January 20, 2025 • 53 mins
The lives of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold offer a cautionary tale that continues to evoke a mix of empathy and dread. As we unravel the layers of their upbringing, particularly focusing on Dylan’s journey within a family that prized ethics amidst financial comfort, the contrast between his internal battles and Eric’s outward fascinations stands stark. We also shine a light on figures like Reverend Don Marxhausen, who endeavored to provide spiritual comfort in the aftermath of chaos, reflecting a community grappling with responsibility and healing. Through these narratives, we seek to understand the personal struggles that prefaced the unthinkable events at Columbine.
The ripple effect of the tragedy extends beyond the immediate moment, affecting the lives of those like Tom and Sue Kleborg, who are caught in the profound and isolating burden of their son's actions. We look into societal responses through the poignant lens of grief and compassion, mirrored in biblical parallels that highlight the universal struggle with forgiveness and blame. This episode further explores the early friendships and fantasies that shaped Eric and Dylan, painting a haunting picture of their adolescent world through the eyes of peers who saw both light and shadows in their personalities.
Within the crucible of a school under siege, we encounter moments of fear, bravery, and resilience. The desperate attempts to save a life amidst chaos testify to human endurance. As Eric’s evolution from preppy youth to rebellious outcast unfolds, we also investigate the myths and truths surrounding the Trench Coat Mafia. This story weaves through the misunderstandings and the reality of affiliations that complicate the narrative. Join us as we navigate these troubled waters, offering insights into a tragedy that forever altered a community and a nation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis part six of Unraveling the
Columbine Tragedy.
Let's begin.
Detectives assembled portraitsof the killers that felt
maddeningly similar and vanillaMaddening Knees.
Similar and Vanilla.
(00:23):
They were the youngest sons ofcomfortable, two-parent,
two-child, quiet, small-townfamilies.
The Claiborne's had more moneythan the Harris's.
The Harris's were more mobile.
Each boy grew up in the shadowof a single older sibling, a
(00:45):
bigger, taller, stronger brother.
Eric and Dylan would eventuallyshare the same hobbies, classes
, job, friends, clothing choicesand clubs, but they had
remarkably different interiorlives.
Dylan always saw himself asinferior.
The anger and the loathingtraveled inward.
Anger and the loathing traveledinward, and one of the
(01:10):
neighbors who always almostbecame the neighborhood mom for
a lot of those kids mentionedthat Dylan was taking it out on
himself.
Dylan's mother was Jewish.
Slue Claiborne had been born toJustinoff.
She was part of a prominentJewish family in Columbus Ohio.
Her paternal grandfather hadbeen a philanthropist and a bit
(01:36):
of a local tycoon, and this waseven a Jewish community center
in the city that was establishedby him, by this grandfather.
Classmates said that Dylannever shared Eric's fascination
(01:57):
with Hitler and Nazis or Germany, and some suggested it bothered
him Germany and some suggestedit bother him.
Tom was, his father was Lutheranand the family practiced some
of each religion.
They celebrated Easter andPassover with a traditional
cedar.
Most of the year they remainedquietly spiritual, without much
(02:21):
organized religion, without muchorganized religion.
In the mid-1990s they took astep at a traditional church.
They joined the parish of StPhilip Lutheran Church.
The boys went to services alongwith their parents.
Their pastor was Reverend DonMaxhausen and he described them
as hardworking, very intelligent, 60s kind of people.
(02:44):
They don't believe in violenceor guns or racism and certainly
they're not anti-Semitic.
They like Reverend Max Hausen.
But formal church service justwasn't a good fit for them.
So they attended for a brieftime and then they dropped away.
Suh spent her career in highereducation.
(03:06):
She began as a tutor, then alab assistant and finally she
worked with disabled students.
As a matter of fact, she had amaster's degree with an
endorsement in readingspecialist and in 1997, she left
(03:29):
a local community college for aposition with the Colorado
Community College System.
She coordinated a program thereto help vocational rehab
students get jobs and trainingthere to help vocational rehab
(03:50):
students get jobs and trainingTom.
He did reasonably well in theoil business.
He started with an undergraddegree in sculpture, but then he
relocated to Columbus, ohio.
He got a master's degree ingeophysics, so he got into the
oil business.
He was really good atrenovating and renting out
apartments.
That's what he really liked todo.
(04:12):
He was great with repairs andremodeling and the hobby became
a business and Tom and Sueformed Fountain Real Estate
Management to buy and administerthe properties.
Tom continued consulting toindependent oil companies
part-time.
(04:35):
The Clebers were risingfinancially but worried about
spoiling their kids.
Ethics were centered in theirhousehold and the boys needed to
learn restraint.
Tom and Sue settled onappropriate figures to spend on
the boys and stuck to them.
They stuck to those figures.
One Christmas Dylan wanted anexpensive baseball card that
(04:56):
would have consumed his entiregift budget and Sue was torn One
tiny present in addition to thecard for her boy.
Maybe she could spend a littleextra, but no, they decided
against that because austeritywas a gift too and Dylan got
what he had asked for and nomore.
In 1990, as Metro Denverencroached into Jeffco, the
(05:19):
clabbered retreated beyond thehog bag, the first strip of
foothills hundreds of feet high,which from the air looked like
the bumps along a hog's back.
The hogback functions likeDenver's coastline.
It feels like civilization endsthere.
Roads are scarce, homes aredistant and highly exclusive.
(05:41):
Shops and commerce and activityare almost non-existent.
The family move into therun-down glass and cedar house
on Deer Creek Mesa inside apanoramic rock formation.
It's a smaller version of, it'slike a smaller version of the
Red Rocks Amphitheater which isa few miles away.
(06:01):
Tom gradually brought the houseback into stunning shape.
Dylan officially lived in thebackcountry, now part-time
country boy, riding over to thepopulated side every morning for
school in suburbia.
In seventh grade Dylan faced afrightening transition.
He had been sheltered among thebrainiacs of a gifted school
(06:25):
called CHIPS CHIPS stands forChallenging High Intellectual
Potential Students and hestarted there or he has been
there since third grade and hewas a math prodigy.
And now in seventh grade he'sgoing to have to transition and
(07:00):
get away from that shelterschool, from the Brainess and
Chips, and go to Ken CarrollMiddle School.
That was five times as big andit didn't have a gifted program.
That was five times as big andit didn't have a gifted program.
So Tom, the dad, describedDylan lurching from crater to
reality.
In the meantime, in reality, inpresent day, reverend Max Housen
(07:25):
, the reverend whose church theyattended for a little while.
St Philip Lutheran Church led acongregation of several
thousand when the tragedy ofColumbine was happening and he
(07:52):
got all the information aboutwhat happened.
He went that night to hisoffice and checked the parish
rolls.
Tom and Sue, clebert and thetwo boys, dylan and Byron, had
registered five years ago.
They had not stayed long but hefelt that that should not
(08:12):
diminish his responsibility.
If they had failed to find aspiritual home, he felt that
they remained under his care.
He found a family close to Tomand Sue and sent word that he
(08:34):
was available.
And the Cleberts called a fewdays later and Tom said I need
your help and that was obviousbecause his voice on the phone
was shaking.
He needed a funeral for his boy.
How embarrassing to ask after afive-year absence.
But Tom was out of options andhe also had a requirement.
(08:56):
He said this funeral has to beconfidential.
And of course Maxhausen said ofcourse you got my help and it
will be confidential.
He talked to Tom and then toSue, asked how they were doing
and the word that they used wasdevastated and he didn't dare to
(09:18):
ask them any more questions.
Tom and Sue received the body onThursday.
The service was conducted onSaturday.
It was done quietly with just15 people, including friends,
family and clergy.
Markshausen but anotherminister and both their wives,
(09:39):
dylan, lay in an open casket.
His face restored, no sign ofthe gaping head wound.
He looked peaceful.
His face was surrounded by acircle of beanie babies and
other stuffed animals.
(10:01):
When Max Harsin arrived, ton wasin denial.
Sue was falling apart.
She crumbled into Pastor's arms.
Max Harsin engulfed her.
Her frail body quaked and shesobbed for perhaps a minute and
a half, which is a long time.
He said.
Tom first couldn't see hislittle boy as that killer.
He kept repeating that was notmy son and he told the pastor
(10:27):
what you see in the news and thepapers was not my son.
The other mourners arrived andthe awkwardness only increased.
A liturgy wasn't going to helpthem.
Markshausen felt a terribleneed to scrap his service and
let them speak and he suggesteddo you mind if we just talk for
(10:50):
a while and then we'll worship?
So he shut the door.
He asked who wanted to beginand he remembered that there was
one couple that just poured outtheir hearts.
Their son used to play withDylan when the boys were little
and they loved Dylan and Tomasked where did the guns come
(11:14):
from?
They have never had more than aBB gun.
Where did the violence comefrom?
What was this Nazi stuff andthe anti-Semitism?
What was this Nazi stuff andthe anti-Semitism?
Because, of course, sue wasJewish, she's Jewish and Dylan
(11:35):
was half Jewish.
So what kind of sense did thismake?
Another friend said they weresuch good parents.
Dylan was a great kid, he waslike our son.
So they went around and aroundfewer than a dozen of them.
