Any decent theory on a case should answer outstanding questions. There are several questions which the myth of Plan B simply punts on, or has such an obviously bad answer, and which I submit are only reconciled by recognizing there was no plan B, and that the two bombs were set for different times. If my theory is wrong, I would demand the alternatives provide satisfactory answers to these questions and others.
1) Why did they start shooting at 11:19?
2) Why did they start shooting on the stairs?
3) Why did they start shooting outside?
One must answer all three of these questions. "Because the bombs failed to explode at 11:17" is the orthodox answer to 1), though that hardly answers the question, as illustrated by questions 2) and 3). 1 minute to change plans by itself is absurd when it is at least admitted they had no pre-meditated plan B.
The orthodox answer to 2) is that for some reason, the bombs failing means you change plans from the parking lot to the stairs. I suppose because of elevation, though it is never explained why no elevation is ok if the bombs go off but necessary if the bombs fail.
3) exposes these two orthodox answers for what they are, as if plan B was engaged there would be no reason not to enter a cafeteria timed to be at its fullest and get maximum casualties by shooting there. Indeed, if you think they entered the library because of its number of victims, it becomes even more absurd why they did not begin shooting in the cafeteria.
Very obviously it seems to me, there are better answers, denoted with the a:
1.a) and 3.a) Because they thought the bomb was about go off at 11:20
Shooting because they think the bombs are about to work makes much more sense than shooting because they think the bombs failed, especially when it is admitted they had no contingency plans if the bombs failed and were confident they would work. The same answer for 3), which there simply is no answer for on the orthodox interpretation. All one can do is feign how mysterious the whole thing is and appeal to the sense of tragedy to avoid the non-answer.
2.a) Because they were shielded from the bombs up on the stairs, and could move either way the victims in the cafeteria went.
There simply is no answer for what they would do out in the parking lot when glass went flying into it or their victims turned around. The first is simply brushed off as somehow not an issue in Cullen's book, and the second issue is never even mentioned. Indeed as before the only reason I can think to pass it over is so Dave Sanders telling them to turn around was a stroke of genius instead of planned for from the beginning.
Further:
4) Why did Eric stay on top of the stairs and Dylan descend them?
5) Why did they enter the west entrance?
6) Why did they first shoot Rachel and Richard in front of the west entrance, and next shoot Daniel/Lance/Sean at the bottom of the stairs?
7) Why did Dylan shoot only 3 times with his TEC-9 outside, yet shot Lance in the face with his shotgun?
The answer to 4) on the orthodox interpretation will simply be "to check on the bombs", but that is not an answer. It's what Dylan apparently did after descending them, but that does not mean it was his reason for descending them, and given they acknowledge the plan was to shoot people fleeing the cafeteria, which you cannot do from the top of the stairs, it is easy to figure out he was supposed to shoot those fleeing the cafeteria once you disregard the myth that they knew the bombs failed.
Further, Eric could have gone with him. And as pointed out before, if they already knew the bombs failed, and had begun murdering because of this, as the orthodox interpretation says, it seems strange to need to check as if one wasn't already committed to their failure.
It also makes sense that Eric stayed on top when one realizes only Eric, not Dylan, shot at cops that day. It is also what Eric says "natural selection" (as his shirt read) refers to in his journal, being in an "Ultimate Doom" game, where you have to shoot monsters - or police, who can shoot back. And it is also Dylan, not Eric, who first mentions the idea of killing students and going "NBK".
Again for 5) and 6) on the orthodox interpretation one has to feign mystery; they were playing God and chose victims for their own bizarre peculiar reasons. They didn't like the look of Rachel and Daniel. It had nothing to do with where they were located. One I suppose can realize they entered the west entrance to cut off their victims escape, but that is already giving up a lot of the orthodox interpretation that they were improvising.
For 7) there is the "follower" interpretation of Dylan, where he only shoots when Eric is watching and barely at that. But then there is the issue of shooting Lance in the face. There is also Dylan's gun not being very good. This is at least plausible. TEC-9's do jam and he discarded a 50 round magazine outside apparently because of this. However, given the answers to the other two it seems apparent there is a better answer.
4.a) Dylan descended the stairs to shoot students fleeing from the cafeteria. Eric stays up on the stairs to cover Dylan's back and shoot police.
5.a) To cut off their victims escape from the cafeteria.
6.a) They needed the west entrance clear to enter when their victims in the cafeteria turned around. They needed the stairs clear for Dylan to descend and shoot those fleeing into the parking lot.
7.a) Dylan was to shoot people fleeing with his TEC-9, hence he did not wish to waste ammo and/or do more than test fire, but was fine with using the shotgun on Lance.
In the library:
8) Why did they keep saying in the library that the library was going to explode and kill everyone in it?
9) Why tell John Savage to run rather than just not shoot him?
10) Why was Bree told she would die in the explosion by Eric, John told to run if he wants to live by Dylan, but Evan Todd told by Dylan that he was letting him live?
11) Why was Corey the last to die at 11:35, and they leave the library at 11:36?
8) is the real doozy in my opinion. It kills the entire notion that they started shooting when the bombs failed, and thus kills that they were going to shoot from the parking lot and moved on to "plan B" as well as the notion that both cafeteria bombs were set for 11:17. There is no answer on the orthodox view. Again, mystery, they were lying, they were psychotic. Those are the kind of answers they have to give.
For 9) one can say they feared getting him with a pipe bomb or something, but they failed to even injure one person with a pipe bomb. Understanding that the library was supposed to explode and everybody in it die, which is exactly what they said, several times, is the only way to make this work. On the orthodox interpretation they just can't control themselves and avoid shooting him apparently.
10) and 11) again shows the strength of the second bomb interpretation and the weakness of the orthodox interpretation. The orthodox answer has to be mystery and to pretend I am reading minds by observing the facts.
8.a) They thought the second bomb was still in play. Very simply, because they thought the library was going to explode and kill everyone in it is why they said they library was going to explode and kill everyone in it.
9.a) Because if he stayed in the library, he was to die in the coming explosion.
10.a) Because between the talk with Bree and John, and the talk with Evan, the time had passed for when the second bomb was set to explode
11.a) Because the second bomb was set to explode at 11:35.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Why the myth?
Given that I feel I've shown plan B is a myth, the question arises: Why is there the myth of plan B? I can't pretend to know with certainty.
However, it seems to me there are three options. First, either it is a genuine mistake, or it is an intentional lie. If it is a lie, I can see two possible reasons, either to deter copycats, or to cover for the police's mistakes that day.
With that in mind, I can sketch the possible reasons for making such a mistake, or for inventing such a lie. Simply the placement of their cars is often cited for why it is thought they would shoot from them, and maybe that was enough to fool investigators. I find this hard to believe, but it's possible.
Probably the best reason for why investigators may have been mistaken are the two separate, different timelines Dylan wrote for that day. One of these was on his own paper, and another was in Eric's planner. The former says "Go to outside hill, wait. When first bombs go off, attack", and the latter says "wait near cars, gear up HAHAHA".
Perhaps for some reason they trusted the latter over the former and assumed it meant shooting from the cars, though it doesn't say that, only 'gearing up'. The one in Eric's planner is a bit more specific on the pre-massacre activities, starting with waking up, and it being in Eric's planner may have made them think it was more accurate, being a joint effort of the two perpetrators rather than Dylan writing alone, or whatever. However, on this point they obviously followed the "go to outside hill" directions. Also, the former says the first bomb goes off at 11:17 and the latter say 11:16, and perhaps because of Eric's notes on the library, 11:17 seems to be accepted. So, they don't simply follow the timeline in Eric's planner for everything.
Also and most importantly these guidelines were obviously very rough. For instance Dylan says place the bombs at 11:09, obviously meaning "before 11:10", when as I recall fourth period let out; and to set the car bombs for 11:18, obviously meaning "after the cafeteria bombs", not literally one minute after.
For inventing a lie, there is the possible reason of dissuading copycats. I certainly hope this is the reason, as it's the most justifiable. For fear of copycats having a similarly intricate plan, lie to make Eric and Dylans plan quite silly, so that copycats will only have a silly plan to use.
The other reason I see for inventing a lie is I admit not the most robust theory, but I feel like either this or Dylan's notes are ultimately the reason. One big weakness of the "plan B" theory is it implies Eric and Dylan had no plan if people ran in a direction other than into the parking lot. I think they were very aware of the ability for people to turn around, and that's why they were on the stairs, and ultimately why Rachel and Richard were the first people shot, to have access to the west entrance to cut off those who turned around. Who made the students turn and run that way? Dave Sanders, and JeffCo took hours to get to him, letting him die. Why is he considered a martyr? Mostly because he told students to turn around.
