Chapter 8
Patterns can be fascinating but tricky to interpret. They may identify crucial factors or simply be coincidences. For example, Robert Poulin, Wayne Lo, and Eric Harris all committed their attacks at age eighteen. All three had psychopathic personalities, and all had fathers who were retired air force pilots. What are the odds of this? Pushing the odds even further, Poulin and Harris both had chest deformities and were rejected by the military. In addition, Poulin and Lo had parents who were schoolteachers, Lo and Harris were disciplined by school administrators, and Poulin experienced academic failure. This microcosm of three shooters contains several patterns: family members in the military, rejection by the military, family members in education, school problems, and biological challenges. These patterns occur frequently enough in the lives of shooters to appear to be relevant pieces in understanding the puzzle of their actions.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BODY
For decades, researchers have studied the connection between biological problems and violent behavior. One study found that male murderers had more chronic illnesses and physical defects than their brothers who did not commit murder.[1] Multiple studies have linked birth complications and minor physical anomalies to violent behavior.[2] Researchers in Denmark found a correlation between low birth weight and childhood precursors of psychopathy.[3] The American Psychological Association’s recent report on gun violence noted the relevance of developmental factors such as “low birth weight, birth complications, and injuries.”[4] Interestingly, a surprising number of school shooters experienced biological challenges that may have affected their identities or added to their distress.
Besides medical problems, simply being short and weak can be devastating for males, particularly if they have other identity issues. Elliot Rodger (not covered in this book) wrote about himself at age nine, “I became extremely annoyed at how everyone was taller than me and how the tallest boys were automatically respected more. It instilled the first feelings of inferiority in me, and such feelings would only grow more volatile with time. I desperately wanted to get taller.”[5] Rodger’s desperation to grow was so great that he would lie on the ground “trying to stretch my body as much as I could.”[6] He also became painfully aware that he was weaker and less athletic than his peers: “This vexed me to no end.”[7] Throughout his life he felt inadequate as a male.
Table 8.1 lists the shooters and their medical problems or short statures (all of which were at or below the fifth percentile).
Among those shooters who fit solely into the psychopathic category, at least 75 percent (nine out of twelve) had body issues. Many of these physical characteristics had a direct bearing on perceived manliness, including short stature, thin build, chest deformity, and fear of sterility. In fact, this small sample contains two shooters with deformed chests and two with fears of sterility. What are the odds of this occurring? It certainly seems to be more than a coincidence. In fact, the high frequency of body issues among psychopathic shooters suggests a possible link between feeling weak or damaged and extreme narcissism. Maybe they overcompensated for their sense of inadequacy by seeking superiority via physical domination of others.
Yochelson and Samenow found that among criminal personalities “dissatisfaction with body build is exceedingly frequent. Even as strong, attractive youngsters, many regard themselves as weak and scrawny.”[8] If psychopaths with good physiques often feel weak and scrawny, what must it feel like to actually have a physical shortcoming?
Although masculinity was not a relevant concern for females Brenda Spencer and Laurie Dann, body issues may still have been significant to their identities. In Dann’s case, her “oversized nose and sailboat ears”[9] may have caused extreme self-consciousness. She was certainly aware of how small she was. Dann, whose maiden name was Wasserman, wrote a prophecy for her junior high yearbook; the prophecy simply said, “Laurie Wasserman grows.”[10]
In contrast, reports about Brenda Spencer give no indication that she suffered poor self-esteem. Perhaps what Yochelson and Samenow found among young males with criminal personalities was also true for
Spencer—she wanted to be powerful and had to compensate for being small.
Though body issues seem most common among psychopathic shooters, they also occurred among other shooters. As discussed in previous chapters, psychotic shooters often struggled with profound identity issues. Biological deficits presumably were just one more obstacle to developing a healthy sense of themselves. Traumatized shooters may have dealt with body-related issues due to physical, and sometimes sexual, abuse. Sexual abuse in particular can disrupt the relationship with one’s body. For males, molestation by a male also raises concerns about one’s sense of masculinity. Biological problems simply compounded their difficulties.
Knowing how hard it is for adolescents to feel good about their bodies, the challenges faced by many of the shooters may have resulted in severe self-consciousness, anguish, and the desire to prove their masculinity through violence.
MILITARY FAILURES
John Douglas, the FBI agent who made criminal profiling famous, noticed that many serial killers were either police buffs or had wanted to be police officers. Despite such aspirations, however, Douglas found that “Frequently serial killers had failed in their efforts to join police departments.”[11] Similarly, an article titled “The Sexually Sadistic Serial Killer” noted that 35 percent of the subjects in their study were interested in working in security or law enforcement.[12] Dr. Stanton Samenow observed a comparable trend among people with criminal personalities, stating that they “admire policemen and imagine themselves in badge and uniform.”[13]
Rather than failing to become police officers, many school shooters had thwarted military aspirations. In fact, approximately 50 percent of those who were old enough to enlist were rejected, discharged prematurely, or denied the opportunity to apply. Here is a brief summary:
· Charles Whitman joined the marines but was miserable there. His parents worked “tirelessly” for his early discharge, lobbying government officials to get him out.[14]
· Robert Poulin applied to an officer-training program but was rejected for being too immature.[15]
· Edward Allaway joined the marines but did not last long; he was dishonorably discharged.[16]
· Patrick Purdy had military aspirations but never applied, perhaps because of his many arrests.[17]
· Marc Lépine applied to the Canadian Army but was rejected as “unsuitable” or “asocial.”[18]
· Eric Houston wanted to join the army but failed to graduate high school and thus could not apply.[19]
· Jillian Robbins served in the army reserve but was discharged for failing to complete high school.[20]
· Eric Harris applied to the marines. Though he was rejected, his attack on Columbine High School reportedly occurred before he received the news.[21] Nonetheless, he may have suspected this would happen.
· Jason Hoffman was rejected by the navy and committed his attack less than twenty-four hours later.[22]
· Alvaro Castillo joined the national guard but hated it; after a suicide attempt he was able to obtain a discharge.[23]
· Kimveer Gill enrolled in a military-leadership course but dropped out—or was discharged—after a month.[24]
· Duane Morrison served in the navy for six months but was discharged after he went AWOL.[25]
· Pekka-Eric Auvinen’s military service was deferred due to mental health concerns.[26] It is not clear if he had military aspirations or if he was simply called up to serve. Regardless, this rejection may have been a significant blow to his identity.