But for 45 minutes they spilledout anguish and confusion and
(12:00):
love for the awkward kid who hadoccasional outbursts.
Dylan's brother, byron, mostlylistened.
He sat quietly between Tom andSue and finally spoke up near
the end and said I want to thankyou all for being here today,
for my parents and myself.
I love my brother.
(12:21):
Then Max Hausen read fromscripture and offered some muted
encouragement.
He read the Old Testament storyof Absalom, beloved son of King
David.
Absalom skillfully ingratiatedhimself to his father, the court
and all the kingdom, butsecretly plotted to seize the
(12:42):
throne.
Eventually he thrust Israelinto civil war.
He appeared poised to vanquishhis father, but David's generals
prevailed.
The king was informed first ofthe triumph, then of his son's
death.
David's grief made the victorylike a defeat and the people
(13:04):
stole silently into the city.
Markhausen read to Samuel.
David wept and cried out oh, myson, absalom, my son, my son
Absalom.
Would God I had died for thee?
Oh, absalom, my son.
(13:27):
The Cleboards were afraid tobury Dylan.
His grave would be defaced.
It would become an anti-shrine.
So they decided to cremate hisbody and kept the ashes in the
house.
Maxhausen assumed the mediawould get wind of the service.
He asked one of the service.
He asked one of the cleverattorneys how to handle the
(13:48):
inquiries and the attorney saidjust tell them what you have
seen here tonight.
And so he did.
He told the New York Times,which featured the account on
the front page.
Tom and Sue were wracked bygrief, guilt and utter confusion
.
He said they lost their son,but their son was also a killer.
(14:08):
He told the story lovingly.
He described Tom and Sue as theloneliest people on the planet.
Don Max Harsin made some of hisparish exceptionally proud.
That was their pastor, a manwho could find compassion in his
(14:29):
heart for anyone, a man capableof consoling the people who had
unwillingly produced a monster.
That's why they have packed thepews to hear him every Sunday.
Some of his parish and much ofthe community was appalled,
lonely, the Claibors were lonely.
Several of the victims werestill awaiting burial.
(14:51):
Survivors still faced surgery.
It would be months before somewould walk again or talk again
or discover they never would.
Some people have troublerousing sympathy for the
Clareboards.
Their loneliness was not anespecially popular concern.
(15:12):
Wayne and Kathy Harrispresumably held some ceremony
for Eric, but they have neveronce spoken to the purse about
it.
Word never leaked.
We'll be right back.
No one remembers for sure howEric and Dylan met.
(15:36):
Eric arrived at Kent CarrollMiddle School in seventh grade.
Dylan was already attending.
The two boys met at some pointbut didn't connect right away.
They both continued on toColumbine High.
Brooks Brown re-entered theschool district there.
(15:57):
His friendship with Dylan hadfallen off after his parents
moved into private schools yearsearlier.
But he returned to publicschool his freshman year and met
Eric on the bus Pretty soon.
All three were tight.
They played video games forhours.
Sometimes they play in person,but they also stay up late
competing online.
They went to Columbine Rebelfootball games together freshman
(16:20):
year.
Eric was practically acelebrity because his brother
was a starter on the varsityteam.
Eric Brooks and Dylan were threeaspiring intellectuals.
They took an interest inclassical philosophers and
Renaissance literature.
All three boys were shy at thatpoint, but Eric began breaking
through his shell Just twomonths into high school.
(16:42):
He asked a classmate tohomecoming.
She remembered him as nervousand quiet, largely forgettable,
until he faked his suicide.
A few days after the dance shesaid later, quote he had his
friend take me over to his house.
When I went there he was lyingwith his head on a rock and
there was fake blood around him.
He was acting like he was deadEnd quote.
(17:05):
It wasn't an original stunt.
He probably ripped it off ofthe 1970 classic movie Harold
and Maude, but it weirded herout, so she refused to date him
again.
Eric was always a dreamer, buthe liked them ugly, bleak and
morose, yet boring as hell.
(17:25):
He saw beauty in the void.
Eric dreamed of a world wherenothing ever happened, a world
where the rest of us had beenremoved.
Eric shared his dreams ininternet chat rooms.
He described them vividly toonline chicks.
In one he was suspended insidea small dank room like the
(17:46):
interior hold of a ship.
Futuristic yet decaying oldcomputer screens lined the walls
covered with dust and mold andvines.
The moon provided the onlylight, trickling dimly in
through the portals, shadowscreeping all around A vast sea
rose and fell monotonously.
(18:08):
Nothing happened and Eric wasoverjoyed.
He rarely encountered humans inhis creations, just the
occasional combatant toextinguish or disembodied voice,
to drop an ironic bon mot.
Dreamland.
Eric has snuffed us out.
He invented a world of precisetextures, vivid hues and
(18:32):
absolutely no payoff for himself.
Happiness for Eric waseliminating the likes of us.
Happiness for Eric waseliminating the likes of us.
Extinction fantasies cropped upregularly and would obsess Eric
in his final years, but in hisonline chats there was never a
(18:53):
sense of him intending to do thedeed.
He had bold dreams for theworld, but mother's ideas about
himself.
He was pretty convinced that wewould all take care of
destroying the planet withouthis help anyway.
Zach Heckler had one class withDylan freshman year.
(19:15):
That was all it took.
Finally somebody understood him.
Brooks and Eric were fun tohang with, but they never really
got Dylan, not the way Kibbedid.
Zach did not care for thatnickname, but it stuck.
He was an insatiable snacker,so the kids had branded him
(19:37):
Kibble and Kibby and lord kibbs.
Second, dylan's teacher gavethem a lot of brief study time
eric would wander from theadjoining room.
At first he came around to chatwith dylan, but pretty soon all
three were cutting up.
They played doom bold.
(19:57):
These sleepovers went toballgames and drag races and
Bundy Mears Speedway.
They made fun of dumb kids andignorant adults.
Computer illiterates were theworst, especially when some fool
put them in front of a class.
The boys watched a ton ofmovies, lots of action and
horror and science fantasy.
They cruised the mall to pickup chicks.
(20:19):
Eric did all the talking.
Zach and Dylan hung back andfollowed his lead.
Dylan joined the theater group.
He was too shy for the stagebut he worked lights and sound.
Eric had no interest in that.
They got close with NateDykeman and Chris Morris too.
Mostly they hung at Dylan's.
(20:40):
Dylan also looked after hishouse guests, worried about
whether they were having a goodtime At Eric's.
It was totally strict when themayor got home, but until then
Eric had free reign down in thebasement where he had set up his
bedroom.
They had girls over show offhow they nail garden crickets
(21:03):
with the BB gun.
Friendships came and went, butthe bond between Zack and Dylan
grew stronger.
They were snarky, clever andseething with teenage anger, but
way too timid to show it.
Dylan and Zack needed Eric.
Someone had to do the talking.
Eric needed an audience.
(21:24):
He also craved excitement.
He was cool and detached, toughto rattle.
Nothing seemed to face him.
Dylan was a non-lit fuse.
Eric led the parade Perfect fit.
They were a threesome now.
(21:47):
Eric kept improving his Doomskills.
When he got bored with theimages that the software
provided, eric invented his own,sketching a menagerie of heroes
and villains on his notepads.
He hacked into the software andcreated new characters.
Sketching a menagerie of heroesand villains on his notepads.
He hacked into the software andcreated new characters, unique
(22:10):
obstacles, higher levels andincreasingly elaborate
adventures.
Many of his warriors weredecked out in medieval armor and
submachine guns.
One was blessed withflamethrowers for forearms.
Victims were frequently on fireor freshly decapitated.
Eric's creations wereunparalleled.
In his view, eric enjoyed theact of creation.
(22:43):
In the meantime, let's go backto present day.
We have the teacher DaveSanders.
Dave Sanders' daughters wereangry.
Before they got confirmationthat their dad was dead, they
heard disturbing stories abouthis final hours.
The impression her family wasgetting was that 12 victims had
been goners once the bulletsleft the chambers, but Dave
(23:07):
Sanders had held on for wellover three hours.
From what Andy understood, herfather could have been saved.
Dave's daughters began lookinginto the reports but kept their
mouths shut around their mother.
They had to keep the TV off.
When she was awake theysnatched newspapers off the
doorstep and magazines out ofthe mailbox because they have to
(23:31):
protect Linda.
She was already a wreck.
Dave Sanders was just a few feetfrom safety when the first shot
hit him.
Just a few feet from safetywhen the first shot hit him.
He saw the killers spun around,ran for the corner trying to
save a few more students on theway there.
One bullet got him in the backand he tore through his ribcage
(23:52):
and exited through his chest.
The other bullet enteredthrough the side of his neck and
came out of his mouth,lacerating his tongue and
chattering several teeth.
The neck wound opened up one ofhis cavitid arteries the major
blood routes to the brain.
The shot to his back clippedhis subclavian vein, which is a
(24:16):
major vessel back to the heart.
There was a lot of blood.
Major vessel back to the heart.
There was a lot of blood.
Everyone had been guessing whichway was the safest to run.
Rich Long, who was the head ofthe technology department and a
good friend of Dave's had chosenan opposite route.
