Goodbye, cruel world

The videos are likely to reignite the long-standing debate over the parents' responsibility in the massacre. Battan shocked and outraged much of the public last September when she announced that the available evidence ruled out the parents -- particularly the Klebolds -- as major contributors to the attack.

"It really does begin with the family," Battan told Salon News last September. "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."

The videos clearly bear out that the killers kept their parents in the dark, but raise unsettling questions about whether the Harrises, at least, should have seen clues.

Harris acknowledges that his parents had probably noticed he'd become distant, but throughout, he maintains that they couldn't know why. At one point he addresses them directly: "There's nothing you guys could've done to prevent this." He also brags about fooling school administrators.

"I could convince them that I'm going to climb Mount Everest, or that I have a twin brother growing out of my back," he says. "I can make you believe anything."

But he and Klebold also film a tour through a poorly-hidden arsenal right inside his bedroom. Pipe bombs and ammunition sit in a white plastic box on the floor under some magazines. Another box holds homemade grenades. A 50-foot coil of green fuse hangs on the wall.

Perhaps most damning are two incidents Harris and Klebold describe on the videos. They show off a tackle box with equipment for making the bombs, and explain that Harris' parents once found it, but only removed the pipe bombs, not the equipment.

They also describe a chilling moment when a clerk from Green Mountain Guns called and reached Harris' father, Wayne. "Your clips are in," the clerk said. Wayne Harris told the clerk he hadn't ordered gun clips but never asked who the clerk was trying to reach. Harris says that if his father or the clerk had just asked one question, "We would've been fucked."

Harris also describes his mother spotting the butt of a gun sticking out of his gym bag, but says she assumed it was just his BB gun.

While the final report on the Columbine investigation is not expected until next month, the surprise release of the videotapes has sparked more anger among many of the victims' families. Officials have briefed them periodically and repeatedly assured them they would receive any new information before it was released to the media.

But investigators have sat on a mountain of intriguing information for eight months. They have allowed the information to trickle out endlessly, taking the families repeatedly by surprise. Some of the families expressed particular frustration at the timing of this week's release, just as they were entering the most difficult time of the year, the first Christmas season without their children.

"I think [the sheriff's decision] was very insensitive to the families," said Sue Petrone, mother of Daniel Rohrbough, who was killed in the massacre. "We've been asking to see these videotapes for a long time, and they said we couldn't see them, and now we found out that the media has access to them."

Authorities apologized to the families Monday and began scheduling times for them to watch the videos. Some began viewing this afternoon, shortly after the latest media viewing.

"We actually met with the sheriff [John Stone] this afternoon," Petrone said, "and he authorized the release of these videotapes to Time magazine without ever seeing them himself to know what was on them." She said she didn't think the tapes should have ever been released to the general public.

Brian Rohrbough, Daniel's father, was even more outraged. "We were absolutely promised by the Jefferson County district attorney's office these would not be released," he told the Rocky Mountain News. "This is just one more lie in a long string of lies."

Officials say the 200- to 300-page final report on the Columbine investigation will be published sometime in January, and will be posted on the Internet.

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