March 24, 2025 • 56 mins
Ten days before the Columbine tragedy's first anniversary, families of victims faced a devastating choice: trust officials who had been stonewalling them for a year or file lawsuits before the statute of limitations expired. For most, it wasn't a difficult decision.
What followed was a years-long legal battle that gradually pried loose thousands of pages of evidence Jefferson County officials had desperately tried to conceal. Through court orders and persistent advocacy, families uncovered proof that authorities knew about Eric Harris's threatening website and bomb-making well before the shooting—contradicting their public denials. The struggle culminated in revelations that police had actively prevented rescue attempts for teacher Dave Sanders, who bled to death over three hours while volunteer rescuers were kept at bay.
Behind the headlines, Principal Frank DeAngelis carried his own burden, shepherding traumatized students through three years of emotional aftershocks while battling PTSD himself. Despite developing a heart condition and eventually losing his marriage to the strain, DeAngelis made the surprising choice to remain as principal after his mission to graduate the last class of Columbine survivors was complete.
The tragedy transformed how America responds to school violence. FBI and Secret Service research shattered prevailing myths about school shooters, revealing no useful "profile" exists—except that 81% confide their intentions before acting. Law enforcement abandoned its old containment approach for the now-standard active shooter protocol that prioritizes neutralizing threats immediately.
Through their relentless pursuit of accountability, Columbine families didn't just uncover a troubling pattern of deception. They fundamentally changed how schools and communities identify potential threats, support troubled students, and respond when violence erupts. The full story won't be known until 2027, when depositions from the killers' parents are finally unsealed after decades of court-ordered silence.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and wewill continue with Unraveling
the Columbine Tragedy.
Let's begin.
Ten days before the firstanniversary, brian Roeber threw
a Hail Mary.
The cops had been stonewallingand litigation looked like the
(00:24):
only answer.
Families could sue fornegligence or wrongful death and
use the process to force outinformation.
Should they sue?
How could they know?
It all rested on Jeffco's finalreport.
If Jeffco released all theevidence, most families would be
(00:44):
satisfied.
If Jesco held back, they weregoing to court.
No one had anticipated that thereport would take this long Way.
Back in the summer of 1999,jesco had said its report was
six to eight weeks away.
It was April now and officialswere still saying they had six
(01:05):
to eight weeks away.
It was April now and officialswere still saying they had six
to eight weeks to go.
The investigators had wrappedup most of their work in the
first four months, but Jeffcowas skittish about presenting
the information.
Yet the longer they waited, themore leaks they risked, the
more rebukes, the higher thestakes to get every sentence
(01:28):
right.
Even the school administrationwas frustrated.
The delays were maddening.
But a practical problem wasalso arising.
The first anniversary coincidedwith the statute of limitations
anniversary coincided with thestatute of limitations by
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delaying the report past April20, 2000,.
Jeffco forced the families totrust them or sue.
That was an easy choice.
On April 10, the Robarts and theFlemings filed an open records
request demanding to see thereport immediately.
Filed an open records requestdemanding to see the report
immediately.
One last option to avoid alawsuit.
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Since they were filing, theyasked for everything, including
the basement tapes.
The basement tapes are thekiller's journals, the 911 calls
and surveillance videos.
Robo wanted to compare the rawdata to the narrative under
construction by Jeffco becausehe predicted a chasm.
(02:34):
District Judge R Brooke Jacksonread the request.
He said yes Over furiousobjections from Jeffco.
Three days before theanniversary he allowed the
plaintiffs to read the draftreport.
He also granted them access tohundreds of hours of 911 tapes
(02:57):
and some video footage.
He agreed to begin reading the200 binders of evidence himself
but noted they would take months.
The ruling stunned everyone, butit was too little, too late.
Fifteen families filed suitsagainst the Sheriff's Department
that week.
(03:17):
They would add additionaldefendants later.
The Cleberts chose not to sue.
Instead they issued anotherapology letter and the Harris's
did the same.
The lawsuits were expected tofail.
The legal thresholds were toohigh In federal court.
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Negligence was insufficient.
Families needed to proveofficers have actually made the
students worse off.
And that was only the firsthurdle.
The main strategy was to flushout information.
The one suit with a plausiblechance came from Dave Sanders'
(04:02):
daughter, angela.
She was represented by PeterGrenier, a powerhouse Washington
DC lawyer.
They charged the Jeffcoofficials when, beyond
neglecting Dave Sanders forthree hours, they impeded his
movement, prohibited others fromgetting him out of there, they
(04:23):
deceived volunteer rescuers withfalse claims about an imminent
arrival to discourage them frombusting out a window or taking
him down the stairs.
By doing so, the suit arguedJeffco accepted responsibility
for Dave and then let him die,argued.
(04:45):
Jeffco accepted responsibilityfor Dave and then let him die.
In legal terms, they havedenied his civil rights by
cutting off all opportunities tosave him when they were not
prepared to do it themselves.
The Robles and others followsimilar logic.
The library kids could haveescaped easily, they said,
unencumbered by police, bypolice help.
(05:11):
It looked ugly, but legalanalysts were skeptical about
any case holding up.
Sam Kaming, who is a lawprofessor at the University of
Denver, said quote it's going tobe tough to ask a jury to say
we know better than a SWAT teamhow to handle the situation.
A professor at the Universityof Denver said, quote In legal
(05:32):
circles the lawsuits had beenexpected, but their ferocity
shook the community.
The anniversary was overwhelmedby animosity again, and media
were everywhere.
Many of the 13 left town.
The school closed for the dayand conducted a private memorial
.
A public service was held inClement Park A few days after
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the anniversary.
Judge Jackson ordered theSheriff's Department to release
its report to the public by May15.
To release its report to thepublic by May 15.
He also released more evidence,including a video that drew a
lot of heat For months.
Jeffco had referred to it as atraining video created by the
(06:18):
Littleton Fire Department and itwas based on footage that was
shot in the library shortlyafter the bodies were removed.
It would be the family's firstlook at the gruesome scene.
It would be difficult to watch.
Jackson's ruling stated, butwas no reason to suppress it.
(06:40):
The next day Jeffco beganduplicating the tape and selling
copies for $25.
Spokesman said the fee was todefray copying costs.
The families were aghast andthen they saw the tape.
There was no instruction, nonarration, no attempt at
training.
It was someone's ghastlyattempt at commemoration.
(07:04):
Grizzly crime scene footage setto pop music, and it was the
Sarah McLachlan song I WillRemember you.
Mclachlan's record companythreatened to sue for copyright
infringement so Jeffco removedthe music.
(07:26):
But sales remained strong.
Brian robot had broken throughjeffco's armor.
Judge jackson kept orderingreleases.
In may he unleashed all the 911tapes and a ballistics report
For everything he read.
The killer's families tried tostop him and on May 1st they
(07:51):
filed a joint motion to keepmaterial seized from their homes
private, and that would includethe most vital evidence the
journals and the basement tapes.
Just Gov released its report onMay 15, as ordered.
The focus of the package was aminute-by-minute timeline of
April 20, 1999, in great detailit dramatically illustrated how
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fast everything happened.
Just seven and a half minutesin the library, all the deaths
and injuries in the first 16minutes.
How convenient.
According to critics, the cops'report was dedicated to
illustrating that the cops hadnever had a chance.
As expected, the report duckedthe central question of why.
(08:39):
Instead, it provided about 700pages of what, how and when.
The logistics were useful, butthey were hardly what people had
been waiting for.
There were three paragraphsabout advance warning by the
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Browns, one paragraphsummarizing and two defending.
The department claimed it hadbeen unable to access Eric's
website, despite the fact thatofficials had printed the pages,
filed them, retrieved themwithin minutes of the attack on
April 20th and had cited them atlength in the search warrants
(09:22):
issued before the bodies werefound.
But a year after the murders,jeff Go was still suppressing
the file and the search warrants.
So the family suspected a lie,but they couldn't prove it.
Jeffco was ridiculed for itsreport.
Officials seemed trulybewildered by the response.
