Suicide Mission - A Revision of the Columbine Massacre

As I've had my second flagging campaign against me on the cringe reddit, and as here is better anyway it's just less active, let me try to spell out why I give a shit about this case:

Introduction:

There are two versions of the Columbine attack. One we can call the Columbine massacre, and the other we can call the Columbine shooting.

Try this thought experiment. Imagine all the facts of the attack, but without time bombs. They start shooting at the west entrance, they enter the school. They yell about white hats. They shoot up the library, They stop. They mess around in the cafeteria. They return to the library and shoot themselves.

Now I hope you realize this is the usual story in the popular imagination.  This is how the massacre was experienced by the students and faculty at the school, and by the television and news media.
Even when you add the time bombs back in, the two cafeteria bombs are alleged to be set before the massacre starts, and the two car bombs are alleged to be set for after the massacre finishes. Actions during the massacre are still only explained with shooting.

Now I also hope you realize this is why there is so much fanfiction in the popular imagination. Because the crime as usually imagined is sans bombs.   Actions during the attack which can be explained by bombs, can't be explained without bombs, and still must be explained another way. So all that's left is saying their brains broke, either from abuse or mental illness, amounting to an insanity defense.

Questions like "Why did they stop shooting" or "Why did they start shooting" or "Why did they attack the school" rather than a gym or police station, or "Why did they return to the library"  are not allowed to have a good answer. But they still cry out for an answer. And the ready-made answers are bullying fanfiction, or dismissive psychological diagnoses.

So most of the few serious researchers have gone through a phase of believing it themselves.  And so it's one of those things where you face bigotry, being talked-down to by people whose position you understand as you used to agree with it, but who don't understand yours and  a priori rule out agreeing with you.  The bullying they imagine at Columbine actually happens to those who don't buy the bullying story.  While I expect the first-reaction to that to be incredulity, I  also want to say you must have never tried publicly doubting any aspect of it for yourself.

The same applies to video games as the bombs. Boomers in 1999 didn't play, and people now don't often play games from the 90s. Let's phrase it as a hypothetical: *IF* there is something that could be explained by video games, they would explain it incorrectly.  And if the bombs are explained by video games, even worse.

Part 1: Revising The Clocks at Columbine

We are told the cafeteria bombs were  - both - set for 11:17, and the car bombs were  - both - set for noon. We are also told the car bombs were targeted at "first responders".

The crucial thing to take away is this is an inference not a fact.  There isn't a single book on the case which recognizes this.

Only Eric's car's clock survived the process of disruption. The others are listed as clock parts in the evidence - while his is listed as intact. The clock set to noon which Cullen has a picture of.

Dylan's car's clock was destroyed. Note how there's a video of Dylan's car being destroyed from bomb disruption, and not one of Eric's. When asked, DA Dave Thomas even said at the press conference that the clocks were ruined with water cannon. Dylan's car's time is simply copied from Eric's car's time.

The time for the cafeteria bombs being 11:17 is inferred from Dylan's notes. We are told it was from the night before, and we are told they are a final draft. But they are two different ones, and they are not dated. It is also clearly a rough draft when compared with the facts of the case. For example, it says plant the bombs at 11:09. The investigation concluded 11:14, and e-sleuths watched the surveillance and concluded 11:00. 11:10 was when class let out. Surely 11:09 just means "before class let out".  And class was back in at 11:15, when Eric calculated as optimal for the most casualties, and so surely  all 11:17 meant was after 11:15. The notes also say 11:18 for the car bombs, but they tell us noon. I doubt that, but I don't think 11:18 either. 11:18 likely just means "after the car bombs".

Curiously, it also says "go to outside hill", yet we are told "go to outside hill" was "plan b" and that "plan a" was "shoot from the parking lot" was from the other list of notes. But this might be the shoddiest inference of them all, as it doesn't say shoot from the parking lot. It says "wait by cars, gear up...hahaha".  The entirety of the shooting from the parking lot myth, Eric retrieving Dylan, them somehow calculating how far the glass would fly so they wouldn't eat it, them watching the school burn down, is inferred from that.   But it just says they are gonna gear up in the cars. Dylan's "DO Shit for NBK list" also says "practice in car gear ups'.

While he's no less wise about the clocks, author Tim Krabbe gets this much right, that nobody saw them wait in the parking lot, that the hill was the plan.

Instead, the timings of the bombs should have been inferred from the library massacre. Throughout the library massacre, the perps say a bomb is going to go off and kill everyone, the simplest disproof of the notion both cafeteria bombs were set for 11:17.

The library massacre goes through three stages. First, the stage of entering, telling everybody to get up, walking to the window. Second, Dylan drops his trench coat, says Fine I'll just start shooting, 9 murders in 5 minutes.   Third, they stop shooting, stop saying the library is gonna blow up, leave, go to the bomb.