He first heard the shootingfrom the library, told students
(24:39):
to get out and directed a groupdown the main stairway right
into the cafeteria, unaware thehundreds had just fled from that
location.
Through the bottom of thestairs they saw bullets flying
outside the windows and reversedcourse.
At the top of the stairs theyturned left away from the
library and into the sciencewing, which also included the
(25:02):
music rooms.
They arrived just in time tosee David get shot.
Dave crashed into the lockers,then collapsed on the carpet.
Rich and most of the studentsdove for the floor.
Now Dave was really desperate.
One senior said quote he was onhis elbows trying to direct
(25:22):
kids.
Eric and Dylan were both firing.
They were lobbing pipe bombsdown the length of the hall.
Rich yelled Dave, you gotta getup.
We got to get out of here.
Dave pulled himself up,staggered a few feet around the
corner.
Rich hurried over.
As soon as he was out of theline of fire he ducked his
(25:44):
shoulder under Dave's arm.
Another teacher got Dave fromthe other side and they dragged
him to the science wing just adozen feet away.
And Dave said Rich, they shotme in the teeth.
They moved past the first andsecond classrooms and then
entered room three.
The door opened and Mr Sanderscomes in and starts coughing up
(26:08):
blood.
According to sophomore MarjorieLingham and she said it looked
like part of his jaw was missing.
He just poured blood.
The room was full of students.
The teacher had gone out to thehallway to investigate.
When he came back he told themto forget the test and order
(26:29):
everyone up against the wall.
The classroom door had a glasspane, two shooters who might be
stalking through the halls.
The room would appear empty ifanyone huddled along the
interior perimeter.
That's when Dave stumbled inwith two teachers assisting.
He collapsed again face firstin the front of the room and one
(26:54):
freshman girl said later thathe left a couple of teeth where
he landed.
They got Dave into a chair andhe said to Rich Rich, I'm not
doing so well.
And Rich told him you'll beokay, I'm going to go phone for
help.
Several teachers had arrived soRich had ran back out into the
(27:18):
melee searching for a phone.
He learned that somebody wasalready calling for help so he
went back and Rich said I needto go get you some help.
So he went back into the smokycorridor and try another lab.
But the killers were gettingcloser, apparently right outside
the lab's door this time.
So Rich finally took cover.
(27:40):
Dave had several adults withhim.
Plenty of calls had been madeabout the shooting, so Rich had
no doubt that help was on theway.
Kent Friesen, another teacherwith Dave, went for immediate
assistance.
He ran into a nearby lab wheremore students were huddled and
he asked who knows first aid.
(28:00):
Where more students werehuddled and he asked who knows
first aid and Aaron Hansi, ajunior in Eagle Scout, stepped
up and Friesen told him well,you need to come with me.
And then all hell seemed tobreak loose out in the hallway
and Aaron said I could feel itthrough the walls.
With each blast I could feelthe walls move.
So he was scared to go outthere.
(28:29):
But freezing checked forshooters, bolted down the
corridor and Aaron followed.
Aaron ran through a rapidinspection of Day's condition
breathing, steady airway, clearskin, warm shoulder broken,
gaping wounds, heavy blood loss.
Aaron stripped off his ownwhite Adidas t-shirt to stanch
the flow.
Other boys volunteered theirshirts.
He tore several into bandagestrips and improvised a few
(28:51):
tourniquets.
He bundled others together intoa pillow.
Dave said I got to go.
I got to go and he tried tostand but failed.
Teachers attended to thestudents.
They flipped over tables tobarricade the door.
They opened a partition in theback to an adjoining science lab
(29:14):
and several kids rushed to thecenter furthest from the door.
The gunfire and explosionscontinued.
A fire erupted in a nearby roomand a teacher grabbed a fire
extinguisher to put it out.
Screams filtered down the hallfrom the library.
It was nothing like screamsMarjorie Lindholm had heard
(29:37):
before.
She described it as it soundedlike people being tortured.
Another boy in a room describedit as it was like they were
carrying out executions, becauseyou would hear a shot, then
there would be quiet, thenanother shot and then bam, bam,
(29:58):
bam, the screaming and gunfire.
Both stopped Silence.
Then more explosions, on andoff and on.
Again the fire alarm beganblaring.
It was a ear-splitting pitchdesigned to force people out of
the building through sheer pain.
The teachers and students couldbarely hear anything over the
(30:20):
alarm's shriek, but could justmake out the steady flap of
helicopters outside.
Someone turned on the giant TVsuspended from the ceiling.
They kept the volume off, butthe subtitles on it was their
school.
From the outside, much of theclass was transfixed at first,
(30:40):
but their attention went quickly.
Nobody seemed to know anything.
Aaron called his father, whoused another line to call 911,
so that paramedics could askquestions and relay instructions
.
Several other students andteachers called the cops.
The science room remainedlinked to authorities via
multiple channels throughout theafternoon.
(31:02):
Sophomore, kevin Starkey, alsoan Eagle Scout, assistant Aaron.
The boys whispered to Dave,you're doing all right, they're
coming, just hold on, you can doit.
And they took turns applyingpressure, digging their palms
into his wounds.
And Dave said I need help, Igotta get out of here.
(31:24):
And Aaron kept assuring himhelp is on its way.
Aaron believed it was.
Law enforcement was firstalerted to Dave's predicament
around 1145.
Dispatchers began respondingthat help was on the way and
would arrive in about 10 minutes.
The assurances were repeatedfor more than three hours, along
(31:47):
with orders that no one leavethe room under any circumstances
.
The 911 operator instructed thegroup to open the door briefly.
They were to tie a red shirtaround the doorknob in the
hallway.
The SWAT team would look for itto identify the room.
There was a lot of dissentabout the directive in science
(32:12):
room three.
Wouldn't a red flag alsoattract the killers?
Who was going to step out intothe hallway.
They decided to obey.
Someone volunteered to tie theshirt to the knob.
Around noon, teacher DougJohnson wrote one bleeding to
death on the whiteboard and moveit to the window, just to be
(32:33):
sure.
Occasionally, the TV coveragegrabbed attention in the room.
At one point student MarjorieLingholm thought she spotted a
huge mass of blood seeping out adoor pictured on screen, but
she was mistaken.
Fear had taken control.
(32:54):
Each time Aaron and Kevinswitched positions, they felt
Dave's skin grow a little colder.
He was losing color, taking ona bluish cast, and they wondered
where are the paramedics?
When will the 10 minutes be up?
Dave's breathing began to slow.
He drifted in and out.
(33:16):
Evan and Kevin rolled himgently on the tile floor to keep
him conscious and to keep hisairway clear.
He couldn't remain on his backfor very long or he would choke
on his own blood.
They pulled out wool safetyblankets from a first aid closet
and wrapped him to keep himwarm.
(33:37):
They asked him about coaching,teaching anything to keep him
engaged and safe of shock.
They slipped his wallet out andbegan showing him pictures.
Is this your wife?
Yes, what's your wife's name?
Linda.
He had lots of pictures andthey used them all.
(33:58):
He had lots of pictures andthey used them all.
They talk about his daughtersand his grandchildren.
And the boy said these peoplelove you.
This is why you need to live.
Aaron and Kevin grew desperate.
The treatment had exceededscouting instructions.
(34:21):
You are trained to deal withbroken arms and broken limbs,
cuts and scrapes stuff that youget on a camping trip.
You never train for gunshotwounds.
This is Aaron saying this whenhe was interviewed.
Eventually, aaron and Kevinlost the struggle to keep Dave
conscious.
Dave said I'm not going to makeit.
Tell my girls I love them.
(34:47):
It was relatively calm for awhile.
The alarm kept blaring.
The choppers kept thumping andgunfire explosions were
periodically rumbled through thehallways.
Some were off in the distance.
Nothing had soundedparticularly close for a while.
Nothing seemed imminent.
Dave's chest rose and fell.
Blood oozed out, but the boyscould not rouse him.
(35:11):
Evan and Kevin kept trying.
Some of the kids gave up on thepolice.
Around 2 pm they informed the911 operator they were going to
hurl a chair through the windowand get Dave out of themselves.
She insisted they abandon theplan, which, she warned them,
(35:31):
might draw the attention of thekillers.
At 2.38, the TV suddenly caughtthe room's attention again.
Patrick Ireland was stumblingout of the library window and
some of the kids yelled oh myGod.
They have hidden quietly forhours, but this was too much.
(35:51):
Coach Sanders was not anisolated case.
A kid was just as bloody justdown the hall and they have
assumed it was bad out there.
Now they had proof.
Some kids closed their eyes,picked your loved ones and
silently said goodbye.
Just a few minutes later, thedanger suddenly grew too close.
(36:14):
Again.
Screams erupted from the nextroom and then everything went
silent for a minute.
All at once the door burst openand men in black rushed in.
The killers were dressed inblack.
The invaders towed thesubmachine guns.
They waved them at the studentsshouting fiercely, trying to
(36:34):
out-scream the fire alarm, andMarjorie even wrote later.
I thought they were the gunmen.
I thought that now I was goingto die.
Some of the men turned andpointed to the huge black
letters on their backs SWAT.