· Steven Kazmierczak joined the army but was discharged after military personnel discovered he had lied about his history of psychiatric problems.[27]
· Matti Saari joined the military, but a military physician recommended that he be discharged, and Saari wanted to leave. He lasted less than two months.[28]
· Tim Kretschmer apparently did not want to join the military, even though service is essentially mandatory in Germany. Both he and his parents reported his depression to the army.[29] Though he may not have had thwarted military ambition, his inability or unwillingness to serve may have been a blow to his identity.
· Bruco Eastwood had military aspirations but no high school diploma; he studied for his GED for two years, but shortly before his attack he failed the test, preventing his enlisting.[30]
· Adam Lanza wanted to join the marines, but his mother talked him out of applying.[31]
Other shooters were also interested in the military. Robert Flores served and may have had a military rejection; when the army released his paperwork after his attack, his discharge status was blacked out.[32] Jeffrey Weise had military aspirations but committed his attack before he was old enough to serve. Wayne Lo was obsessed with the marines and had “USMC” (United States Marine Corps) shaved in his hair but never enlisted. Sebastian Bosse (a German shooter not covered in this book) was obsessed with the military, frequently wore combat gear, and “dreamt of an army career.”[33] Other shooters not included in this book also aspired to serve in the military or law enforcement but went on their rampages when they were too young to have done so. This includes Michael Slobodian, Nathaniel Brazill, Charles “Andy” Williams, Jose Reyes, and Jared Padgett.
Why were so many shooters focused on the military? Perhaps it was their attempt to establish themselves as men. Dr. Katherine Newman noted that school shooters often “failed at the very specific task of ‘manhood.’”[34] As discussed above, many perpetrators faced significant biological challenges to their identities. They may have sought to repair their sense of damaged masculinity through becoming soldiers. Their failure may have been devastating. The distress may have been particularly acute for those shooters whose relatives served successfully in the military. Perhaps they felt that they failed not only themselves but their families.
For example, Adam Lanza’s uncle had been a marine. Lanza looked up to him and aspired to follow in his footsteps, commenting, “I’m going to be just like Uncle Jim.”[35] Later, when he wanted to apply, his mother dissuaded him, saying he would “never be a marine.”[36] Lanza reportedly “took the news harder than even his mother expected.”[37] Nonetheless, “in the months leading up to the massacre, Lanza would dress himself up head to toe in a camouflage military uniform and target shoot with a pellet gun in his basement.”[38] The day of his attack, he dressed in military gear. Maybe for Lanza aspiring to the military equaled aspiring to manhood.
Jillian Robbins, the one female shooter who experienced a military rejection, reportedly idolized her father who was in the army reserves.[39] Perhaps she sought to follow in his footsteps. Though her failure had nothing to do with masculinity, it may have been a profound disappointment to her and her father.
Not only were many shooters drawn to the military, but many had relatives who served. At least sixteen out of the forty-eight shooters (33 percent) presented in this book had relatives in the armed services or law enforcement—another traditionally masculine profession that also involves firearms. Other shooters outside my sample also had family connections to these two professions. Even for those shooters who did not experience thwarted military aspirations, simply having relatives in the armed services may have presented them with role models for masculinity with whom they felt they could not compare. Alternatively, these professions might have represented the government or law and order, which some shooters may have rebelled against.
Table 8.2 presents the shooters with relatives in the military or law enforcement.
Not only did many shooters grow up with relatives who were trained in firearm use, but two interesting patterns exist relating to firearms within their families. At least 92 percent of the psychopathic shooters (not counting those who were also psychotic) came from families where firearms had a prominent place and were used appropriately, whether in the military, law enforcement, hunting, or target shooting. Conversely, at least 58 percent of traumatized shooters had older male relatives who engaged in the misuse of firearms (67 percent, if Eric Houston’s uncle used a firearm when he killed three men). Misuse included armed robbery, shooting pets, threatening people with guns, and possibly murder. The psychopathic shooters rejected the morality of their parents, defiantly going against their upbringing in the appropriate use of guns. In contrast, the traumatized shooters followed in their family members’ footsteps by misusing firearms.
Unlike the psychopathic and traumatized perpetrators, few psychotic shooters grew up in families where firearms had a prominent place. Those who did were college or aberrant adult shooters; no psychotic secondary school shooter grew up with parents in the military, in law enforcement, or otherwise significantly involved with guns.
EDUCATIONAL FAILURES
An oft-repeated misconception is that school shooters commit their crimes in retaliation for bullying. In reality, though approximately 40 percent of shooters were harassed, only one out of forty-eight perpetrators targeted a bully. In contrast, at least sixteen shooters targeted teachers or administrators. In fact, school personnel were targeted more than any other category of victim. This suggests that many shooters were driven by rage regarding failures or conflicts at school. (See chapter 10 for data on bullying and targeted victims.)
In fact, nearly all shooters had bad educational experiences, including academic difficulties (failing classes, repeating grades, not graduating) or disciplinary problems (detention, suspension, expulsion, etc.). Whereas 40 percent of shooters were bullied, at least 92 percent had negative academic or disciplinary experiences. These experiences often appear to have determined whom they targeted. For example, multiple shooters who were disciplined apparently targeted, or contemplated targeting, those in authority:
· Wayne Lo was fined for a disciplinary infraction related to his college residence; he threatened to kill residential staff.
· Michael Carneal had five disciplinary infractions in the three months before his attack; he talked about shooting school administrators.
· Michael Slobodian (a Canadian shooter not included in my sample) intended to kill two teachers who called his mother to complain about his skipping class; one he did not find, but he killed the other.[40]
· Evan Ramsey had seventeen disciplinary infractions in the year and a half before his attack; he killed the principal.
· Jason Hoffman sought revenge against the dean of his school, perhaps due to disciplinary actions, failure to graduate, or other concerns. He found the dean and said, “I’ve got you”; he fired at him but missed.
· Eric Hainstock had both in-school and out-of-school suspensions shortly before his attack; he killed the principal.
· Robert Butler Jr. (not covered in this book) was suspended following an arrest on school grounds. A few hours after his suspension, he returned to his school and shot the principal and vice principal.
· When Nathaniel Brazill (not covered in this book) was suspended on the last day of school, he intended to shoot the guidance counselor he held responsible; he returned to the school the same day, but before he found the guidance counselor, he shot a teacher who refused to let him into a classroom to talk to a girl he had a crush on.
