Inside the Columbine High investigation

Five months after the massacre, investigators also refute other key allegations about the pair: that they were members of the Trench Coat Mafia, raised by negligent parents, practicing Goths or frustrated gays.

Harris and Klebold are still routinely referred to as belonging to the Trench Coat Mafia. As recently as Wednesday, in a report on Sears' decision to stop selling a trench coat-wearing action figure, CNN Headline News was referring to "the two Trench Coat Mafia teens who were responsible for the Columbine High School massacre last April." But sources unanimously and unequivocally confirm that the group had nothing whatsoever to do with the murders, and very little to do with Harris and Klebold.

Some of the confusion concerning a wider conspiracy lies with premature remarks made by Sheriff John Stone the morning after the massacre. But the department has since ruled out the possibility that the killers were connected with the group of Columbine outsiders known as the Trench Coat Mafia.

"Harris and Klebold were never part of the Trench Coat Mafia," one investigator said. "They were kind of friends of fringe members." Battan scoffed at the notion of any significant association: "They were outcasts in that!"

By the time of the murders, most of the Trench Coat Mafia had graduated or dropped out, and the term was almost an anachronism, investigators explained. That didn't stop a flurry of would-be terrorists from latching onto the name. "Suddenly, there were thousands of Trench Coat Mafia all over the country," Davis said. "I get Internet threats from, like, Iowa that they're the Trench Coat Mafia," Battan laughed. "Well, there is no Trench Coat Mafia!"

That didn't stop anyone associated with the group from being ostracized. They went virtually unseen at the innumerable memorials and grief ceremonies, and some students even threatened "retaliatory" violence should they show their faces in nearby Clement Park, which became the site of impromptu memorials last spring.

It was widely reported that students associated with the group were effectively prohibited from finishing the school year with their peers at Chatfield High School. However, district spokesman Rick Kaufman says it had nothing to do with the Trench Coat Mafia per se. Eighteen students were identified as acquaintances of Harris and Klebold, he said.

They were offered alternatives such as home-based tutoring, "because of the raw emotions, the strong feelings that existed right after the tragedy." "Twelve of the 18 said, 'Thanks but no thanks,' and returned to school," he said. "Six of the 12 accepted the offer. There was only one student who we were not going to allow back to school."

As far as trench coats themselves, Klebold was known to wear one occasionally. However, "No student can recall ever seeing Eric wear a trench coat, other than once, this past fall [1998], other than the day of the shooting," Kaufman said.

But weren't the killers at least trying to evoke some echo of the group by donning their trademark trench coats for the assault? "I can say firmly that the reason they wore coats was for logistical, practical reasons," a key investigator said. The practicality comes into focus with an accurate picture of the armaments the killers loaded themselves with: two guns apiece -- a TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, a 9 mm rifle and a pair of shotguns -- along with a healthy supply of ammunition and pipe bombs. "The idea was so they could walk up to the school without being seen walking across the parking lot carrying a gun."

Just as some early reports tarred the Trench Coat Mafia, others criticized Harris' and Klebold's parents for inadequate supervision. But investigators staunchly resist a blame-the-parents scenario, discussing the Harris and Klebold families in surprisingly sympathetic tones. They have largely ruled out the parents as contributors to the problem. Certainly no criminal charges are anticipated, Sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis confirmed. Battan bristled at the suggestion she was seeking evidence of criminal culpability in questioning the Klebolds, or that she has any such intent with the Harrises, who have steadfastly refused to talk to investigators.

"It really does begin with the family," Battan said. "But I'm here to tell you, I sat down and I've spent a lot of time with the Klebolds, and they're nice people. It's not like they're these monsters that raised a monster. I mean, they truly are clueless about any warning signs that this was going to happen."

Other investigators offered similar assessments. The prevailing sentiment around the investigation is that most of the people pointing fingers at the parents would have been just as easily taken in by their own kids.

Division Chief Kiekbusch was among the minority refusing an opinion -- "It's not for us to judge their parenting skills," he averred -- but he did offer an explanation. "These kids put on a fagade for their parents," he said. "Perhaps the parents were somewhat naive, but I think there was a very deliberate attempt to mislead a lot of people: their friends, teachers ... When they got caught [breaking into a car] they were able to successfully get past a magistrate, a probation officer and everyone else."

Investigators also criticized the media for propagating the myth that the pair were Goths. Apparently it took nothing more than reports of black clothing and eyeliner among the unrelated Trench Coat Mafia for much of the national media to label them Goths. "That became a whole issue for a week," one investigator said. "Marilyn Manson canceled his concert."

ABC's "20/20" aired a particularly ignorant "report" the night after the tragedy, linking the killers to the scene with alarmist messages about Satanism and cults. Aside from the fact that the report completely misrepresented and maligned the movement, neither Marilyn Manson nor the Goths had anything whatsoever to do with the killers, who had nothing but contempt for the music.

Next Page: But were they gay?

• View blog reactions