And the officer yelled be quiet, put your hands on your heads
(36:55):
and follow us out.
And someone said someone's gotto stay with Mr Sanders, and
Aaron volunteered.
He said I will.
And an officer said no,everyone out.
And then how about holding Daveout with them, suggested Kevin.
They were folded tables.
(37:15):
They could improvise one as astretcher.
But again the officer said no.
It seemed heartless, but theSWAT team was trained to make
practical choices.
Hundreds of students weretrapped.
The gunman could reappear anymoment.
Students were trapped.
(37:37):
The gunmen could reappear anymoment.
The team had to assume abattlefield mentality and
evacuate the maximum number inthe minimum time.
They could send a medic backfor the injured.
Later the SWAT team let thestudents single file down the
stairs to the commons.
They waded through three inchesof water they had rained down
from the sprinklers, backpacksand pizza slices floated by and
(38:01):
the officers warned them don'ttouch anything.
A SWAT member held the door.
He stopped each student, heldthem for two seconds, then
tapped them on the shoulder andtold them to run.
That was a standard infantrymaneuver.
A single pipe bomb could takeout an entire pack of children.
A well-aimed gun machine burstcould do the same safer to space
(38:23):
them Outside.
The kids ran past two deadbodies, danny Vorbor and Rachel
Scott.
Marjorie Lindhorn rememberedthat there was a weird look on
their faces, a weird color totheir skin.
The girl just ahead of herstopped suddenly when she saw
(38:46):
their bodies and Marjorie caughtup, but a SWAT officer screamed
at them to keep moving.
Marjorie saw the guns trainedright on her.
She gaveie saw the gun's trainride on her.
She gave the girl a push andthey both took off.
Two SWAT officers stayed withDave.
In another call for help it fellto a Denver SWAT member outside
(39:06):
the building to recruit aparamedic.
He spotted Troy Lehman, an EMTwho had driven out from the city
and was manning a triagestation, and said Troy, I need
you to go in, let's go.
Lehman followed the officerthrough the flooded commons, up
the stairway, past the rubble,into the science room, room
(39:29):
number three.
By that time Dave had stoppedbreathing.
According to emergency triageprotocol that qualified him as
dead, and Lehman said that heknew that there was nothing they
could do for this guy.
He didn't even have equipmentwith him, he said because I was
(39:53):
stuck in a room with him bymyself for 15 minutes.
I wanted to help him, but theSWAT officer eventually cleared
Lehman to keep moving.
He said there's nothing you cando.
So Lehman went on to thelibrary and he was one of the
first medics to go in.
(40:14):
Dave Sanders' story got off fast.
Both local papers, the RockyMountain News and the Denver
Post described his ordeal onWednesday.
On Thursday the Rocky, as it'soften called, ran a piece called
Police Dispute Charges.
They were too slow.
One student said a lot ofpeople are angry, but the bulk
(40:35):
of the story focused on thepolice response.
The sheriff's spokesman, steveDavis from DEFCO, said we have
1,800 kids rushing from theschool.
The officers had no idea whichwere victims, which were
potential suspects.
The Rocky offered the summaryof the SWAT response based on
(40:57):
the department's claims.
Within 20 minutes of the firstpanic call for help, a makeshift
six-man SWAT team rushed intothe sprawling school and within
an hour dozens of heavily armedofficers and body armor launched
a methodical room-by-roomsearch of the building.
(41:18):
End quote.
The department would eventuallyadmit that it took more than
twice that long.
It took them 47 minutes for thefirst five-man team to enter.
The other half of that teamattended to wounded students on
the lawn but never proceeded in.
(41:39):
A second team entered afternearly two hours until the
killer's bodies were found.
That was it.
The situation grew harder onFriday when a Red River Suburban
cop laid down 13 roses inClement Park and then described
(41:59):
the SWAT response as pathetic,and this Red-Event Suburban cop
told the press it pissed me off.
I would have someone in there.
We are trained to do that.
We are trained to go in there.
The officer's statement waswidely reported.
(42:21):
He became an inkstand symboland his department foolishly
extended the story by placinghim on non-disciplinary leave
and ordering a fitness for dutyevaluation.
They backpedaled.
A few days later Members of theSWAT teams began responding in
the press Quote it was just anightmare.
(42:45):
What parents need to understandis we wanted teams in there as
quickly as we could.
We were going into thesituation blind.
We had multiple explosionsgoing off.
We thought they could have beena band of terrorists in there.
End quote.
Officers were nearly as confusedas TV viewers.
Outside they could hear theblasts, but once they enter they
(43:09):
couldn't even hear one another.
The fire alarm drowned outeverything.
Communication was limited tohand signals.
The barrage of noise and strobelights beat down their psyches
like psychological warfare.
Officers could not locateanyone with the alarm code to
shut it down.
They found an assistantprincipal, but she was so
(43:35):
frazzled she couldn't rememberthe digits.
In desperation, officers triedto beat the alarm speakers off
the walls.
One tried to disable thecontrol panel by smashing the
glass cover with his rifle butt.
The alarms and sprinklerscontinued until 4.04 pm.
The strobe lights that flashedwith the alarm continued for
(43:59):
weeks.
Those were legitimate obstacles, desantis' family acknowledged.
But more than three hours afterhe was shot Linda's sister,
melody, was designated familyspokesman or spokesperson.
And she said spokesman orspokesperson.
And she said some of hisdaughters are angry.
(44:20):
They feel like had they gone inand gotten Dave out sooner he
would have left.
Melody said the Sanders familydidn't hold the SWAT members
responsible but the system was adisaster because it was utter
chaos.
The family expressed gratitudefor the efforts that had been
made.
As a gesture of goodwill theyinvited the full SWAT teams to
(44:48):
Dave's funeral.
All the officers attended.
We'll be right back.
We have talked a little bitabout Dylan.
Let's talk a little bit aboutEric.
Eric was evolving.
Inside Sophomore year thechanges began to show.
For his 15 years Eric hadconcentrated on assimilation.
(45:14):
Dylan had sought the same goalwith less success.
Eric always made friends.
Social status was important.
Eric's neighbor described himas nice, polite, preppy and a
dork.
High school was full of dorks.
Eric could live with that for awhile.
Sophomore year he tried aneight-year look Combat boots,
(45:36):
all black outfits and grunge.
He started shopping at a trendyshop called Hot Topic and the
Army Surplus Store.
He liked the look, he liked thefeeling.
The buddy, chris Morris, begansporting a beret.
That was a little much, ericthought.
He wanted to look different,but not retarded.
(45:57):
Those are his words.
By the way, eric was breakingout of his shell.
He grew boisterous, moody andaggressive.
Sometimes he was playful,speaking in funny voices and
flirting with girls.
He had a lot of ideas and hebegan expressing them with
confidence.
(46:17):
Dylan never did.
Most of the girls who knew Ericdescribed him as cute.
He was aware of the consensusbut didn't quite accept it.
Eric took some flack for the newget-up.
Older kids and bigger guysharassed him sometimes, but
nothing exceptional, and he wastalking back now and provoking
(46:40):
confrontations.
He had shaken off his silencealong with the preppy uniform.
Dylan remained quiet right upuntil the end.
He wasn't much for mouthing off, except in very southern bursts
that freak everyone out alittle.
He followed eric's fashion ledbut uh, lead, but a less intense
(47:03):
version.
So he took a lot less ribbing.
Eric could have silenced thetons anytime by conforming again
, but by this time he got a kickout of standing out.
One classmate said, quote theimpression I always got from
them was they kind of wanted tobe outcasts.
It wasn't that they werelabeled that way, it's what they
(47:27):
chose to be.
End quote Outcast was a matterof perception.
Kids who slapped that label onEric and Dylan meant that the
boys rejected the preppy model,but so did hundreds of other
kids at the school.
Eric and Dylan had very activesocial calendars and far more
(47:48):
friends than the averageadolescent.
They fit in with the wholethriving subculture.
Other lesson they fit in with awhole thriving subculture.
Their friends respected oneanother and ridiculed the
conformity of the vanilla waferslooking down on them.
They had no desire to emulatethe jocks.
Could there be a faster routeto boredom?
For Dylan, different wasdifficult, but for Eric,
(48:12):
different was good.
For Halloween that year EricDutro, who was a junior, wanted
to go as Dracula, so he needed acool coat, something dramatic.
So his parents picked up a longblack duster at Santa Club.
The kids referred to this as atrench coat.
(48:36):
The costume didn't work out,but the trench coat was cool.
Eric Dutro hung on to it and hestarted wearing it to school.
It made quite an impression.
The trench coat turned a lot ofheads and Dutro loved turning
heads.
He had a hard time at schoolbecause kids at Columbine's
(48:57):
picked on him.
Kids would ridicule himrelentlessly, calling him a
freak.
Worse, they would use the wordfaggot, and eventually he fought
back the only way he knew how,fought back the only way he knew
how, by upping the ante.
If they were going to call hima freak, he was going to give
(49:24):
them one hell of a freak show.
The trench coat made a nicelittle addition to his freak
joke.
Not surprisingly, deutro hungwith a bunch of kids who liked
turning heads too, and after awhile several of them were
sporting trench coats.