Similarly, shooters with academic failures targeted those they held responsible:
· Gang Lu did not win the prize for best dissertation; he shot the student who won, as well as others he blamed.
· Robert Flores murdered two professors who failed him and a third with whom he had a conflict.
· Eric Houston killed the teacher who failed him in a class, which had prevented him from graduating.
· Gary Scott Pennington killed a teacher who gave him an unacceptably low grade on a midterm.
· Phu Cuong Ta (not covered in this book) shot “two faculty members because he was angry over his grades.”[41]
· Asa Coon shot the teacher whose class he was in danger of failing.
· Robert Steinhäuser was angry with both faculty and administrators; the faculty for repeated academic failures, including twice failing twelfth grade, and administrators for expelling him for forging a physician’s note. He killed twelve teachers and a vice principal.
In a different scenario, Marc Lépine had a long history of educational failures, with his last failure apparently determining the location of his attack. He first failed two classes at St. Laurent Junior College and dropped out of the program. He then enrolled in two summer classes but dropped them before they started. He subsequently took computer courses but left the program before completing a degree. He applied to École Polytechnique in 1987 and 1989 and was rejected both times. Later in 1989, he attacked the school.
Not only was there a widespread pattern of educational failure and conflicts among shooters, but many had family members involved in education. At least 38 percent of shooters had relatives who worked or volunteered in schools. Educational failures may have been particularly painful for these shooters. Having parents who were teachers or professors may have exacerbated the students’ shame and caused greater conflict with their parents.
In fact, some perpetrators’ choices of venue for their attacks may have been related to their parents’ vocations. For example, Jillian Robbins’s mother and stepfather worked in higher education. Robbins dropped out of high school and argued with her mother, who wanted her to continue her education.[42] Though Robbins never attended Penn State, she attacked the main campus. Why? Perhaps because this was where her mother had studied and worked. It was also where students were doing what her mother wanted her to do—moving ahead with their educations.
Similarly, Kimveer Gill’s father had been a college professor. Gill’s failure to go beyond one semester of college created conflict in the family, with his parents reportedly pressuring him to continue with his education. It is also interesting that Gill’s mother had taken courses at Vanier College, the same college that Gill dropped out of after one semester. Perhaps her success there exacerbated his sense of failure. In fact, Gill had considered Vanier as the site for his rampage.[43] For unknown reasons, he stormed a random college. He gunned down strangers at the same kind of institution where his father had worked, his mother succeeded, and students were doing what his parents wanted him to do—continuing their education.
It would not have occurred to me to include Marc Lépine’s mother in this section because she did not work in higher education, but she herself made the connection. She wondered if her son’s rage against feminists was at some level really rage against her. “I asked myself if it wasn’t directed at me,” she said. “Maybe I’d be considered a feminist—I earned a living, I had a paying job.”[44] Lépine’s mother had been a female university student and he targeted female university students. Even if his hostility toward feminists was not related to his mother, her academic success may have magnified his sense of failure in higher education.
Laurie Dann’s educational failures are of particular interest. She aspired to teach elementary school but flunked classes and dropped out of four universities, failing miserably in her pursuit of a teaching career. The fact that her sister-in-law succeeded as a schoolteacher may have made Dann’s failure even more damaging. In fact, Dann “admitted on several occasions that she felt badly outclassed by other women in her husband’s life.”[45] Notably, on the day of her rampage, she not only shot elementary-school students but also tried to burn down two elementary schools—the very type of school where she had aspired to teach. Perhaps she was trying to obliterate symbols of her failure.
One of the most disturbing aspects of rampage attacks is the murder of family members. Such deaths are hard to fathom because, with the exception of Alvaro Castillo’s father, none of the relatives killed had been abusive. Is there any pattern among these cases? The only consistency I’ve found is that of the six shooters who killed family members, five of them (83 percent) killed relatives involved in education. (The sixth shooter who killed relatives—Jeffrey Weise—murdered his grandfather, a police officer.)
Kip Kinkel was the only shooter who killed both his parents. Both parents were schoolteachers, and his father had taught at the school where Kinkel committed his rampage.[46] Kinkel, who was dyslexic and had repeated first grade, had a highly conflicted relationship with his father, reportedly driven at least in part by Kinkel’s failure to perform academically to his father’s expectations. Is it significant that the only perpetrator who murdered both of his parents had parents who were both teachers? How much did his failure to live up to their academic standards play into Kinkel’s rage?
Luke Woodham, like Kinkel, killed his mother. Also like Kinkel, Woodham repeated a grade—ninth. In addition, he had multiple suspensions in sixth and seventh grades. Though Woodham’s mother was not teaching at the time of the attack, she had worked as a substitute when Woodham was younger.[47] As a trained teacher, she presumably valued academic success, making Woodham’s academic and behavioral issues particularly distressing for him and frustrating for her. Interestingly, Grant Boyette, the boy who commanded Woodham to murder his mother and commit a school shooting, also had a mother who was a teacher.[48]
Charles Whitman’s wife was an excellent student who quickly established herself as a teacher.[49] He, meanwhile, floundered academically, lost his military scholarship for failing to keep up his grades, and drifted from one course of study to another without completing a degree. He beat his wife and eventually killed her. Why? Perhaps her success in education highlighted his educational failures, feeding his sense of inadequacy. His biographer commented, Whitman “may have interpreted her success in teaching as a blow to his ego.”[50]
Adam Lanza’s mother was involved in education in two ways. First, she had volunteered at Sandy Hook Elementary School while he was a student there;[51] it has been hypothesized that Lanza was jealous of the attention she gave to other students.[52] She later homeschooled Lanza during his adolescence. Perhaps supervising his education created friction between them. Was her death related to her roles in education? Furthermore, Lanza’s grandmother worked in an elementary school, his father taught at two universities, and his stepmother was a university librarian. Lanza failed to graduate from high school, a college, and a university.[53] Perhaps the prominence of education in his family magnified his sense of failure.
Alvaro Castillo killed his father who was a custodian in a public school.[54] In this case, the father’s workplace may not have been a factor. First, there is no evidence that Castillo had major academic failures. Second, though his father worked in a school, he was a custodian, not a teacher, which may have resulted in different dynamics (though he allegedly put great pressure on his children to succeed academically). Furthermore, Castillo reportedly killed his father in response to his violent behavior.
