Dr. Albert switched him: Eric’s medications and his responses to them were recorded in his Diversion file. He had completed the switch from Zoloft to Luvox by May 14, 1998.
They got to make movies: Jeffco released many of their videos other than the Basement Tapes. The depictions here were based on my viewing.
Eric was gobbling up literature: Eric kept many of his school assignments, including papers on all the items cited in this chapter. I reviewed them all.
CHAPTER 43. WHO OWNS THE TRAGEDY
There is a house, outside of Laramie: Linda described their retirement plans, including the house, in an interview with me.
Columbine was set to reopen: I attended the Media Summit and the Take Back the School rally. Only pool reporters were permitted inside the human shield at the rally, so I relied on their briefings for that passage, as well as my later interviews with numerous people inside. I discussed objectives for the rally and the ideas behind it with several administrators responsible for designing it.
For one morning: I spent the morning in the Columbine commons, chatting with the kids as they painted their tiles.
CHAPTER 44. BOMBS ARE HARD
just before Halloween: From this point, Eric recorded the dates for all major milestones, as well as a slew of trivial ones. He also kept dated receipts for many of his purchases.
began assembling his arsenal. Eric let Nate watch him produce part of one batch. Nate described the process to police; their records served as the basis for my visual depiction.
CHAPTER 45. AFTERSHOCKS
Milestones were hard: I covered most of the events in this chapter for Salon and the bulk of the material was based on that reporting. (An exception was the football championship—I followed the team’s progress but did not attend the games.) Years later, I gathered hundreds of pages of news stories on the events and mined them for additional quotes, including those from the Graves and Hochhalter families. All news quotes are cited in the expanded Web version of this Notes section.
another publication broke the news: It was my story in Salon.
The magazine ran an expose: Time sent a team back to reinvestigate the tragedy and reexamined the entire case for that cover story. It did a great job, effectively correcting the major myths. But it did not cop to the correction. This was a grievous example of “rowback”—the term was resurrected in 2004 by New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent to critique Iraq War coverage; it’s rarely heard even within the industry, because it denotes such an ugly sin. Okrent cites journalism educator Melvin Mencher describing it as “a story that attempts to correct a previous story without indicating that the prior story had been in error or without taking responsibility for the error.” Okrent wrote that a more candid definition might be “a way that a newspaper can cover its butt without admitting it was ever exposed.”
CHAPTER 46. GUNS
Eric named his shotgun: Arlene was the heroine from the Doom books Eric enjoyed. He scratched the word into her barrel and referred to her by name in writings and on video.
Eric fit both categories: Millon, Simonsen, Davis, and Birket-Smith created the ten subcategories to sort out very different types of psychopaths, but they are not designed to be mutually exclusive; nor are they necessarily the drivers of behavior. Eric exhibited symptoms consistent with malevolent and tyrannical personalities, and Dr. Fuselier concurred that Eric appeared to be a cross between those two.
“I want to tear a throat out”: I edited this passage down. It went on much longer, and more viciously.
On January 20: The Diversion program files cite February 3 as the termination date, but that’s not an accurate reflection, particularly from the boys’ perspective. In both files, Kriegshauser documented meeting with them on January 20 to close their cases.
Eric was also working hard: Eric wrote about his efforts to “get laid” frequently during the final months.
CHAPTER 47. LAWSUITS
Mr. D told a magazine: He said it to me. I covered the events of this chapter extensively for Salon, and most of it was based on that reporting.
the Rohrboughs: For simplicity, I used “the Rohrboughs” periodically to denote both sides of Danny’s family, the Rohrboughs and Petrones.
gun-control legislation: In April 2000, a few bills were pending to allow concealed weapons in Colorado. Those were quickly defeated in the wake of the tragedy.
CHAPTER 48. AN EMOTION OF GOD
a big problem: Eric cited getting the bombs in as a major issue.
If only he had a little more cash: Eric expressed frustration about his limited funds and drew up budgets for his arsenal.
Dylan wrote a short story: Jeffco released the story, with Judy Kelly’s notes.
Three friends went with them: The boys videotaped quite a bit of the target practice, and Jeffco released the tape.
They made three target-practice trips: Manes told lead investigator Kate Battan they made three trips, but she could not determine whether they were before or after the videotaped trip.
Dylan leaked again: Zack told police his conversation with Dylan occurred in February. His memory might have been off slightly, or Dylan might have begun training earlier—with or without Manes.
Desperado: Robert Rodriguez directed the film. Tarantino appeared as an actor and is closely associated with Rodriguez.
CHAPTER 49. READY TO BE DONE
Most of the Parents Group attended: The scenes at the opening of the atrium came from my observations.
Jeffco was forced to cough up: I followed the slow release of the information over several years and examined most items as they came out, but I did not write about these events at the time. Westword and the Rocky did an excellent job covering the slow trickle, and I relied on their work. I considered the reports from the Colorado attorney general and the grand jury definitive.
the affidavit to search Eric’s house: After months of silence, the DA responded to a written request from the Browns. His response letter alluded to Guerra’s affidavit, which for two years his agency had insisted did not exist. Randy and Judy couldn’t believe it. They took it to CBS, and 60 Minutes cornered Thomas. Judge Jackson demanded to see it—it had been withheld from him as well.
The affidavit was more damning: Guerra was exceptionally convincing. He demonstrated motive, means, and opportunity. From a threat-assessment perspective, the specificity of Eric’s attack raised it to high risk. The details regarding the weaponry increased it further. The capstone, though, came in connecting Eric’s plans to physical evidence. The affidavit described the pipe bomb found near Eric’s home and stated twice that it matched his descriptions of “Atlanta” and “Pholus.”
“Based on the aforementioned information your affiant respectfully requests the court issue a search warrant for the residence,” Guerra’s affidavit concluded. The police would have found a great deal. Eric had made quite a few bombs by that time. The former chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, who had chaired a commission set up by the governor to investigate Columbine, eventually weighed in. He chided Jeffco for missing a “massive” number of clues. The massacre could have been prevented, he concluded. He lamented the perimeter response; if the SWAT team had stormed the building, he said, several lives could have been saved.