I don't wish to completely trivialize Dave's martyr status. He almost certainly saved lives that day. However, he also almost certainly saved fewer lives than most think by telling people to turn around, if Eric and Dylan always expected people to turn around. If that's the case, then Neil Gardner possibly saved more lives by stalling their entering the west entrance in his shootout with Eric than Dave did.
And of course, they didn't shoot from the parking lot, so I'm not sure how that helps Dave's martyr status. At the same time, it obscures that they always knew they would turn around, and that does help Dave's martyr status.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Doom and Columbine
Both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were avid fans of the video game Doom, and Eric especially. Playing Doom, along with listening to KMFDM and viewing Natural Born Killers, is probably a requirement for serious research into the massacre.
Eric noted the massacre is "gonna be like fucking Doom". He also noted it will be like "the LA Riots, Oklahoma City, WW2, Vietnam, Duke, and Doom all mixed together". Duke is Duke Nukem 3D, another first person shooter video game of the 1990s. They were also avid fans of Quake.
There is a long list of parallels between Doom, or first person shooters in general, and the Columbine massacre. First, let one note, this isn't saying video games motivated the massacre, though probably in part, in the sense of why they thought it would be 'fun', it is very superficial indeed to boil the motive down to that. Rather, this is about how elements of their modus operandi, not their motive, came out of Doom.
First, Eric carried his "berserk" in his pocket when he murdered and when he died. This was a piece of wood of some kind, maybe from one of the places he lived before Colorado which he seemed to remember fondly, shaped like a teardrop with a divot in the middle of it, which he carried as a kind of talisman. This is the most blatant reference to Doom. In Doom, there are white medkits which serve as health 'power-up's. There is also a black medkit, called a berserk, which is a special power-up which restores you to full health, and makes your punches kill the monsters for a short time.
Second, Eric shot at the bomb expecting it to explode. Surely because this happens in Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, e. g. with barrels of nukage in Doom.
Third, the fact that they each carried two guns, including a shotgun. This was obviously mimicking a first person shooter. In a typical "FPS" you switch between several guns. Like in Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, you start with a handgun, and the handgun stinks. It takes several shots to kill anyone. "Handgun only" is a special kind of handicap in a first person shooter to test your skills which one can find in several videos. You want to get rid of the handgun, and move on to the next gun, which is a shotgun. The next gun is a chaingun or in Quake a nail gun, something which fires quickly, in contrast to the stopping power of a shotgun. Next is a rocket launcher, and next after that is futuristic weapons that don't exist, like Doom's plasma gun, or Duke Nukem 3D's shrink ray. For the majority of the game, you are using either the shotgun or the chaingun, and if you play it properly, you switch between them depending on the monsters you face. This was obviously their idea with having a shotgun and a rifle in Eric's case, and a shotgun and a pistol in Dylan's
Fourth, each gun, or at least 3 of the 4, were 'straight out of Doom" as Eric said about his shotgun, which he named "Arlene" after a character in the Doom novels. Eric had a pump action shotgun, which you have in the original Doom. Dylan had a double barrel shotgun, which is the more powerful "Super shotgun" in Doom 2. Dylan also had a TEC-9, which is a version of the AB-10, which Eric referenced several times because its from the Doom novels. Arlene even uses it.
The only one remaining to explain is Eric's carbine rifle, but it seems plausible it was also from Doom given the others. In Doom, the "zombies" or "former human" is the first 'monster' or antagonist you face, and he had some kind of rifle which uses the same ammunition as your chain gun. The next antagonist is "shotgun guy" who is a bit harder to kill and has a shotgun of course.
In fact, given this, in all likelihood, they thought Dylan had the better weapons, even though Eric killed more and probably had the better ones, which says enough about Dylan as the possible mastermind.
Fifth, their outfits may have been inspired by former human and shotgun guy. Former human wears a tan shirt and shotgun guy a black one. Eric wore a white shirt and Dylan a black one. Again, if this is the inspiration, it suggests Dylan had superior rank.
Sixth, Eric says he will have to imagine his victims as monsters from Doom, either former humans or 'lost souls", flaming skulls
Seventh, Eric tried to make a kind of napalm flamethrower, probably his answer to Doom's rocket launcher. He even said it was "the suicide plan", and in Doom the quickest way to die is to shoot the rocket launcher too close to a monster or wall or some such.
Eighth, they told everybody in the library to stand up, and in a first person shooter your victims are all standing, not cowering under a table.
Nineth, they told everybody in "white hats" to stand up. The jocks wore white hats of course, but one wonders if this was because former humans, the Doom "zombies" have green hair, and this was a similar marker to them. "I see similarities between people and Doom zombies" wrote Dylan.
Tenth: Eric and Dylan called each other "indigo" and "green' respectively. Dr. Peter Langman speculates this was because Charles Manson's followers called each other colors. It may well have been, but why those colors is because when they played multiplayer, Dylan was player 1 and Eric player 2, and their colors were green and indigo respectively.
Eleventh, Eric mentions starting out at the bottom of the "food chain" at school, and this is used on the Playstation Doom poster.
Eric noted the massacre is "gonna be like fucking Doom". He also noted it will be like "the LA Riots, Oklahoma City, WW2, Vietnam, Duke, and Doom all mixed together". Duke is Duke Nukem 3D, another first person shooter video game of the 1990s. They were also avid fans of Quake.
There is a long list of parallels between Doom, or first person shooters in general, and the Columbine massacre. First, let one note, this isn't saying video games motivated the massacre, though probably in part, in the sense of why they thought it would be 'fun', it is very superficial indeed to boil the motive down to that. Rather, this is about how elements of their modus operandi, not their motive, came out of Doom.
First, Eric carried his "berserk" in his pocket when he murdered and when he died. This was a piece of wood of some kind, maybe from one of the places he lived before Colorado which he seemed to remember fondly, shaped like a teardrop with a divot in the middle of it, which he carried as a kind of talisman. This is the most blatant reference to Doom. In Doom, there are white medkits which serve as health 'power-up's. There is also a black medkit, called a berserk, which is a special power-up which restores you to full health, and makes your punches kill the monsters for a short time.
Second, Eric shot at the bomb expecting it to explode. Surely because this happens in Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, e. g. with barrels of nukage in Doom.
Third, the fact that they each carried two guns, including a shotgun. This was obviously mimicking a first person shooter. In a typical "FPS" you switch between several guns. Like in Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, you start with a handgun, and the handgun stinks. It takes several shots to kill anyone. "Handgun only" is a special kind of handicap in a first person shooter to test your skills which one can find in several videos. You want to get rid of the handgun, and move on to the next gun, which is a shotgun. The next gun is a chaingun or in Quake a nail gun, something which fires quickly, in contrast to the stopping power of a shotgun. Next is a rocket launcher, and next after that is futuristic weapons that don't exist, like Doom's plasma gun, or Duke Nukem 3D's shrink ray. For the majority of the game, you are using either the shotgun or the chaingun, and if you play it properly, you switch between them depending on the monsters you face. This was obviously their idea with having a shotgun and a rifle in Eric's case, and a shotgun and a pistol in Dylan's
Fourth, each gun, or at least 3 of the 4, were 'straight out of Doom" as Eric said about his shotgun, which he named "Arlene" after a character in the Doom novels. Eric had a pump action shotgun, which you have in the original Doom. Dylan had a double barrel shotgun, which is the more powerful "Super shotgun" in Doom 2. Dylan also had a TEC-9, which is a version of the AB-10, which Eric referenced several times because its from the Doom novels. Arlene even uses it.
The only one remaining to explain is Eric's carbine rifle, but it seems plausible it was also from Doom given the others. In Doom, the "zombies" or "former human" is the first 'monster' or antagonist you face, and he had some kind of rifle which uses the same ammunition as your chain gun. The next antagonist is "shotgun guy" who is a bit harder to kill and has a shotgun of course.
In fact, given this, in all likelihood, they thought Dylan had the better weapons, even though Eric killed more and probably had the better ones, which says enough about Dylan as the possible mastermind.
Fifth, their outfits may have been inspired by former human and shotgun guy. Former human wears a tan shirt and shotgun guy a black one. Eric wore a white shirt and Dylan a black one. Again, if this is the inspiration, it suggests Dylan had superior rank.
Sixth, Eric says he will have to imagine his victims as monsters from Doom, either former humans or 'lost souls", flaming skulls
Seventh, Eric tried to make a kind of napalm flamethrower, probably his answer to Doom's rocket launcher. He even said it was "the suicide plan", and in Doom the quickest way to die is to shoot the rocket launcher too close to a monster or wall or some such.
Eighth, they told everybody in the library to stand up, and in a first person shooter your victims are all standing, not cowering under a table.
Nineth, they told everybody in "white hats" to stand up. The jocks wore white hats of course, but one wonders if this was because former humans, the Doom "zombies" have green hair, and this was a similar marker to them. "I see similarities between people and Doom zombies" wrote Dylan.
