Dave Cullen: Columbine

CHAPTER 46. GUNS

Eric named his shotgun:Arlene was the heroine from the Doom books Eric enjoyed. He scratched the word into her barrel and referred to her by name in writings and on video.

Eric fit both categories:Millon, Simonsen, Davis, and Birket-Smith created the ten subcategories to sort out very different types of psychopaths, but they are not designed to be mutually exclusive; nor are they necessarily the drivers of behavior. Eric exhibited symptoms consistent with malevolent and tyrannical personalities, and Dr. Fuselier concurred that Eric appeared to be a cross between those two.

“I want to tear a throat out”:I edited this passage down. It went on much longer, and more viciously.

On January 20:The Diversion program files cite February 3 as the termination date, but that’s not an accurate reflection, particularly from the boys’ perspective. In both files, Kriegshauser documented meeting with them on January 20 to close their cases.

Eric was also working hard:Eric wrote about his efforts to “get laid” frequently during the final months.

CHAPTER 47. LAWSUITS

Mr. D told a magazine:He said it to me. I covered the events of this chapter extensively for Salon, and most of it was based on that reporting.

the Rohrboughs:For simplicity, I used “the Rohrboughs” periodically to denote both sides of Danny’s family, the Rohrboughs and Petrones.

gun-control legislation:In April 2000, a few bills were pending to allow concealed weapons in Colorado. Those were quickly defeated in the wake of the tragedy.

CHAPTER 48. AN EMOTION OF GOD

a big problem:Eric cited getting the bombs in as a major issue.

If only he had a little more cash:Eric expressed frustration about his limited funds and drew up budgets for his arsenal.

Dylan wrote a short story:Jeffco released the story, with Judy Kelly’s notes.

Three friends went with them:The boys videotaped quite a bit of the target practice, and Jeffco released the tape.

They made three target-practice trips:Manes told lead investigator Kate Battan they made three trips, but she could not determine whether they were before or after the videotaped trip.

Dylan leaked again:Zack told police his conversation with Dylan occurred in February. His memory might have been off slightly, or Dylan might have begun training earlier—with or without Manes.

Desperado: Robert Rodriguez directed the film. Tarantino appeared as an actor and is closely associated with Rodriguez.

CHAPTER 49. READY TO BE DONE

Most of the Parents Group attended:The scenes at the opening of the atrium came from my observations.

Jeffco was forced to cough up:I followed the slow release of the information over several years and examined most items as they came out, but I did not write about these events at the time. Westword and the Rocky did an excellent job covering the slow trickle, and I relied on their work. I considered the reports from the Colorado attorney general and the grand jury definitive.

the affidavit to search Eric’s house:After months of silence, the DA responded to a written request from the Browns. His response letter alluded to Guerra’s affidavit, which for two years his agency had insisted did not exist. Randy and Judy couldn’t believe it. They took it to CBS, and 60 Minutes cornered Thomas. Judge Jackson demanded to see it—it had been withheld from him as well.

The affidavit was more damning:Guerra was exceptionally convincing. He demonstrated motive, means, and opportunity. From a threat-assessment perspective, the specificity of Eric’s attack raised it to high risk. The details regarding the weaponry increased it further. The capstone, though, came in connecting Eric’s plans to physical evidence. The affidavit described the pipe bomb found near Eric’s home and stated twice that it matched his descriptions of “Atlanta” and “Pholus.”

“Based on the aforementioned information your affiant respectfully requests the court issue a search warrant for the residence,” Guerra’s affidavit concluded. The police would have found a great deal. Eric had made quite a few bombs by that time. The former chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, who had chaired a commission set up by the governor to investigate Columbine, eventually weighed in. He chided Jeffco for missing a “massive” number of clues. The massacre could have been prevented, he concluded. He lamented the perimeter response; if the SWAT team had stormed the building, he said, several lives could have been saved.

The affidavit also revealed that Division Chief Kiekbusch had told at least three whopping lies at the press conference ten days after Columbine: that the Browns had not met with Investigator Hicks, that the department couldn’t find bombs like those in Eric’s Web descriptions, and that it had been unable to locate his Web postings. The affidavit contradicted all three, and Kiekbusch had to have been familiar with it, since he had just attended the Open Space meeting with one topic: how to suppress it.

Jeffco responded with new lies. It issued a press release claiming it had disclosed the affidavit’s existence a few days after Columbine—at the very time commanders were meeting to plot how to hide it. All the local media called Jeffco on the lie.

“It’s amazing how long”:Sue Klebold recalled this exchange to David Brooks in 2004. He reported it in his New York Times column.

The FBI and Secret Service:The FBI released its report, The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective, in 2000. Two years later, the Secret Service and the Department of Education teamed up for a broader analysis: The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative. Both reports were excellent, and I relied on them extensively. I also used news accounts to document foiled copycats in other cities. I interviewed school administrators, students, and mental health experts about zero tolerance policies.

two biggest myths:The Secret Service studied every targeted attack at schools from December 1974 to May 2000. There had been forty-one attackers in thirty-seven incidents. Disciplinary history and academic performance also varied widely. The loner myth was perhaps the single biggest misconception. Some of the attackers were loners; two-thirds were not.

they “snapped”:“Nonviolent people do not ‘snap’ or decide on the spur of the moment to meet a problem by using violence,” the FBI report said. Planning ranged from a day or two in advance to over a year.

in video games:Only an eighth were fond of violent video games. A larger group—about a third—exhibited violence in their own written assignments or journals.

Most perps shared:In many cases, bullying may have played a role: 71 percent of attackers had experienced persecution, bullying, threats, or injury. Initially that sounds dramatic, but the study did not address how many nonattackers suffer that sort of experience; it’s pretty commonplace for a high school kid. Several of the shooters experienced severe or long-term bullying, though, and in some cases, it seemed to be a factor in the decision to attack.

suffered a loss or failure:Loss came in different forms: 66 percent had suffered a drop in status; 51 percent had experienced an external loss, which included the death of a loved one but was more commonly being dumped by a girlfriend. The key was that the attacker perceived it as significant and felt his status drop.