They would dress all in black,wear the long coats, even in the
summer.
Somewhere along the linesomeone referred to them as the
(49:46):
Trench Coat Mafia TCM for short,tcm for short, and it stuck.
Eric, dutro, chris Morris and ahandful of other boys were
pretty much the core of the TCM,but a dozen more were often
(50:10):
associated with TCM as well,whether they sported trench
coats or not.
Eric and Dylan were not amongthem.
Each of them knew some of theTCM kids, and Eric especially
would become buddies with Chris.
That was as close as they came.
Eventually, after the TCMheyday was over.
(50:34):
Eric got himself a trench coatand Dylan followed.
They wore them to the massacre.
For both fashion and functionalconsiderations, the choice
would cause tremendous confusion.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and thisis part six of Unraveling the
Columbine Tragedy.
Let's begin.
Detectives assembled portraitsof the killers that felt
maddeningly similar and vanillaMaddening Knees.
Similar and Vanilla.
(00:23):
They were the youngest sons ofcomfortable, two-parent,
two-child, quiet, small-townfamilies.
The Claiborne's had more moneythan the Harris's.
The Harris's were more mobile.
Each boy grew up in the shadowof a single older sibling, a
(00:45):
bigger, taller, stronger brother.
Eric and Dylan would eventuallyshare the same hobbies, classes
, job, friends, clothing choicesand clubs, but they had
remarkably different interiorlives.
Dylan always saw himself asinferior.
The anger and the loathingtraveled inward.
Anger and the loathing traveledinward, and one of the
(01:10):
neighbors who always almostbecame the neighborhood mom for
a lot of those kids mentionedthat Dylan was taking it out on
himself.
Dylan's mother was Jewish.
Slue Claiborne had been born toJustinoff.
She was part of a prominentJewish family in Columbus Ohio.
Her paternal grandfather hadbeen a philanthropist and a bit
(01:36):
of a local tycoon, and this waseven a Jewish community center
in the city that was establishedby him, by this grandfather.
Classmates said that Dylannever shared Eric's fascination
(01:57):
with Hitler and Nazis or Germany, and some suggested it bothered
him Germany and some suggestedit bother him.
Tom was, his father was Lutheranand the family practiced some
of each religion.
They celebrated Easter andPassover with a traditional
cedar.
Most of the year they remainedquietly spiritual, without much
(02:21):
organized religion, without muchorganized religion.
In the mid-1990s they took astep at a traditional church.
They joined the parish of StPhilip Lutheran Church.
The boys went to services alongwith their parents.
Their pastor was Reverend DonMaxhausen and he described them
as hardworking, very intelligent, 60s kind of people.
(02:44):
They don't believe in violenceor guns or racism and certainly
they're not anti-Semitic.
They like Reverend Max Hausen.
But formal church service justwasn't a good fit for them.
So they attended for a brieftime and then they dropped away.
Suh spent her career in highereducation.
(03:06):
She began as a tutor, then alab assistant and finally she
worked with disabled students.
As a matter of fact, she had amaster's degree with an
endorsement in readingspecialist and in 1997, she left
(03:29):
a local community college for aposition with the Colorado
Community College System.
She coordinated a program thereto help vocational rehab
students get jobs and trainingthere to help vocational rehab
(03:50):
students get jobs and trainingTom.
He did reasonably well in theoil business.
He started with an undergraddegree in sculpture, but then he
relocated to Columbus, ohio.
He got a master's degree ingeophysics, so he got into the
oil business.
He was really good atrenovating and renting out
apartments.
That's what he really liked todo.
(04:12):
He was great with repairs andremodeling and the hobby became
a business and Tom and Sueformed Fountain Real Estate
Management to buy and administerthe properties.
Tom continued consulting toindependent oil companies
part-time.
(04:35):
The Clebers were risingfinancially but worried about
spoiling their kids.
Ethics were centered in theirhousehold and the boys needed to
learn restraint.
Tom and Sue settled onappropriate figures to spend on
the boys and stuck to them.
They stuck to those figures.
One Christmas Dylan wanted anexpensive baseball card that
(04:56):
would have consumed his entiregift budget and Sue was torn One
tiny present in addition to thecard for her boy.
Maybe she could spend a littleextra, but no, they decided
against that because austeritywas a gift too and Dylan got
what he had asked for and nomore.
In 1990, as Metro Denverencroached into Jeffco, the
(05:19):
clabbered retreated beyond thehog bag, the first strip of
foothills hundreds of feet high,which from the air looked like
the bumps along a hog's back.
The hogback functions likeDenver's coastline.
It feels like civilization endsthere.
Roads are scarce, homes aredistant and highly exclusive.
(05:41):
Shops and commerce and activityare almost non-existent.
The family move into therun-down glass and cedar house
on Deer Creek Mesa inside apanoramic rock formation.
It's a smaller version of, it'slike a smaller version of the
Red Rocks Amphitheater which isa few miles away.
(06:01):
Tom gradually brought the houseback into stunning shape.
Dylan officially lived in thebackcountry, now part-time
country boy, riding over to thepopulated side every morning for
school in suburbia.
In seventh grade Dylan faced afrightening transition.
He had been sheltered among thebrainiacs of a gifted school
(06:25):
called CHIPS CHIPS stands forChallenging High Intellectual
Potential Students and hestarted there or he has been
there since third grade and hewas a math prodigy.
And now in seventh grade he'sgoing to have to transition and
(07:00):
get away from that shelterschool, from the Brainess and
Chips, and go to Ken CarrollMiddle School.
That was five times as big andit didn't have a gifted program.
That was five times as big andit didn't have a gifted program.
So Tom, the dad, describedDylan lurching from crater to
reality.
In the meantime, in reality, inpresent day, reverend Max Housen
(07:25):
, the reverend whose church theyattended for a little while.
St Philip Lutheran Church led acongregation of several
thousand when the tragedy ofColumbine was happening and he
(07:52):
got all the information aboutwhat happened.
He went that night to hisoffice and checked the parish
rolls.
Tom and Sue, clebert and thetwo boys, dylan and Byron, had
registered five years ago.
They had not stayed long but hefelt that that should not
(08:12):
diminish his responsibility.
If they had failed to find aspiritual home, he felt that
they remained under his care.
He found a family close to Tomand Sue and sent word that he
(08:34):
was available.
And the Cleberts called a fewdays later and Tom said I need
your help and that was obviousbecause his voice on the phone
was shaking.
He needed a funeral for his boy.
How embarrassing to ask after afive-year absence.
But Tom was out of options andhe also had a requirement.
(08:56):
He said this funeral has to beconfidential.
And of course Maxhausen said ofcourse you got my help and it
will be confidential.
He talked to Tom and then toSue, asked how they were doing
and the word that they used wasdevastated and he didn't dare to
(09:18):
ask them any more questions.
Tom and Sue received the body onThursday.
The service was conducted onSaturday.
It was done quietly with just15 people, including friends,
family and clergy.
Markshausen but anotherminister and both their wives,
(09:39):
dylan, lay in an open casket.
His face restored, no sign ofthe gaping head wound.
He looked peaceful.
His face was surrounded by acircle of beanie babies and
other stuffed animals.
(10:01):
When Max Harsin arrived, ton wasin denial.
Sue was falling apart.
She crumbled into Pastor's arms.
Max Harsin engulfed her.
Her frail body quaked and shesobbed for perhaps a minute and
a half, which is a long time.
He said.
Tom first couldn't see hislittle boy as that killer.
He kept repeating that was notmy son and he told the pastor
(10:27):
what you see in the news and thepapers was not my son.
The other mourners arrived andthe awkwardness only increased.
A liturgy wasn't going to helpthem.
Markshausen felt a terribleneed to scrap his service and
let them speak and he suggesteddo you mind if we just talk for
(10:50):
a while and then we'll worship?
So he shut the door.
He asked who wanted to beginand he remembered that there was
one couple that just poured outtheir hearts.
Their son used to play withDylan when the boys were little
and they loved Dylan and Tomasked where did the guns come
(11:14):
from?
They have never had more than aBB gun.
Where did the violence comefrom?
What was this Nazi stuff andthe anti-Semitism?
What was this Nazi stuff andthe anti-Semitism?
Because, of course, sue wasJewish, she's Jewish and Dylan
(11:35):
was half Jewish.
So what kind of sense did thismake?
Another friend said they weresuch good parents.
Dylan was a great kid, he waslike our son.
So they went around and aroundfewer than a dozen of them.
But for 45 minutes they spilledout anguish and confusion and
(12:00):
love for the awkward kid who hadoccasional outbursts.
Dylan's brother, byron, mostlylistened.
He sat quietly between Tom andSue and finally spoke up near
the end and said I want to thankyou all for being here today,
for my parents and myself.
I love my brother.
(12:21):
Then Max Hausen read fromscripture and offered some muted
encouragement.
He read the Old Testament storyof Absalom, beloved son of King
David.
Absalom skillfully ingratiatedhimself to his father, the court
and all the kingdom, butsecretly plotted to seize the
(12:42):
throne.
Eventually he thrust Israelinto civil war.
He appeared poised to vanquishhis father, but David's generals
prevailed.
The king was informed first ofthe triumph, then of his son's
death.