Finally, though Robert Poulin did not kill his parents, he contemplated doing so.[55] His father was a high school teacher, his mother a lunchroom supervisor. The reason for his animosity is unknown. Academic performance was a concern, however, and one diary entry about being depressed began, “Today is April 7, 1975. I think I just flunked my first test.”[56] His parents reported that he was very concerned about his grades because he wanted to get into officer training. They commented that he was “very upset that he didn’t get 100 percent”[57] in all his courses. Educational failure appears to have been a factor in his attack; whether his parents’ involvement in education played a role remains unknown.
We cannot know for sure why the perpetrators killed members of their own families. The impact of academic failures in families where education had a prominent presence, however, may have been one out of many factors.
Beyond those who killed relatives, nearly all shooters had negative academic or disciplinary experiences, and many of them had family members involved in education. Though having a relative who worked in a school may not have been relevant in every case, the pattern seems noteworthy. Table 8.3 lists the shooters with known family connections to education.
OCCUPATIONAL FAILURES
Many shooters had trouble getting or holding jobs. This includes most of the adults in the sample—Charles Whitman, Edward Allaway, Patrick Purdy, Laurie Dann, Marc Lépine, Thomas Hamilton, Biswanath Halder, Kimveer Gill, Steven Kazmierczak, Jiverly Wong, and One Goh. Here are a few examples of major occupational setbacks as well as repeated, smaller failures:
· Gang Lu had a PhD from a prestigious physics program but failed to get hired as a professor despite sending out hundreds of letters.
· Amy Bishop was let go from a position in Boston and failed to get tenure at the University of Alabama.
· Valery Fabrikant failed to get tenure.
· Besides his failed military career, Charles Whitman worked briefly as a bill collector, bank teller, NASA assistant, insurance agent, and real estate broker who never sold a single property.[58]
· By the time Patrick Purdy was twenty-four, he had quit or been fired from at least twenty-one jobs.[59]
· Laurie Dann’s “inattentiveness, lack of motivation, and other emerging peculiarities made it impossible for her to keep a steady job.”[60] She was fired from Kmart, a hospital, two receptionist positions, and a restaurant. She had also been “fired” as a babysitter by many families.
· Steven Kazmierczak was fired after two months at his first retail job, was fired from Walgreen’s after a month, was fired from another job after a month, quit his job at UPS, and was fired from Kmart after a few weeks.[61] In addition, he had five other jobs that did not last long.[62]
These failures may have been blows to both the shooters’ identities and financial stability, adding to their depression, desperation, and rage.
ROMANTIC FAILURES
Most shooters either failed to establish any romantic or sexual relationships or else suffered breakups or rejections that contributed to their anguish and anger. These failures were often devastating. Even among the ten shooters who managed to get married, only two appear to have had stable relationships—Valery Fabrikant and Amy Bishop. The others’ relationships ended in separation, divorce, or, in the case of Charles Whitman, domestic violence that brought them to the verge of separation.
Many shooters engaged in violence against intimate partners, those they desired relationships with, romantic rivals, or members of the opposite sex in general.
· Charles Whitman beat and eventually murdered his wife.
· Robert Poulin raped and killed a girl he had a crush on who was dating someone else.
· Laurie Dann stabbed her ex-husband.
· Marc Lépine struggled with relationships and targeted women in his attack.
· Barry Loukaitis killed the boy who was dating the girl he had a crush on.
· Luke Woodham killed his ex-girlfriend.
· Andrew Golden shot a girl who broke up with him.
· Mitchell Johnson shot a girl who broke up with him.
· Michael Carneal shot a girl he had a crush on and a girl who rejected him.
· Robert Flores reportedly beat his wife, who then took their two children and left him.
· Peter Odighizuwa assaulted his wife; she left him, taking their four children.
· Tim Kretschmer appeared to target women in his attack; one of the first victims was a woman who had recently rejected him.
· Wellington de Oliveira reportedly targeted girls in his attack.
· T. J. Lane killed the boy who was dating his ex-girlfriend.
· Elliot Rodger’s attack (not covered in this book) was motivated by hatred for women. In his last video, he said, “I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it. . . . If I can’t have you, girls, I will destroy you.”[63]
Multiple shooters suffered breakups or rejections shortly before their attacks—Eric Houston, Gary Scott Pennington, Jamie Rouse, Jillian Robbins, Evan Ramsey, and Eric Harris. Other perpetrators, such as Kip Kinkel and Dylan Klebold, were consumed with anguish over their inability to have a girlfriend. For most shooters, intimacy was one more domain in which they failed.
FREQUENT AND SIGNIFICANT RELOCATIONS
Traumatized shooters often experienced frequent relocations. Such disruptions can cause significant stress, creating a sense of instability and anxiety about what the future will bring. These individuals faced repeated challenges to making friends and establishing themselves among their peers. This was true of the following traumatized shooters: Eric Houston, Gary Scott Pennington, Evan Ramsey, Mitchell Johnson, Jeffrey Weise, Eric Hainstock, T. J. Lane, and Patrick Purdy. They, however, were not the only perpetrators to experience relocations. For example:
· Charles Whitman’s family moved eight times in his first six years, and he relocated frequently as an adult.
· Eric Harris moved several times due to his father’s military career.
· Matti Saari’s family moved twelve times, resulting in six changes of schools within nine years.
· Marc Lépine’s family moved fifteen times, including stints in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, where he did not know the language.
Several shooters were immigrants who may not have had frequent relocations but were faced with the significant challenge of adapting to life in a foreign country. This includes Gang Lu, Valery Fabrikant, Wayne Lo, Peter Odighizuwa, Biswanath Halder, Jiverly Wong, Seung Hui Cho, and One Goh. Even after arrival in this country, there were often additional relocations.
The challenges of relocating, whether several smaller moves or the one major move of immigration, may have contributed to the perpetrators’ stress.
PSYCHOTIC SHOOTERS: SIBLING RIVALRY
Many psychotic shooters were the youngest children in their families and grew up in the shadows of higher-functioning siblings. In almost every case where there was a family history of severe mental illness, only the shooters were affected. Their brothers or sisters were untouched by psychological disturbances. This caused significant sibling rivalry.
· Luke Woodham resented his older brother, who was higher functioning and “Mr. Popular.”
· Andrew Wurst’s older brothers were typical kids; Wurst was the misfit in his family.
