Mass Shooters & Role Models

Robert Steinhäuser: According to his friends, Robert was an avid fan of the movie „Killers“ by Mike Mendez. The clothing Robert wore at the day on the shooting (Black hoodie and black trousers), was similar to those of Odessa James, a violent and charismatic character from the movie. Odessa James also use two weapons repeatedly in the movie: A Pumpgun and a Pistol. This were the same weapons, Robert carried at the day of the shooting. Robert even wore the pumpgun the same way, Odessa wears it in the movie: carried on the back.
The fact, that Robert had his pumpgun with him at the day of the shooting at all is a bit weird, because the Pumpgun had a jamming and did not function. Robert did not use it or tried to use it. Why then he carried it on the back? There could be several possibilities, but most likely to me seem two of them:
1. The pumpgun was kind of a fetish for Robert, because of its dramatic effect.
2. He wanted to look like Odessa James.

Robert also wore a balaclava at the day of the shooting. Odessa James does not wear such a thing in the movie. Again here are several possibilities, why Robert did wear such a thing and there is no evidence, that they could not all be true at the same time:
Besides „Killers“, Robert also liked to watch several movies with violent criminals, like „The Boondock Saints“ or „Predita Durango“. In these movies, the killers often wear balaclavas. The balaclava also often appears in First-Person-Shooters, which were played by Robert a lot. So, there are several possible sources of cultural influence on Robert at this point.
The most important point, however, is the fact, that a mask probably makes it more easy to to overcome one's inhibitions in killing. Robert could hide his persona behind that mask and represent an anonymous, emotionless killer.

Mitchell Johnson: Was fascinated with Gangs and Hip Hop music. Several fellow students remembered that Mitchell claimed to belong to a gang and flashed gang signs in school. But as no one of his schoolmates believed him and thus started to make fun about his bragging, Mitchell reacted angry and frustrated.
Mitchell reportedly was fan of the Hip-Hop musicians Tupac Shakur and Bone Thugz-N-Harmony and he often brought their music to school and sang the lyrics of their songs.
After the shooting, even as the police concluded, that the thought of a 13-year old boy living in a primarily white small town in Arkansas belonging to a street gang is ridiculous, Mitchell continued to claim belonging to a gang (cant remember if it were the Bloods or the Crips, where he wanted to be a part of it). In 2007, during a hearing Mitchell still claimed to have been a member of one of these gangs at the time of the shooting, which let us see how important this fantasy still seems to be for him.

Andrew Golden: Although there were no reports about Andrew listening to rap music or bragging about gang-membership, he was also said to flashing gang signs to Mitchell Johnson in school.

Didn't know that about Robert Steinhauser. "Real Killers" was one of my group's favorite movies when we were in high school. It was insanely fucked up. I used to own it on VHS, but as far as I know it was never released on DVD. Odessa James was a sick and twisted character and I can see why a homicidal teenager would idolize him.

Wideawake wrote:

Didn't know that about Robert Steinhauser. "Real Killers" was one of my group's favorite movies when we were in high school. It was insanely fucked up. I used to own it on VHS, but as far as I know it was never released on DVD. Odessa James was a sick and twisted character and I can see why a homicidal teenager would idolize him.

I think it a funny movie and the plot as well as the atmosphere are a lot similar to Natural Born Killers, if you ask me.

Seung-Hui Cho: "Oldboy" is a South Korean movie from 2003, that is loosely based on a Manga. The story is about a man who get locked into a room for 15 years but does not know why this is happening and who does it. As he gets free, he carries out a gruesome revenge.
Although it was widely reported, that Seung-Hui Cho re-enacted scenes from the movie in the Videos he send to the press, I found no clear evidence that Seung liked or even saw the movie. But given the facts, that Seung was severely per-occupied with being a victim of crimes and injustice (like the main-character in Oldboy), the movie was from his home country, the story is about revenge against people who commit atrocities to the hero and some of the poses, Seung uses in his Videos does appear in the movie, it doesn't seem unlikely that Seung was inspired by Oldboy and modeled himself after the main-character Oh Dae-su.


I didnt found much examples at the internet, but I believe the scenes where Cho plays with a knife also appear in Oldboy.
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Guest wrote:

Seung-Hui Cho: "Oldboy" is a South Korean movie from 2003, that is loosely based on a Manga. The story is about a man who get locked into a room for 15 years but does not know why this is happening and who does it. As he gets free, he carries out a gruesome revenge.
Although it was widely reported, that Seung-Hui Cho re-enacted scenes from the movie in the Videos he send to the press, I found no clear evidence that Seung liked or even saw the movie. But given the facts, that Seung was severely per-occupied with being a victim of crimes and injustice (like the main-character in Oldboy), the movie was from his home country, the story is about revenge against people who commit atrocities to the hero and some of the poses, Seung uses in his Videos does appear in the movie, it doesn't seem unlikely that Seung was inspired by Oldboy and modeled himself after the main-character Oh Dae-su.


I didnt found much examples at the internet, but I believe the scenes where Cho plays with a knife also appear in Oldboy.
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That’s actually really interesting, and would make sense. I never heard about that, and I’ve watched all the news coverage. It actually sort of contributes, at least a little bit, to my personal, pretty underrated theory that Cho was doing a white hate crime. I’m sure he was maybe a misanthrope too, but him killing mostly white people was 75-100% not just coincidence related to his location. And that’s who he mentioned in his manifesto largely, in addition to being bullied supposedly in high school by white children. There’s no real concrete evidence in regards to his specific motivations, and it’s just not fun or cool calling a Korean immigrant a racist terrorist, but it is pretty accurate all things considered. Of course it just wouldn’t look good for the FBI to call it that either. (Don’t mean to do a conspiracy, just proposing something gathered from my general observations of racial, cultural, and name self-perception).