David's grief made the victorylike a defeat and the people
(13:04):
stole silently into the city.
Markhausen read to Samuel.
David wept and cried out oh, myson, absalom, my son, my son
Absalom.
Would God I had died for thee?
Oh, absalom, my son.
(13:27):
The Cleboards were afraid tobury Dylan.
His grave would be defaced.
It would become an anti-shrine.
So they decided to cremate hisbody and kept the ashes in the
house.
Maxhausen assumed the mediawould get wind of the service.
He asked one of the service.
He asked one of the cleverattorneys how to handle the
(13:48):
inquiries and the attorney saidjust tell them what you have
seen here tonight.
And so he did.
He told the New York Times,which featured the account on
the front page.
Tom and Sue were wracked bygrief, guilt and utter confusion
.
He said they lost their son,but their son was also a killer.
(14:08):
He told the story lovingly.
He described Tom and Sue as theloneliest people on the planet.
Don Max Harsin made some of hisparish exceptionally proud.
That was their pastor, a manwho could find compassion in his
(14:29):
heart for anyone, a man capableof consoling the people who had
unwillingly produced a monster.
That's why they have packed thepews to hear him every Sunday.
Some of his parish and much ofthe community was appalled,
lonely, the Claibors were lonely.
Several of the victims werestill awaiting burial.
(14:51):
Survivors still faced surgery.
It would be months before somewould walk again or talk again
or discover they never would.
Some people have troublerousing sympathy for the
Clareboards.
Their loneliness was not anespecially popular concern.
(15:12):
Wayne and Kathy Harrispresumably held some ceremony
for Eric, but they have neveronce spoken to the purse about
it.
Word never leaked.
We'll be right back.
No one remembers for sure howEric and Dylan met.
(15:36):
Eric arrived at Kent CarrollMiddle School in seventh grade.
Dylan was already attending.
The two boys met at some pointbut didn't connect right away.
They both continued on toColumbine High.
Brooks Brown re-entered theschool district there.
(15:57):
His friendship with Dylan hadfallen off after his parents
moved into private schools yearsearlier.
But he returned to publicschool his freshman year and met
Eric on the bus Pretty soon.
All three were tight.
They played video games forhours.
Sometimes they play in person,but they also stay up late
competing online.
They went to Columbine Rebelfootball games together freshman
(16:20):
year.
Eric was practically acelebrity because his brother
was a starter on the varsityteam.
Eric Brooks and Dylan were threeaspiring intellectuals.
They took an interest inclassical philosophers and
Renaissance literature.
All three boys were shy at thatpoint, but Eric began breaking
through his shell Just twomonths into high school.
(16:42):
He asked a classmate tohomecoming.
She remembered him as nervousand quiet, largely forgettable,
until he faked his suicide.
A few days after the dance shesaid later, quote he had his
friend take me over to his house.
When I went there he was lyingwith his head on a rock and
there was fake blood around him.
He was acting like he was deadEnd quote.
(17:05):
It wasn't an original stunt.
He probably ripped it off ofthe 1970 classic movie Harold
and Maude, but it weirded herout, so she refused to date him
again.
Eric was always a dreamer, buthe liked them ugly, bleak and
morose, yet boring as hell.
(17:25):
He saw beauty in the void.
Eric dreamed of a world wherenothing ever happened, a world
where the rest of us had beenremoved.
Eric shared his dreams ininternet chat rooms.
He described them vividly toonline chicks.
In one he was suspended insidea small dank room like the
(17:46):
interior hold of a ship.
Futuristic yet decaying oldcomputer screens lined the walls
covered with dust and mold andvines.
The moon provided the onlylight, trickling dimly in
through the portals, shadowscreeping all around A vast sea
rose and fell monotonously.
(18:08):
Nothing happened and Eric wasoverjoyed.
He rarely encountered humans inhis creations, just the
occasional combatant toextinguish or disembodied voice,
to drop an ironic bon mot.
Dreamland.
Eric has snuffed us out.
He invented a world of precisetextures, vivid hues and
(18:32):
absolutely no payoff for himself.
Happiness for Eric waseliminating the likes of us.
Happiness for Eric waseliminating the likes of us.
Extinction fantasies cropped upregularly and would obsess Eric
in his final years, but in hisonline chats there was never a
(18:53):
sense of him intending to do thedeed.
He had bold dreams for theworld, but mother's ideas about
himself.
He was pretty convinced that wewould all take care of
destroying the planet withouthis help anyway.
Zach Heckler had one class withDylan freshman year.
(19:15):
That was all it took.
Finally somebody understood him.
Brooks and Eric were fun tohang with, but they never really
got Dylan, not the way Kibbedid.
Zach did not care for thatnickname, but it stuck.
He was an insatiable snacker,so the kids had branded him
(19:37):
Kibble and Kibby and lord kibbs.
Second, dylan's teacher gavethem a lot of brief study time
eric would wander from theadjoining room.
At first he came around to chatwith dylan, but pretty soon all
three were cutting up.
They played doom bold.
(19:57):
These sleepovers went toballgames and drag races and
Bundy Mears Speedway.
They made fun of dumb kids andignorant adults.
Computer illiterates were theworst, especially when some fool
put them in front of a class.
The boys watched a ton ofmovies, lots of action and
horror and science fantasy.
They cruised the mall to pickup chicks.
(20:19):
Eric did all the talking.
Zach and Dylan hung back andfollowed his lead.
Dylan joined the theater group.
He was too shy for the stagebut he worked lights and sound.
Eric had no interest in that.
They got close with NateDykeman and Chris Morris too.
Mostly they hung at Dylan's.
(20:40):
Dylan also looked after hishouse guests, worried about
whether they were having a goodtime At Eric's.
It was totally strict when themayor got home, but until then
Eric had free reign down in thebasement where he had set up his
bedroom.
They had girls over show offhow they nail garden crickets
(21:03):
with the BB gun.
Friendships came and went, butthe bond between Zack and Dylan
grew stronger.
They were snarky, clever andseething with teenage anger, but
way too timid to show it.
Dylan and Zack needed Eric.
Someone had to do the talking.
Eric needed an audience.
(21:24):
He also craved excitement.
He was cool and detached, toughto rattle.
Nothing seemed to face him.
Dylan was a non-lit fuse.
Eric led the parade Perfect fit.
They were a threesome now.
(21:47):
Eric kept improving his Doomskills.
When he got bored with theimages that the software
provided, eric invented his own,sketching a menagerie of heroes
and villains on his notepads.
He hacked into the software andcreated new characters.
Sketching a menagerie of heroesand villains on his notepads.
He hacked into the software andcreated new characters, unique
(22:10):
obstacles, higher levels andincreasingly elaborate
adventures.
Many of his warriors weredecked out in medieval armor and
submachine guns.
One was blessed withflamethrowers for forearms.
Victims were frequently on fireor freshly decapitated.
Eric's creations wereunparalleled.
In his view, eric enjoyed theact of creation.
(22:43):
In the meantime, let's go backto present day.
We have the teacher DaveSanders.
Dave Sanders' daughters wereangry.
Before they got confirmationthat their dad was dead, they
heard disturbing stories abouthis final hours.
The impression her family wasgetting was that 12 victims had
been goners once the bulletsleft the chambers, but Dave
(23:07):
Sanders had held on for wellover three hours.
From what Andy understood, herfather could have been saved.
Dave's daughters began lookinginto the reports but kept their
mouths shut around their mother.
They had to keep the TV off.
When she was awake theysnatched newspapers off the
doorstep and magazines out ofthe mailbox because they have to
(23:31):
protect Linda.
She was already a wreck.
Dave Sanders was just a few feetfrom safety when the first shot
hit him.
Just a few feet from safetywhen the first shot hit him.
He saw the killers spun around,ran for the corner trying to
save a few more students on theway there.
One bullet got him in the backand he tore through his ribcage
(23:52):
and exited through his chest.
The other bullet enteredthrough the side of his neck and
came out of his mouth,lacerating his tongue and
chattering several teeth.
The neck wound opened up one ofhis cavitid arteries the major
blood routes to the brain.
The shot to his back clippedhis subclavian vein, which is a
(24:16):
major vessel back to the heart.
There was a lot of blood.
Major vessel back to the heart.
There was a lot of blood.
Everyone had been guessing whichway was the safest to run.
Rich Long, who was the head ofthe technology department and a
good friend of Dave's had chosenan opposite route.
He first heard the shootingfrom the library, told students
(24:39):
to get out and directed a groupdown the main stairway right
into the cafeteria, unaware thehundreds had just fled from that
location.
Through the bottom of thestairs they saw bullets flying
outside the windows and reversedcourse.
At the top of the stairs theyturned left away from the
library and into the sciencewing, which also included the
(25:02):
music rooms.
They arrived just in time tosee David get shot.
Dave crashed into the lockers,then collapsed on the carpet.
Rich and most of the studentsdove for the floor.
Now Dave was really desperate.
One senior said quote he was onhis elbows trying to direct
(25:22):
kids.
Eric and Dylan were both firing.
They were lobbing pipe bombsdown the length of the hall.
Rich yelled Dave, you gotta getup.
We got to get out of here.