Privately, they insisted theywere just acting the way they
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always did building a caseinternally, keeping their
conclusions to themselves.
Communicating the results wasthe prosecutor's role.
It wasn't their job.
They still couldn't grasp thatthis was not any normal case.
(10:07):
The anniversary also offered awindow of political opportunity.
Tom Mauser had been energizedat the NRA protest and devoted
himself to the cause.
Tom took a one-year leave ofabsence to serve as chief
lobbyist for Save Coloradosaying alternatives to the
(10:28):
firearms epidemic.
Save Colorado sayingalternatives to the firearms
epidemic.
They supported several bills inthe Colorado legislature to
limit access to guns for minorsand criminals.
Prospects looked good,especially for the flagship
proposal to close the gun showloophole.
It was narrowly defeated inFebruary, a similar measure
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buckged down in Congress.
So a week before the anniversary, president Clinton returned to
Denver to encourage survivorsand support SAVE's new strategy,
which was to pass the samemeasure in Colorado with a
ballot initiative.
Colorado Republican leadersrebuked the president and
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refused to appear with him.
Republican Governor Bill Owenssupported the ballot initiative
but refused to attend an MSNBCtown hall meeting that was
hosted by Tom Brokaw untilPresident Clinton left the stage
midway through the show.
The visit appeared to force alittle movement in Washington.
(11:35):
Just before the meeting withBrokaw, house leaders announced
a bipartisan compromise on gunshow legislation.
But it had been a year alreadyand there was still a long way
to go.
A year already and there wasstill a long way to go.
Tom Mouser kept fighting At arally.
The same week, safe spread4,223 pair of shoes across the
(11:58):
state capitol steps, one foreach minor killed by a gun in
1997.
Tom took the sneakers off hisfeet and held them up to the
crowd.
Tom took the sneakers off hisfeet and held them up to the
crowd.
They had been Daniels.
Tom took to wearing them torallies.
He needed a tangible link tohis son and they helped the shy
(12:19):
man connect Daniel to hisaudience.
May 2nd the governor andattorney general the state's
most prominent Republican andDemocrat put the first two
signatures on the petition forthe Colorado ballot initiative.
It requires 62,438 signatures.
They gathered nearly twice thatmany.
(12:41):
The measure would pass by twoto one margin.
The gun show loophole wasclosed in Colorado.
It was defeated in Congress.
No significant national guncontrol legislation was enacted
in response to Columbine.
The season ended well.
On May 20th the second class ofsurvivors graduated.
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Nine of the injured crossed thestage two in wheelchairs.
Nine of the injured crossed thestage two in wheelchairs.
Patrick Garland limped to thepodium to give the valedictorian
address.
It had been a rough year, hesaid, quote.
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The shooting made the countryaware of the unexpected level of
hate and rage that had beenhidden in high schools.
End quote.
Patrick was convinced the worldwas inherently good at heart.
He had spent the year thinkingabout what had gotten him across
the library floor.
At first he assumed hope.
Not quite, it was trust, hesaid, quote.
When I fell out the window Iknew somebody would catch me.
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That's what I need to tell youthat I knew the loving world was
there all the time.
End quote.
We'll be right back.
The principal, mr D, knew thedate his mission would wrap May
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18, 2002.
He had one objective after themassacre to shepherd nearly
2,000 kids to emotional highground.
The last class of freshmenwould graduate that May.
Frank had no idea what he mightdo afterward.
He could not plan yet.
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His hands were full.
He had three school years toget through.
He had seriously underestimatedthe turmoil of the first.
Nobody had foreseen thattorrent of aftershocks.
He would not make that mistakeagain.
The second summer offered arespite, just like the first.
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But when the doors reopened inAugust 2000, the faculty braced
for the next onslaught.
It never came.
There was never a year likethat first one, never Anything
close.
The second year got off on ahigh note.
In addition had beenconstructed over the summer with
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a new library.
The old one was demolished,converting the commons into a
two-story atrium.
Most of the parents' groupattended the opening.
Sue Petron Glow and for thepast 16 months she had felt
physically weak every time shehad stepped inside the school.
All that was lifted away.
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She had been fighting for morethan a year and she was done.
Nearly all the parents wereSue's ex-husband was the
exception.
Brian Robo and Frank DeAngelisdominated the ceremony, standing
30 feet apart in the cafeteriawith a cluster of reporters
around, each talking about eachother.
(16:04):
Mr D was diplomatic and triedto avoid the few altogether, but
reporters kept shuttling overfrom Robor with fresh
accusations for Mr D to respondto.
Brian was brutal and direct.
The school caused these murders, he said, and the
(16:24):
administration must pay.
Mr D developed a heart condition.
It appeared the first autumnafter the shootings.
Stress, the doctor said nokidding.
Frank was riddled with symptomsof PTSD numbness, anxiety,
(16:47):
attacks, inability toconcentrate and reclusiveness.
Therapy helped sort them out.
Immediately after the murdershe had trouble making eye
contact.
It got worse.
He discovered that it was guiltand he said that he had never
heard of survival guilt and hefelt guilty that Dave and the
kids died and that he lived.
His wife wanted to help becausehe was eating him up, but he
(17:12):
couldn't express it to her.
He was just like his students.
The years after the tragedy weretumultuous.
He got to Columbine at 6 am,left at 8 or 9.
In the evening Weekends he camein for shorter stints, quiet
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time to catch up.
At any given time he had adozen kids on suicide watch.
Breakdowns were a dailyoccurrence among the students
and the staff.
He got tremendous satisfactionout of helping the kids, but it
was a terrible drain.
He had a couple of hours everynight to forget it all.
His wife implored him to openup.
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His son and daughter wereconcerned.
His parents and siblings seemedto call constantly are you
eating?
Should you be driving?
And he would say to them Ithink I know when to eat.
Everyone had to know how he wasfeeling, how are you doing?
And he would say enough, pleasestop.
(18:23):
Mr D struggled with some of thestaff too.
A therapist complained that shespent years in his school after
the tragedy and he neverlearned her name.
He could name all 2,000students.
He had a strong team ofadministrators who were great at
heading off problems, but someof them needed support
(18:45):
themselves.
His family resented him.
He would say that they couldnot understand why he was acting
that way.
He wasn't the person he wantedto be and he felt awful too.
He started counselingimmediately after the attack and
(19:06):
he credited it with saving him.
If he could do one thing over,it would be to include his
family in the therapy, becausethey had no idea what PTSD was.
He said If they had justunderstood what he was going
through it would have been allright, but unfortunately his
(19:28):
marriage didn't make it Early.
In 2002, he and his wife agreedto divorce.
He said Columbine had not beenthe sole reason, but it was a
big part.
As he prepared to move out,frank came upon 4,000 letters he
had received in 1999.
Received in 1991, uh, 1999,sorry, um.
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Most were supportive, someangry, a few threatened his life
.
He had to try to read 25 a dayand that proved traumatic.
Now he was ready to face them.
He read through a big stack andone name caught him off guard
Diane Mayer.
Diane Mayer had been his oldhigh school sweetheart.
(20:14):
They had broken up beforegraduation and lost touch for 30
years.
He looked her up.
Her mom was in the same houseso he called Diane and she was
so understanding.
They spoke several times, neverin person, but long comforting
chats.
She helped him through thedivorce and the emotional
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upheaval ahead of him.
In May he had one more thing hehad to do.
Columbine was a catharticexperience for much of the
faculty.
They revaluated their lives.
Many started over on newcareers.
By the spring of 2002, most ofthem had moved on Every other
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administrator, but Frank wasgone.
As May approached, mrdconsidered what had made him the
happiest.
How did he really want toinvest his remaining years?
And he decided no compromises.
He would follow his dream.
He chose to remain principal atColumbine.
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He loved the job.
Some of the families hated him.
They were disgusted by hisannouncement.
Others were pleased the kids byhis announcement.
Others were pleased the kids.
They were ecstatic.
Robert was furious, but he washaving success with the cops.
