Cullenbine: An Examination of some of the facts of Dave Cullen's Columbine

April 20th, 1999. A day no one will ever forget. The day that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their high school, Columbine High, and killed 12 students and a teacher, before turning the gun on themselves. Ever since the deadly shooting, everyone started asking, “why?”

Many lies about the incident and the boys were quickly spread by the media. However, as more evidence surfaced and was released, some truth on the matter was eventually revealed. In 2009, journalist Dave Cullen released the book Columbine in an attempt to reveal to the public what really happened on that day, and what led up to the massacre.

And in many ways, he succeeded.

He revealed that these boys were not goths, that they were not into witchcraft,  that they were not part of the “Trench Coat Mafia”, and that Marilyn Manson and Doom had nothing to do with it.

But it seems other myths were created in the midst of dispelling others. The public ate up Columbine, and it received nothing but praise. But I feel that some things stated in the book are not true. I will go through three major discrepancies that I found, and offer some evidence as to why they are discrepancies.

Anyway, let’s start with fact #1.

ERIC HARRIS THE LADIES MAN

One of the first things that this book says about the killers is that Eric Harris was a complete ladies man at Columbine: outscoring even the football players when it came to girls. This does not seem to be the case.

Only a few relationships that belonged to Eric have been confirmed. Eric escorted Tiffany Hyphner to the homecoming dance in freshman year, and was denied a date after that. In junior year, he had a crush on student Devon Adams. A few days before the massacre, Eric spent prom night with a sophomore named Susan DeWitt at his house watching a movie. And that’s about all that’s been confirmed. Yup. I don’t know how “ladies man” came out of that.

One thing Cullen does mention is how Eric supposedly had an intimate relationship with a 23 year old while he was 17. This is of course referring to Brenda Parker, a 23 year old claiming that she slept with Eric and had a relationship with him.

What’s funny is that Brenda also said that she was going to be the third shooter but stepped out at the last second. That doesn’t sound right, does it? And what happened after the police questioned her? She admitted that she made everything up about Eric and the shooting, and that she was just a fangirl with no life. This is in Jeffco’s official 11,000 page report of the shooting.

To find out more about Brenda Parker’s lies, download the Jefferson County official 11,000 page report (known as the 11k) and go to pages 10843-10851.

If Dave Cullen accepted Brenda’s story as fact when the most known document of the shooting exposes it as false, why would we not believe that all of the ladies man stuff is false? And based on the evidence, it was.

An interesting note, here’s an excerpt from Eric’s journal that dates to a few weeks before the attack:

“why the fuck cant I get any? I mean, I'm nice and considerate and all that shit, but nooooo. I think I try to hard. but I kinda need to considering NBK is closing in.”

Note: All spelling and grammatical errors in journal excerpts are intentional, as I am copying and pasting them.

He has another journal entry talking about how things could change if he got laid, but it is very long and becomes extremely graphic so I don’t need to post it here. You can find it here though:

http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/writing/journal.html

Anyway, it seems that the students who went to school with Eric were right when they said he was a virgin.

Moving on.

BULLYING: IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

Now, I think there is some truth to Cullen’s thesis that Eric was psychotic. One look at his journal and it’s clear that he had some issues. He was no ordinary kid. And although it’s arguable how much bullying actually caused the shooting (or really bombing, because that was what it was supposed to be), it’s not fair to say that it had NOTHING to do with it. The evidence speaks for itself.

Eric’s journal:

“If people would give me more compliments all of this might still be avoidable... but probably not. Whatever I do people make fun of me, and sometimes directly to my face. I'll get revenge soon enough. fuckers shouldn't have ripped on me so much huh! HA! then again its human nature to do what you did... so I guess I am also attacking the human race. I cant take it, Its not right... true... correct... perfect. I fucking hate the human equation.”

Notice how he refers to the attack as REVENGE.

Another excerpt:

“Everyone is always making fun of me because of how I look, how fucking weak I am and shit, well I will get you all back: ultimate fucking revenge here. you people could have shown more respect, treated me better, asked for my knowledge or guidence more, treated me more like senior, and maybe I wouldn't have been as ready to tear your fucking heads off. then again, I have always hated how I looked, I make fun of people who look like me, sometimes without even thinking sometimes just because I want to rip on myself. Thats where a lot of my hate grows from, the fact that I have practically no selfesteem, especially concerning girls and looks and such. therefore people make fun of me... constantly... therefore I get no respect and therefore I get fucking PISSED”

This one also mentions his insecurity about girls... another reason the whole “ladies man” thing is untrue.