Tenth: Eric and Dylan called each other "indigo" and "green' respectively. Dr. Peter Langman speculates this was because Charles Manson's followers called each other colors. It may well have been, but why those colors is because when they played multiplayer, Dylan was player 1 and Eric player 2, and their colors were green and indigo respectively.
Eleventh, Eric mentions starting out at the bottom of the "food chain" at school, and this is used on the Playstation Doom poster.
Wandering the Halls
After they have left the library, and try to make the second bomb explode, causing a fire in the cafeteria, Eric and Dylan walked around various parts of the school, tossing pipe bombs and firing their guns into lockers and ceilings, but killing nobody.
Much has been made of this time. Most e-sleuths and crime aficionados and other commenters on Columbine see it as either a sign of remorse, somehow, or a sign about how much they hated the school. They wished to destroy the institution itself. They wished to shoot the lockers against which bullies had pushed them. Something like that.
I think both interpretations fail utterly, and the one with the most potential to be correct is left off the table. As horrific as it is, one needs to put yourself in their shoes. You are a teenager who has just murdered several of your classmates in your school. In all likelihood, you were supposed to have committed suicide by now. You don't plan on getting out alive. What's on your mind? Police, surely.
Also, they planned on killing cops that day. Whether attempting to goad Eric into committing the massacre with him and thus forcing Dylan to commit suicide, or a genuine statement of his feelings, Dylan wrote in Eric's yearbook: "killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops!! My wrath for January's incident will be godlike. Not to mention our revenge in the commons."
The commons is the cafeteria, and "January's incident" refers to their joint arrest for breaking into a van in January of 1998. It seems to have been a pivotal moment. In February of 98 Dylan is mentioning a massacre, going "NBK" with a girl, like in the film Natural Born Killers, and Eric is mentioning going NBK in April. They seem to have bonded a bit over the van incident, and the massacre seems in part to be revenge against police for this event. Others speculate it was also e. g. jocks doing worse but not getting in trouble. It's as good a date as any for the transition from no thoughts of a massacre to thoughts of a massacre. Dylan wore a shirt saying Wrath during the massacre, of course; though Wrath and Godlike are also both KMFDM songs.
There's also the issue that the evidence suggests Eric, not Dylan, shot at police that day. While Dylan, not Eric descended the stairs presumably to shoot at students, and Dylan, not Eric enters the library first; and Dylan, not Eric, is having the time of his life during the library massacre. It's also true that Eric was the one more into the video game Doom, which involved people shooting back at you. One can even interpret their t-shirts this way. Eric thought of "natural selection" as making people have to play Doom in real life, and while Dylan mentions wrath against police with Eric, in his private journal he talks about hating jocks for having girlfriends, not about playing Doom in real life. "The lonely man strikes with absolute rage" is what Dylan wrote to himself.
So, quite probably in my view, Dylan had gotten his wish (aside from suicide which he had wanted for years) with the massacre by this point. Several students have been killed as part of his wrath, but Eric has not gotten his wish of a shootout with police. They also probably hoped they wouldn't have to kill themselves with their own guns. They had already expected a bomb to kill them, in the library and when they try to make it explode in the cafeteria. They probably preferred suicide by cop.
They were also supposedly "bored" with killing students. They had mentioned maybe knifing people would be more fun, and wanted bombs not just shooting. Police are certainly "up a level" from killing students.
Therefore it seems apparent to me they were roaming the halls looking for police. People impose their knowledge on them that the cops did not enter, when everybody was shocked by that, surely including the perpetrators. Even if they were not around, you would think they were somewhere in the building. I think this is probably also why they were shooting and tossing pipe bombs.
Most interesting for all of this, when they return to the cafeteria, on video, the most infamous picture of the massacre happens, because they have their guns drawn.
Eric then seems to wave. He had written down hand signals for them to use during the massacre. Waving is the signal for "cops sighted". That ends the issue for me of what was on their mind when they roamed the halls.
Best clip of it I can find at the moment, 20 seconds into this:
"Remorse" is just silly. They had plenty of time to feel remorse before the library massacre. Eric was fond of quoting this line from the KMFDM song Anarchy, "Feel no remorse, no sense of shame". Also, while probably the thing about the massacre I would add but have the least confidence about, though there is a litany of things from the massacre which the pair got from video games; it was noted that Eric played the video game Postal. The "tagline" for Postal is "I regret nothing", and it's said when the main character shoots himself in the mouth, as Eric did.
At best, "Remorse" comes from the hero-worship all too common in this case and ill attempts to explain a tragedy; and not knowing about the second bomb set for 11:35, thus having to come up for some reason why they stopped shooting at 11:35, as well as forgetting that the cops not entering was anomalous. Though their actions after 11:35, such as Dylan taunting Evan and calling him a fat fuck and asking why he shouldn't kill him, and then trying to make the bombs explode, hardly signals remorse.
They also point to the fact that they didn't try to enter classrooms. It is perhaps curious. Eric mentioned doing so in an earlier version of a plan for the massacre. However, by that time, most classrooms were simply locked. It's also not at all clear they didn't try to enter some.
'They wanted to destroy the school itself" is at least better than remorse, though again seems to ignore the police, as if they weren't there. Also, if they wanted to destroy the school, they could have done a lot more. Instead of wandering they could have destroyed. They lit one gas can in the cafeteria when Dylan tossed his Molotov cocktail, but there were others in the cafeteria. They could have gathered one and spread gasoline through the halls if they wanted to do so. Also, it doesn't seem to me to make sense to get bored with killing students, and move on to shooting ceilings and lockers and trash cans. That seems even more 'boring', not less.
It's true of course their bombs would have destroyed the cafeteria and the library, and that would destroy the school in a sense. But that was also the front facing bit of the school, to be captured by television and all the rest, and where they had the most victims. Destroying the back of the school on the inside where there's nobody to see it and where there are no victims because you are bored seems to me curious indeed, and not close to the best explanation.
Much has been made of this time. Most e-sleuths and crime aficionados and other commenters on Columbine see it as either a sign of remorse, somehow, or a sign about how much they hated the school. They wished to destroy the institution itself. They wished to shoot the lockers against which bullies had pushed them. Something like that.
I think both interpretations fail utterly, and the one with the most potential to be correct is left off the table. As horrific as it is, one needs to put yourself in their shoes. You are a teenager who has just murdered several of your classmates in your school. In all likelihood, you were supposed to have committed suicide by now. You don't plan on getting out alive. What's on your mind? Police, surely.
Also, they planned on killing cops that day. Whether attempting to goad Eric into committing the massacre with him and thus forcing Dylan to commit suicide, or a genuine statement of his feelings, Dylan wrote in Eric's yearbook: "killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops!! My wrath for January's incident will be godlike. Not to mention our revenge in the commons."
The commons is the cafeteria, and "January's incident" refers to their joint arrest for breaking into a van in January of 1998. It seems to have been a pivotal moment. In February of 98 Dylan is mentioning a massacre, going "NBK" with a girl, like in the film Natural Born Killers, and Eric is mentioning going NBK in April. They seem to have bonded a bit over the van incident, and the massacre seems in part to be revenge against police for this event. Others speculate it was also e. g. jocks doing worse but not getting in trouble. It's as good a date as any for the transition from no thoughts of a massacre to thoughts of a massacre. Dylan wore a shirt saying Wrath during the massacre, of course; though Wrath and Godlike are also both KMFDM songs.
There's also the issue that the evidence suggests Eric, not Dylan, shot at police that day. While Dylan, not Eric descended the stairs presumably to shoot at students, and Dylan, not Eric enters the library first; and Dylan, not Eric, is having the time of his life during the library massacre. It's also true that Eric was the one more into the video game Doom, which involved people shooting back at you. One can even interpret their t-shirts this way. Eric thought of "natural selection" as making people have to play Doom in real life, and while Dylan mentions wrath against police with Eric, in his private journal he talks about hating jocks for having girlfriends, not about playing Doom in real life. "The lonely man strikes with absolute rage" is what Dylan wrote to himself.
So, quite probably in my view, Dylan had gotten his wish (aside from suicide which he had wanted for years) with the massacre by this point. Several students have been killed as part of his wrath, but Eric has not gotten his wish of a shootout with police. They also probably hoped they wouldn't have to kill themselves with their own guns. They had already expected a bomb to kill them, in the library and when they try to make it explode in the cafeteria. They probably preferred suicide by cop.
They were also supposedly "bored" with killing students. They had mentioned maybe knifing people would be more fun, and wanted bombs not just shooting. Police are certainly "up a level" from killing students.