· Michael Carneal’s older sister, Kelly, was talented, academically successful, and socially popular; she was everything Carneal wasn’t.
· Kip Kinkel’s older sister was a pretty, popular, successful young woman, while Kinkel was immature and psychologically troubled.
· Dylan Klebold complained that his older brother was popular and athletic and always “ripped” on him.
· Seung Hui Cho’s older sister was highly successful; she graduated from Princeton and was hired by the State Department. Cho went to a less-prestigious university and was incapable of functioning socially.
· Laurie Dann’s older brother was athletic, academically capable, and successful in his career: “Laurie always envied and admired her brother.”[64]
· Adam Lanza left no record of envy toward his older brother, Ryan, but “unlike Adam, Ryan was socially well adjusted, one of the popular kids at Newtown High.”[65] Two years before Lanza’s rampage, he broke off contact with his brother, suggesting some level of hostility.
· Marc Lépine was plagued by his younger sister, who emotionally terrorized him. He was so full of rage toward her that he made a mock grave and tombstone with her name on it.[66]
· Steven Kazmierczak’s older sister was psychologically stable and an outstanding student. She completed her graduate degree at the University of Illinois—the same university Kazmierczak was attending when he went on his rampage. Their relationship was so conflicted that after his attack, his sister was surprised he had not murdered her instead of students he didn’t know. When Kazmierczak was in eighth grade, he was once so angry with her that he chased her out of the house with a knife.[67]
· Amy Bishop killed her brother. If this was deliberate, then it constitutes the most extreme case of sibling rivalry among school shooters.
All of the shooters just listed were psychotic. Sibling envy was not an issue for the psychopathic or traumatized shooters. Many psychotic shooters, however, were not only social misfits but misfits in their own families as well. Not measuring up to their siblings, not fitting in at home or school, and disappointing their parents contributed to their insecurity, identity issues, and rage.
OTHER POSSIBLE FACTORS
Three other factors deserve a brief mention. First, at least half of the perpetrators engaged in substance abuse (illegal drugs, prescription drugs, or alcohol). What role, if any, this played in their attacks is unknown. No shooters in the sample were drunk or high during their attacks. Their substance use, however, may have impaired their judgment, added to their distress, contributed to their academic, occupational, or relationship difficulties, or exacerbated their psychotic symptoms.
A second factor is that at least 42 percent of the shooters had a history of legal troubles, including arrests, contempt of court, and loss of a driver’s license. The psychological impact of being arrested, taken to the police station, and being brought before a judge should not be underestimated. These events may have been humiliating, resulted in feeling like a failure, or spurred resentment and outrage toward the police or society in general. How the shooters responded depended on who they were.
· In the marines, Charles Whitman was court martialed, reduced from corporal to private, and sentenced to thirty days’ confinement and ninety days’ hard labor. This not only caused him to hate the marines but affected his relationship with his wife. Whitman wrote, she “seems pretty disgusted with me.”[68]
· Jiverly Wong’s multiple arrests apparently led to paranoid delusions about police. He wrote bizarre allegations in his suicide note about how police harassed and mistreated him. Because Wong wore body armor in his attack, the chief of police in Binghamton concluded that Wong “was going to take the police on”;[69] Wong apparently changed his mind and killed himself.
· Jamie Rouse lost his driver’s license due to multiple traffic violations. Three days before his attack he had a fender bender, panicked about losing his license again, and felt like killing the woman who confronted him about the incident. His parents “remember Jamie saying there was no use living if he could not drive.”[70]
· Eric Harris identified his arrest as the most embarrassing experience of his life and said “cops” were the “one person” he hated the most.[71] He fantasized about killing cops and tried to do so during his attack.
Interestingly, two attacks may have been triggered by impending court appearances. Valery Fabrikant committed his attack the day before his hearing for contempt of court. Similarly, Sebastian Bosse (not covered in this book) went on his rampage the day before appearing in court for illegal possession of a firearm. Both perpetrators had contemplated violence for a long time, but the prospect of being in court may have pushed them to action.
The third possible factor motivating a shooter to attack is the loss of loved ones. Many traumatized shooters, for example, lost one or both parents to prison, death, disability, or abandonment. Others shooters lost their spouses, and sometimes children, to separation or divorce. Beyond this, several shooters experienced one or more significant deaths:
· Several classmates of Alvaro Castillo had been killed in a car accident a couple of months before his attack.
· Matti Saari’s brother died of a congenital disease; several friends of his had been killed in a car accident a few months before his attack.
· Steven Kazmierczak’s mother had died less than a year and a half before his attack.
· Within three years of his attack, Wellington de Oliveira had lost both his adoptive parents.
· One Goh’s mother had died and his brother had been killed in a car accident within approximately a year of his attack.
Such losses, particularly for those who were psychotic (as were all the shooters listed above), may have been overwhelming. For instance, Wellington de Oliveira barely functioned throughout his life and reportedly became more reclusive and strange following his adoptive mother’s death, going on his rampage eight months later. The psychologist who conducted a posthumous evaluation of Steven Kazmierczak concluded that his mother’s death precipitated “an unstoppable, downward slide that would carry him to even greater depths of despair than he had experienced in his worst times as an adolescent.”[72]
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Many shooters found support for committing their attacks in a variety of external sources. These included their peers, violent media, and real-life role models or ideologies. Though it is not possible to quantify or prove the significance of these factors, the evidence suggests that in many cases external influences contributed to the shooters’ decisions to commit their attacks.
Peer Support
When people talk about peer influence on school shootings, they generally mean bullying. There has been little focus on the supportive role played by the shooters’ friends. In many cases, however, peers supported the violent intentions of shooters. Without such support, it seems likely that some attacks would not have occurred. Interestingly, peer support appears to have been most relevant among secondary school shooters, while few college and aberrant adult shooters shared their plans with friends. Perhaps the older shooters did not require encouragement, or perhaps they were more careful not to leak their intentions.
The most direct type of peer influence occurred when one person convinced another to join him in an attack—as with Golden and Johnson and again with Harris and Klebold. Grant Boyette exercised another kind of direct influence by bombarding Luke Woodham with commands to kill his mother and his ex-girlfriend. Similarly, two friends talked Evan Ramsey into committing his attack.
