He buys from Bounty Hunter and Top Gun Supply, and he writes a check to himself for $3000 cash, then changes it to $3001. He also buys a spring-assisted knife. The next day, February 5, he keeps buying. Two nine-millimeter magazines and holsters from Able Ammo. He pays extra shipping costs for second-day air and goes to a Marilyn Manson concert that night with Jessica. On the way there, he asks her, “What do you think happens when we die?”
He describes the Manson concert in an email to Kelly on February 11, three days before the shooting. He’s been planning mass murder for at least eight days at this point, but he’s still chatty: “By the way, did I mention that Manson was AMAZING live. Probably the best part was him burning a bible on stage. On a hilarious side note, some of the audience members were Neo-Nazi party members and held up a 3rd Reich (Nazi) flag throughout most of the concert. The minimum wage black security guards and illegal aliens (the security at the Aragon Ballroom is outsourced/privately contracted out) were not happy about this, but the guys told the security to fuck off. It was quite entertaining. Seriously, though, the antichrist superstar logo kind of resembles a swastika. Well, be sure to keep in touch, and don’t forget about me.”
Mark knew about the Manson concert, also, “but again, that was something I didn’t tell the cops, because they would blame it on Marilyn Manson. Steve respected Manson as well. He asked me to go, and in hindsight I should have gone, but he sent me this emaiclass="underline" ‘I went to his concert on Feb 5th, in Chicago. . I’ve always wanted to see Manson live. I’ve always enjoyed his music, because beyond the initial shock value, all of Manson’s music is a criticism of contemporary politics, religion, and especially media in some way. If you ever get a chance, check out his autobiography. Jessica has it, and it’s very engrossing. A lot of his views make sense, but we are obviously obfuscated by his media image. Many casual observers don’t realize that most of his music is a euphemism for broader issues. Example: the song Dope Show has nothing to do with drugs at all but rather the zombifying effect of media icons on our consciousness. Although that is precisely his point, he wants to be a hyper-ironic figure that knocks the hypocrisy of humanity.’ When you see his writings, you can see that he just analyzed Manson probably the best I’ve ever seen it.” And Manson is perfect for school shooters, because he confuses the concepts of suicide and murder: Shoot myself to love you. If I loved myself, I would shoot you. What if suicide kills?
~ ~ ~
JESSICA SAYS THEY HAD A BLAST AT MANSON. She didn’t suspect anything was going on. But as Manson sings “Last Day On Earth,” Steve knows this is coming soon. The next day, February 6, he goes to Tony’s Guns and Ammo. He calls ahead, to make sure Tony will be open, and arrives a little after 5:00 p.m.
Steve looks at the display cases. He tells Tony, “I heard that a Glock is a good brand.” In fact, his godfather, Richard Grafer, has warned him against buying a Glock, but Steve is interested anyway, specifically in the Glock 19, a nine millimeter. Is it because this is one of the two pistols Cho used, the one that did most of the killing?
Tony tells Steve it is a good brand, and tells him about the different models. He asks what Steve wants to use the gun for.
“Target practice,” Steve says.
Tony offers to call the gun representative, who can answer any questions Steve might have about the Glock, and Steve says he’d like to do this. So Tony calls his dealer, Davidson’s, and lets Steve talk with a rep. The only question Steve asks, though, is whether it’s a good reliable gun.
Steve buys the Glock 19 for $554.60. This is the gun that will kill his five victims and himself. It’s an Austrian military gun, light, perfectly engineered to kill people, its only function. He then asks Tony about shotguns, says he wants to shoot skeet.
So Tony shows him some skeet guns, tells police later that Steve buys a Sportsman Model 48. This is what Tony puts on all the forms, and he says he has to show Steve how to load the gun, tells police “it did not seem like Steven was knowledgeable about guns.” But like other gun dealers, Tony is hiding things. Steve has traded in his old guns, for instance, and Tony doesn’t report this to police. He will end up having to voluntarily shut down his business before the police make him shut it down. I think it’s possible he lies about the model of the shotgun, too, falsely records it as a Sportsman model. The first ATF reports, and all the witness reports, are consistent with a pump shotgun, the Remington 870 12-gauge shotgun that Steve was trained on at Rockville. He even took a written test detailing how to load it, and in Cole Hall he will be very fast at reloading. The Sportsman 48 isn’t a pump. Later, the ATF will change their story to say it was the Sportsman. Is this to avoid having to talk about how all the gun forms could go through with the wrong model listed?
Whichever model of Remington 12-gauge shotgun it is, this will be the one he uses first in Cole Hall, for shock and awe, for theatrical effect, to create confusion and chaos. He knows he’s going back to NIU. He makes a reservation for a Best Western Hotel in DeKalb. He takes a cash advance against his Bank of America VISA for $5,000. He buys a Gator GC Dread hard shell guitar case for the shotgun, requests next day delivery. He needs to plan everything carefully. No screw-ups like at Columbine. No bombs that don’t go off.
He wants to have sex, but for some reason not with Kelly. He checks Craigslist, the Erotic Services section, for prostitutes, and he posts his own ad there, too.
Just before midnight, Wednesday, February 6, “Katie” responds. She responded to his ad back in September, too, but they never hooked up. She’s the one with 44Ds and “cushin for the pushin,” ten years older than him and looks “more like the woman next door.” He’s not letting her get away this time, so he tells her, “I don’t mind donating or what not.” He offers to drive out immediately, with hot coffee and roses. He can be there by 1:00 a.m.
She can’t do it right now, though. Her ten-year-old son is at her house. He’ll be with daddy for the weekend, so Friday night would work.
“I’m just really horny right now,” Steve emails. He could drive over right now and they could cruise around the block. He’d offer something extra tonight.
“So you want me to blow you in the car?:)” she asks. “If you don’t mind me asking, what do you think would be ‘worth my while’?”
“I don’t know the going rate,” he writes back. He’s careful not to actually break the law in writing, and he’s frustrated, because he can’t quite get this to happen for some reason. Why won’t she just meet? They talk on the phone, but this is frustrating. She has a sexy voice, but she keeps putting him off.
He’s tired for class the next day, Thursday February 7. He argues with Sandra Thompson, one of his classmates. He finds her annoying, and he tries to put her in her place for a few minutes, but the others take her side and tell him to shut up. He’s not really focused, anyway. He feels paranoid again. They really are telling him to shut up, but he also has this sense of them all ganging up against him, and this is probably the paranoia. At his next class, in the evening, Sandra’s there again, but this time he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t participate at all. Why is he even here? None of it’s going to matter after next week, after Valentine’s Day. He’s just going through the motions so that no one will suspect anything unusual.
He’s pissed off and frustrated that he can’t see Katie yet, so he finds “Megan,” also in the Erotic Services section of Craigslist. They meet that night at the corner of Prospect and Bloomington in Champaign, just off the highway, the same crack and ho neighborhood where he met Heather in the fall. He hates places like this because they remind him of all the shitty places he lived in Chicago with Thresholds, but at least Megan shows up. She’s with her friend “Elyse,” who doesn’t look bad, either. He’ll have to give her a call afterward. Megan gets into his car, a white Honda, and they drive around for a while, then park behind a building near the Econo Lodge where he had sex with Heather. He and Megan have sex in the car, with Steve on top. She’s nasty, but that’s fine, and they’re parked for about half an hour, then he drives her back to where Elyse is waiting.