Therefore it seems apparent to me they were roaming the halls looking for police. People impose their knowledge on them that the cops did not enter, when everybody was shocked by that, surely including the perpetrators. Even if they were not around, you would think they were somewhere in the building. I think this is probably also why they were shooting and tossing pipe bombs.
Most interesting for all of this, when they return to the cafeteria, on video, the most infamous picture of the massacre happens, because they have their guns drawn.
Eric then seems to wave. He had written down hand signals for them to use during the massacre. Waving is the signal for "cops sighted". That ends the issue for me of what was on their mind when they roamed the halls.
Best clip of it I can find at the moment, 20 seconds into this:
"Remorse" is just silly. They had plenty of time to feel remorse before the library massacre. Eric was fond of quoting this line from the KMFDM song Anarchy, "Feel no remorse, no sense of shame". Also, while probably the thing about the massacre I would add but have the least confidence about, though there is a litany of things from the massacre which the pair got from video games; it was noted that Eric played the video game Postal. The "tagline" for Postal is "I regret nothing", and it's said when the main character shoots himself in the mouth, as Eric did.
At best, "Remorse" comes from the hero-worship all too common in this case and ill attempts to explain a tragedy; and not knowing about the second bomb set for 11:35, thus having to come up for some reason why they stopped shooting at 11:35, as well as forgetting that the cops not entering was anomalous. Though their actions after 11:35, such as Dylan taunting Evan and calling him a fat fuck and asking why he shouldn't kill him, and then trying to make the bombs explode, hardly signals remorse.
They also point to the fact that they didn't try to enter classrooms. It is perhaps curious. Eric mentioned doing so in an earlier version of a plan for the massacre. However, by that time, most classrooms were simply locked. It's also not at all clear they didn't try to enter some.
'They wanted to destroy the school itself" is at least better than remorse, though again seems to ignore the police, as if they weren't there. Also, if they wanted to destroy the school, they could have done a lot more. Instead of wandering they could have destroyed. They lit one gas can in the cafeteria when Dylan tossed his Molotov cocktail, but there were others in the cafeteria. They could have gathered one and spread gasoline through the halls if they wanted to do so. Also, it doesn't seem to me to make sense to get bored with killing students, and move on to shooting ceilings and lockers and trash cans. That seems even more 'boring', not less.
It's true of course their bombs would have destroyed the cafeteria and the library, and that would destroy the school in a sense. But that was also the front facing bit of the school, to be captured by television and all the rest, and where they had the most victims. Destroying the back of the school on the inside where there's nobody to see it and where there are no victims because you are bored seems to me curious indeed, and not close to the best explanation.
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Plan A: A Scenario
After dispelling the notion of Plan B with the fact that the gunmen at Columbine repeatedly said the library was going to explode with them inside of it, meaning it was never true that they "started shooting when the bombs failed", one is required to replace it with a better theory, a theory which says plan A was very much in play when they began shooting, meaning they never planned to shoot from the cars.
One also when challenging any theory is faced with the burden of replacing it with a better theory. I submit I have one, and feel it must be true in essentials, while I confess knowing everything they planned that day is probably impossible.
As best I can tell, here was their plan that day.
When the first cafeteria bomb goes off, they are shielded from the blast up on the stairs. Dylan was then to descend the stairs and shoot fleeing students with his TEC-9. Eric was to stay at the top of the stairs and shoot police with his carbine, covering Dylan's back. Eventually, those fleeing the cafeteria learn to flee into the parking lot is to be shot at, and turn around to run up the cafeteria stairs. When this happens, Dylan is to run back up the stairs, and Eric and Dylan will enter the west entrance and cut off their escape. All the while, they also have pipe bombs and crickets and Molotov cocktails to toss to kill, confuse, and cause fires, as well as just general carnage of more exploding corpses.
They would have spent some ammo and been much closer to people, so maybe this is where they use their knives as well as shoot. The second bomb goes off at 11:35. Perhaps it was simply a back up. Perhaps it was estimated 15 minutes until victims turned around, or maybe by then it would be killing those who have turned around a second time, realizing now to run up the cafeteria stairs is to die, as well as perhaps kill Eric and Dylan. Also perhaps any firefighters or police or paramedics who run into the cafeteria to help after the bomb.
One of the car bombs goes off at noon, and another probably some time after. Most likely to kill first responders and media and what is left of the students on live television. Maybe Dylan's is for the responders and media, being more or less across from the center of the cafeteria, and Eric's is for the students evacuating the school, being by the south entrance. Maybe Dylan's was to explode first causing victims to retreat to where Eric's car would again explode.
This is why they chose the stairs. This is why Dylan did descend the stairs, and why he shot only 3 times with the TEC-9 before that, but spent the shotgun into Lance. Dylan also relished the library massacre more, entered the library first, said he had always wanted to do this, was more vocal in general in the library. Indeed he wrote about going on a killing spree first, and was the first to write about going "NBK" (their code for the massacre, from the film Natural Born Killers). He had been suicidal for years at this point, and seemed to want others to feel his pain, his "Wrath" as his shirt said.
This is why Eric stayed up there. He could not see people fleeing out into the parking lot from his vantage point, and the only cafeteria exit he could fire at left the possibility of injuring Dylan, and they would probably be deterred from that one by Dylan's presence anyway. Eric and not Dylan was also the one to shoot at police that day. Eric also dreamed of putting everybody in a Doom game where they had to shoot at monsters shooting back at them, of "Natural Selection" as his shirt said.
This is why when Dylan enters the cafeteria from outside, and sees the bomb has not exploded and people are running up the stairs. He only smirks and turns around to tell Eric, and they then enter the west entrance.
This is why Rachel and Richard are shot first, blocking access to the west entrance, and Daniel and Lance and Sean shot next, for blocking Dylan's path down the stairs.
They did not use their knives, so many will say they were for show. But tying it to your ankle does not seem the best place "for show", and both and especially Dylan (who mentioned using his knife in the library) were interested in Charles Manson, who of course influenced a series of stabbings. Also, on the Basement Tapes, they both mention using their knives. It seems to me a theory incorporating use of the knives is better than one that doesn't. They could have also just been a contingency if anybody tackled them or some such.
Two Bombs
The usual narrative says the two diversionary devices were timed to go off, together, at 11:14. But why lose the complexity of two bombs by having them go off together?
Very curiously, the JeffCo/CNN CD released soon after the massacre says this:
"The examination of the diversionary devices by bomb technicians provided immediate critical information about the sophistication of the devices and the possibility of motion activators attached to the bombs. That information was relayed to the command post, the SWAT teams and the bomb technicians responding to the scene at the high school."
For one, are they set off by timers or by motion detection?
Impossible to reconcile this unless you understand there were two bombs. The first by timer to cause a fire and divert the first responders, the second by motion to blow up in the first responders faces. The only other scenario is a bizarre one where you plant a diversion that will never go off unless you are lucky enough for someone to walk by, and somehow knew they would at 11:14.
For two, the police were told they had motion detection? This was "immediate critical information" that was "relayed to the command post"? No wonder the cops did not enter the building. No wonder Sheriff Stone said he did not want to lose men. No wonder it's been said the fire truck they used for cover when retrieving the bodies of Rachel and Richard by the west entrance was also going to be used to breach the west entrance since it could take the brunt of a possible bomb explosion. Supposedly, it got stuck in the mud so they never tried it. Recall also the police had the 911 call in the library, and so could hear the gunmen repeatedly say the library was going to explode. It was not about "hostages" or protocol for "hostages" being about securing the perimeter. They never tried to negotiate. They had the 911 call to hear the library massacre, meaning they heard this was a murder spree, but also heard them say bombs were about to go off.
The usual narrative says the two cafeteria bombs were timed to go off, together, at 11:17. The source for this is presumably Eric's notes about the cafeteria being at the fullest at 11:17. However, Dylan wrote down two separate timelines, and one has the bombs going off at 11:16, and the other at 11:17.
Worse, Dave Cullen notes this about the bombs:
"The timing devices were not precise. No digital readouts with seconds counting down in red numerals; they were old-fashioned clocks with a third little alarm hand positioned two-fifths of the way between the 3 and the 4."
So, you can't "set the bombs to 11:17", (or the diversion for 11:14, presumably) you can only set the bombs to "between 11:15 and 11:20". A far more reasonable explanation for why they began shooting at 11:19 is the bombs were set to explode by 11:20, rather than that they thought both failed at 11:17, and decided in two minutes to have a shooting spree instead, but did not enter the cafeteria where you find the hundreds of victims they wanted dead.
Worse still, they said very clearly the library was going to explode with them inside it, from approximately 11:30 until they left, so they cannot have thought both bombs failed at 11:18. The cafeteria was below the library and they hoped the bomb in the cafeteria would destroy the pillars holding the library up.
