So this page is somewhat moot: you should just go read Sue's excellent book, and/or google the many interviews she did when it came out. Wayne & Kathy Harris are the parents of infamous Columbine HS shooter, Eric Harris. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! These are the only known meetings between the parents of the killers and victims. It had two primary topics, which just happen to be the two I get asked about the parents most:1) What did she and Tom see in Dylan before the murders, and 2) What has their life been like for the next ten years? The following contains the complete story and facts about the events that occurred before, during, and after the Columbine High School Shooting: Quick Facts About The Columbine High School Shooting. They believed that their actions would bring them fame as well as vengeance. But brace yourself: it's heartbreaking. Bob Dylan is one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 20th century, known for songs that chronicle social and political issues. Although he was bright, Klebold didn’t apply himself in school and earned mediocre grades. (Here's my Vanity Fair piece on Sue's first interview, with Diane Sawyer.) Sue Klebold's son was one of the shooters in a mass killing at Columbine High School 19 years ago. By the 1960s, gangster and drug kingpin Frank Lucas had constructed an international drug ring that spanned from New York to South East Asia. Columbine became the archetypal school shooting for a number of reasons – most obviously because there were many more casualties: 13 dead (15, if you included the shooters themselves), 21 injured. It is an incisive, empathetic column, not to be missed. (Here's, Update Feb 2017: Sue Klebold posted a brave and insightful, this tour de force gets below the who and what of a horrifying incident to lay bare the devastating why. September 21, 2007 - The Columbine Memorial, adjacent to Columbine High School, is dedicated and opened to the public. I reported on all four meetings in the Afterword to the paperback edition of the book, and focused on the Harrises in this article I adapted for the Daily Beast. The fourth weapon came from a co-worker at the pizza place. Dylan Klebold, along with Eric Harris, shot and killed 13 people and injured 20 at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. What a Columbine Shooter's Mom ... it didn't matter that he was spending a night at the prom or putting a deposit down on a dorm room right before Columbine—signs that led his parents to … Tom and Sue Klebold also agreed through their attorney to fact-check a list of information I compiled prior to publication of the book. Atop a hill near Columbine High School, crosses were erected for Harris and Klebold along with those for the people they killed, but the father of victim Daniel Rohrbough cut them down, saying that murderers should not be memorialized in the same place as victims. ", Explore a Decade of Dave Cullen's Research. She did a masterful job at both. A very few critics complained that the piece was not revealing enough. Update Feb 2017: Sue Klebold posted a brave and insightful TED Talk: Eric and Dylan's parents provoke the most debate at my events, yet unfortunately, this will be the shortest section on the site. They acquired guns and made pipe bombs. But the propane bombs didn’t explode so the two entered the school after 11 a.m., shooting at anyone they encountered. As the terrified parents of Columbine High School prayed for the lives of their children, Sue Klebold asked only for the death of her boy. There was controversy over whether Harris and Klebold should be memorialized. A female friend of Klebold’s reportedly helped them get three of the weapons – the same young woman he took to the prom shortly before the killings. Sources included: the questionnaires they filled out for the Diversion program, Wayne's journal on Eric released by Jeffco, the police file on the single interview between the Klebolds and investigators, my interviews with Lead Investigator Kate Battan about that meeting, and interviews with people close to the families—some conducted by me, others in published accounts by journalists I trust. The parents of Brooks Brown, a student at Columbine, filed a report with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in March 1998 saying that Eric Harris had threatened to kill their son. We can wish she and Tom had some magic insights, but the reality is that the vast majority of teen suicides take their parents by surprise—whether or not they kill other people on the way out. Parents of Columbine Shooter Dylan Klebold Struggled With Guilt After Attack. "Like Capote's In Cold Blood, this tour de force gets below the who and what of a horrifying incident to lay bare the devastating why. Harris even posted some of their bomb-making expertise and exploits on his website under his nickname “Reb” and using Klebold’s nickname “Vodka.”. For Halloween 1996, one routinely bullied junior named Eric Dutro had his parents buy him a black duster jacket for a Dracula costume. Bullying was fairly common at Columbine High School and teachers reportedly did little to stop it. The lines of influence illustrate links between those who were influenced by Columbine and later perpetrators whom they influenced in turn. Klebold and Harris became interested in all things German, wore swastikas and even gave the “Heil, Hitler” salute while bowling or playing card games. Bob met with both the Harris and Klebold parents. They were both charged with theft, criminal mischief and criminal trespassing. Anna's daughter, Lauren Townsend, was killed in the April 20, 1999, attack. Her perspective of a mom who sees the severity of her son's depression only in retrospect is invaluable. Eric Harris and Dylan each carried two big guns: a semi-automatic rifle, and a sawed-off shotgun. Dylan Klebold, along with Eric Harris, shot and killed 13 people and injured 20 at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The parents of Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, along with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, are fighting … Dylan's mom wrote a candid, articulate, 5,000-word essay. My 2010 Daily Beast essay, The Last Columbine Mystery. They were released a month early from the program in February 1999. As a quiet teen interested in technology, Klebold didn’t fit in with the dominant jock culture of Columbine High School. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School and opened fire on their classmates These are the only known meetings between the parents of the killers and victims. David Brooks Op-Ed column notes that after his recent column about 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, he got e-mail from Tom Klebold, father of Dylan Klebold, one of shooters… They also liked to play violent first-person shooter video games and listening to such German bands such as KMFDM and Rammstein. The bottom line is a dearth of information, in comparison to the rest of the case. Dawn Anna speaks about the anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Denver on March 23, 2019. That's because Wayne & Kathy Harris, and Tom & Sue Klebold were vilified after the attack, and responded rationally: with brief written statements and then silence. Unfortunately, other young shooters would follow in their footsteps, and some of them, including Seung-Hui Cho, would mention Harris and Klebold as part of their deadly inspiration. ". The day of the Columbine High School Massacre was on Tuesday, April 20, 1999. Here are photos of … Eric Harris, along with Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 13 people and injured 20 at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Bob met with both the Harris and Klebold parents. None of the prominent psychologists I worked with on the case expected the Harris or Klebold parents to hold great surprises. I find Sue credible and sincere. Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters who committed the Columbine High School massacre, murdering 12 students and a teacher. Long after I created the first draft of this page (2004), Sue Klebold published her wonderful memoir, A Mother's Reckoning. With Harris, he worked at a local pizza place for a time. His father was a geophysicist and a mother worked with the disabled. His parents eventually started their own real estate management company and provided an upper-middle-class life for their family. Both received glowing reports at the end of the program with Klebold being called “a bright young man who has a great deal of potential,” according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor. Certainly it was the event that changed everything and set in motion a discussion of protocol for school shootings — what Dylan’s mother speaks of as “threat assessment” guidelines. It will be outlined here. It’s been nearly 11 years since the Columbine tragedy rocked the nation, and the largest remaining questions center on the killers’ parents: Did they see it coming? The costume fell through, but he decided that he liked the trench coat and the attention it got him. She's spent years excavating every detail of her family life, trying to understand what she could have done to prevent her son's violence. The student survivors of the Columbine shooting are now in their mid- to late-30s, and many now have families. I would earnestly love to learn more from them but I understand their position. However, that leaves three other parents, so I'm keeping this page, to help readers with them. In 1998, during their junior year, the two were arrested after they broke into a van and stole some things out of the vehicle. There was an extensive investigation into the shooting and the authorities’ response to the siege. Meet Wayne & Kathy Harris. He was described as a shy child who loved baseball, especially the Boston Red Sox. 24, 1999 to pays respects to 12 students and one teacher who died at Columbine High School following a shooting … They considered that possible, but not probable. By ninth grade, he was friends with Harris and Brooks Brown. Like many teenagers, he liked violent video games. Klebold, in personal writings found after the attack, expressed suicidal thoughts and was deeply saddened by his lack of a romantic relationship. Their teenage son, along with his classmate Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. So the secondary weaponry of the guns became the main event. Albert DeSalvo is best known for confessing to be the "Boston Strangler," who killed 13 women in Boston in the early 1960s. They killed 13 people and injured 20 before committing suicide. On April 20, 1999, Adolf Hitler’s birthday, Klebold and Harris began their attack. Read it. There have been only three significant articles: David Brooks' 2004 New York Times column, Parents of a Killer. The mass murder ended when he turned the gun and shot himself in the head. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School and opened fire on their classmates, teachers and staff. Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters who committed the Columbine High School massacre, murdering 12 students and a teacher. Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield led his family in their notorious and bloody feud with the McCoys during the late 1800s along the Kentucky-West Virginia border. Jesse James was a bank and train robber in the American Old West, best known as the leading member of the James-Younger gang of outlaws. Littleton residents gather at the Clemment Park memorial on Apr. As the mother of Columbine High School shooter Dylan Klebold prepares to speak out in her first interview since the gruesome 1999 shooting massacre, a … A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/dylan-klebold. Originally, bombs planted in the school’s cafeteria were supposed to go off first, sending students and teachers into the parking lot where the two planned to shoot as many people as possible. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Andrew Solomon's excellent, Far From The Tree. Long after I created the first draft of this page (2004), Sue Klebold published her wonderful memoir, So this page is somewhat moot: you should just go read Sue's excellent book, and/or google the many interviews she did when it came out. Twenty years after teenage gunmen attacked Columbine High School, Ruegsegger Johnson and other alumni of the Littleton, Colorado, school have become parents. The shooters’ names were Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. In this difficult, jarring talk, Klebold explores the intersection between mental health and … Linda and her husband Tom met with the Harrises and Tom also met with the Klebolds. Deeply disturbed by the attack, the governor of Colorado appointed a special commission to study the events of that tragic day. Susan Klebold's 2009 essay for O, The Oprah Magazine, I Will Never Know Why. It's a reported piece, based on my interviews with Bob Curnow and Linda Mauser. The column format limited it to about 800 words, but Brooks chose them wisely. You won't get closer to the source than this. The parents of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have often been portrayed as disengaged from the lives of their sons and unaware of the dark paths lying ahead. The shootings sent shockwaves through the community and the world at large. In that process, they also added a few details here and there, through their attorney. © 2020 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. I find that absurd. 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