From Harris & Klebod’s ‘training’ video

The article has links to a photocopy of their diary and images from their video tapes.

Sheriff Releases Columbine Killers’ Diaries, Writings

Hundreds of pages of hate-filled diary entries, maps and documents released Thursday offer a chilling insight into the minds of the Columbine High School killers in the days and months before the 1999 massacre.

On a calendar entry dated the day of the attack, April 20, the time 11:10 is written across the top – an approximate reference to when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold pulled out their weapons inside the suburban high school and started firing.

Remember the shootings happened in 1999 when you read this:

Remarking on the possibility that he and Klebold would survive the Columbine attack, Harris wrote the two would try to escape to a foreign country where they couldn’t be extradited.

“If there isnt such place then we will hijack a hell of a lot of bombs and crash a plane into NYC with us inside (f)iring away as we go down. just something to cause more devistation.”



  1. chris says:

    I hope this doesn’t sound strange but i think it’s a good idea for this to be released. I wouldn’t want this around any of the families that lost people that day. they have suffered enough. Trying to understand the thought process that went on here and maybe law enforcement and schools can use this as a meter sort of. Maybe try to take this info and learn from it so that it will not happen again.

  2. Max Bell says:

    If, for some reason, anyone feels compelled to bother with the .PDF, I have it mirrored on my own site. I’d warn you in advance that it is, in large part, a collection of scans of bad handwriting and provides little in the way of new information.

    What’s more interesting, to me, is that this particular decision is more a product of behind-the-scenes politics than it is anything to do with the suspicion that there is something to be “learned” by the release.

    Anyhow. As far as revelations go, this was a dud.

  3. xrayspex says:

    Trying to understand the thought process that went on here and maybe law enforcement and schools can use this as a meter sort of. Maybe try to take this info and learn from it so that it will not happen again.

    I don’t think the police or schools could have done too much to prevent this, or anything like it. I think the real lesson here is to look at this as a minature version of what goes on throughout societies and governments (the “official” face of societies) everywhere.

    The strong take advantage of the weak. Sometimes the weak fight back. I think to call something like this “insane” is to trivialize it. (Make your own analogy to the struggle between worldwide governments of various strengths.) In this case the Columbine killers felt (rightly or wrongly) that they were being cut out of the herd, and they fought back. (I’m not defending what they did by any means. I just understand it.)

    Pacific islanders had a term for this: “Amok”. It’s when someone in a position of relative powerlessness takes extreme, usually self-destructive, measures to correct a percieved injustice. It’s not really insane, per se; it’s a strategy for projecting strength against a vastly superior foe.

    And.. it CAN be a great equalizer. People in California (briefly) drove more cautiously and gave more consideration to other drivers after a spate of road-rage shootings. You tend to be more wary when that soccer mom may be “crazy” enough to shoot you for flipping her off.

    Again, I’m not defending it, just pointing it out.

  4. Anon says:

    The question is if some kids have a key element that would have taken them over the edge eventually anyway. Making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel.

  5. hamgrl says:

    The answers lie with those kids’ parents.Whatever happened to those kids didnt happen overnite and their parents clearly missed significant signs that they were completely depressed and a little psychotic. I realize that children their age must take responsibility for their actions….but those children are products of their environment. There is a difference between letting your kids express themselves and having an emo kid!!! All I am saying is where were the parents and how could they have no clue that something was THAT wrong with their kids??????I think the release of this info is pointless and is just another look at how effed up our kids are these days…like we dont see enough of that on the TV…

  6. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    #6, Hamgrl, Get serious !!! It is so easy to blame the parents for whatever happens. The only way to control children to the point where they know everything happening in their children’s lives is to lock them in a convent.

    Two immature boys reacted to the bullying they experienced at school with a tragic outcome. So why have you not mentioned the pre-cursors, the bullies’s parents? Do they not have some responsibility in this? Did they allow their children to bully and harass other students, until this happened, with impunity?