Many other shooters received indirect support for their rampages. They often shared their plans with friends and may have interpreted their friends’ silence or lack of protest as tacit approval. As noted by Dr. Marisa Reddy, “some people, if they’ve threatened and there’s no response, they may take that as permission to move forward with a plan.”[73]
Ideologies and Role Models
Many shooters were attracted to ideologies of power and role models for violence. Ideologies such as Nazism, Satanism, or black magic (casting spells with an intent to hurt people) confer a sense of power that is highly appealing to people who feel weak and helpless. Luke Woodham said of his involvement in black magic, “One second I was some kind of heart-broken idiot, and the next second I had power over many things.”[74] Those drawn to Nazi ideology included Marc Lépine, Luke Woodham, Andrew Wurst, Eric Harris, Jeffrey Weise, Kimveer Gill, and Steven Kazmierczak. Several shooters were drawn to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, including Luke Woodham, Eric Harris, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, and Steven Kazmierczak. (For a discussion of Nietzsche’s appeal to Eric Harris, and potentially other shooters, see my article “Influences on the Ideology of Eric Harris,” 2008, http://www.schoolshooters.info.)
In addition to latching onto ideologies that provided a framework to support their fragile identities, many shooters also had specific role models for violence, including serial killers, mass murderers, and other school shooters. It is noteworthy that most of the shooters with role models or ideologies were psychotic (82 percent). In general, the psychopathic and traumatized shooters carried out their attacks as independent acts, not in imitation of other killers.
Similarly, the shooters who viewed their attacks as global rather than local events were usually psychotic. Seung Hui Cho wrote about his attack triggering a massive social revolution, and Pekka-Eric Auvinen envisioned that his rampage would lead to the toppling of totalitarian regimes. Biswanath Halder believed his attack had “saved mankind.” Eric Harris was the only nonpsychotic shooter who conceived of his rampage as having global significance.
In general, psychopathic shooters felt no need to attach themselves to a source of power; they were the source of power. They did not give their attacks any global significance—theirs were local acts done for personal reasons. Psychotic shooters, in contrast, often sought out ideologies and role models, looking for sources of power they could connect with to bolster their unstable identities—sometimes entertaining a delusion that shooting people at school would cause a positive transformation of the world.
Media Violence
Though there is no evidence that media violence—by itself—causes school shootings, there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that some school shooters were influenced by violent video games, films, or books. This doesn’t mean that media violence caused their rampage attacks, but it may have been one of many factors that shaped the behavior of the shooters. Here are several examples:
· Jamie Rouse cited the film Natural Born Killers as an influence, commenting, “It made killing look easy and fun . . . it fascinated me.”[75]
· Eric Houston was fascinated by the movie The Terminator, watching it twenty-three times, including the night before his attack.[76]
· One of Jeffrey Weise’s favorite films was Elephant, which is about a school shooting. He liked to fast-forward to scenes of the attack, and he watched the movie with friends shortly before his own rampage.
· Kimveer Gill apparently identified with “Postal Dude” and wanted the game Postal to become “so realistic that it looks and feels like it’s actually happening.” Perhaps he sought to make the game real by going on a rampage.
· Gang Lu’s letter to the world cited multiple movies that portrayed individuals who used violence to obtain justice, including Die Hard and “Clint Eastwood’s movies.”[77]
· Steven Kazmierczak played violent video games and once wrote to a friend that “practicing with virtual weapons translates into ?”[78]—not finishing the thought but apparently suggesting a connection between practicing violence and committing violence. Kazmierczak was also fascinated by violent films, including Saw, Saw IV, Mr. Brooks, and Fight Club. The official report on his attack cited these films as probable influences.
· After watching the movie The Basketball Diaries (which includes a dream sequence of a boy shooting his classmates), Michael Carneal “said that it would be neat to go in the school and shoot people that you don’t like.”[79] Dr. Dewey Cornell noted another media influence on Carneal: “In one of his favorite games, Nintendo’s Doom, he often pretended that he was shooting the bullies at school.”[80] Dr. Katherine Newman’s team of researchers concluded that “Michael’s exposure to media violence can be regarded as a factor which contributed to the attitudes, perceptions, and judgment which led to his violent behavior.”[81]
· Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s code name for their attack was “NBK” after the film Natural Born Killers. In addition, Harris was obsessed with the video game Doom. He wrote, “I wished I lived in Doom”[82] and “What I can’t do in real life, I try to do in Doom.”[83] He even made a direct connection between Doom and his upcoming attack: “I have a goal to destroy as much as possible, so I must not be sidetracked by my feelings of sympathy, mercy, or any of that, so I will force myself to believe that everyone is just another monster from Doom . . . so it’s either me or them.”[84]
The issue of media influence is of particular interest with Barry Loukaitis, warranting a more in-depth review. First, like other shooters, he was fascinated with Natural Born Killers[85] and liked to quote it to his peers. He was also reportedly influenced by the song “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam, the video of which depicted a school shooting.[86] The primary influence on his attack, however, may have been the novel Rage, written by Stephen King under the name Richard Bachman. Loukaitis had multiple books by King, but “none was as worn as his copy of Rage.”[87] In the novel, a boy named Charlie Decker shoots his algebra teacher and holds the class hostage. Loukaitis also shot his algebra teacher and held the class hostage. Decker makes a comment that his attack “sure beats panty raids.”[88] Loukaitis commented, “it sure beats algebra.”[89] Also, like the book’s protagonist, Loukaitis targeted his attack against a boy who was both a popular athlete and romantic rival.
Two other aspects of the novel may be relevant. Decker says that the attack was really “misplaced aggression” and that he wished he had killed his father instead of his teacher. Loukaitis had written poems wishing his father were dead.[90] Finally, on the page in Rage after Decker kills his teacher, there is a reference to “a little kid in a Halloween cowboy suit.”[91] The day of the attack, Loukaitis was “dressed from head to toe in a Western-style black hat, boots, and duster.”[92] Though Rage did not cause Loukaitis to commit murder, he apparently related to the story and modeled his behavior after it.
* * *
Did external influences cause rampage attacks? No, but in many cases they appear to have been contributing factors. Making up one’s mind to commit mass murder presumably is not done lightly. Having friends, ideologies, or role models (fictional and nonfictional) that supported violent action apparently made it easier for the shooters to proceed with their attacks.
It is interesting that all three types of external influences—peer support, role models and ideologies, and media violence—were most relevant among younger shooters. This includes secondary school shooters and college or aberrant adult shooters in their teens or twenties. External influences do not appear to have been relevant for shooters in their thirties through sixties. Perhaps as adults they were able to act on their own, whereas younger shooters were more likely to seek out the influence of, or be influenced by, external factors.