Dave pulled himself up,staggered a few feet around the
corner.
Rich hurried over.
As soon as he was out of theline of fire he ducked his
(25:44):
shoulder under Dave's arm.
Another teacher got Dave fromthe other side and they dragged
him to the science wing just adozen feet away.
And Dave said Rich, they shotme in the teeth.
They moved past the first andsecond classrooms and then
entered room three.
The door opened and Mr Sanderscomes in and starts coughing up
(26:08):
blood.
According to sophomore MarjorieLingham and she said it looked
like part of his jaw was missing.
He just poured blood.
The room was full of students.
The teacher had gone out to thehallway to investigate.
When he came back he told themto forget the test and order
(26:29):
everyone up against the wall.
The classroom door had a glasspane, two shooters who might be
stalking through the halls.
The room would appear empty ifanyone huddled along the
interior perimeter.
That's when Dave stumbled inwith two teachers assisting.
He collapsed again face firstin the front of the room and one
(26:54):
freshman girl said later thathe left a couple of teeth where
he landed.
They got Dave into a chair andhe said to Rich Rich, I'm not
doing so well.
And Rich told him you'll beokay, I'm going to go phone for
help.
Several teachers had arrived soRich had ran back out into the
(27:18):
melee searching for a phone.
He learned that somebody wasalready calling for help so he
went back and Rich said I needto go get you some help.
So he went back into the smokycorridor and try another lab.
But the killers were gettingcloser, apparently right outside
the lab's door this time.
So Rich finally took cover.
(27:40):
Dave had several adults withhim.
Plenty of calls had been madeabout the shooting, so Rich had
no doubt that help was on theway.
Kent Friesen, another teacherwith Dave, went for immediate
assistance.
He ran into a nearby lab wheremore students were huddled and
he asked who knows first aid.
(28:00):
Where more students werehuddled and he asked who knows
first aid and Aaron Hansi, ajunior in Eagle Scout, stepped
up and Friesen told him well,you need to come with me.
And then all hell seemed tobreak loose out in the hallway
and Aaron said I could feel itthrough the walls.
With each blast I could feelthe walls move.
So he was scared to go outthere.
(28:29):
But freezing checked forshooters, bolted down the
corridor and Aaron followed.
Aaron ran through a rapidinspection of Day's condition
breathing, steady airway, clearskin, warm shoulder broken,
gaping wounds, heavy blood loss.
Aaron stripped off his ownwhite Adidas t-shirt to stanch
the flow.
Other boys volunteered theirshirts.
He tore several into bandagestrips and improvised a few
(28:51):
tourniquets.
He bundled others together intoa pillow.
Dave said I got to go.
I got to go and he tried tostand but failed.
Teachers attended to thestudents.
They flipped over tables tobarricade the door.
They opened a partition in theback to an adjoining science lab
(29:14):
and several kids rushed to thecenter furthest from the door.
The gunfire and explosionscontinued.
A fire erupted in a nearby roomand a teacher grabbed a fire
extinguisher to put it out.
Screams filtered down the hallfrom the library.
It was nothing like screamsMarjorie Lindholm had heard
(29:37):
before.
She described it as it soundedlike people being tortured.
Another boy in a room describedit as it was like they were
carrying out executions, becauseyou would hear a shot, then
there would be quiet, thenanother shot and then bam, bam,
(29:58):
bam, the screaming and gunfire.
Both stopped Silence.
Then more explosions, on andoff and on.
Again the fire alarm beganblaring.
It was a ear-splitting pitchdesigned to force people out of
the building through sheer pain.
The teachers and students couldbarely hear anything over the
(30:20):
alarm's shriek, but could justmake out the steady flap of
helicopters outside.
Someone turned on the giant TVsuspended from the ceiling.
They kept the volume off, butthe subtitles on it was their
school.
From the outside, much of theclass was transfixed at first,
(30:40):
but their attention went quickly.
Nobody seemed to know anything.
Aaron called his father, whoused another line to call 911,
so that paramedics could askquestions and relay instructions
.
Several other students andteachers called the cops.
The science room remainedlinked to authorities via
multiple channels throughout theafternoon.
(31:02):
Sophomore, kevin Starkey, alsoan Eagle Scout, assistant Aaron.
The boys whispered to Dave,you're doing all right, they're
coming, just hold on, you can doit.
And they took turns applyingpressure, digging their palms
into his wounds.
And Dave said I need help, Igotta get out of here.
(31:24):
And Aaron kept assuring himhelp is on its way.
Aaron believed it was.
Law enforcement was firstalerted to Dave's predicament
around 1145.
Dispatchers began respondingthat help was on the way and
would arrive in about 10 minutes.
The assurances were repeatedfor more than three hours, along
(31:47):
with orders that no one leavethe room under any circumstances
.
The 911 operator instructed thegroup to open the door briefly.
They were to tie a red shirtaround the doorknob in the
hallway.
The SWAT team would look for itto identify the room.
There was a lot of dissentabout the directive in science
(32:12):
room three.
Wouldn't a red flag alsoattract the killers?
Who was going to step out intothe hallway.
They decided to obey.
Someone volunteered to tie theshirt to the knob.
Around noon, teacher DougJohnson wrote one bleeding to
death on the whiteboard and moveit to the window, just to be
(32:33):
sure.
Occasionally, the TV coveragegrabbed attention in the room.
At one point student MarjorieLingholm thought she spotted a
huge mass of blood seeping out adoor pictured on screen, but
she was mistaken.
Fear had taken control.
(32:54):
Each time Aaron and Kevinswitched positions, they felt
Dave's skin grow a little colder.
He was losing color, taking ona bluish cast, and they wondered
where are the paramedics?
When will the 10 minutes be up?
Dave's breathing began to slow.
He drifted in and out.
(33:16):
Evan and Kevin rolled himgently on the tile floor to keep
him conscious and to keep hisairway clear.
He couldn't remain on his backfor very long or he would choke
on his own blood.
They pulled out wool safetyblankets from a first aid closet
and wrapped him to keep himwarm.
(33:37):
They asked him about coaching,teaching anything to keep him
engaged and safe of shock.
They slipped his wallet out andbegan showing him pictures.
Is this your wife?
Yes, what's your wife's name?
Linda.
He had lots of pictures andthey used them all.
(33:58):
He had lots of pictures andthey used them all.
They talk about his daughtersand his grandchildren.
And the boy said these peoplelove you.
This is why you need to live.
Aaron and Kevin grew desperate.
The treatment had exceededscouting instructions.
(34:21):
You are trained to deal withbroken arms and broken limbs,
cuts and scrapes stuff that youget on a camping trip.
You never train for gunshotwounds.
This is Aaron saying this whenhe was interviewed.
Eventually, aaron and Kevinlost the struggle to keep Dave
conscious.
Dave said I'm not going to makeit.
Tell my girls I love them.
(34:47):
It was relatively calm for awhile.
The alarm kept blaring.
The choppers kept thumping andgunfire explosions were
periodically rumbled through thehallways.
Some were off in the distance.
Nothing had soundedparticularly close for a while.
Nothing seemed imminent.
Dave's chest rose and fell.
Blood oozed out, but the boyscould not rouse him.
(35:11):
Evan and Kevin kept trying.
Some of the kids gave up on thepolice.
Around 2 pm they informed the911 operator they were going to
hurl a chair through the windowand get Dave out of themselves.
She insisted they abandon theplan, which, she warned them,
(35:31):
might draw the attention of thekillers.
At 2.38, the TV suddenly caughtthe room's attention again.
Patrick Ireland was stumblingout of the library window and
some of the kids yelled oh myGod.
They have hidden quietly forhours, but this was too much.
(35:51):
Coach Sanders was not anisolated case.
A kid was just as bloody justdown the hall and they have
assumed it was bad out there.
Now they had proof.
Some kids closed their eyes,picked your loved ones and
silently said goodbye.
Just a few minutes later, thedanger suddenly grew too close.
(36:14):
Again.
Screams erupted from the nextroom and then everything went
silent for a minute.
All at once the door burst openand men in black rushed in.
The killers were dressed inblack.
The invaders towed thesubmachine guns.
They waved them at the studentsshouting fiercely, trying to
(36:34):
out-scream the fire alarm, andMarjorie even wrote later.
I thought they were the gunmen.
I thought that now I was goingto die.
Some of the men turned andpointed to the huge black
letters on their backs SWAT.
And the officer yelled be quiet, put your hands on your heads
(36:55):
and follow us out.
And someone said someone's gotto stay with Mr Sanders, and
Aaron volunteered.
He said I will.
And an officer said no,everyone out.
And then how about holding Daveout with them, suggested Kevin.
They were folded tables.
(37:15):
They could improvise one as astretcher.
But again the officer said no.
It seemed heartless, but theSWAT team was trained to make
practical choices.
Hundreds of students weretrapped.
The gunman could reappear anymoment.
Students were trapped.
(37:37):
The gunmen could reappear anymoment.
The team had to assume abattlefield mentality and
evacuate the maximum number inthe minimum time.
They could send a medic backfor the injured.
Later the SWAT team let thestudents single file down the
stairs to the commons.