    Oh ya right, I forgot, the athletes were the heroes of the story. School stars don’t do anything wrong. Donavan pointed out that the school administration should accept some of the blame and that is true. We don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t been bullied, but to just blindly suggest that the two students are the sole blame for this tragic situation is willful blindness and will do nothing to solve the problem.

  7. hamgrl says:

    Fusion…..look…..I realize you cant know your kids every move but cmon….youd have to be an idiot not to notice the severity of the issues they were struggling with. And so what if the asshole football player wouldnt let up….doesnt give this kid the right to shoot up a school to get even. As I said before…this didnt happen overnite…raising children doesnt happen overnite and clearly the bullies parents havent done a real good job either if their kids feel the need to bully other kids. I guess what I should have said then is where were ALL the parents…its bullshit….everyone wants to blame the school and fine…they were partially responsible for not addressing the bullying but the REAL problem stemmed from elsewhere. No normal kid comes up with an idea to shoot up a school and everyone on a hit list. Its not normal! People dont go from normal to psycho overnite…clearly there were problems with these kids prior to the shooting. These kids didnt go nuts over some guy bullying them all the time. And for the record…I rather have my kids watching replays of Riki Rachtman than listening to Brittany Spears so dont assume I am taking sides with “the athletes”…I realize that they are typically real assholes in high school.

  8. gquaglia says:

    Sorry Mr Fusion, I have to side with Hamgrl. Even though it impossible to completely control your kids, there had to be warning signs. Also if these shit heads had come from loving families, I doubt this would have happened. The parents were either too tied up in their own affairs or working 6 jobs to be able to truely be a part of their kids life. Remember its the parents job to raise their kids, not the schools and not the government.

  9. Danijel says:

    I espeically liked the bottom of page 942 in the PDF, where they demand noone to be blamed for the incident but them.

    I might even agree with them on that one. So many people wercked their heads on why all this happend. What was to be balmed? Whose fault was it? Noone really came with a complete and reasonable solution. We should probably leave this as it is and hope these things won’t happen too often…

  10. Frank IBC says:

    And Klebold’s father actually worked from home. Talk about clueless!

  11. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. These mega-schools which are designed like either factories or minimum security prisons are responsible for this situation.

    THis particular school looks like a mall or a prison — check out the one entrance. When viewed from overhead the place looks like the NUMI-GM factory in Fremont, California. With kids treated as either prisoners or products, no wonder they disconnect. In fact it’s amazing this doesn’t happen constantly.

  12. Tuur Demeester says:

    I’ve been reading into the diaries and what really got to me was realising that these were just normal kids! From what you can read they are two lonely, desperate boys in search for a solution to the situation they are in. What they did was absolutely horrible, but I think the outcry in their writings is one that resonates with many of the teens in schools around the world.

    [editor:  Tuur, pls [1] read our Commenting guidelines and [2] use tinyurl for long-url-links.]

  13. chris says:

    Well one of the fathers had kept a jounal the article said. So he seen things he didnt like.
    Really fault lies with everyone there.
    the shooters (well duh)
    the shooters parents (they did give hints but its hard to think your kid would do that)
    the bullies (Fusion is right. what right does the jocks having doing what they please. They are not better.
    The bullies parents (they should know better then to allow that behavor)
    The schools (yeah hindsight being 20/20 but i still think the school could have taken a stronger role. I might be wrong on this one but i think since they made a film at school then maybe the school officals would have looked into this more.)
    The Media (ok this one will be blasted on but i think news covers events way to much and will glorify the event and the person. They did say they wanted to do a lot of damage to be noticed. They wanted someone to see them. I dont think the media will change thier tune or would they honestly care but I think news agencies should take responsiblity for what they show. So dont bash me to bad on picking the media also. Its just how i feel and its a fantasy to think news channels will change)

  14. meetsy says:

    I agree with John….the school is more to blame than the parents or the school administrators. There is NO WAY that kids in a 2000plus school can get the kind of help, attention, guidance, or PROTECTION they need from each other. Crowding conditions, innane rules, and the whole powerlessness of the mega-school is what will create these time bombs. You can’t override the events that happen from bullying, from sitting for hours in classes listening to a bored teacher spouting things which have no life or relevance, from innane rules and the “cog in the wheel” constant hammering of status quo. No parent can undo the misery that is school for many kids. No administrator can police it. A classroom full of kids…30 or more, is a pressure cooker that will drive some kids to a long, slow rage.
    Break up the big mega schools, improve the education programs, and put some money into counseling programs for troubled kids. Ideally, re establish apprentice programs for kids who are NOT ever going to be college bound, teach trades, let school be a place where kids can learn life skills…not just serve their 12 year sentence (13 in states that have a required kindergarden).