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His Hail Mary pass had brokenthe dam and eventually Jeffco
was ordered to release almosteverything except to supposedly
incendiary items, the killer'sjournals and the basement tapes.
The mother load came inNovember 2000.
11,000 pages of police reports,including virtually every
(22:04):
witness account.
Jeffco said that was everything.
It was still hiding more thanhalf.
Reporters and families keptchipping away, demanding known
items.
Jeffco acted comically in itsattempts to suppress.
It numbered all the pages andthen eliminated thousands,
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releasing the documents withsome gaps, numbered gaps.
One release indicated nearly3,000 missing pages.
Jeffco was forced to cough uphalf a dozen more releases over
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the next year, in 2001,.
In November of 2001, officialsdescribed a huge stack as the
last batch.
More than 5,000 pages.
More came by the end of 2002and 10,000 in 2003,.
January, february, march, juneand three separate times in
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October.
Halfway through all that, inApril 2001, district Attorney
Dave Thomas inadvertentlymentioned the smoking gun, the
affidavit to search Eric's house.
More than a year before themassacre, jeffco had rigorously
denied its existence for twoyears.
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Jackson ordered its release.
The affidavit was more damningthan expected.
Investigator Guerra hadastutely pulled together the
threats of Eric's early plottingand hand-documented mass murder
threats and the bomb productionto begin realizing them.
To begin realizing them.
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The purpose of the cover-up wasout in the open, but it
continued for several years.
Then, finally, in June 2003,the search warrant Cape Bataan
had composed on the afternoon ofthe massacre came out and it
(24:12):
demonstrated conclusively thatJeffco officials had been lying
about the Browns all along, thatthey knew about the warnings
from the beginning, that themissing webpages were so
accessible they had found themin the first minutes of the
attack.
So now we have anger andcontempt rising.
(24:36):
A federal judge finally hadenough and he ruled that Jeffco
could not be trusted even towarehouse valuable evidence.
So he ordered the county tohand over key material such as
the basement tapes to be securedin the federal courthouse in
(24:57):
Denver.
Agent Fusilier beat Mr D toretirement.
Six months after the massacrethe investigation was largely
complete.
Dr Fusilier continued studyingthe killers, but he transitioned
back to his role as head ofdomestic terrorism for the
(25:18):
Colorado-Wyoming region.
Few Americans had heard ofOsama bin Laden, but a life-size
wanted poster of him greetedvisitors to the FBI branch
office.
Fusilier saw enemy number one'spicture every morning as he got
off the elevator on the 18thfloor.
(25:39):
Fusilier also resumed traininghostage negotiators and went
back on call for seriousincidents.
And went back on call forserious incidents.
Two years later he concludedone of the most notorious prison
breaks in recent history, theTexas 7, that had escaped a
(25:59):
maximum security facility andembarked on a crime spree.
The ringleader was serving like18 life sentences.
He had nothing left to lose.
And on Christmas Eve 2000, theystole a catch of guns from a
supporting goods store andambushed a police officer and
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they shot him 11 times, ran himover on the way out to be sure
he was dead and there was areward posted that said $500,000
.
The gang kept moving and onJanuary 20, 2001, they were
spotted in a trailer park nearColorado Springs.
A SWAT team captured four ofthem.
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A fifth killed himself.
To avoid recapture, the twoholdouts barricaded themselves
in the Holiday Inn.
So of course they sent AgentFusilier and with his team.
It took like five hours to talkthem out.
They were fixated on corruptionin the penal system.
(27:10):
So Fusilli arranged a liveinterview on a local TV station
at 2.30 in the morning there wasa cameraman that came inside
the room so the holdouts couldsee they were actually broadcast
live.
Both convicts surrendered.
Eventually they were sentencedto death and all six survivors
await lethal injection in Texas.
(27:34):
But this was just too muchstress for Fusilier.
It finally wore him down.
He would have 20 years at theBureau that October.
He was already eligible for hispension, so he announced his
retirement for that date he willbe 54 years old.
On September 11, 2001, thecountry was attacked.
(27:59):
Bin Laden was behind it.
So Agent Fusilier decided topostpone his retirement and
spend most of the next 11 monthson the case.
By the summer of 2002, theUnited States had taken over
Afghanistan, bin Laden had fledinto hiding and the urgency had
(28:19):
abated.
Fusilier's son, brian,graduated from Columbine High
that May.
The last class Mr D had beenwaiting for Brian was leaving
for college in July.
Dwayne scheduled his retirementfor the week afterwards, so
Brian wouldn't see his dadlacing about jobless and Agent
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Fusilli of course missed work,missed the work.
Agent Fusili, of course missedwork, missed the work.
Within months he was consultingfor the State Department.
It sent him to conductanti-terrorism training in third
world countries.
He spent a quarter of the yearin sketchy sections of Pakistan,
tanzania, malaysia, macedonia,anywhere that terrorists were
(29:11):
being active, and his wife Mimiworried.
But Agent Fusilier didn't thinkabout it much and his son,
brian, didn't hear the tensionreturn to his voice.
So fear wasn't the problem atthe FBI, it was the
responsibility.
(29:33):
Shortly before Brian leftColumbine, marco Moore's
documentary Bowling forColumbine drew raves at the
Cannes Festival and it becamethe top-grossing documentary at
that time in US history.
And it wasn't really much aboutColumbine and the title feature
(29:59):
of Minor Myth that Eric andDylan went bowling on April 20th
.
But it included a dramaticscene where Moore and a victim
went to Kmart and asked toreturn the bullets still inside
the guy.
And you know the stunt thepublicity around it shamed Kmart
(30:19):
basically into discontinuingAmmunition Sales Nation.
Why Then Marilyn Manson wasinterviewed in this film?
Moore asked Manson what he wouldsay to the killers if he had a
chance to talk to them andManson said I wouldn't say a
(30:39):
single word to them.
I would listen to what theyhave to say, and that's what no
one did.
End quote.
That was the story the mediahad told.
The connection to KMFDM, theband that Eric did idolize and
(31:01):
quote frequently, was ignored bymajor media.
Fans got word, however, and theband issued a statement of deep
remorse and they said quote weare sick and appalled, as is the
rest of the nation, by whattook place in Colorado.
(31:22):
None of us condone any Nazibeliefs whatsoever.
End quote.
The killer's parents remainedsilent.
They never spoke to the press.
Pastor Don Maxhausen stayedclose to Tom and Sue Klebold.
He was great comfort.
Sue went back to trainingdisabled students at the
(31:44):
community college and thathelped her cope, and she said
that it was amazing how long ittook her to get up and say her
name at a meeting and to say I'mDylan Klebold's mother.
(32:04):
Dylan could have killed anynumber of the kids of people
that she worked with.
Shopping could be intimidating,anticipating that moment of
recognition as a salespersonexamining her credit card.
It was a distinctive name andsometimes they did notice.
(32:24):
One time one clerk looked ather name and then looked at her
and she said boy, you are asurvivor, tom.
Her husband worked from home sohe had a choice about when to
go out.
He stayed in all the time andPastor Don worried about him.
(32:45):
Reverend Maxhausen paid for thatcompassion.
Much of his parish loved himfor it.
Others were outraged.
The church council split.
Were outraged, the churchcouncil split.
It was unattainable.
And a year after the massacrehe was forced out of his church.
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Markshausen had been one of themost reverent and revered
ministers in the Denver area butnow he could not find even a
job.
After a bout of unemployment heleft the state and that's how
he was able to head up a smallparish.
He missed Colorado andeventually moved back.
He got a job as a chaplain at acounty jail.
(33:31):
His primary function was toadvise inmates when loved ones
had died.
He was born for the jobministering to the desperate.
He empathized with each one andit sucked the life out of him.
The lawsuits sputtered on foryears.
(33:52):
They got messier.
A rash of new defendants wasadded all the time, including
school officials, the killers,parents, the manufacturer of
Luvox, anyone who had come incontact with the guns.
The suits were consolidated infederal court.
Judge Louis Babcock acceptedthe county's two major arguments
(34:18):
that he was not responsible forstopping the killers in advance
and that cops should not bepunished for decisions under
fire.