They stop shooting in the library at 11:35, and leave the library at 11:36, then are caught on video trying to set off one of the bombs. They told Bree Pasquale everybody would die from the library exploding whether they shot them or not. They told John Savage to run in order to live. Clearly, everybody in the library was supposed to die. Then, when 11:35 passes, Dylan holds Evan Todd at gunpoint and tell him he is going to let him live. Not he will die anyway from the bombs. Something has changed.
On the Basement Tapes, which are the perpetrators unreleased video messages, but of which there are transcripts, Dylan said "it will be the most nerve racking 15 minutes of my life". What's going to take 15 minutes? Anybody have a better answer than the first bomb at 11:20 and the second bomb at 11:35 supplying the timeline for the massacre? Had the second bomb gone off as they intended, they would have been dead at 11:35.
There is a picture of the bomb they were trying to make explode. The timer is set to 9:35. Surely two hours slow, since all signs point to 11:35, and nothing bomb related was to happen before 11.
The same for the car bombs. Two of them. I'm not sure an official time was released, but a picture of one of the timers has it set to noon, and it's the most common idea for why the perpetrators returned the library around noon before committing suicide, to watch the car bombs explode. I don't have a better idea. I also don't know when the second car bomb was set, but my suspicion is not noon. Perhaps 12:05, since 12:05 to 12:08 is the time of the suicides.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
The Myth of Plan B: The Orthodox Story
All agree on this much about the Columbine massacre: the plan was to bomb the cafeteria and shoot fleeing survivors. And they began shooting at the top of the stairs.
In nearly all books, all investigative reports, and all the online fora on the Columbine massacre, you will find the following orthodox interpretation of the events, which is properly dubbed "Plan B":
They planned to shoot at fleeing survivors from their cars in the separate parking lots when the cafeteria bombs exploded at 11:17. Immediately, when it was 11:18, they realized the bombs had failed, and therefore moved to "plan B", which was to go to the top of the stairs and shoot everyone they could. By 11:19, they opened fire.
Curiously, all are also honest enough to admit that in all their journals and videos documenting their year-long plans and fantasies, they never mentioned a plan B.
Dave Cullen, who wrote Columbine, who represents the orthodoxy and gets the most flak from the online sleuths, some of it very well deserved, does not get similarly questioned for his plan B narrative. Though it is one of the silliest.
Tim Krabbé, who wrote the Dutch book Wij Zijn Maar Wij Zijn Niet Geschift (in English, We Are But We Are Not Psycho), often the favorite of the online sleuths, the current author included, recognizes correctly that not a single witness recalls them waiting by their cars for the bombs to go off, but rather has them head straight for the stairs. This good sense is no sooner extinguished, as Krabbé still buys into plan B when he has already seen all of the light required to scrap it. For Krabbé, shooting from the stairs with the bombs was plan A, and shooting from the stairs without the bombs was plan B. Krabbe is the only reason I say nearly all. Without him, it is literally all. Every single one.
Here is for example from the Governor's Report, page 26:
"After positioning the duffel bags near the cafeteria exits, Klebold and Harris left the building and waited in their cars, which they had parked strategically so that persons fleeing from the school building would be caught in a crossfire of bullets. Realizing after a few minutes that the large propane bombs had failed to detonate, the two teenaged perpetrators marched on the school in search of the victims they expected to come towards them."
They didn't position the duffel bags i. e. the bombs near the exits nor did they march on the school. The few minutes is literally two minutes maximum. That second sentence sums up Plan B. It is not a fact, but an opinion, and a dreadful one not supported by a single witness. Witnesses say Eric went to the top of the stairs and waited for Dylan.
Here is from Cullen's book:
"At 11:18, the school stood intact. Some kids had already made it through the lunch lines and were strolling outside, settling onto the lawn for a little picnic. No sign of disturbance. The timing devices were not precise. No digital readouts with seconds counting down in red numerals; they were old-fashioned clocks with a third little alarm hand positioned two-fifths of the way between the 3 and the 4. But they should have blown by now.
Hundreds of targets streamed out the student entrance. They hopped into their cars and zipped away. Time for Plan B. There was no Plan B. Eric had staggering confidence in himself. He left no indication that he planned for contingencies. Dylan left no indication that he planned much of anything.
They could just proceed to Act II: mow the departers down in a cross fire and advance on the exits as scripted. They still could have topped McVeigh. But they didn't. The bomb failure appears to have rattled one of the boys.
No one observed what happened next. Either boy might have panicked, but Eric was unflappable, the reverse of his partner. The physical evidence also points to Dylan. Eric apparently acted swiftly to retrieve his emotional young partner.
We don't know whether they employed their hand signals, or how they came together. We know that Eric was in the prime location yet abandoned it to come to Dylan's. And Eric moved quickly. Within two minutes, Eric had figured out that the bombs had failed, grabbed his packs, crossed the lot to Dylan's car, rushed with him to the building, and climbed the external stairs to the west exit. That's the first place they were observed, at 11:19.
Their new position set them on the highest point on campus, where they could survey both lots and all the exits on that side of the building. But it took them away from their primary target: the student entrance, still disgorging students. They could no longer triangulate or advance aggressively without separating."
This is really rich. It is pure storytelling, and depends on Cullen's a priori assumption that Eric was the big-bad leader and Dylan just along for the ride.
"The timing devices were not precise. No digital readouts with seconds counting down in red numerals; they were old-fashioned clocks with a third little alarm hand positioned two-fifths of the way between the 3 and the 4. But they should have blown by now. "
This is huge. Why should they have blown? They began shooting at 11:19, before it had gotten to the four! The whole plan B narrative is dependent on the devices being to-the-minute precise. If they aren't that precise, then there's no reason for them to think the bombs failed a minute later. Not to mention the absurdity, even with elite timing devices, of planning and fantasizing about the massacre for a year, having a diversion to buy time, and then giving up in two minutes.
"Hundreds of targets streamed out the student entrance. They hopped into their cars and zipped away"
Some people had lunch off campus, but "hundreds...streamed out the student entrance"?
"Time for Plan B. There was no Plan B. "
Sums up the absurdity better than I ever could.
"Eric had staggering confidence in himself. He left no indication that he planned for contingencies. Dylan left no indication that he planned much of anything."
I don't think either one planned for contingencies, i. e. there was no plan B.
"They could just proceed to Act II: mow the departers down in a cross fire and advance on the exits as scripted. They still could have topped McVeigh. But they didn't. The bomb failure appears to have rattled one of the boys.
No one observed what happened next. Either boy might have panicked, but Eric was unflappable, the reverse of his partner. The physical evidence also points to Dylan. Eric apparently acted swiftly to retrieve his emotional young partner.
We don't know whether they employed their hand signals, or how they came together. We know that Eric was in the prime location yet abandoned it to come to Dylan's. And Eric moved quickly. Within two minutes, Eric had figured out that the bombs had failed, grabbed his packs, crossed the lot to Dylan's car, rushed with him to the building, and climbed the external stairs to the west exit. That's the first place they were observed, at 11:19."
They observed what happened, just not this. Cullen thinks or the investigators he is parroting think they were using "interlocking fire lanes". Nothing appeared to rattle anyone. He is not citing witness statements here, but deducing a priori from his assumptions of Eric psychopathic leader/Dylan depressed follower.
It's simply false that Eric was in the prime location. His car was by the South entrance, yes, and you might think the south entrance is a prime area for people to flee; but they were not bombing the main halls of the school, they were bombing the cafeteria. There are a mere four cafeteria tables by the south entrance. Eric's car was a terrible place to shoot from, and Dylan's car was prime location, if we stick to the dogma that they had to shoot from their cars, even though they didn't.
The red car is Eric's "prime location", and the blue is Dylan's. The gray circles on the yellow background are the cafeteria tables.
That Eric noticed the bombs failed and Dylan panicked and went to his car and Eric retrieved him and went to the stairs and all in two minutes is all pure fantasy. No witnesses describe this. And Eric was observed there earlier than 11:19, waiting.
Worse, they said several times in the library that the library was going to explode and were obviously very serious. So, "they started shooting because the bombs failed" is plainly false. Dead. kaput.
Worse still, shooting from the parking lot is very dumb, and the stairs make perfect sense. I don't even get why "well the bombs failed, curses" entails going to the stairs to shoot people. I guess the elevation is the point, but why not have the elevation with the bombs? Also it is saying they are shooting randomly when they were not at all, but you can shoot randomly from the parking lot too. They shoot Rachel and Richard first, who were on the same elevation they were.
But lets pretend it makes sense at least from the standpoint of seeking the higher ground. Ok, what about glass from the exploding cafeteria? You are shielded from the blast up on the stairs, but just waiting to die from glass shards in the parking lot. Cullen says they were far enough away, but they weren't, and Dylan hated calculus so I don't think they could have known. As a sympathetic ear pointed out to me, it's possible the Oklahoma City Bombing was their biggest influence, and it had several injuries and casualties due to glass alone.
