CNN.com - Columbine killer envisioned crashing plane in NYC (2024)


CNN.com - Columbine killer envisioned crashing plane in NYC (1)
Eric Harris

LITTLETON, Colorado (CNN) -- One of the two teen-age gunmen who killed 12 other students and a teacher before killing themselves in a 1999 attack on Columbine High School described their plan in detail in his journals, and said that if they could not get out of the country after the attack, they would hijack a plane and crash it into New York City.

Eric Harris, 18, outlined his plans a year before he and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold carried out the April 1999 attack. The entries quoted are here verbatim, including numerous misspellings, although obscenities have been edited.

"If by some wierd as s--t luck my and V survive and escape we will move to some island somewhere or maybe mexico, new zelend or some exotic place where americans cant get us. if there isnt such a place, then we will hijack a hell of a lot of bombs and crash a plane into NYC with us inside iring away as we go down," Harris wrote.

The journals were found in Harris' bedroom by police following the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Some of the entries were written on his computer; others were handwritten. They were printed Wednesday on the Web site of a weekly alternative newspaper based in Denver called Westword (www.westword.com).

In an entry dated April 26, 1998, Harris described how he and Klebold -- whom he called "V" of "Vodka" in the journals -- would enforce natural selection in their school.

"Sometime in April [of 1999] me and V will get revenge and will kick natural selection up a few notches. Armed with the following; a terroist bag full of noisey crickets, noisey crickets strapped to WD40 cans, pipe bombs with a s--t load of shrapnel, fire bombs, chlorine gas bombs, and smoke bombs," Harris wrote.

On April 20, 1999, Harris and Klebold entered Columbine and set off similar devices, then began calmly walking through the hallways and into the cafeteria, shooting students.

"Then if we can we go upstairs and go to each classroom we can and pick off f---ers at our will," Harris wrote, saying that when police got too close they would begin to kill them also.

In his day planner, that day was marked with a crude drawing of a person with weapons strapped to his chest, arms and legs.

The plan -- if they eluded police -- was to get out of the school and set time bombs "around houses, roads, bridges, buildings and gas stations, anything that will cause damage and chaos."

"It'll be like the LA riots, the oklahoma bombing, WWII, vietnam, duke and doom all mixed together," he wrote. "I want to leave a lasting impression on the world."

The two eventually began killing students holed up in the school's library and took their own lives there.

Many of the diary entries are devoted to rantings about Harris' hatred of others and detailing his violent sexual fantasies:

-- "I'm full of hate and I love it. I HATE PEOPLE, and they better f----ing fear me if they know what's good for em."

-- "Who can I trick into my room first? I can sweep someone off their feet, tell them what they want to hear, be all nice and sweet, and then 'f--- 'em like an animal, feel them from the inside' as Reznor said," referring to Trent Reznor, the lead singer from the group "Nine Inch Nails."

His sexual fantasies give way to dreams of violent killings.

"I want to grab some weak little freshman and just tear them apart like a f---ing wolf. Show them who is god. Strangle them, squish their head, bite their temples into the skull, rip off their jaw," Harris wrote in an entry on November 17, 1998.

Soon afterward, he crows about triumphing over authority with his and Klebold's purchase -- with the help of an older friend -- of several guns and other weapons at a local gun show.

"Today, along with Vodka and someone else who I won't name, we went downtown and purchased the following; a double barrel 12 ga. shotgun, a pump action 12 ga. shotgun, a 9mm carbine, 250 9mm rounds, 15 12-ga. slugs, 40 shotgun shells, 2 switch blade knives, and a total of 4 10-round clips for the carbine.. we.....have..... GUNS! We f----ing got em you sons of bitches! HA!! HAHAHA!"

He rationalizes their plans to kill others, saying that he and Klebold have "self awareness," and that "this isn't a world anymore, its H.O.E. [hell on Earth]."

"We know what we are to this world and what everyone else is," one entry said.

Also found on Harris' computer was an essay he was required to write on completion of an anger management class, which he had to take after he and Klebold were arrested for stealing electronic equipment from a van in January 1998. In it, he sounded convincingly as if he had learned something from the class.

"Violence is expensive, along with anger. Committing violent crimes brings forth fees, bills, and punishment that have very deep affects on that person, not to mention the emotional turmoil it causes," he wrote.

"I am happy to say that with the help in this class, and several other diversion-related experiences, I do want to try to control my anger."

Several parents of the students killed at Columbine believe if these journals had been found before April 1999, the attack could have been prevented.

In fact, the Jefferson County sheriff's office had an affidavit prepared to search Harris's home a year before the shootings.

The affidavit was written in 1998 by two Jefferson County deputies following a complaint by the family of a former Columbine student, Brooks Brown, that Harris had threatened to kill Brown.

The proposed search warrant was never submitted to a judge for review and thus never carried out.

But its existence supports the contention that authorities were suspicious of Harris long before the attack.


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