Babcock said the authoritiesshould have headed off the
massacre months earlier but werenot legally bound In November
2001,.
He dismissed most of thecharges against the sheriff and
(34:41):
the school.
The families appealed.
The county settled the nextyear $15,000 each a fraction of
their legal fees.
The discovery process neverbrought much to light.
It didn't need to.
The robots' initial offensivehas set the legal process in
(35:06):
motion and it continued underits own power.
Judge Babcock refused todismiss the Sanders case.
He balked at the contentionthat Dave's rescue involved
split-second decisions andBabcock boomed that they had
time in the third hour.
That Dave's rescue involvedsplit-second decisions and
Babcock boomed that they hadtime in the third hour.
The cops have hundreds ofpeople to rescue.
Their attorney responded theyhad to allocate resources.
(35:33):
More than 750 cops had been onthe scene.
The judge reminded him it's notas though they were a little
shorthanded out there that day.
He said In August 2002, jeffcopaid Angela Sanders $1.5 million
.
It admitted to no wrongdoing.
The last Jeffco case to closewas Patrick Ireland's.
(35:55):
He got $117,500.
Most of the fringe cases weredismissed.
Luvox was pulled from themarket.
That left the killer's families.
They wanted to settle.
They didn't have a lot of moneybut they had insurance.
(36:16):
It turned out their homeowner'spolicy covered murder by their
children.
They didn't have a lot of moneybut they had insurance.
It turned out their homeowner'spolicy covered murder by their
children.
About $1.6 million was dividedbetween 31 families.
Most of it came from theCleberts' policy.
Similar agreements were reachedwith Mark Maines, philip Duran
(36:38):
and Robin Anderson for anestimated total of approximately
$1.3 million.
Five families rebuffed theHarris's and Clairvaux's no
buyout without information.
It really wasn't about themoney for the robots and for
others.
They were battling forinformation and they proved it,
but they were caught instalemate.
(37:00):
The killer's parents would talkif the victims dropped the
lawsuits.
The victims would drop thesuits if the parents spoke.
For two more years it continued.
Then the judge broke a deal.
The holdouts would dismisstheir suits if the killer's
parents answered all theirquestions privately but under
(37:24):
oath.
It was a bitter compromise.
In July 2003, the four parentswere deposed for several days.
Media came to photograph them.
They had remained so privatethat few reporters even knew
what they looked like.
Two weeks after the depositionsan agreement was announced and
(37:47):
it appeared to be over, but DonAnna called for the depositions
to be made public.
Understanding the warning signscould prevent the next
Columbine.
A chorus gathered behind her.
A magistrate ruled that thetranscripts would be destroyed
(38:11):
per the agreement.
That set off a public outcryand a wave of open record
requests.
Judge Backcock agreed toconsider arguments.
It had taken four years toreach this point and they were
only halfway there In April2007,.
Judge Backcock finally ruledquote there is a legitimate
(38:37):
public interest in thesematerials so that similar
tragedies may hopefully beprevented.
I conclude, however, that thebalance of interest still
strikes in favor of maintainingstrict confidentiality.
End quote, so he said on acompromise.
End quote, so he said on acompromise.
The transcripts will be sealedat the National Archives for 20
(39:03):
years.
The truth will come out in theyear 2027, two years from now.
28 years after the massacre.
Though he was retired, agentFusilier hoped to see the
depositions.
He would like to question theparents himself.
(39:24):
He knew where the boys endedpsychologically, but their
origins were a mystery,particularly Eric's.
Only two people had an 18-yearperspective on his path to
psychopathy.
When did Eric start exhibitingthe early hallmarks and how were
(39:45):
they visible?
Wayne had adopted a sternparenting style.
How bad that worked.
Eric wrote little aboutinteraction with his mother.
What had Kathy's approach been?
Were there any successes?
Anything that could help thenext parent?
(40:10):
Fusilier understood the refusalto talk.
We'll be right back.
One thing is that a lot ofpeople expected copycats.
The country braced for a newlevel of horror School shooting.
(40:32):
Deaths actually dropped 25%over the next three years.
But Eric and Dylan gave youngeyes a fresh approach Terrorist
tactics for personalaggrandizement.
In 2001, a pair of ninth gradersat a Fort Collins Colorado
middle school procured a smallarsenal Tech 9, shotgunss rifles
(40:58):
and propane bombs.
They plan to reverse Eric'schronology seal off exits, mow
down students and save the bombsfor stack stragglers.
They would finish by taking tenhostages, holding them in the
counseling office for fun, thenkilling the kids and themselves.
(41:19):
But they leaked.
Kids nearly always leak.
The bigger the plot, the widerthe leakage.
The Fort Collins pair wentrecruiting for gunmen to cover
all the exits.
One of the plotters told atleast seven people that he
planned to redo Columbine.
(41:40):
He bragged to four girls thatthey would be the first to die.
They went straight to thepolice.
Teen peers were different after1999.
Jokes scared the crap out ofkids.
Jokes scare the crap out ofkids.
Two more grandiose plots therewas one in Malcolm, nebraska,
(42:00):
and Oakland, new Jersey, andthose were foiled in the first
five years.
School administrators around thecountry responded with zero
tolerance, meaning every idlethreat was treated like a cocked
gun.
That drove everyone crazy.
Nearly all supposed killersturned out to be kids blowing
(42:22):
off steam.
It wasn't working for anyone.
The central recommendationsthat came from the FBI and
Secret Service.
Each agency published reportsin the first three years to help
guide faculty to identifyserious threats and these
(42:46):
recommendations contradictedprevailing post-Columbine
behavior.
They said identifying outcastsas threats is not healthy.
It demonizes innocent kids whoare already struggling.
It's also unproductive.
Outposts are not the problem.
They do not fit the profile.
(43:07):
There is no profile.
Other reason school shootersshare exactly one trait 100%
male.
Since the study they have beenfemales, aside from personal
experience.
No other characteristic at 50%and even close.
(43:30):
And the Secret Service alsosaid there is no accurate or
useful profile of attackersbecause attackers came from all
ethnic, economic and socialclasses.
The bulk came from solidtwo-parent homes.
Most had no criminal record orhistory of violence.
(43:52):
The two biggest myths were thatshooters were loners and that
they snapped.
A staggering 93% planned theirattack in advance.
The path toward violence is anevolutionary one, with signposts
along the way.
Cultural influences alsoappeared weak.
(44:15):
Only a quarter were interestedin violent movies, half that
number in video games, probablybelow average for teen boys.
Most perps shared a crucialexperience 98% have suffered a
loss or failure.
They perceived as seriousAnything from getting fired to
(44:37):
blowing a test or getting dumped.
Of course, everyone suffersloss and failure, but for these
kids, the trauma seemed to setanger in motion.
This was certainly true inColumbine, because Dylan, for
example, viewed his entire lifeas a failure and Eric's arrest
(44:57):
accelerated his anger.
So what should adults look for?
One of the things that theyrecommended was advanced
confessions.
81% of shooters had confidedtheir intentions.
More than half told at leasttwo people confided their
(45:20):
intentions.
More than half told at leasttwo people.
Most threats are idle, but thekey is specificity.
Vague, implied, implausiblethreats are low risk.
The danger skyrockets whenthreats are direct and specific,
identify a motive and indicatework performed to carry it out.
Melodramatic outbursts do notincrease the risk.
(45:43):
A subtler form of leakage ispreoccupation with death,
destruction, violence.
A graphic mutilation storymight be an early warning sign
or a vivid imagination.
Add malice, brutality, anunrepentant hero and concerns
should rise.
(46:04):
Don't overreact to a singlestory or drawing, according to
the FBI he warned us, becausenormal teen boys enjoy violence
and are fascinated with themacabre, so writings and
drawings on these themes can bea reflection of a harmless but
(46:25):
rich and creative fantasy life.
The key was repetition leadingto obsession.
The Bureau described a boy whohad worked guns and violence
into every assignment and evenin home ec class he baked a cake
(46:46):
in the shape of a gun.