Worse still, what if their victims ran the other way? Even if they initially ran into the parking lot, they would learn that was certain death, and run back up the cafeteria stairs, as they did when Dave Sanders told them to do so. Then Eric and Dylan entered the west entrance, showing exactly why the stairs make sense for plan A. If they had been out in the parking lot, might as well kill themselves when people turn around.
Even worse still, what are they going to do about the police? They shoot at the cafeteria with their backs to the street. Cops arrive and shoot them both in the back of the head. Massacre over.
Also, one needs to remember they had two bombs. There was no point to set them for the same time and lose that complexity.
Also, Dylan entered the cafeteria, and investigators suspect it was to check on the bombs. Cullen offers an alternative theory, the only other one I've ever seen, that Eric ordered Dylan to shoot people in the cafeteria but he didn't have the courage. But he shot Lance in the face on the way there. So, this seems doubtful. It probably is true he was checking on the first bomb.
But this seems like a contradiction to me. If they could see that 11:17 had passed and that therefore the bomb failed, and started murdering people as a result, what is there to check? Does it not make more sense that as he descended the stairs, the cafeteria came into view, and the bomb failure became apparent? But he was not rattled, he simply watched people run up the cafeteria stairs, reported to Eric, and they entered the west entrance, as if they had planned for this.
And that brings up another huge point, they had planned for the cafeteria to be at its fullest when the bombs went off. If they knew the bombs had failed and moved on to shooting as many people as they could, why would they ever start shooting outside? They had maybe a dozen people outside, and hundreds in the cafeteria, but they choose to start shooting outside? It makes no sense unless they thought the bombs were soon to draw them out.
However, all you need to know is their cars aren't their guns. They and their guns were on the stairs. And they, very clearly, said one of the bombs was still in play while in the library, so they never started shooting because the bombs failed. Plan B is dead.
Hopefully you see this orthodoxy at 9:05 in the following video as absurd as I do:
In nearly all books, all investigative reports, and all the online fora on the Columbine massacre, you will find the following orthodox interpretation of the events, which is properly dubbed "Plan B":
They planned to shoot at fleeing survivors from their cars in the separate parking lots when the cafeteria bombs exploded at 11:17. Immediately, when it was 11:18, they realized the bombs had failed, and therefore moved to "plan B", which was to go to the top of the stairs and shoot everyone they could. By 11:19, they opened fire.
Curiously, all are also honest enough to admit that in all their journals and videos documenting their year-long plans and fantasies, they never mentioned a plan B.
Dave Cullen, who wrote Columbine, who represents the orthodoxy and gets the most flak from the online sleuths, some of it very well deserved, does not get similarly questioned for his plan B narrative. Though it is one of the silliest.
Tim Krabbé, who wrote the Dutch book Wij Zijn Maar Wij Zijn Niet Geschift (in English, We Are But We Are Not Psycho), often the favorite of the online sleuths, the current author included, recognizes correctly that not a single witness recalls them waiting by their cars for the bombs to go off, but rather has them head straight for the stairs. This good sense is no sooner extinguished, as Krabbé still buys into plan B when he has already seen all of the light required to scrap it. For Krabbé, shooting from the stairs with the bombs was plan A, and shooting from the stairs without the bombs was plan B. Krabbe is the only reason I say nearly all. Without him, it is literally all. Every single one.
Here is for example from the Governor's Report, page 26:
"After positioning the duffel bags near the cafeteria exits, Klebold and Harris left the building and waited in their cars, which they had parked strategically so that persons fleeing from the school building would be caught in a crossfire of bullets. Realizing after a few minutes that the large propane bombs had failed to detonate, the two teenaged perpetrators marched on the school in search of the victims they expected to come towards them."
They didn't position the duffel bags i. e. the bombs near the exits nor did they march on the school. The few minutes is literally two minutes maximum. That second sentence sums up Plan B. It is not a fact, but an opinion, and a dreadful one not supported by a single witness. Witnesses say Eric went to the top of the stairs and waited for Dylan.
Here is from Cullen's book:
"At 11:18, the school stood intact. Some kids had already made it through the lunch lines and were strolling outside, settling onto the lawn for a little picnic. No sign of disturbance. The timing devices were not precise. No digital readouts with seconds counting down in red numerals; they were old-fashioned clocks with a third little alarm hand positioned two-fifths of the way between the 3 and the 4. But they should have blown by now.
Hundreds of targets streamed out the student entrance. They hopped into their cars and zipped away. Time for Plan B. There was no Plan B. Eric had staggering confidence in himself. He left no indication that he planned for contingencies. Dylan left no indication that he planned much of anything.
They could just proceed to Act II: mow the departers down in a cross fire and advance on the exits as scripted. They still could have topped McVeigh. But they didn't. The bomb failure appears to have rattled one of the boys.
No one observed what happened next. Either boy might have panicked, but Eric was unflappable, the reverse of his partner. The physical evidence also points to Dylan. Eric apparently acted swiftly to retrieve his emotional young partner.
We don't know whether they employed their hand signals, or how they came together. We know that Eric was in the prime location yet abandoned it to come to Dylan's. And Eric moved quickly. Within two minutes, Eric had figured out that the bombs had failed, grabbed his packs, crossed the lot to Dylan's car, rushed with him to the building, and climbed the external stairs to the west exit. That's the first place they were observed, at 11:19.
Their new position set them on the highest point on campus, where they could survey both lots and all the exits on that side of the building. But it took them away from their primary target: the student entrance, still disgorging students. They could no longer triangulate or advance aggressively without separating."
This is really rich. It is pure storytelling, and depends on Cullen's a priori assumption that Eric was the big-bad leader and Dylan just along for the ride.
"The timing devices were not precise. No digital readouts with seconds counting down in red numerals; they were old-fashioned clocks with a third little alarm hand positioned two-fifths of the way between the 3 and the 4. But they should have blown by now. "
This is huge. Why should they have blown? They began shooting at 11:19, before it had gotten to the four! The whole plan B narrative is dependent on the devices being to-the-minute precise. If they aren't that precise, then there's no reason for them to think the bombs failed a minute later. Not to mention the absurdity, even with elite timing devices, of planning and fantasizing about the massacre for a year, having a diversion to buy time, and then giving up in two minutes.
"Hundreds of targets streamed out the student entrance. They hopped into their cars and zipped away"
Some people had lunch off campus, but "hundreds...streamed out the student entrance"?
"Time for Plan B. There was no Plan B. "
Sums up the absurdity better than I ever could.
"Eric had staggering confidence in himself. He left no indication that he planned for contingencies. Dylan left no indication that he planned much of anything."
I don't think either one planned for contingencies, i. e. there was no plan B.
"They could just proceed to Act II: mow the departers down in a cross fire and advance on the exits as scripted. They still could have topped McVeigh. But they didn't. The bomb failure appears to have rattled one of the boys.
No one observed what happened next. Either boy might have panicked, but Eric was unflappable, the reverse of his partner. The physical evidence also points to Dylan. Eric apparently acted swiftly to retrieve his emotional young partner.
We don't know whether they employed their hand signals, or how they came together. We know that Eric was in the prime location yet abandoned it to come to Dylan's. And Eric moved quickly. Within two minutes, Eric had figured out that the bombs had failed, grabbed his packs, crossed the lot to Dylan's car, rushed with him to the building, and climbed the external stairs to the west exit. That's the first place they were observed, at 11:19."
They observed what happened, just not this. Cullen thinks or the investigators he is parroting think they were using "interlocking fire lanes". Nothing appeared to rattle anyone. He is not citing witness statements here, but deducing a priori from his assumptions of Eric psychopathic leader/Dylan depressed follower.
It's simply false that Eric was in the prime location. His car was by the South entrance, yes, and you might think the south entrance is a prime area for people to flee; but they were not bombing the main halls of the school, they were bombing the cafeteria. There are a mere four cafeteria tables by the south entrance. Eric's car was a terrible place to shoot from, and Dylan's car was prime location, if we stick to the dogma that they had to shoot from their cars, even though they didn't.
That Eric noticed the bombs failed and Dylan panicked and went to his car and Eric retrieved him and went to the stairs and all in two minutes is all pure fantasy. No witnesses describe this. And Eric was observed there earlier than 11:19, waiting.
Worse, they said several times in the library that the library was going to explode and were obviously very serious. So, "they started shooting because the bombs failed" is plainly false. Dead. kaput.
Worse still, shooting from the parking lot is very dumb, and the stairs make perfect sense. I don't even get why "well the bombs failed, curses" entails going to the stairs to shoot people. I guess the elevation is the point, but why not have the elevation with the bombs? Also it is saying they are shooting randomly when they were not at all, but you can shoot randomly from the parking lot too. They shoot Rachel and Richard first, who were on the same elevation they were.