One more from Eric’s journal:

“I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't fucking say, "well thats your fault" because it isnt, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no. no no no dont let the weird looking Eric KID come along, ohh fucking nooo.”

Here are two excerpts from the transcription from one of the infamous Basement Tapes, which were tapes made by the killers explaining their motive, but never released:

“Eric: (making shooting noises while aiming his shotgun) ‘Isn't it fun to get the respect we're going to deserve? We don't give a shit because we're going to die doing it.’”

“They also mention enemies that abused them and friends who didn't do enough to defend them.”

Clearly Eric felt picked on. Here’s an interesting quote from Nate Dykeman, a Columbine student.

“Dylan, never, and Dylan I’m pretty sure never had a problem with it. But Eric, yes, they’d taunt him and harass him in the halls and make fun of the music he listened to, and—yes.”

It seems Eric was bullied. But not Dylan? Well, it seems Dylan also had some rage against people who made fun of him. An excerpt from his writing in Eric’s year book:

“my wrath for January's incident will be GOD-LIKE. Not to mention our revenge in the commons”

It’s interesting to note that Dylan refers to the plan as a revenge. And one would think that “January’s incident” refers to their January of 1998 arrest for breaking into a van (which they both said they hated immensely), but Brooks Brown, someone who went to school with him, thought the January incident could’ve meant one of two things. One was an accusation made towards them that they brought marijuana into the school, which warranted a search of their property. This made them very angry. The second was when a bunch of kids pelted them with ketchup packets and called them faggots.

Brown also reported that Eric was made fun of in the locker room for having chest indent, and student Chad Laughlin said that in his junior year, seniors pelted Klebold with ketchup covered tampons. According to Laughlin, Klebold told his mom it was the worst day of his life.

Two students, Nathan Vanderau and Alisa Owen, reported that they were always being picked on, and that a cup of fecal matter was apparently thrown at them.

Finally, a student in Klebold’s gym class reported that he was called stretch and laughed at for being bad at sports. He also reported Harris was shoved into lockers because of his looks.

Dylan also expressed his feelings of being hated in one of the tapes that has become known as the “Basement Tapes”. Here is an excerpt:

“Dylan says that as far back as the Foothills Day Care center he hated the ‘stuck-up’ kids who he felt hated him. ‘Being shy didn't help. I'm going to kill you all. You've been giving us shit for years.’”

And here’s one from his journal:

“I get rejected for being honest about fuckin hate for jocks”

So it seems that both Eric and Dylan suffered from bullying, maybe Dylan to a bit lesser of a degree. I’m not proposing bullying was necessarily the direct cause, but there’s a hell of a case that it might’ve been, or at least a major cause. It’s worth nothing that the boys liked to mention the attack as a “revenge”.

Finally, here’s an excerpt from a great documentary called The Columbine Killers. This part discusses bullying. Watch it, and then the rest of the documentary; it presents the story very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvquFYMMOrg

Finally, the last fact:

DYLAN KLEBOLD WAS INNOCENT AND LEAD INTO IT BY ERIC

Cullen proposes that Dylan would not have done it without Eric, that that Eric completely lead Dylan into it, that Dylan did not actually want to, and that Dylan only did it because he was depressed and wanted to die.

While the first part can never be proven or disproven, and Dylan was very depressed and suicidal, there is a lot of evidence that states Dylan was as into it as Eric was. Let’s look at the evidence.

First of all, it’s very possible that Dylan THOUGHT of the idea of the massacre. Take a look at this excerpt from Dylan’s journal:

“Soon... either ill commit suicide, or I'll get w. [edited] & it will be NBK for us”

This appears months before Eric mentions “NBK” in his writings ( NBK Stands for Natural Born Killers, and it was their codename for the attack), but what is interesting is that in this, Dylan’s  partner in crime’s name is redacted, meaning he wasn’t referring to Eric. Eric’s name was never redacted in the writings. This probably means Dylan had the idea of going “NBK” and wanted to do it with a different friend, before turning to Eric. That’s kind of a lot for someone who was dragged into it.