The FBI compiled a specific listof warning signs, including
symptoms of both psychopathy anddepression Manipulation,
tolerance, superiority,narcissism, alienation, rigidity
, lethargy, dehumanization ofothers, externalizing blame.
(47:08):
It's a pretty daunting list andfew teachers are going to
master this.
The FBI recommended againsttrying.
It suggested one person perschool be trained intensively,
and for all faculty andadministrators.
Just to turn to that person.
(47:30):
The FBI added one final caution.
They said that a kid matchingmost of its warning signs was
more likely to be suffering fromdepression or mental illness
than planning an attack.
Most kids matching the criterianeeded help, not incarceration.
(47:51):
Columbine also changed policeresponse to attacks, so no more
perimeters.
A national task force wasorganized to develop a new plan,
and this you know.
In 2003, it released the activeshooter protocol and basically
(48:12):
what it says is if the shooterseems active, storm the building
, move toward the sound ofgunfire, disregard even victims.
There is one objectiveneutralize the shooters, stop
them, kill them.
The concept had been around foryears, but it had been rejected
.
Pre-columbine cops had beenexhorted to proceed cautiously,
(48:45):
secure the perimeter, get thegunman talking, wait for the
SWAT team.
The key to the new protocolthat was established after
Columbine was to be more active.
Mass shootings the vastmajority were labeled passive
the gunman was alive but notfiring.
Those cases reverted to the oldprotocol.
So success depended onaccurately determining the
(49:07):
threat in the first moments.
This is this.
(49:38):
Protocols have continued to bereviewed because we have had
other shootings post-2001, likethe one in the East Coast with
elementary school students andother ones that went in Florida.
We have others that are morerecent.
So a lot of the protocols, theyare revising them and shooting
them.
I'm just communicating the onesthat were established
post-Columbine, the ones thatwere established post-Columbine.
(50:03):
So this is something that isconstantly reviewed Now.
Even now, schools have theirprotocols and they do practice
active shooters in the schoolsin different scenarios.
Where do you go if you're in theclassroom?
What do you do if you're in thehallway?
What do you do if you're in theoutside?
(50:25):
And during recess, what do youdo if it's in the cafeteria?
If you're in the library, ifyou are in the bathroom?
So there is a a lot of drills,at least once or twice a year,
that students have to do thesedrills, and the teachers have to
(50:48):
know the protocols and all thatSupertron.
On the other hand, if wecontinue a little bit here, she
asked for two blocks, the twosidewalk blocks where her son
(51:09):
Danny died on, and so what theydid is that they jackhammered
one well, two of them, two ofthe blocks out of the ground and
installed in her backyard, andthey were underneath a spruce
tree that she had Around theslab.
(51:31):
She created a rock garden withtwo big wooden tubs overflowing
with petunias, and she had asturdy oak truss constructed
over the slab and a porch swingsuspended from the crossbeam,
and that's where her husband andher dog go and hang out.
(52:00):
Linda Sanders kept the Adviltablet found near Dave's body.
Her husband, dave.
He had trouble with kneeswelling so he always had an
Advil in his pocket and it wasonly one, so that's why they
know it's probably his.
She took his bloody clothes, aswath of the carpet from under
(52:27):
his head, a little fragment oftooth that chipped off when he
fell, and his glasses.
She would never let thoseglasses go.
She snapped them into aneyeglass case and placed them on
the nightstand by her bed.
She intends to leave them thatway forever.
(52:48):
The lawsuit on behalf of DaveSander outlived all other
lawsuits but chosen a part thatI read the police.
She was not at the school orthe parents.
She was angry at her situationbecause she was lonely.
(53:09):
She has lost her, her husband.
We'll be right back.
Welcome to the Murder Book.
I'm your host, kiara, and wewill continue with Unraveling
the Columbine Tragedy.
Let's begin.
Ten days before the firstanniversary, brian Roeber threw
a Hail Mary.
The cops had been stonewallingand litigation looked like the
(00:24):
only answer.
Families could sue fornegligence or wrongful death and
use the process to force outinformation.
Should they sue?
How could they know?
It all rested on Jeffco's finalreport.
If Jeffco released all theevidence, most families would be
(00:44):
satisfied.
If Jesco held back, they weregoing to court.
No one had anticipated that thereport would take this long Way.
Back in the summer of 1999,jesco had said its report was
six to eight weeks away.
It was April now and officialswere still saying they had six
(01:05):
to eight weeks away.
It was April now and officialswere still saying they had six
to eight weeks to go.
The investigators had wrappedup most of their work in the
first four months, but Jeffcowas skittish about presenting
the information.
Yet the longer they waited, themore leaks they risked, the
more rebukes, the higher thestakes to get every sentence
(01:28):
right.
Even the school administrationwas frustrated.
The delays were maddening.
But a practical problem wasalso arising.
The first anniversary coincidedwith the statute of limitations
anniversary coincided with thestatute of limitations by
(01:49):
delaying the report past April20, 2000,.
Jeffco forced the families totrust them or sue.
That was an easy choice.
On April 10, the Robarts and theFlemings filed an open records
request demanding to see thereport immediately.
Filed an open records requestdemanding to see the report
immediately.
One last option to avoid alawsuit.
(02:12):
Since they were filing, theyasked for everything, including
the basement tapes.
The basement tapes are thekiller's journals, the 911 calls
and surveillance videos.
Robo wanted to compare the rawdata to the narrative under
construction by Jeffco becausehe predicted a chasm.
(02:34):
District Judge R Brooke Jacksonread the request.
He said yes Over furiousobjections from Jeffco.
Three days before theanniversary he allowed the
plaintiffs to read the draftreport.
He also granted them access tohundreds of hours of 911 tapes
(02:57):
and some video footage.
He agreed to begin reading the200 binders of evidence himself
but noted they would take months.
The ruling stunned everyone, butit was too little, too late.
Fifteen families filed suitsagainst the Sheriff's Department
that week.
(03:17):
They would add additionaldefendants later.
The Cleberts chose not to sue.
Instead they issued anotherapology letter and the Harris's
did the same.
The lawsuits were expected tofail.
The legal thresholds were toohigh In federal court.
(03:38):
Negligence was insufficient.
Families needed to proveofficers have actually made the
students worse off.
And that was only the firsthurdle.
The main strategy was to flushout information.
The one suit with a plausiblechance came from Dave Sanders'
(04:02):
daughter, angela.
She was represented by PeterGrenier, a powerhouse Washington
DC lawyer.
They charged the Jeffcoofficials when, beyond
neglecting Dave Sanders forthree hours, they impeded his
movement, prohibited others fromgetting him out of there, they
(04:23):
deceived volunteer rescuers withfalse claims about an imminent
arrival to discourage them frombusting out a window or taking
him down the stairs.
By doing so, the suit arguedJeffco accepted responsibility
for Dave and then let him die,argued.
(04:45):
Jeffco accepted responsibilityfor Dave and then let him die.
In legal terms, they havedenied his civil rights by
cutting off all opportunities tosave him when they were not
prepared to do it themselves.
The Robles and others followsimilar logic.
The library kids could haveescaped easily, they said,
unencumbered by police, bypolice help.
(05:11):
It looked ugly, but legalanalysts were skeptical about
any case holding up.
Sam Kaming, who is a lawprofessor at the University of
Denver, said quote it's going tobe tough to ask a jury to say
we know better than a SWAT teamhow to handle the situation.
A professor at the Universityof Denver said, quote In legal
(05:32):
circles the lawsuits had beenexpected, but their ferocity
shook the community.
The anniversary was overwhelmedby animosity again, and media
were everywhere.
Many of the 13 left town.
The school closed for the dayand conducted a private memorial
.
A public service was held inClement Park A few days after
(05:57):
the anniversary.
Judge Jackson ordered theSheriff's Department to release
its report to the public by May15.
To release its report to thepublic by May 15.
He also released more evidence,including a video that drew a
lot of heat For months.
Jeffco had referred to it as atraining video created by the
(06:18):
Littleton Fire Department and itwas based on footage that was
shot in the library shortlyafter the bodies were removed.
