interviews with numerous people inside. I discussed objectives for the rally and the ideas behind it with several administrators responsible for designing it.

For one morning:I spent the morning in the Columbine commons, chatting with the kids as they painted their tiles.

CHAPTER 44. BOMBS ARE HARD

just before Halloween:From this point, Eric recorded the dates for all major milestones, as well as a slew of trivial ones. He also kept dated receipts for many of his purchases.

began assembling his arsenal.Eric let Nate watch him produce part of one batch. Nate described the process to police; their records served as the basis for my visual depiction.

CHAPTER 45. AFTERSHOCKS

Milestones were hard:I covered most of the events in this chapter for Salon and the bulk of the material was based on that reporting. (An exception was the football championship—I followed the team’s progress but did not attend the games.) Years later, I gathered hundreds of pages of news stories on the events and mined them for additional quotes, including those from the Graves and Hochhalter families. All news quotes are cited in the expanded Web version of this Notes section.

another publication broke the news:It was my story in Salon .

The magazine ran an expose: Time sent a team back to reinvestigate the tragedy and reexamined the entire case for that cover story. It did a great job, effectively correcting the major myths. But it did not cop to the correction. This was a grievous example of “rowback”—the term was resurrected in 2004 by New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent to critique Iraq War coverage; it’s rarely heard even within the industry, because it denotes such an ugly sin. Okrent cites journalism educator Melvin Mencher describing it as “a story that attempts to correct a previous story without indicating that the prior story had been in error or without taking responsibility for the error.” Okrent wrote that a more candid definition might be “a way that a newspaper can cover its butt without admitting it was ever exposed.”