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Saturday, Nov 28, 2009
Video footage made by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold leaves unanswered questions about whether their parents could have stopped the massacre at Columbine.
Dec 14, 1999 | Five videos Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot shortly before massacring their peers at Columbine High School confirm and graphically illustrate the picture investigators have painted of two angry teens seeking fame and indiscriminate revenge. They also add a few fresh twists.
It turns out the killers actually revealed some remorse in anticipation of the killings -- but only toward select loved ones. And the lasting fallout from the tapes is likely to be the mixed messages they send concerning the culpability of the killers' parents, particularly the Harrises.
Passages from the three-plus hours of videotapes were first made public last month, when lead investigator Kate Battan read excerpts at the hearing where Mark Manes was sentenced for selling Klebold a TEC-9 handgun used in the massacre. Later, Timothy Roche of Time magazine was allowed to watch the videos, and he revealed their contents in the magazine's current cover story, made public Sunday.
Officials then decided to go public with the videos and conducted media showings Sunday and Monday. While the videos generally just confirm what investigators have been saying for months, they offer dramatic testimony to drive home certain points that had been hard to believe. Battan, for instance, revealed months ago that the killers were primarily motivated by fame, and that she did not believe their parents were to blame.
The tapes bear out both points. "Directors will be fighting over this story," Klebold says, and the pair imagined Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino immortalizing them on film. Klebold brags about being responsible for "the most deaths in U.S. history."
The videos also corroborate the second major motivation investigators have repeatedly cited: indiscriminate retribution for years of perceived abuse from their peers. "If you could see all the anger I've stored over the past four fucking years," Klebold says. He cites abuse from "stuck-up" kids all the way back to day care.
"I'm going to kill you all," he says. "You've been giving us shit for years ... You're fucking going to pay for all the shit ... We don't give a shit because we're going to die doing it." Harris complains of constant petty abuse -- "my face, my hair, my shirts."
And once again, the killers made clear that their hate is not directed at any one group, such as the jocks, Christians and African-
"I hope we kill 250 of you," Klebold says.
The one area on which the videos shed significant new light is the killers' relationships with their parents. Investigators have closely guarded the scattered but frequent moments of affection and remorse they display toward their families on the videos.
"My parents are the best fucking parents I have ever known," Harris says. "My dad is great. I wish I was a fucking sociopath so I didn't have any remorse, but I do ... This is going to tear them apart ... I really am sorry about all this." He recalls thoughtful moments of tenderness from his mother, bringing him candy and slim jims. "It fucking sucks to do this to them," he says.
"I just wanted to apologize to you guys for any crap," Harris says. "To everyone I love, I'm really sorry about all this."
Klebold calls his mother and father "great parents," adding "They gave me my fucking life." He excuses them for possible mistakes they weren't aware of, and thanks them for teaching him self-awareness and self-reliance. "I appreciate that."