It would be the family's firstlook at the gruesome scene.
It would be difficult to watch.
Jackson's ruling stated, butwas no reason to suppress it.
(06:40):
The next day Jeffco beganduplicating the tape and selling
copies for $25.
Spokesman said the fee was todefray copying costs.
The families were aghast andthen they saw the tape.
There was no instruction, nonarration, no attempt at
training.
It was someone's ghastlyattempt at commemoration.
(07:04):
Grizzly crime scene footage setto pop music, and it was the
Sarah McLachlan song I WillRemember you.
Mclachlan's record companythreatened to sue for copyright
infringement so Jeffco removedthe music.
(07:26):
But sales remained strong.
Brian robot had broken throughjeffco's armor.
Judge jackson kept orderingreleases.
In may he unleashed all the 911tapes and a ballistics report
For everything he read.
The killer's families tried tostop him and on May 1st they
(07:51):
filed a joint motion to keepmaterial seized from their homes
private, and that would includethe most vital evidence the
journals and the basement tapes.
Just Gov released its report onMay 15, as ordered.
The focus of the package was aminute-by-minute timeline of
April 20, 1999, in great detailit dramatically illustrated how
(08:15):
fast everything happened.
Just seven and a half minutesin the library, all the deaths
and injuries in the first 16minutes.
How convenient.
According to critics, the cops'report was dedicated to
illustrating that the cops hadnever had a chance.
As expected, the report duckedthe central question of why.
(08:39):
Instead, it provided about 700pages of what, how and when.
The logistics were useful, butthey were hardly what people had
been waiting for.
There were three paragraphsabout advance warning by the
(09:01):
Browns, one paragraphsummarizing and two defending.
The department claimed it hadbeen unable to access Eric's
website, despite the fact thatofficials had printed the pages,
filed them, retrieved themwithin minutes of the attack on
April 20th and had cited them atlength in the search warrants
(09:22):
issued before the bodies werefound.
But a year after the murders,jeff Go was still suppressing
the file and the search warrants.
So the family suspected a lie,but they couldn't prove it.
Jeffco was ridiculed for itsreport.
Officials seemed trulybewildered by the response.
Privately, they insisted theywere just acting the way they
(09:46):
always did building a caseinternally, keeping their
conclusions to themselves.
Communicating the results wasthe prosecutor's role.
It wasn't their job.
They still couldn't grasp thatthis was not any normal case.
(10:07):
The anniversary also offered awindow of political opportunity.
Tom Mauser had been energizedat the NRA protest and devoted
himself to the cause.
Tom took a one-year leave ofabsence to serve as chief
lobbyist for Save Coloradosaying alternatives to the
(10:28):
firearms epidemic.
Save Colorado sayingalternatives to the firearms
epidemic.
They supported several bills inthe Colorado legislature to
limit access to guns for minorsand criminals.
Prospects looked good,especially for the flagship
proposal to close the gun showloophole.
It was narrowly defeated inFebruary, a similar measure
(10:51):
buckged down in Congress.
So a week before the anniversary, president Clinton returned to
Denver to encourage survivorsand support SAVE's new strategy,
which was to pass the samemeasure in Colorado with a
ballot initiative.
Colorado Republican leadersrebuked the president and
(11:13):
refused to appear with him.
Republican Governor Bill Owenssupported the ballot initiative
but refused to attend an MSNBCtown hall meeting that was
hosted by Tom Brokaw untilPresident Clinton left the stage
midway through the show.
The visit appeared to force alittle movement in Washington.
(11:35):
Just before the meeting withBrokaw, house leaders announced
a bipartisan compromise on gunshow legislation.
But it had been a year alreadyand there was still a long way
to go.
A year already and there wasstill a long way to go.
Tom Mouser kept fighting At arally.
The same week, safe spread4,223 pair of shoes across the
(11:58):
state capitol steps, one foreach minor killed by a gun in
1997.
Tom took the sneakers off hisfeet and held them up to the
crowd.
Tom took the sneakers off hisfeet and held them up to the
crowd.
They had been Daniels.
Tom took to wearing them torallies.
He needed a tangible link tohis son and they helped the shy
(12:19):
man connect Daniel to hisaudience.
May 2nd the governor andattorney general the state's
most prominent Republican andDemocrat put the first two
signatures on the petition forthe Colorado ballot initiative.
It requires 62,438 signatures.
They gathered nearly twice thatmany.
(12:41):
The measure would pass by twoto one margin.
The gun show loophole wasclosed in Colorado.
It was defeated in Congress.
No significant national guncontrol legislation was enacted
in response to Columbine.
The season ended well.
On May 20th the second class ofsurvivors graduated.
(13:03):
Nine of the injured crossed thestage two in wheelchairs.
Nine of the injured crossed thestage two in wheelchairs.
Patrick Garland limped to thepodium to give the valedictorian
address.
It had been a rough year, hesaid, quote.
(13:28):
The shooting made the countryaware of the unexpected level of
hate and rage that had beenhidden in high schools.
End quote.
Patrick was convinced the worldwas inherently good at heart.
He had spent the year thinkingabout what had gotten him across
the library floor.
At first he assumed hope.
Not quite, it was trust, hesaid, quote.
When I fell out the window Iknew somebody would catch me.
(13:53):
That's what I need to tell youthat I knew the loving world was
there all the time.
End quote.
We'll be right back.
The principal, mr D, knew thedate his mission would wrap May
(14:14):
18, 2002.
He had one objective after themassacre to shepherd nearly
2,000 kids to emotional highground.
The last class of freshmenwould graduate that May.
Frank had no idea what he mightdo afterward.
He could not plan yet.
(14:35):
His hands were full.
He had three school years toget through.
He had seriously underestimatedthe turmoil of the first.
Nobody had foreseen thattorrent of aftershocks.
He would not make that mistakeagain.
The second summer offered arespite, just like the first.
(14:58):
But when the doors reopened inAugust 2000, the faculty braced
for the next onslaught.
It never came.
There was never a year likethat first one, never Anything
close.
The second year got off on ahigh note.
In addition had beenconstructed over the summer with
(15:19):
a new library.
The old one was demolished,converting the commons into a
two-story atrium.
Most of the parents' groupattended the opening.
Sue Petron Glow and for thepast 16 months she had felt
physically weak every time shehad stepped inside the school.
All that was lifted away.
(15:41):
She had been fighting for morethan a year and she was done.
Nearly all the parents wereSue's ex-husband was the
exception.
Brian Robo and Frank DeAngelisdominated the ceremony, standing
30 feet apart in the cafeteriawith a cluster of reporters
around, each talking about eachother.
(16:04):
Mr D was diplomatic and triedto avoid the few altogether, but
reporters kept shuttling overfrom Robor with fresh
accusations for Mr D to respondto.
Brian was brutal and direct.
The school caused these murders, he said, and the
(16:24):
administration must pay.
Mr D developed a heart condition.
It appeared the first autumnafter the shootings.
Stress, the doctor said nokidding.
Frank was riddled with symptomsof PTSD numbness, anxiety,
(16:47):
attacks, inability toconcentrate and reclusiveness.
Therapy helped sort them out.
Immediately after the murdershe had trouble making eye
contact.
It got worse.
He discovered that it was guiltand he said that he had never
heard of survival guilt and hefelt guilty that Dave and the
kids died and that he lived.
His wife wanted to help becausehe was eating him up, but he
(17:12):
couldn't express it to her.
He was just like his students.
The years after the tragedy weretumultuous.
He got to Columbine at 6 am,left at 8 or 9.
In the evening Weekends he camein for shorter stints, quiet
(17:33):
time to catch up.
At any given time he had adozen kids on suicide watch.
Breakdowns were a dailyoccurrence among the students
and the staff.
He got tremendous satisfactionout of helping the kids, but it
was a terrible drain.
He had a couple of hours everynight to forget it all.
His wife implored him to openup.
(17:56):
His son and daughter wereconcerned.