They waded through three inchesof water they had rained down
from the sprinklers, backpacksand pizza slices floated by and
(38:01):
the officers warned them don'ttouch anything.
A SWAT member held the door.
He stopped each student, heldthem for two seconds, then
tapped them on the shoulder andtold them to run.
That was a standard infantrymaneuver.
A single pipe bomb could takeout an entire pack of children.
A well-aimed gun machine burstcould do the same safer to space
(38:23):
them Outside.
The kids ran past two deadbodies, danny Vorbor and Rachel
Scott.
Marjorie Lindhorn rememberedthat there was a weird look on
their faces, a weird color totheir skin.
The girl just ahead of herstopped suddenly when she saw
(38:46):
their bodies and Marjorie caughtup, but a SWAT officer screamed
at them to keep moving.
Marjorie saw the guns trainedright on her.
She gaveie saw the gun's trainride on her.
She gave the girl a push andthey both took off.
Two SWAT officers stayed withDave.
In another call for help it fellto a Denver SWAT member outside
(39:06):
the building to recruit aparamedic.
He spotted Troy Lehman, an EMTwho had driven out from the city
and was manning a triagestation, and said Troy, I need
you to go in, let's go.
Lehman followed the officerthrough the flooded commons, up
the stairway, past the rubble,into the science room, room
(39:29):
number three.
By that time Dave had stoppedbreathing.
According to emergency triageprotocol that qualified him as
dead, and Lehman said that heknew that there was nothing they
could do for this guy.
He didn't even have equipmentwith him, he said because I was
(39:53):
stuck in a room with him bymyself for 15 minutes.
I wanted to help him, but theSWAT officer eventually cleared
Lehman to keep moving.
He said there's nothing you cando.
So Lehman went on to thelibrary and he was one of the
first medics to go in.
(40:14):
Dave Sanders' story got off fast.
Both local papers, the RockyMountain News and the Denver
Post described his ordeal onWednesday.
On Thursday the Rocky, as it'soften called, ran a piece called
Police Dispute Charges.
They were too slow.
One student said a lot ofpeople are angry, but the bulk
(40:35):
of the story focused on thepolice response.
The sheriff's spokesman, steveDavis from DEFCO, said we have
1,800 kids rushing from theschool.
The officers had no idea whichwere victims, which were
potential suspects.
The Rocky offered the summaryof the SWAT response based on
(40:57):
the department's claims.
Within 20 minutes of the firstpanic call for help, a makeshift
six-man SWAT team rushed intothe sprawling school and within
an hour dozens of heavily armedofficers and body armor launched
a methodical room-by-roomsearch of the building.
(41:18):
End quote.
The department would eventuallyadmit that it took more than
twice that long.
It took them 47 minutes for thefirst five-man team to enter.
The other half of that teamattended to wounded students on
the lawn but never proceeded in.
(41:39):
A second team entered afternearly two hours until the
killer's bodies were found.
That was it.
The situation grew harder onFriday when a Red River Suburban
cop laid down 13 roses inClement Park and then described
(41:59):
the SWAT response as pathetic,and this Red-Event Suburban cop
told the press it pissed me off.
I would have someone in there.
We are trained to do that.
We are trained to go in there.
The officer's statement waswidely reported.
(42:21):
He became an inkstand symboland his department foolishly
extended the story by placinghim on non-disciplinary leave
and ordering a fitness for dutyevaluation.
They backpedaled.
A few days later Members of theSWAT teams began responding in
the press Quote it was just anightmare.
(42:45):
What parents need to understandis we wanted teams in there as
quickly as we could.
We were going into thesituation blind.
We had multiple explosionsgoing off.
We thought they could have beena band of terrorists in there.
End quote.
Officers were nearly as confusedas TV viewers.
Outside they could hear theblasts, but once they enter they
(43:09):
couldn't even hear one another.
The fire alarm drowned outeverything.
Communication was limited tohand signals.
The barrage of noise and strobelights beat down their psyches
like psychological warfare.
Officers could not locateanyone with the alarm code to
shut it down.
They found an assistantprincipal, but she was so
(43:35):
frazzled she couldn't rememberthe digits.
In desperation, officers triedto beat the alarm speakers off
the walls.
One tried to disable thecontrol panel by smashing the
glass cover with his rifle butt.
The alarms and sprinklerscontinued until 4.04 pm.
The strobe lights that flashedwith the alarm continued for
(43:59):
weeks.
Those were legitimate obstacles, desantis' family acknowledged.
But more than three hours afterhe was shot Linda's sister,
melody, was designated familyspokesman or spokesperson.
And she said spokesman orspokesperson.
And she said some of hisdaughters are angry.
(44:20):
They feel like had they gone inand gotten Dave out sooner he
would have left.
Melody said the Sanders familydidn't hold the SWAT members
responsible but the system was adisaster because it was utter
chaos.
The family expressed gratitudefor the efforts that had been
made.
As a gesture of goodwill theyinvited the full SWAT teams to
(44:48):
Dave's funeral.
All the officers attended.
We'll be right back.
We have talked a little bitabout Dylan.
Let's talk a little bit aboutEric.
Eric was evolving.
Inside Sophomore year thechanges began to show.
For his 15 years Eric hadconcentrated on assimilation.
(45:14):
Dylan had sought the same goalwith less success.
Eric always made friends.
Social status was important.
Eric's neighbor described himas nice, polite, preppy and a
dork.
High school was full of dorks.
Eric could live with that for awhile.
Sophomore year he tried aneight-year look Combat boots,
(45:36):
all black outfits and grunge.
He started shopping at a trendyshop called Hot Topic and the
Army Surplus Store.
He liked the look, he liked thefeeling.
The buddy, chris Morris, begansporting a beret.
That was a little much, ericthought.
He wanted to look different,but not retarded.
(45:57):
Those are his words.
By the way, eric was breakingout of his shell.
He grew boisterous, moody andaggressive.
Sometimes he was playful,speaking in funny voices and
flirting with girls.
He had a lot of ideas and hebegan expressing them with
confidence.
(46:17):
Dylan never did.
Most of the girls who knew Ericdescribed him as cute.
He was aware of the consensusbut didn't quite accept it.
Eric took some flack for the newget-up.
Older kids and bigger guysharassed him sometimes, but
nothing exceptional, and he wastalking back now and provoking
(46:40):
confrontations.
He had shaken off his silencealong with the preppy uniform.
Dylan remained quiet right upuntil the end.
He wasn't much for mouthing off, except in very southern bursts
that freak everyone out alittle.
He followed eric's fashion ledbut uh, lead, but a less intense
(47:03):
version.
So he took a lot less ribbing.
Eric could have silenced thetons anytime by conforming again
, but by this time he got a kickout of standing out.
One classmate said, quote theimpression I always got from
them was they kind of wanted tobe outcasts.
It wasn't that they werelabeled that way, it's what they
(47:27):
chose to be.
End quote Outcast was a matterof perception.
Kids who slapped that label onEric and Dylan meant that the
boys rejected the preppy model,but so did hundreds of other
kids at the school.
Eric and Dylan had very activesocial calendars and far more
(47:48):
friends than the averageadolescent.
They fit in with the wholethriving subculture.
Other lesson they fit in with awhole thriving subculture.
Their friends respected oneanother and ridiculed the
conformity of the vanilla waferslooking down on them.
They had no desire to emulatethe jocks.
Could there be a faster routeto boredom?
For Dylan, different wasdifficult, but for Eric,
(48:12):
different was good.
For Halloween that year EricDutro, who was a junior, wanted
to go as Dracula, so he needed acool coat, something dramatic.
So his parents picked up a longblack duster at Santa Club.
The kids referred to this as atrench coat.
(48:36):
The costume didn't work out,but the trench coat was cool.
Eric Dutro hung on to it and hestarted wearing it to school.
It made quite an impression.
The trench coat turned a lot ofheads and Dutro loved turning
heads.
He had a hard time at schoolbecause kids at Columbine's
(48:57):
picked on him.
Kids would ridicule himrelentlessly, calling him a
freak.
Worse, they would use the wordfaggot, and eventually he fought
back the only way he knew how,fought back the only way he knew
how, by upping the ante.
If they were going to call hima freak, he was going to give
(49:24):
them one hell of a freak show.
The trench coat made a nicelittle addition to his freak
joke.
Not surprisingly, deutro hungwith a bunch of kids who liked
turning heads too, and after awhile several of them were
sporting trench coats.
They would dress all in black,wear the long coats, even in the
summer.
Somewhere along the linesomeone referred to them as the
(49:46):
Trench Coat Mafia TCM for short,tcm for short, and it stuck.
Eric, dutro, chris Morris and ahandful of other boys were
pretty much the core of the TCM,but a dozen more were often
(50:10):
associated with TCM as well,whether they sported trench
coats or not.
Eric and Dylan were not amongthem.
Each of them knew some of theTCM kids, and Eric especially
would become buddies with Chris.
That was as close as they came.
Eventually, after the TCMheyday was over.
(50:34):
Eric got himself a trench coatand Dylan followed.
They wore them to the massacre.
For both fashion and functionalconsiderations, the choice
would cause tremendous confusion.
Thank you for listening to theMurder Book.
Have a great week.
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