  15. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    #8, hamgrl, reading this post makes a lot more sense. Whether it is a day later or because I just read your’s, I wish to soften my comments in #7. I was more personal then I should have been. I should add that I don’t feel as if society failed these two boys, society failed everyone connected with this tragic incidence in one way or another.

    On a related note: Teenage depression and suicide are recognized as being prevalent across the country. With most suicides, and even attempts, the common response is that no one saw it coming and have a difficult time explaining or understanding why. Manic Depression can expose itself in two ways. We are familiar with the bummed out or suicidal kid. There is also the violent outlet. I don’t know, but wonder how much that had to play in this.

  16. hamgrl says:

    I appreciate that….and well said….these types of issues always get me in a tizzy as well….I think the main problem is that somewhere along the way people got to accustomed to the fact that kids get depressed and oh well its a normal part of being a teenager…and I think typically parents of kids like these two have a hard time letting their kids express theselves…especially boys…when they arent the jock type. If your son wants to wear black nail polish and wear a trench coat that doesnt mean he is a depressed suicidal maniac…but when his parents start treating him like one and asking him what is wrong with him and why cant he just get along with the other kids and why cant he make a better effort to fit in…well nothing good will come out of that. And I am not talking about the two shooters…I mean in general. I think when people ask why, in most cases they are unwilling to accept the fact that there are reasons. In fear that they failed to do something…which isnt always the case…but sometimes people do fail and I think in this situatrion you are right in that the school had a responsibilty to handle the bullying issue and they never did. It fueled the fire obviously. Either way its sad and kids are still bullying and being bullied and unless parents start doing their jobs…the same types of events will continue. Again I say people need an application to reproduce 🙂

  17. no one important says:

    If people who are about to do something like this don’t want anyone to see it coming, then no one will. It isn’t hard to fool people who already want to look the other way. An introverted person can easily project an illusion that lets people see what they want to see.

    I would never blame the guys’ parents. After all, how many times had this happened in the past? To those families? Never. In society at large? Virtually (if not literally) unheard of. To blame them because they didn’t see it coming seems absurd and very cruel to me.

  18. Dead_Jocks says:

    Hmm…

    These two dudes were high IQ, but abused and misunderstood by family and their community. I’m certain they were picked on throughout their scholastic careers, and eventually one snapped and the other followed.

    The athletes and ‘elite’ at schools, who pick on very intelligent/smart kids, need to know the damage they are doing to their own futures. These smart kids, who don’t find value in “bounce-bounce-throw”, or “3-2-1-hut, run, smash, get up, do again”, have been picked on, singled out, put down, for a VERY long time. WHY? Because they’re smarter than you? Note: they can train their bodies, and surpass you — chances are, you’re not capable of training your mind to surpass them.

    Just keep it in mind. Smart kids can do everything stupid jocks can do, and a whole lot more – like load semi-autos, make pipe bombs, and give up.

    The ‘system’ is creating the problem. 10 minutes or local news, 10 minutes of weather, 10 minutes of sports, ZERO minutes of thought. That’s what society’s news is, because that’s all that over 50% of you can handle.

    I’m surrounded by stupid people. 160+ IQ, bored out of my reality.

    Go shoot a jock or two, the world will be a little smarter.

  19. AB CD says:

    Columbine actually showed up on 60 minutes in the 80s because they had a curriculum of death. They had students writing suicide notes and things like that.


0

Bad Behavior has blocked 9294 access attempts in the last 7 days.