His parents and siblings seemedto call constantly are you
eating?
Should you be driving?
And he would say to them Ithink I know when to eat.
Everyone had to know how he wasfeeling, how are you doing?
And he would say enough, pleasestop.
(18:23):
Mr D struggled with some of thestaff too.
A therapist complained that shespent years in his school after
the tragedy and he neverlearned her name.
He could name all 2,000students.
He had a strong team ofadministrators who were great at
heading off problems, but someof them needed support
(18:45):
themselves.
His family resented him.
He would say that they couldnot understand why he was acting
that way.
He wasn't the person he wantedto be and he felt awful too.
He started counselingimmediately after the attack and
(19:06):
he credited it with saving him.
If he could do one thing over,it would be to include his
family in the therapy, becausethey had no idea what PTSD was.
He said If they had justunderstood what he was going
through it would have been allright, but unfortunately his
(19:28):
marriage didn't make it Early.
In 2002, he and his wife agreedto divorce.
He said Columbine had not beenthe sole reason, but it was a
big part.
As he prepared to move out,frank came upon 4,000 letters he
had received in 1999.
Received in 1991, uh, 1999,sorry, um.
(19:51):
Most were supportive, someangry, a few threatened his life
.
He had to try to read 25 a dayand that proved traumatic.
Now he was ready to face them.
He read through a big stack andone name caught him off guard
Diane Mayer.
Diane Mayer had been his oldhigh school sweetheart.
(20:14):
They had broken up beforegraduation and lost touch for 30
years.
He looked her up.
Her mom was in the same houseso he called Diane and she was
so understanding.
They spoke several times, neverin person, but long comforting
chats.
She helped him through thedivorce and the emotional
(20:35):
upheaval ahead of him.
In May he had one more thing hehad to do.
Columbine was a catharticexperience for much of the
faculty.
They revaluated their lives.
Many started over on newcareers.
By the spring of 2002, most ofthem had moved on Every other
(20:57):
administrator, but Frank wasgone.
As May approached, mrdconsidered what had made him the
happiest.
How did he really want toinvest his remaining years?
And he decided no compromises.
He would follow his dream.
He chose to remain principal atColumbine.
(21:18):
He loved the job.
Some of the families hated him.
They were disgusted by hisannouncement.
Others were pleased the kids byhis announcement.
Others were pleased the kids.
They were ecstatic.
Robert was furious, but he washaving success with the cops.
(21:43):
His Hail Mary pass had brokenthe dam and eventually Jeffco
was ordered to release almosteverything except to supposedly
incendiary items, the killer'sjournals and the basement tapes.
The mother load came inNovember 2000.
11,000 pages of police reports,including virtually every
(22:04):
witness account.
Jeffco said that was everything.
It was still hiding more thanhalf.
Reporters and families keptchipping away, demanding known
items.
Jeffco acted comically in itsattempts to suppress.
It numbered all the pages andthen eliminated thousands,
(22:25):
releasing the documents withsome gaps, numbered gaps.
One release indicated nearly3,000 missing pages.
Jeffco was forced to cough uphalf a dozen more releases over
(22:46):
the next year, in 2001,.
In November of 2001, officialsdescribed a huge stack as the
last batch.
More than 5,000 pages.
More came by the end of 2002and 10,000 in 2003,.
January, february, march, juneand three separate times in
(23:07):
October.
Halfway through all that, inApril 2001, district Attorney
Dave Thomas inadvertentlymentioned the smoking gun, the
affidavit to search Eric's house.
More than a year before themassacre, jeffco had rigorously
denied its existence for twoyears.
(23:27):
Jackson ordered its release.
The affidavit was more damningthan expected.
Investigator Guerra hadastutely pulled together the
threats of Eric's early plottingand hand-documented mass murder
threats and the bomb productionto begin realizing them.
To begin realizing them.
(23:48):
The purpose of the cover-up wasout in the open, but it
continued for several years.
Then, finally, in June 2003,the search warrant Cape Bataan
had composed on the afternoon ofthe massacre came out and it
(24:12):
demonstrated conclusively thatJeffco officials had been lying
about the Browns all along, thatthey knew about the warnings
from the beginning, that themissing webpages were so
accessible they had found themin the first minutes of the
attack.
So now we have anger andcontempt rising.
(24:36):
A federal judge finally hadenough and he ruled that Jeffco
could not be trusted even towarehouse valuable evidence.
So he ordered the county tohand over key material such as
the basement tapes to be securedin the federal courthouse in
(24:57):
Denver.
Agent Fusilier beat Mr D toretirement.
Six months after the massacrethe investigation was largely
complete.
Dr Fusilier continued studyingthe killers, but he transitioned
back to his role as head ofdomestic terrorism for the
(25:18):
Colorado-Wyoming region.
Few Americans had heard ofOsama bin Laden, but a life-size
wanted poster of him greetedvisitors to the FBI branch
office.
Fusilier saw enemy number one'spicture every morning as he got
off the elevator on the 18thfloor.
(25:39):
Fusilier also resumed traininghostage negotiators and went
back on call for seriousincidents.
And went back on call forserious incidents.
Two years later he concludedone of the most notorious prison
breaks in recent history, theTexas 7, that had escaped a
(25:59):
maximum security facility andembarked on a crime spree.
The ringleader was serving like18 life sentences.
He had nothing left to lose.
And on Christmas Eve 2000, theystole a catch of guns from a
supporting goods store andambushed a police officer and
(26:28):
they shot him 11 times, ran himover on the way out to be sure
he was dead and there was areward posted that said $500,000
.
The gang kept moving and onJanuary 20, 2001, they were
spotted in a trailer park nearColorado Springs.
A SWAT team captured four ofthem.
(26:49):
A fifth killed himself.
To avoid recapture, the twoholdouts barricaded themselves
in the Holiday Inn.
So of course they sent AgentFusilier and with his team.
It took like five hours to talkthem out.
They were fixated on corruptionin the penal system.
(27:10):
So Fusilli arranged a liveinterview on a local TV station
at 2.30 in the morning there wasa cameraman that came inside
the room so the holdouts couldsee they were actually broadcast
live.
Both convicts surrendered.
Eventually they were sentencedto death and all six survivors
await lethal injection in Texas.
(27:34):
But this was just too muchstress for Fusilier.
It finally wore him down.
He would have 20 years at theBureau that October.
He was already eligible for hispension, so he announced his
retirement for that date he willbe 54 years old.
On September 11, 2001, thecountry was attacked.
(27:59):
Bin Laden was behind it.
So Agent Fusilier decided topostpone his retirement and
spend most of the next 11 monthson the case.
By the summer of 2002, theUnited States had taken over
Afghanistan, bin Laden had fledinto hiding and the urgency had
(28:19):
abated.
Fusilier's son, brian,graduated from Columbine High
that May.
The last class Mr D had beenwaiting for Brian was leaving
for college in July.
Dwayne scheduled his retirementfor the week afterwards, so
Brian wouldn't see his dadlacing about jobless and Agent
(28:45):
Fusilli of course missed work,missed the work.
Agent Fusili, of course missedwork, missed the work.
Within months he was consultingfor the State Department.
It sent him to conductanti-terrorism training in third
world countries.
He spent a quarter of the yearin sketchy sections of Pakistan,
tanzania, malaysia, macedonia,anywhere that terrorists were
(29:11):
being active, and his wife Mimiworried.
But Agent Fusilier didn't thinkabout it much and his son,
brian, didn't hear the tensionreturn to his voice.
So fear wasn't the problem atthe FBI, it was the
responsibility.
(29:33):
Shortly before Brian leftColumbine, marco Moore's
documentary Bowling forColumbine drew raves at the
Cannes Festival and it becamethe top-grossing documentary at
that time in US history.
And it wasn't really much aboutColumbine and the title feature
(29:59):
of Minor Myth that Eric andDylan went bowling on April 20th
.
But it included a dramaticscene where Moore and a victim
went to Kmart and asked toreturn the bullets still inside
the guy.
And you know the stunt thepublicity around it shamed Kmart
(30:19):
basically into discontinuingAmmunition Sales Nation.
