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Hi all,
I’m reading “Columbine” by Dave Cullen, an excellent account of that tragedy in ’98.. I’m not sure if this thread will be worth anything but I’ve noticed some strange parallels that I find compelling. I’ll list a few points:
1) The leader was a textbook psychopath, the follower a depressive suicidal; together they formed a lethal dyad.
2) Some upper level officials were informed of a search warrant that was issued on the young psychopath a year or more before the tragedy – they never served it – the sheriff’s office was also alerted as many as 15 times by one family accusing the young man of criminal behavior – this was also ignored. After the event, investigating cops and detectives were unaware of the above and the informed officials denied any knowledge to the media, Feds etc. They had a CYA meeting where silence was agreed upon.
3) The media disseminated reams of nonsense due to some misunderstandings; stuff about the trench coat mafia, targeting of jocks and other bullies etc. A feedback loop - with students who heard and then repeated - solidified the nonsense in the public conscious.
4) Eyewitness accounts were extremely unreliable, in most cases due to reasonable mistakes; i.e., the boys wore trench coats which were later discarded creating in some minds many shooters, the ricocheting of bullets in an echoing schoolhouse made shooters seem close by when in fact they weren’t, a maintenance man on the roof dressed in black was mistaken for a shooter etc..
Obviously the above says much about the media, eyewitnesses and upper level official behavior in a crisis. These are our sources in the 123 year old JTR case…………Hmmmmm
On a related note: The psychopath (Eric Harris) and the depressive (Dylan Klebold) planned their attack to an amazing degree, especially Eric. It’s extremely fortuitous that he didn’t understand electrical wiring in bombs or the death toll would have been in the hundreds or beyond. Both boys were highly intelligent.
In the Virginia Tech shooting it appears the murderer was schizophrenic. He was 23 years old. He also planned his rampage with a fair degree of diligence. There was indeed some organization!
I expect the parallels with some of our discussions are obvious. I’m not exactly sure what my point is other than to generate some feedback on how the above affects our analysis of this ice cold case…
Greg
I’m reading “Columbine” by Dave Cullen, an excellent account of that tragedy in ’98.. I’m not sure if this thread will be worth anything but I’ve noticed some strange parallels that I find compelling. I’ll list a few points:
1) The leader was a textbook psychopath, the follower a depressive suicidal; together they formed a lethal dyad.
2) Some upper level officials were informed of a search warrant that was issued on the young psychopath a year or more before the tragedy – they never served it – the sheriff’s office was also alerted as many as 15 times by one family accusing the young man of criminal behavior – this was also ignored. After the event, investigating cops and detectives were unaware of the above and the informed officials denied any knowledge to the media, Feds etc. They had a CYA meeting where silence was agreed upon.
3) The media disseminated reams of nonsense due to some misunderstandings; stuff about the trench coat mafia, targeting of jocks and other bullies etc. A feedback loop - with students who heard and then repeated - solidified the nonsense in the public conscious.
4) Eyewitness accounts were extremely unreliable, in most cases due to reasonable mistakes; i.e., the boys wore trench coats which were later discarded creating in some minds many shooters, the ricocheting of bullets in an echoing schoolhouse made shooters seem close by when in fact they weren’t, a maintenance man on the roof dressed in black was mistaken for a shooter etc..
Obviously the above says much about the media, eyewitnesses and upper level official behavior in a crisis. These are our sources in the 123 year old JTR case…………Hmmmmm
On a related note: The psychopath (Eric Harris) and the depressive (Dylan Klebold) planned their attack to an amazing degree, especially Eric. It’s extremely fortuitous that he didn’t understand electrical wiring in bombs or the death toll would have been in the hundreds or beyond. Both boys were highly intelligent.
In the Virginia Tech shooting it appears the murderer was schizophrenic. He was 23 years old. He also planned his rampage with a fair degree of diligence. There was indeed some organization!
I expect the parallels with some of our discussions are obvious. I’m not exactly sure what my point is other than to generate some feedback on how the above affects our analysis of this ice cold case…
Greg
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