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"I hate the fucking world"
The writings of high school killer Eric Harris reveal an equal opportunity misanthrope.
By Dave Cullen
[09/23/99]

Cry for me, Puerto Rico
The next big issue after the clemency controversy is the growing pressure to throw the U.S. Navy off its test bombing range.
By Susan Crabtree
[09/22/99]

Hog hell in North Carolina
Environmentalists and state officials clash over the number of dead pigs, but everyone agrees it's a public health disaster in the making.
By Fetzer Mills Jr.
[09/22/99]

Republican tax cut, R.I.P.
President Clinton plans to announce his veto of the $792 billion GOP plan Thursday.
By Daryl Lindsey
[09/21/99]

Reformers from hell
So it's Pitchfork Pat and the Tiny Texan vs. The Body and The Donald. And they call this an "alternative"?
By Joe Conason
[09/21/99]

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"It's pretty clear now that the initial plan was to have the two propane bombs they put in the cafeteria go off," a top investigator said. "And that's as indiscriminate as you can get. Every kid killed was a target of opportunity," not singled out to settle a score, he said.

Battan called their behavior random: "Sticking a gun underneath a table and firing -- they didn't even know who was under that table."

The jock myth grew out of now-legendary reports that the killers began their library killing spree with the demand: "All jocks stand up!" But it never happened, multiple sources confirmed. The notion that the pair was targeting jocks didn't even pass the initial smell test, Battan said: "How many of the jocks hang out in the library at lunch time?" "They knew where the gym was," another investigator added.

Likewise, Isaiah Shoels' death was unrelated to his race, investigators insisted. Early reports had the killers searching him out, but there was no evidence that such a hunt occurred. "[Every] young boy or girl happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, including Isaiah Shoels," one said. Eyewitnesses disagreed about whether Harris and Klebold called him a "nigger" while they gunned him down, but if so, it was clearly a cruel taunt rather than a motive for his murder.

But cooperative sources quickly clammed up when questioned about the most celebrated Columbine story of all, immortalized this month in Misty Bernall's bestseller, "She Said Yes: The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall." "This is just too sensitive," a key source said, insisting on anonymity even for that statement. According to Misty Bernall's book, which has energized Christian youth movements around the world, the killers put a gun to her daughter Cassie's head and asked if she believed in God. When she said yes, they blew her away.

But while no one would go on the record, key investigators made it clear that an alternate scenario is far more likely: The killers asked another girl, Valeen Schnurr, a similar question, then shot her, and she lived to tell about it. Schnurr's story was then apparently misattributed to Cassie.

"Many of the kids were actually hiding under desks and hearing only bits and fragments of the conversation," one investigator explained. "It appears that exactly who they taunted, what questions were asked and who replied what may never be crystal clear." And even if it is clear, investigators clearly don't intend to tell. They cited the tense political climate around the story in this heavily evangelical community, as well as the potential embarrassment to Cassie's family, uniformly describing the Bernalls as sincere victims who may have been misinformed "through no malicious intent."

But investigators were willing to say that whichever girl was asked about her faith, her life did not hinge on her answer. One key investigator said there is no evidence the outcome would have been any different if she had denied she believed in God.

The bottom line, investigators insist, is that regardless of which spiteful jibes the killers tossed about during the shooting spree, none of the taunts bore any relation to their motives. "Were there things said about jocks?" Battan asked. "Probably. About God? Probably. Was there a 'nigger' comment? Probably. But that's not what it was about." Investigators agree it was about hate. "We can tell you why they did it, because they tell us why they're going to do it," a key source said. "They did it because they were consumed with hate."

"They hated everybody and everything," echoed Division Chief John Kiekbusch, the ranking officer overseeing the case.

Next page | Why did they kill so few?