SUMMARY
The patterns identified in this chapter appear to be relevant to understanding school shooters. This doesn’t mean, however, that the factors were equally relevant for all shooters. For example, having a parent involved in education may have been significant for Jillian Robbins but not for Dylan Klebold. Nonetheless, the high percentages of shooters with biological problems, military failures, relatives in the military, and so on suggests that these factors played a role in the shooters’ lives.
As I have noted, the vast majority of people who are psychopathic, psychotic, or traumatized do not commit school shootings. This means that other factors contribute to rampage attacks. Hopefully, this chapter has shed light on at least some of these additional influences.
1.
Eric Madfis and Jack Levin, “School Rampage in International Perspective: The Salience of Cumulative Strain Theory,” in School Shootings: International Research, Case Studies, and Concepts for Prevention, ed. Nils Böckler et al., 82, 85 (New York: Springer, 2013).
2.
James Blair, Derek Mitchell, and Karina Blair, The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005), 33.
3.
Niels Peter Rygaard, “Psychopathic Children: Indicators of Organic Dysfunction,” in Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior,” ed. Theodore Millon et al., 254 (New York: Guilford, 1998).
4.
American Psychological Association, “Gun Violence: Prediction, Prevention, and Policy,” APA panel of experts report (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2013), 8, http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/gun-violence-prevention.aspx.
5.
Elliot Rodger, “My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger,” n.d., 15, available online at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/25/us/shooting-document.html?_r=0.
6.
Rodger, “My Twisted World,” 16.
7.
Rodger, “My Twisted World,” 16.
8.
Samuel Yochelson and Stanton Samenow, The Criminal Personality: Volume 1; A Profile for Change (New York: Jason Aronson, 1976), 205.
9.
Joel Kaplan, George Papajohn, and Eric Zorn, Murder of Innocence: The Tragic Life and Final Rampage of Laurie Dann, “The Schoolhouse Killer” (New York: Warner Books, 1990), 9.
10.
Kaplan, Papajohn, and Zorn, Murder of Innocence, 12.
11.
John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit (New York: Pocket Books, 1996), 106.
12.
Janet Warren, Robert R. Hazelwood, and Park Dietz, “The Sexually Sadistic Serial Killer,” in Serial and Mass Murder: Theory, Research, and Practice, ed. Thomas O’Reilly-Fleming, 82 (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 1996).
13.
Stanton Samenow, Inside the Criminal Mind, revised and updated (New York: Crown, 2004), 170.
14.
Gary M. Lavergne, A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1997), 30–33.
15.
Chris Cobb and Bob Avery, The Rape of a Normal Mind (Markham, Ontario: PaperJacks, 1977), 39.
16.
Jane Applegate, “10 Years after Murderous Rampage, Campus Killer Says He Is Now Sane,” Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1986, http://articles.latimes.com/1986-07-06/local/me-23088_1_murderous-rampage.
17.
Nelson Kempsky, Gary A. Binkerd, Phil Yee, Allen Benitez, and Richard Yarvis, “A Report to Attorney General John K. Van de Kamp on Patrick Edward Purdy and the Cleveland School Killings” (California: Department of Justice, 1989), available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
18.
Marc Lépine, “Marc Lépine’s Suicide Note,” December 6, 1989 (presumed), available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
19.
Jonathan Fast, Ceremonial Violence: A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings (New York: Overlook, 2008), 26.
20.
Vicki Cheng, “Robbins’ Mother Struggles to Comprehend HUB Shooting,” Centre Daily Times (central Pennsylvania), August 24, 1997.
21.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Columbine Documents: 10,001–10,937” (Jefferson County, CO: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, n.d.), 10,087–88, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
22.
Rich Gibson, “Lonely Privilege in Despair: Aiming for Unfeigned Hope,” in The Evolution of Alienation: Trauma, Promise, and the Millennium, ed. Lauren Langman and Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, 163 (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
23.
State of North Carolina v. Alvaro Rafael Castillo, No. COA10-814 (2010), 11, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
24.
“Gill Bought Guns from Club Linked to Fabrikant,” Toronto Star, September 15, 2006.
25.
US Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, “Official Report on Duane Morrison,” 2006, 53, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
26.
Finland Ministry of Justice, “Jokela School Shooting on 7 November 2007: Report of the Investigation Commission,” translation of the original Finish report (Helsinki: Ministry of Justice, Finland, 2009), 51, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
27.
David Vann, Last Day on Earth: A Portrait of the NIU School Shooter (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011), 43.
28.
Finland Ministry of Justice, “Kauhajoki School Shooting on 23 September 2008: Report of the Investigation Commission,” translation of the original Finish report (Vantaa: Ministry of Justice, Finland, 2010), 59, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
29.
Petra Von Bornhöft, Klaus Brinkbäumer, Ulrike Demmer, Wiebke Hollersen, Simone Kaiser, Sebastian Knauer, Ansbert Kneip, Sven Röbel, Samiha Shafy, Holger Stark, and Katja Thimm, “113 Kugeln Kalte Wut,” Der Spiegel, March 16, 2009, http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-64628264.html.
30.
Ivan Moreno, “Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, Deer Creek Middle School Shooter, Tells Authorities He Heard Voices,” Huffington Post, March 12, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/bruco-strong-eagle-eastwo_1_n_496935.html.
31.
Matthew Lysiak, Newtown: An American Tragedy (New York: Gallery Books, 2013), 70–71.
32.
John M. Broder, “Arizona Gunman Chose Victims in Advance,” New York Times, October 30, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/30/us/arizona-gunman-chose-victims-in-advance.html.
33.
Julia Jüttner, “German School Shooter: Armed to the Teeth and Crying for Help,” Der Spiegel, November 21, 2006, http://www.spiegel.de/international/german-school-shooting-armed-to-the-teeth-and-crying-for-help-a-449814.html.
34.
Katherine Newman, Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings (New York: Basic, 2004), 269.
35.
Lysiak, Newtown, 69.
36.
Lysiak, Newtown, 70.
37.
Lysiak, Newtown, 71.
38.
Matthew Lysiak and Rich Schapiro, “Exclusive: Adam Lanza’s Murder Spree at Sandy Hook May Have Been ‘Act of Revenge,’” Daily News, April 7, 2013, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lanza-article-1.1309766.
