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Inside the Columbine High investigation
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That passage was among the evidence investigators shared with Columbine faculty and administrators last month. Attendees divulged that Kiekbusch and FBI supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier delivered a secret presentation at the school Aug. 12, four days before students "took back the school." Families of the victims have also been briefed, and key administrators attended an FBI summit in Virginia on the series of school shootings this summer. School board members, who recently approved new security measures, will be briefed in the near future.

Teachers and administrators found the revelations difficult to hear, even while finding some relief, said school district spokesman Rick Kaufman. "It did dispel quite a few myths or embellishments of certain stories that have taken on a life of their own in the community."

But it was unsettling for faculty to learn the brutal details of the plan hatched by two high-achieving students, and to see the extent of the façade Harris and Klebold foisted upon them. "These are people that knew the two killers as well as those who were killed," Kaufman said. "It's a sense that you know in some way how they were killed, and perhaps the tragic circumstances that went behind their deaths."

The texts offer extensive details about the assault plan, tremendous insight into Harris' torturous state of mind and no clear indication as to why they converted their fantasy into reality. They do offer some clues, but Kiekbusch says his team will avoid drawing any conclusions from them.

"We deal with facts; we present facts," Kiekbusch said. The final report will likely run a few hundred pages and contain "a fair amount" of Harris' texts, but few if any theories, he said. "We'll make a diligent effort not to include a bunch of conclusions. Here are the facts: You read it and make your own conclusions."

But individual investigators are drawing conclusions, and not all of them agree. Some sources focused on the killers' belief in their own superiority, as though they constituted a two-man master race. Some point to the fact that as the killing began, Harris tore off his trench coat to expose a white T-shirt reading "Natural Selection." Their writings stress their bond, including statements like "We're the only two who have self-awareness," "Nobody else is like us" and "We're the only two people who seem to understand the meaning of life."

"They do consider the human race beneath them," one investigator said. Harris "talks a lot about natural selection and that kind of leads into his admiration of Hitler and Nazism and their 'final solution' -- that we, the human race have interrupted or disrupted natural selection by inventing vaccines and stuff like that. In one of his writings, he talks about that: 'It would be great if there were no vaccines, because people who should have died would have died, and we wouldn't be perpetuating this kind of stuff.'"

Following the tragedy, students widely reported Harris' fascination with Hitler and Nazism. But sources said that Harris adopted Hitler's concept of a master race in a general sense, without his particular distaste for Jews or blacks. To Harris, the master race seems to have consisted only of himself and Klebold, though they set out to kill themselves in the attack as well. He stated explicitly that while Hitler's "final solution" was to kill the Jews, his was to kill all mankind.

Kiekbusch would not comment on any superiority or master-race theories, but said the writings showed "they put themselves above everyone else." And while Battan acknowledges that superiority themes appeared in Harris' writings, she does not consider those ideas central to his motive for the killings. "A lot of it is just ramblings," she said. "It's just ranting of kids. And they contradict themselves. So what is real? What do they really feel? Who knows."

One thread running consistently through the texts is the desire for glory, the expectation of fame. "Like many of the school shooters, they seem to be expecting some sort of notoriety, in addition to wanting the vengeance," one source said. "Because they felt they have been mistreated by a number of people, they're going to strike back at the human race.

"But they also kind of expect notoriety." Harris' writings contain statements like "When you [the media] write about this ... When you read about this ... We were planning this before the kids in Jonesboro, and we're going to die in there," the source said.

Battan actually believes fame was the single biggest reason Harris and Klebold ultimately went through with the plan. "That's my personal opinion," she said. "And all the rest of the justifications are just smoke." Other key investigators backed that assessment.

The texts were littered with comments about their expected glory, Battan said. "They certainly wanted the media to write stories about them every day. And they wanted cult followings. They're going to become superstars by getting rid of bad people. And you know, it worked. They're famous."

And investigators say that's a troubling lesson the Columbine killers left for other disturbed teens. "Right now, somebody in some little town or big city is planning to outdo Harris and Klebold," Battan said. The thousands of annual teen suicides represent a potential powder keg. "When we were kids, if you're that unhappy with your life, you kill yourself," she said. "Well, that's become a bit passé. So now you take out as many people as you can with you."
salon.com | Sept. 23, 1999

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