For example, in the second stage, they tell Bree she will die from the bomb whether she's shot or not anyway, they tell John he better run if he doesn't want to die when they blow up the school. In the third stage, they tell Evan he's going to live simply thanks to not being shot.

These stages, I submit, tell you the timings for the three bombs which were not left intact.

The first bomb was supposed to go off at 11:20 in the cafeteria, and then make the fire alarm go off sending the library out the emergency exit and the west entrance, into their guns on the hill.

Patti caught them with their guns out. Her phone call at 11:25 is also an inference, not a fact. It should be moved forward, to roughly 11:23. She wasn't just coincidentally shot the second she came out the west entrance - she is what got them shooting at the west entrance. You will notice she never says she heard gunshots, rather saw them doing what looked like a video project. She certainly doesn't describe 5 minutes of massacre as she would do on the usual story.

The perps only enter the library once they get the fire alarm going off from pipe bombs in the hall way, at 11:28 or so. Hence the curiosity - never explained on any other theory - that they are expecting people to get up when they've been shooting already - and why they've been shooting already for that matter.

They walk to "the windows" as is often said - it's the window in front of Dylan's car. "Pigs are here" one of them says. It's 11:30. Inference: Dylan's car bomb was to get police at 11:30.

Again because it's thought of as a shooting - people imagine the shooting out of the library the first time as a "shootout with the cops", and the second when they return as "at first responders". Others go so far as to say they *planned* suicide by cop, which they seem to be confusing with entertaining the possibility. We should also consider the perps may have been shooting at the car bombs, like a video game, like on the surveillance with the cafeteria bomb.

It seems to me one can see it as first they hope the fire alarm will make the library get up, then they hope shooting at Evan will make them get up, then they hope shooting Kyle will make them get up, then they hope the car bomb will make them get up.  

Then comes "Fine, I'll just start shooting". Then comes Eric making his face look like DOOMguy with low health. Then comes the most murders. It seems to me the idea was to get the cops inside to blow up too, so they stayed out.

Then the perps stop at 11:35, and leave to go make the last cafeteria bomb work.

Inference: The last cafeteria bomb was set for 11:35.

On Jeffco's theory, we have two cafeteria bombs set for 11:17, and two car bombs set for 12:00.

On my theory, we have one cafeteria bomb set for 11:20, the other for 11:35;  and one car bomb set for 11:30, the other for 12:00.

And with that you can explain "why they stop shooting" and much more. On Jeffco's, it's nothing or fanfiction.

Note that Dylan said the massacre would be the most nerveracking 15 minutes of his life, and the suicide in the library at 11:35 is 15 minutes.

Part 2: Revising the Weapons at Columbine

The weapons and MO were from playing video games IRL. 90s first person shooter games, DOOM clones. Specifically DOOM, Duke Nukem 3D, and Blood. All the guns were from DOOM. The pipe and propane bombs were from Duke Nukem 3D. And some things like gas cans and an attempted napalm launcher from Blood.  Hard for me to feel like one understands the crime without understanding those.

It's important for a number of reasons. Most notably, since we are told "faulty wiring" we often imagine the wrong bombs. One imagines a fuse running into a propane tank. Most myths about "plastic switches" or whatever are suffering from this. The bombs were a pipe bomb strapped to a propane tank, like out of Duke Nukem 3D.

And why that matters, for one, is because it means tossing pipe bombs into the cafeteria was not just for fun, but it was to make a bomb go off. Their problem wasn't plastic switches, but pipe bombs powerful enough to blow a tank open like it's Duke Nukem 3D.

And while that's not by itself impressive to say, that tossing pipe bombs into the cafeteria was to make a bomb go off, it's another very straightforward way to show the usual story is false. They didn't give up on the bombs at 11:17, and switch to some other plan of "shoot everything".  In their minds, they could salvage the plan by just tossing a pipe bomb.

It is also again a reason for otherwise well-meaning researchers looking for answers to be led down blind alleys and listen to fanfiction. If you don't know Eric means "video games" when he says "I like soccer, weapons, and computers" you are bound to think "the abuse of the bullies forced him to get defensive" or some such cliche.  If you don't know DOOMguy gets a nose bleed, you are bound to say they stop shooting because of Eric's nose bleed - even though that doesn't come close to matching the timeline of when the murders stop.  Or, say, that glass breaking when you shoot it at that time was new in video games, so Dylan shooting an (empty) trophy case needn't be interpreted as bullied by jocks.

Very often, the answer to "why did they do that" is video games but you're dealing with people who have never played video games and who were told the answer is always bullying or mental illness or some other pablum that really just signals how confused they are by the question of why did they do that.