39.
Vicki Cheng, “Who Is Jillian Robbins?” Centre Daily Times (central Pennsylvania), October 13, 1996.
40.
“Lad in Ontario Shooting Spree Called Above-Average Student,” Lewiston Daily Sun, May 29, 1975, 27.
41.
Barry Brown, “Ontario Shootings Fuel Call for Gun Control,” Buffalo News, October 23, 1994, A8.
42.
Cheng, “Robbins’ Mother Struggles.”
43.
“Who Was Kimveer Gill? (Part 3),” Gazette (Montreal), September 4, 2008, http://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/saturdayextra/story.html?id=a8279d1a-e4a1-43ae-95eb-44281d49c7ef&p=3.
44.
CTV.ca News Staff, “Mother of Marc Lépine Finally Breaks Her Silence,” September 25, 2006, available online at http://web.archive.org/web/20090418004957/http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20060925/lepine_mother_060925/20060925/?hub=Canada&subhub=PrintStory.
45.
Kaplan, Papajohn, and Zorn, Murder of Innocence, 43.
46.
Joseph A. Lieberman, School Shootings (New York: Kensington, 2008), 53.
47.
Jon Bellini, Child’s Prey (New York: Kensington, 2001), 16.
48.
Bellini, Child’s Prey, 61.
49.
Lavergne, A Sniper, 23–24.
50.
Lavergne, A Sniper, 51.
51.
Stephen J. Sedensky, “Report of the State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury on the Shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and 36 Yogananda Street, Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012” (Connecticut: Office of the State’s Attorney, Division of Criminal Justice, November 25, 2013), 30, http://www.ct.gov/csao/lib/csao/Sandy_Hook_Final_Report.pdf..
52.
Pete Samson, “Mom Loves Those Kids More than Me: Mother ‘Wanted Killer Son Put in Home,’” Sun (UK), December 20, 2012, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4706448/adam-lanza-flipped-mum-psychiatric-home-plans.html.
53.
Lysiak, Newtown, 50, 62.
54.
Beth Karas, “Insanity Defense Takes Center Stage,” CNN.com, August 12, 2009, http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/12/insanity-defense-takes-center-stage/.
55.
Cobb and Avery, The Rape, 61.
56.
Cobb and Avery, The Rape, 60.
57.
Cobb and Avery, The Rape, 178–79.
58.
Lavergne, A Sniper, 46–56.
59.
Kempsky et al., “A Report to Attorney General.”
60.
Kaplan, Papajohn, and Zorn, Murder of Innocence, 44–45.
61.
Vann, Last Day on Earth, 30–32.
62.
Northern Illinois University, “Report of the February 14, 2008, Shootings at Northern Illinois University” (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University, 2008), 24, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
63.
“Transcript of Video Linked to Santa Barbara Mass Shooting,” CNN, May 24, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/24/us/elliot-rodger-video-transcript/.
64.
Kaplan, Papajohn, and Zorn, Murder of Innocence, 59.
65.
Lysiak, Newtown, 22.
66.
Monique Lépine and Harold Gagné, Aftermath: The Mother of Marc Lépine Tells the Story of Her Life Before and After the Montreal Massacre, trans. Diana Halfpenny (Toronto: Viking, 2008), 151–52.
67.
Northern Illinois University, “Report of the February 14, 2008, Shootings,” 21.
68.
Lavergne, A Sniper, 26.
69.
Ray Rivera and Nate Schweber, “Before Killings, Hints of Plans and Grievance,” New York Times, April 5, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/nyregion/05suspect.html.
70.
Richard Meyer, “When the Shooting Stops,” Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2000, http://articles.latimes.com/2000/apr/22/news/ss-24169.
71.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Columbine Documents: JC-001-025923 through JC-001-026859” (Jefferson County, CO: Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, n.d.), 26,859, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
72.
Northern Illinois University, “Report of the February 14, 2008, Shootings,” 36.
73.
48 Hours, “The Mind of a School Shooter,” CBS News, April 14, 2004, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-mind-of-a-school-shooter/.
74.
“Woodham Testifies He Was Involved in Satanism,” CNN.com, June 11, 1998.
75.
48 Hours, “The Mind of a School Shooter.”
76.
People of the State of California v. Eric Christopher Houston, S035190, Napa County Superior Court No. 14311 (2008), 86, available online at http://www.schoolshooters.info.
77.
Edwin Chen, Deadly Scholarship: The True Story of Lu Gang and Mass Murder in America’s Heartland (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1995), 151.
78.
Vann, Last Day on Earth, 99.
79.
“Carneal’s Signals Went Unnoticed,” Kentucky Post, September 6, 1999, 1K.
80.
Dewey Cornell, School Violence: Fears Versus Facts (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006), 44.
81.
David Harding, Jal Mehta, and Katherine Newman, “No Exit: Mental Illness, Marginality, and School Violence in West Paducah, Kentucky,” in Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence, edited by the National Research Council, 152 (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003).
82.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Columbine Documents: JC-001-025923 through JC-001-026859,” 26,496.
83.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Columbine Documents: JC-001-025923 through JC-001-026859,” 26,189.
84.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Columbine Documents: JC-001-025923 through JC-001-026859,” 26,012.
85.
Lynda V. Mapes, “Bloody Movie, Random Violence Thrilled Loukaitis, Classmates Say,” Spokesman Review (Spokane, Washington), August 28, 1997, A1.
86.
Ronald K. Fitten, “Loukaitis Jurors Hear Parents, See Pearl Jam Video—Mother, Father Testify in Trial of Teen Son,” Seattle Times, September 9, 1997, B3, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970909&slug=2559355.
87.
Bonnie Harris, “School Killings All Too Familiar: Moses Lake Horror Parallels Plot of Novel Found in Suspect’s Room,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington), April 10, 1996, A1, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/apr/10/school-killings-all-too-familiar-moses-lake/.
88.
Stephen King, The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King (New York: Plume, 1985), 36.
89.
Harris, “School Killings.”
90.
Harris, “School Killings.”
91.
King, The Bachman Books, 27.
92.
Lynda V. Mapes, “Loukaitis Delusional, Expert Says Teen Was in a Trance When He Went on Rampage, Says Psychiatrist,” Spokesman-Review, September 10, 1997, A1, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/sep/10/loukaitis-delusional-expert-says-teen-was-in-a/.