Here’s an excerpt that dates to 1997, before Eric and Dylan supposedly started planning the attack:

“[edited] will get me a gun, ill go on my killing spree against anyone I want.”

Clearly Eric was not the only one who had homicidal thoughts privately. And the evidence does not stop there. It seems Dylan could be just as angry as Eric. Let’s look at what Dylan wrote in  Eric’s 1998 yearbook:

“We, the gods, will have SO much fun with NBK!! Killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops!! My wrath for January’s incident will be godlike. Not to mention our revenge in the commons. GAWWD. Soo many people need to die ... You know what I hate?? PEOPLE!! YEAA!”

A lot of anger there. Here is an excerpt from the basement tapes, showing Dylan’s excitement for the killing:

“KLEBOLD: We're hoping. We're hoping. I hope we kill 250 of you. It will be the most nerve-racking 15 minutes of my life, after the bombs are set and we're waiting to charge through the school. Seconds will be like hours. I can't wait. I'll be shaking like a leaf.”

If you read the transcripts of the basement tapes, you will see that Dylan appears to be just as eager as Eric, if not more.

Here is one of the last parts of Klebold’s journal:

“ One day. one is the beginning? the end. hahaha. reversed, yet true. About 26.5 hours from now the judgement will begin. Difficult, but not impossible, necessary, nervewracking & fun.

What fun is life without

a little death?

Its interesting, when im in my human form, knowing im going to die. Everything has a touch of triviality to it. like how none of this calculus shit matters. the way it shuldn't. the truth. In 26.4 hours ill be dead, & in happiness. The little zombie human fags will know their errors, & be forever suffering & mournful, HAHAHA, of course i will miss things. not really.”

It seems Dylan also had a lot of anger, and excitement about the event. Even other students noticed Klebold’s anger:

“But something else stands out for the bowling partners: Dylan's explosive temper.

‘Dylan would get so mad when he didn't get strikes,’ Jeni said. ‘One time he hit the bowling return machine really hard.’ (http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/0822fata1.shtml)

To wrap this up, I will cite the documentary “The Columbine Killers” one more time. This excerpt is from Brooks Brown talking about the killers’ behavior during the attack. Brooks is talking about Patti Nielson’s 911 call here, where you can hear all that happened in the library. The full 911 call has not been released publicly:

“Eric is much more stoic. He does laugh about a few things, but Dylan is having the time of his LIFE. Like it’s a party. And he’s killing people like it’s a party. I mean, it’s unbelievable how happy he is, he’s giddy about doing it.”

All in all, it does not seem that Dylan was just lead into it. He shows a lot of enthusiasm, anger, and excitement about the killings. He may have even come up with the idea. To say it was all Eric’s idea and Dylan was just depressed and went along with it is not accurate. Here is an excerpt from Dave Cullen’s website, talking about Dylan’s writing in Eric’s yearbook:

“For example he's all bravado here, because it's for Eric's consumption. But privately, he only thumps his chest this way for brief moments. In the journal, those bits are quickly followed by confessions that he doesn't buy a word of it, and he quickly returns to disparaging himself.”

My question is: where in the journal does Dylan say he doesn’t buy a word of it, if that is referring to Dylan’s involvement in the massacre? I read the whole journal, and I never saw that anywhere. Dylan was just as involved as Eric.

I just believe they were different. I wouldn't agree with Cullen that Eric was a "psychopath". He shows remorse plenty of times on the basement tapes, he even says he WISHES he was a psychopath so he DIDN'T feel remorse. Also, one of the basement tapes consists of Eric sitting in his car, remembering his old friends from Michigan. He talks about how he'll be dead, and starts crying. Then turns the camera off. That's not very psychopath like... Eric was more angry, more disturbed, and was bullied more. He was influenced more by sadism that was fueled by rage, but also revenge.  Dylan seems to be easier to understand: he’s angry and wants revenge, and was depressed.

They both hated human beings. They both hated the world, and wanted to be remembered. I don't think they killed because of their bullying, but it DEFINITELY contributed to their massive amount of rage. They wanted, as Klebold put it, “the most deaths in US history”.

I do not glorify or condone the actions of these two sick fucks.