But lets pretend it makes sense at least from the standpoint of seeking the higher ground. Ok, what about glass from the exploding cafeteria? You are shielded from the blast up on the stairs, but just waiting to die from glass shards in the parking lot. Cullen says they were far enough away, but they weren't, and Dylan hated calculus so I don't think they could have known. As a sympathetic ear pointed out to me, it's possible the Oklahoma City Bombing was their biggest influence, and it had several injuries and casualties due to glass alone.
Worse still, what if their victims ran the other way? Even if they initially ran into the parking lot, they would learn that was certain death, and run back up the cafeteria stairs, as they did when Dave Sanders told them to do so. Then Eric and Dylan entered the west entrance, showing exactly why the stairs make sense for plan A. If they had been out in the parking lot, might as well kill themselves when people turn around.
Even worse still, what are they going to do about the police? They shoot at the cafeteria with their backs to the street. Cops arrive and shoot them both in the back of the head. Massacre over.
Also, one needs to remember they had two bombs. There was no point to set them for the same time and lose that complexity.
Also, Dylan entered the cafeteria, and investigators suspect it was to check on the bombs. Cullen offers an alternative theory, the only other one I've ever seen, that Eric ordered Dylan to shoot people in the cafeteria but he didn't have the courage. But he shot Lance in the face on the way there. So, this seems doubtful. It probably is true he was checking on the first bomb.
But this seems like a contradiction to me. If they could see that 11:17 had passed and that therefore the bomb failed, and started murdering people as a result, what is there to check? Does it not make more sense that as he descended the stairs, the cafeteria came into view, and the bomb failure became apparent? But he was not rattled, he simply watched people run up the cafeteria stairs, reported to Eric, and they entered the west entrance, as if they had planned for this.
And that brings up another huge point, they had planned for the cafeteria to be at its fullest when the bombs went off. If they knew the bombs had failed and moved on to shooting as many people as they could, why would they ever start shooting outside? They had maybe a dozen people outside, and hundreds in the cafeteria, but they choose to start shooting outside? It makes no sense unless they thought the bombs were soon to draw them out.
However, all you need to know is their cars aren't their guns. They and their guns were on the stairs. And they, very clearly, said one of the bombs was still in play while in the library, so they never started shooting because the bombs failed. Plan B is dead.
Hopefully you see this orthodoxy at 9:05 in the following video as absurd as I do:
Fact Check
This is the litany of facts which shall be used to build the case, as well as to introduce newbies to the events which took place and so also cover possibly irrelevant but infamous details, while still missing some others for brevity's sake. Apologies that there is no way to recall the events which is not graphic.
What was said in the library according to witnesses is gotten so very wrong in books and film depictions such as Zero Hour. People dogmatically cling to Eric as the "leader", and to them saying most of what they said at the entrance, but by all accounts Dylan was the vocal one in the library, and none of what was said was while standing at the entrance.
Background:
Fact: On the morning of April 20, 1999, senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planted two diversionary bombs a few miles south of their high school, and two 20 pound propane bombs in the school cafeteria set to explode during the busiest lunch hour, the "A" lunch shift, potentially killing some 500 students. They parked in separate parking lots, and rigged a bomb in each of their cars. They are wearing trench coats and t shirts with a message underneath. Eric's reads "Natural Selection" and Dylan's reads "Wrath".
Fact: They are armed with pipe bombs, CO2 cartridge bombs known as 'crickets', Molotov cocktails, two guns each, and knives. Eric carries a pump action shotgun and a carbine rifle, Dylan carries a double-barrel, break action shotgun and a TEC-9 handgun.
Fact: The Jeffco/CNN CD says the diversion devices had the capability of motion detection, and that this was relayed to the school.
Shooting begins:
Fact: At approximately 11:19 a. m., a pipe bomb is thrown into the parking lot, and they begin shooting students at the top of the stairs on the west side of the school. They first shoot Rachel Scott, who dies, and Richard Castaldo, who are eating lunch in the grass near the west entrance. Next they shoot Daniel Rohrbough, who dies, Lance Kirklin, and Sean Graves. They toss pipe bombs all the while, and shoot Michael Johnson and Mark Taylor on the grassy hill to the west. They also shoot at the surrounding sports fields, and apparently at anybody around.
Fact: Meanwhile inside the cafeteria, Dave Sanders and two custodians order students in the cafeteria to get down under tables, before telling them to run up the cafeteria stairs and out the back of the school.
Fact: Dylan descends the stairs, and shoots Lance Kirklin in the face with his shotgun when he meekly calls for help. He steps into the cafeteria slightly, before turning around and heading back up the stairs. Eric shoots Anne-Marie Hochhalter.
Fact: Eric gets into a shootout using his carbine with Jeffco police and school resource officer Neil Gardner. Neither are injured.
Fact: They shoot Patti Nielson and Brian Anderson and toss pipe bombs before they enter the west entrance. At some point while outside, Eric takes off his trench coat. They shoot at several fleeing students inside, but only hit Stephanie Munson in the ankle.
Fact: Dave Sanders is running around the school to help students by making sure doors are locked and so forth. He and a student turn a corner and Eric and Dylan are at the end of the hallway. He turns back around and is shot in the neck and back by Eric and collapses. The students gets away. Dylan walks to where Sanders fell and throws a pipe bomb down the hallway before heading back. Sanders is pulled into a science classroom and students and teachers in the room attempt to administer first aid.
Fact: The cafeteria CCTV shows they are throwing crickets and pipe bombs into the cafeteria from above. They also throw several in the halls.
Library massacre:
Fact: Patti Nielson rushes into the library, tells students to get under the tables, and dials 911 while she hides under the main counter. Her call would record the entire library massacre.
Fact: They enter the library at approximately 11:29 a. m. Dylan first, then Eric.
Fact: They proceed to kill ten people in the library with gunshots (Kyle Velazquez; Steven Curnow; Cassie Bernall; Isaiah Shoels; Matthew Kechter; Lauren Townsend; John Tomlin; Kelly Fleming; Daniel Mauser; and Corey Depooter). Several more are injured.
Fact: All the while in the library, they are speaking to the library in general and taunting students. They repeatedly taunt jocks, tell people to get up, and that the library is about to explode. They also taunt specific students.
Fact: According to Bree Pasquale, who most agree is the most perceptive witness, the first thing Dylan says to the library in general, after shooting Kyle is screaming: Everybody get up! We're gonna blow this library up!
Fact: They then shoot out the library windows at police. According to Bree and the diagrams of the shell casings, only Eric does this, with his shotgun.
Fact: Dylan removes his trench coat and fires at a table of 3 boys: Patrick Ireland, Makai Hall, and Daniel Steepleton. Ireland is later "the boy in the window", attempting to escape on live television.
Fact: Eric shoots Steven Curnow and seriously wounds Kacey Ruegsegger. He then slaps the top of the desk Cassie Bernall is hiding under before saying "peekaboo" and killing her with a shotgun blast to the head. He thus holds his shotgun with only one hand, and it smacks his face in recoil, making his nose bleed.
Fact: Eric taunts Bree, who was unable to hide under a desk properly. He tells her everybody in the library is going to die. When Dylan tells Eric to shoot her, he responds "No, we're gonna blow up the school anyway".
Fact: Dylan taunts Isaiah Shoels for being black. Both Eric and Dylan fire under his table. Eric kills Isaiah, and Dylan kills Matthew Kechter.
Fact: Eric tries to topple a bookcase. Dylan shoots out a trophy case. He then shoots Mark Kintgen.
Fact: Dylan fires several shots on a table full of girls, killing Lauren Townsend and injuring Val Schnurr and Lisa Kreutz. Val Schnurr would later be asked if she believes in God and why.
Fact: Nicole Nowlen and John Tomlin are shot by Eric. Tomlin moves out from under his table. He is then killed by shots from Dylan..
Fact: Kelly Fleming is killed by a shot from Eric's shotgun.
Fact: Eric points his carbine at a student and orders him to identify himself. It is John Savage. Dylan knows him, and does not kill him, but tells him to run.
Fact: Daniel Mauser is shot twice with Eric's carbine, first in a grazing shot with his hand and ear, then one square in the face, killing him. Something happens between him, the library chair, and Eric. Eric apparently thinks he was trying to jump him.
Fact: Dylan taunts Evan Todd who is underneath the main counter while holding him at gunpoint, but does not shoot him, and say he will let him live. Eric wants to go to the commons. Dylan smashes a chair on the counter. They leave at 11:36, and students flee out of the west entrance.