Also very often people a priori rule out ever thinking video games had any influence on the attack, even while Eric describes dreaming about DOOM like the "Tetris effect."

One still has to explain why they preferred their victims standing up, and the only answer I can muster is in video games the enemies are standing up.

Part 3: Revising The Suicides at Columbine

It's a fact that the perps used their last bombs on themselves. Crickets were at Eric's feet, and a pipe bomb was in Dylan's pants. Unlike the myths about moving the bodies, the crickets actually were moved for the two usual suicide photos.

Inference: The final molotov was to light them.

Again, every other theory I've ever known for the molotov is silly and more shows that they're just perplexed by it. I feel compelled to believe this rambling screed because  otherwise - why did they stop shooting. Similarly, I feel compelled because otherwise, the molotov doesn't make any sense.

It's also a fact they planned the attack as a bombing before they even had guns.

Dylan wrote about tying a pipe bomb to his neck one night. In Diversion, Eric wrote killing is justified if, say, somebody was going to blow up others and themselves (emphasis mine).

In the Basement Tapes, Eric pointed to the napalm launcher from Blood he was trying to make and said "that's the suicide plan".

It's also a fact they were standing inside the library, saying it was gonna explode.

Then they go to the cafeteria and try to make the bomb go off. Many see it as a suicide attempt. It's usually said "first suicide attempt". But if they were supposed to die in the library at 11:35, this is the second suicide attempt.

Inference: They were consciously trying to be initially confused for victims, to confuse the scene, to make it a whodunit, to add to the infamy of the case, to add to the spice of the attack.

This is why the alleged "booby traps", and also why 15 crosses, why people want to believe they were abuse victims. That's a fact about this case to explain, too.

The researcher's conceit is that the researcher consciously notices what the perps only noticed subconsciously, that they die among their victims. I think it's the other way around. Shift the terms "conscious" and "subconscious" in this equation. The perps consciously return to the library in hopes to be confused for victims, and 'researchers' subconsciously notice this, then they go looking for reasons why they noticed it. They talk a great deal about how Eric must have hated himself to blow his head off, or some such.

Note how to be confused for victims in the cafeteria, one just needs the bomb to go off. Like they tried. But to be confused for victims in the library after the library massacre, they have to shoot themselves too. Like they did.

DOOM speaks of "Knee Deep in the Dead", in Duke one has to blow up bodies so they don't come back to life, and KMFDM sings of "Apocalypse Now. Walls of Flame. Billowing Smoke. Who's to blame?" It was "we the gods" (the gods of Wrath and Natural Selection?) and destroying the body can make one a god like Jesus with the empty tomb, or Empedocles at Mount Etna, or indeed Adolf Hitler.

"Why did they return to the library" and "Why did they choose the school" has been the main question for sympathizers of the perps since the beginning. It's why Adam Lanza was fascinated with Travis the Chimp. It's surely what Cho meant when he called them "martyrs". It's what Randy Brown cites for why they were bullied. This is a better, different answer.  As well as ease of access and number of victims, and the video game LARP, this is where they were supposed to be. They were students too. 2 dead ones out of 500, probably to be identified by DNA.

The only arguably difficult bit to grasp is it means what was at their house was for their parents, not for police. They didn't expect the cops there so soon. They probably expected the cops dead. But I don't find that difficult to believe, just as they didn't expect the bombs to fail. The Nixon Tape seems for the parents, so it's not hard to say the Basement Tapes are too. And of course they didn't send them to the media when they could have, they address the parents or play-act as them, and they do things like leave "clues" out which would be completely unnecessary if who did the crime was supposed to be obvious.

In short, the investigation was supposed to confuse them for victims of the attack. But, e-sleuths became the investigation, and they confuse them for victims of abuse.

Sources

If one can tolerate not dismissing these considerations which I find very important, I'll be glad to come back several times and add supporting links to the bottom of this post.

Clocks:
Columbine Bell Schedule
Cafeteria Map + Timing of Max Occupants
Dylan's first timeline
Dylan's second timeline
Do Shit for NBK (note in car gear ups)
Clock from Eric's car set to noon
Witnesses stating that the library was supposed to blow up the first time
Dylan's car's bomb being disrupted
Dylan's car after bomb squad disrupted
The main bombs were pipe bombs taped to propane tanks
This also says that (e. g. page 27)

Vidya:
The Tetris Effect
The bombs of Duke Nukem 3D

Suicide:
Crickets at Erics feet

Nice post [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - some very interesting thoughts about the case here.

sororityalpha wrote:

Nice post [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - some very interesting thoughts about the case here.

Thank you very much sororityalpha, it means more coming from you.  For example one of the only other (user) names I can drop who cared to record what they said in the library.