If it hadn't been a shooting...

Would you still have sympathy for them?

It's something that's been on my mind when I look at other killers and how people reacted to their crimes - or in this case, didn't react at all. Let's use the example of the Bellevue Murders for a moment. Using this article as a source, a few choice excerpts stand out to me.

"As detectives continued to interview family, friends and acquaintances of the Wilson family, they learned that some of Kimberly's friends were into the "Gothic" lifestyle, which focuses on gloom and death. Goths dress in dark clothing and wear dark makeup and many of them are into role-playing games in which they pretend to be vampires, ghosts, witches, or fallen angels. For many, it is just innocent fun, but for others, particularly those with mental or emotional problems, the Gothic obsession with the dark side of life can lead to suicide or even murder."

"Detectives learned that two fringe members of the "Saturday Night Denny's Club," Alex Baranyi and his best friend, David Anderson, both 17, had often talked about committing murder. Their friends just sloughed it off as idle ravings."

"During their investigation, detectives interviewed numerous acquaintances of Baranyi and Anderson. They learned the two were close friends. Many witnesses described them as inseparable and said that Anderson appeared to be Baranyi's only friend. They shared a common interest in the Gothic lifestyle, dressing in all black clothing, sometimes with black trench coats. A neighbor jokingly referred to them as "The Blues Brothers." The two of them enjoyed playing Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games, and had a mutual interest in swords and knives."

"According to another witness, Baranyi and Anderson had compiled a "hit list" of potential murder victims. This list included Kimberly Wilson."

"According to Froming, Baranyi had been in a deep depression for months and had told his mother that he was considering suicide. He had no plans for the future and found little personal satisfaction outside of work."

Sound familiar? Let's take a look at an oft overlooked detail Eric wrote in the very early planning stages for the attack:
"“First we will go to the house of [redacted] and [redacted] in the morning before school starts and before anyone is even awake. We go in, we silently kill each inhabitant and then pin down [redacted] and [redacted]. Then take our sweet time pissing on them, spitting on them, and just torturing the hell out of them."
(In case anyone's curious the source can be found here, on page 427).

Perhaps it's just because the killings in Bellevue weren't nearly as publicized, but the fact that there was little to no outpouring of sympathy for Baranyi and Anderson is startling when contrasted with Eric and Dylan, given some of the similarities. So to repeat my question, to those of you who feel sympathy or understanding for Eric and Dylan, do you think you'd still feel the same way if they had directed their rage, their hate, in a wholly different manner? Or is it their methods that you feel are key to understanding them?

QuestionMark wrote:

Perhaps it's just because the killings in Bellevue weren't nearly as publicized, but the fact that there was little to no outpouring of sympathy for Baranyi and Anderson is startling when contrasted with Eric and Dylan, given some of the similarities. So to repeat my question, to those of you who feel sympathy or understanding for Eric and Dylan, do you think you'd still feel the same way if they had directed their rage, their hate, in a wholly different manner? Or is it their methods that you feel are key to understanding them?

I think most people would feel less sympathy if they hadn't tried to bomb their school and shoot students fleeing said school. If they had shot up their local grocery store, or any other location with lots of anonymous people loitering around, I don't think there would be much sympathy for Eric and Dylan. Lots of people are bullied in school, so there's plenty of sympathy for the perpetrators because there's a mutual hatred for aggressive people. However, most people don't relate to mass shooters who target random people unknown to the perpetrator. That's far removed from the bullying angle and more towards sociopathy (harming people for amusement and fun), which most people cannot conceptualize.

They didn't kill the bullies though, I still wonder why they didn't target the people who thought gave them a hard time through their high school life?

bradt93 wrote:

They didn't kill the bullies though, I still wonder why they didn't target the people who thought gave them a hard time through their high school life?

I think in the end, it didn't matter to them who they were going to kill, but to be remembered as infamous and to experience what it was like to be feared of. It didn't even matter if their friends were killed, just remember "Morris, Nate, if you guys live [through the attack] I want you to have whatever you want from my room."