Suicide:
Fact: After lighting a storage closet on fire and shooting into a classroom, they are seen on the cafeteria CCTV. Eric tries to detonate a bomb by shooting at it. Dylan tosses a Molotov cocktail at it, causing a large fire by lighting a gas can attached to the propane tank, but which is eventually put out by the sprinklers.
Fact: Eric and Dylan walk around the halls of the school, tossing pipe bombs and shooting walls and ceilings.
Fact: They return to the cafeteria and are again seen on the CCTV. Eric seems to make a waving gesture. They enter the kitchen. Around noon, they go back up the cafeteria stairs and return to the library.
Fact: The police are shot at one more time. They light a Molotov cocktail on a tabletop, and both commit suicide by 12:08 p. m.
Appendix:
Fact: Dave Sanders dies several hours later, waiting for help to arrive. Throughout the massacre, police never entered the building.
Fact: Before the massacre, on unreleased video tapes, Dylan said "It will be the most nerve racking fifteen minutes of my life, when the bombs are planted and we're waiting to charge through the school".
Fact: While outside, Dylan shot a total of 3 times with his TEC-9, and once with his shotgun into Lance's face. Thus, in all likelihood, all shots spoken of outside are from Eric. Daniel Rohrbough's was considered proven to be from Eric in the reinvestigation into his death known as the El Paso Report, and there were some 8 shots which hit either of just Rachel or Richard.
What was said in the library according to witnesses is gotten so very wrong in books and film depictions such as Zero Hour. People dogmatically cling to Eric as the "leader", and to them saying most of what they said at the entrance, but by all accounts Dylan was the vocal one in the library, and none of what was said was while standing at the entrance.
Background:
Fact: On the morning of April 20, 1999, senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planted two diversionary bombs a few miles south of their high school, and two 20 pound propane bombs in the school cafeteria set to explode during the busiest lunch hour, the "A" lunch shift, potentially killing some 500 students. They parked in separate parking lots, and rigged a bomb in each of their cars. They are wearing trench coats and t shirts with a message underneath. Eric's reads "Natural Selection" and Dylan's reads "Wrath".
Fact: They are armed with pipe bombs, CO2 cartridge bombs known as 'crickets', Molotov cocktails, two guns each, and knives. Eric carries a pump action shotgun and a carbine rifle, Dylan carries a double-barrel, break action shotgun and a TEC-9 handgun.
Fact: The Jeffco/CNN CD says the diversion devices had the capability of motion detection, and that this was relayed to the school.
Shooting begins:
Fact: At approximately 11:19 a. m., a pipe bomb is thrown into the parking lot, and they begin shooting students at the top of the stairs on the west side of the school. They first shoot Rachel Scott, who dies, and Richard Castaldo, who are eating lunch in the grass near the west entrance. Next they shoot Daniel Rohrbough, who dies, Lance Kirklin, and Sean Graves. They toss pipe bombs all the while, and shoot Michael Johnson and Mark Taylor on the grassy hill to the west. They also shoot at the surrounding sports fields, and apparently at anybody around.
Fact: Meanwhile inside the cafeteria, Dave Sanders and two custodians order students in the cafeteria to get down under tables, before telling them to run up the cafeteria stairs and out the back of the school.
Fact: Dylan descends the stairs, and shoots Lance Kirklin in the face with his shotgun when he meekly calls for help. He steps into the cafeteria slightly, before turning around and heading back up the stairs. Eric shoots Anne-Marie Hochhalter.
Fact: Eric gets into a shootout using his carbine with Jeffco police and school resource officer Neil Gardner. Neither are injured.
Fact: They shoot Patti Nielson and Brian Anderson and toss pipe bombs before they enter the west entrance. At some point while outside, Eric takes off his trench coat. They shoot at several fleeing students inside, but only hit Stephanie Munson in the ankle.
Fact: Dave Sanders is running around the school to help students by making sure doors are locked and so forth. He and a student turn a corner and Eric and Dylan are at the end of the hallway. He turns back around and is shot in the neck and back by Eric and collapses. The students gets away. Dylan walks to where Sanders fell and throws a pipe bomb down the hallway before heading back. Sanders is pulled into a science classroom and students and teachers in the room attempt to administer first aid.
Fact: The cafeteria CCTV shows they are throwing crickets and pipe bombs into the cafeteria from above. They also throw several in the halls.
Library massacre:
Fact: Patti Nielson rushes into the library, tells students to get under the tables, and dials 911 while she hides under the main counter. Her call would record the entire library massacre.
Fact: They enter the library at approximately 11:29 a. m. Dylan first, then Eric.
Fact: They proceed to kill ten people in the library with gunshots (Kyle Velazquez; Steven Curnow; Cassie Bernall; Isaiah Shoels; Matthew Kechter; Lauren Townsend; John Tomlin; Kelly Fleming; Daniel Mauser; and Corey Depooter). Several more are injured.
Fact: All the while in the library, they are speaking to the library in general and taunting students. They repeatedly taunt jocks, tell people to get up, and that the library is about to explode. They also taunt specific students.
Fact: According to Bree Pasquale, who most agree is the most perceptive witness, the first thing Dylan says to the library in general, after shooting Kyle is screaming: Everybody get up! We're gonna blow this library up!
Fact: They then shoot out the library windows at police. According to Bree and the diagrams of the shell casings, only Eric does this, with his shotgun.
Fact: Dylan removes his trench coat and fires at a table of 3 boys: Patrick Ireland, Makai Hall, and Daniel Steepleton. Ireland is later "the boy in the window", attempting to escape on live television.
Fact: Eric shoots Steven Curnow and seriously wounds Kacey Ruegsegger. He then slaps the top of the desk Cassie Bernall is hiding under before saying "peekaboo" and killing her with a shotgun blast to the head. He thus holds his shotgun with only one hand, and it smacks his face in recoil, making his nose bleed.
Fact: Eric taunts Bree, who was unable to hide under a desk properly. He tells her everybody in the library is going to die. When Dylan tells Eric to shoot her, he responds "No, we're gonna blow up the school anyway".
Fact: Dylan taunts Isaiah Shoels for being black. Both Eric and Dylan fire under his table. Eric kills Isaiah, and Dylan kills Matthew Kechter.
Fact: Eric tries to topple a bookcase. Dylan shoots out a trophy case. He then shoots Mark Kintgen.
Fact: Dylan fires several shots on a table full of girls, killing Lauren Townsend and injuring Val Schnurr and Lisa Kreutz. Val Schnurr would later be asked if she believes in God and why.
Fact: Nicole Nowlen and John Tomlin are shot by Eric. Tomlin moves out from under his table. He is then killed by shots from Dylan..
Fact: Kelly Fleming is killed by a shot from Eric's shotgun.
Fact: Eric points his carbine at a student and orders him to identify himself. It is John Savage. Dylan knows him, and does not kill him, but tells him to run.
Fact: Daniel Mauser is shot twice with Eric's carbine, first in a grazing shot with his hand and ear, then one square in the face, killing him. Something happens between him, the library chair, and Eric. Eric apparently thinks he was trying to jump him.
Fact: Corey Depooter is the last to die at 11:35. Witnesses recall them saying it might be more fun to start stabbing people.
Fact: Dylan taunts Evan Todd who is underneath the main counter while holding him at gunpoint, but does not shoot him, and say he will let him live. Eric wants to go to the commons. Dylan smashes a chair on the counter. They leave at 11:36, and students flee out of the west entrance.
Suicide:
Fact: After lighting a storage closet on fire and shooting into a classroom, they are seen on the cafeteria CCTV. Eric tries to detonate a bomb by shooting at it. Dylan tosses a Molotov cocktail at it, causing a large fire by lighting a gas can attached to the propane tank, but which is eventually put out by the sprinklers.
Fact: Eric and Dylan walk around the halls of the school, tossing pipe bombs and shooting walls and ceilings.
Fact: They return to the cafeteria and are again seen on the CCTV. Eric seems to make a waving gesture. They enter the kitchen. Around noon, they go back up the cafeteria stairs and return to the library.
Fact: The police are shot at one more time. They light a Molotov cocktail on a tabletop, and both commit suicide by 12:08 p. m.
Appendix:
Fact: Dave Sanders dies several hours later, waiting for help to arrive. Throughout the massacre, police never entered the building.
Fact: Before the massacre, on unreleased video tapes, Dylan said "It will be the most nerve racking fifteen minutes of my life, when the bombs are planted and we're waiting to charge through the school".
Fact: While outside, Dylan shot a total of 3 times with his TEC-9, and once with his shotgun into Lance's face. Thus, in all likelihood, all shots spoken of outside are from Eric. Daniel Rohrbough's was considered proven to be from Eric in the reinvestigation into his death known as the El Paso Report, and there were some 8 shots which hit either of just Rachel or Richard.
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