Why Then Marilyn Manson wasinterviewed in this film?
Moore asked Manson what he wouldsay to the killers if he had a
chance to talk to them andManson said I wouldn't say a
(30:39):
single word to them.
I would listen to what theyhave to say, and that's what no
one did.
End quote.
That was the story the mediahad told.
The connection to KMFDM, theband that Eric did idolize and
(31:01):
quote frequently, was ignored bymajor media.
Fans got word, however, and theband issued a statement of deep
remorse and they said quote weare sick and appalled, as is the
rest of the nation, by whattook place in Colorado.
(31:22):
None of us condone any Nazibeliefs whatsoever.
End quote.
The killer's parents remainedsilent.
They never spoke to the press.
Pastor Don Maxhausen stayedclose to Tom and Sue Klebold.
He was great comfort.
Sue went back to trainingdisabled students at the
(31:44):
community college and thathelped her cope, and she said
that it was amazing how long ittook her to get up and say her
name at a meeting and to say I'mDylan Klebold's mother.
(32:04):
Dylan could have killed anynumber of the kids of people
that she worked with.
Shopping could be intimidating,anticipating that moment of
recognition as a salespersonexamining her credit card.
It was a distinctive name andsometimes they did notice.
(32:24):
One time one clerk looked ather name and then looked at her
and she said boy, you are asurvivor, tom.
Her husband worked from home sohe had a choice about when to
go out.
He stayed in all the time andPastor Don worried about him.
(32:45):
Reverend Maxhausen paid for thatcompassion.
Much of his parish loved himfor it.
Others were outraged.
The church council split.
Were outraged, the churchcouncil split.
It was unattainable.
And a year after the massacrehe was forced out of his church.
(33:08):
Markshausen had been one of themost reverent and revered
ministers in the Denver area butnow he could not find even a
job.
After a bout of unemployment heleft the state and that's how
he was able to head up a smallparish.
He missed Colorado andeventually moved back.
He got a job as a chaplain at acounty jail.
(33:31):
His primary function was toadvise inmates when loved ones
had died.
He was born for the jobministering to the desperate.
He empathized with each one andit sucked the life out of him.
The lawsuits sputtered on foryears.
(33:52):
They got messier.
A rash of new defendants wasadded all the time, including
school officials, the killers,parents, the manufacturer of
Luvox, anyone who had come incontact with the guns.
The suits were consolidated infederal court.
Judge Louis Babcock acceptedthe county's two major arguments
(34:18):
that he was not responsible forstopping the killers in advance
and that cops should not bepunished for decisions under
fire.
Babcock said the authoritiesshould have headed off the
massacre months earlier but werenot legally bound In November
2001,.
He dismissed most of thecharges against the sheriff and
(34:41):
the school.
The families appealed.
The county settled the nextyear $15,000 each a fraction of
their legal fees.
The discovery process neverbrought much to light.
It didn't need to.
The robots' initial offensivehas set the legal process in
(35:06):
motion and it continued underits own power.
Judge Babcock refused todismiss the Sanders case.
He balked at the contentionthat Dave's rescue involved
split-second decisions andBabcock boomed that they had
time in the third hour.
That Dave's rescue involvedsplit-second decisions and
Babcock boomed that they hadtime in the third hour.
The cops have hundreds ofpeople to rescue.
Their attorney responded theyhad to allocate resources.
(35:33):
More than 750 cops had been onthe scene.
The judge reminded him it's notas though they were a little
shorthanded out there that day.
He said In August 2002, jeffcopaid Angela Sanders $1.5 million
.
It admitted to no wrongdoing.
The last Jeffco case to closewas Patrick Ireland's.
(35:55):
He got $117,500.
Most of the fringe cases weredismissed.
Luvox was pulled from themarket.
That left the killer's families.
They wanted to settle.
They didn't have a lot of moneybut they had insurance.
(36:16):
It turned out their homeowner'spolicy covered murder by their
children.
They didn't have a lot of moneybut they had insurance.
It turned out their homeowner'spolicy covered murder by their
children.
About $1.6 million was dividedbetween 31 families.
Most of it came from theCleberts' policy.
Similar agreements were reachedwith Mark Maines, philip Duran
(36:38):
and Robin Anderson for anestimated total of approximately
$1.3 million.
Five families rebuffed theHarris's and Clairvaux's no
buyout without information.
It really wasn't about themoney for the robots and for
others.
They were battling forinformation and they proved it,
but they were caught instalemate.
(37:00):
The killer's parents would talkif the victims dropped the
lawsuits.
The victims would drop thesuits if the parents spoke.
For two more years it continued.
Then the judge broke a deal.
The holdouts would dismisstheir suits if the killer's
parents answered all theirquestions privately but under
(37:24):
oath.
It was a bitter compromise.
In July 2003, the four parentswere deposed for several days.
Media came to photograph them.
They had remained so privatethat few reporters even knew
what they looked like.
Two weeks after the depositionsan agreement was announced and
(37:47):
it appeared to be over, but DonAnna called for the depositions
to be made public.
Understanding the warning signscould prevent the next
Columbine.
A chorus gathered behind her.
A magistrate ruled that thetranscripts would be destroyed
(38:11):
per the agreement.
That set off a public outcryand a wave of open record
requests.
Judge Backcock agreed toconsider arguments.
It had taken four years toreach this point and they were
only halfway there In April2007,.
Judge Backcock finally ruledquote there is a legitimate
(38:37):
public interest in thesematerials so that similar
tragedies may hopefully beprevented.
I conclude, however, that thebalance of interest still
strikes in favor of maintainingstrict confidentiality.
End quote, so he said on acompromise.
End quote, so he said on acompromise.
The transcripts will be sealedat the National Archives for 20
(39:03):
years.
The truth will come out in theyear 2027, two years from now.
28 years after the massacre.
Though he was retired, agentFusilier hoped to see the
depositions.
He would like to question theparents himself.
(39:24):
He knew where the boys endedpsychologically, but their
origins were a mystery,particularly Eric's.
Only two people had an 18-yearperspective on his path to
psychopathy.
When did Eric start exhibitingthe early hallmarks and how were
(39:45):
they visible?
Wayne had adopted a sternparenting style.
How bad that worked.
Eric wrote little aboutinteraction with his mother.
What had Kathy's approach been?
Were there any successes?
Anything that could help thenext parent?
(40:10):
Fusilier understood the refusalto talk.
We'll be right back.
One thing is that a lot ofpeople expected copycats.
The country braced for a newlevel of horror School shooting.
(40:32):
Deaths actually dropped 25%over the next three years.
But Eric and Dylan gave youngeyes a fresh approach Terrorist
tactics for personalaggrandizement.
In 2001, a pair of ninth gradersat a Fort Collins Colorado
middle school procured a smallarsenal Tech 9, shotgunss rifles
(40:58):
and propane bombs.
They plan to reverse Eric'schronology seal off exits, mow
down students and save the bombsfor stack stragglers.
They would finish by taking tenhostages, holding them in the
counseling office for fun, thenkilling the kids and themselves.
(41:19):
But they leaked.
Kids nearly always leak.
The bigger the plot, the widerthe leakage.
The Fort Collins pair wentrecruiting for gunmen to cover
all the exits.
One of the plotters told atleast seven people that he
planned to redo Columbine.
(41:40):
He bragged to four girls thatthey would be the first to die.
They went straight to thepolice.
Teen peers were different after1999.
Jokes scared the crap out ofkids.
Jokes scare the crap out ofkids.
Two more grandiose plots therewas one in Malcolm, nebraska,
(42:00):
and Oakland, new Jersey, andthose were foiled in the first
five years.
School administrators around thecountry responded with zero
tolerance, meaning every idlethreat was treated like a cocked
gun.
That drove everyone crazy.
Nearly all supposed killersturned out to be kids blowing
(42:22):
off steam.
It wasn't working for anyone.
The central recommendationsthat came from the FBI and
Secret Service.
Each agency published reportsin the first three years to help
guide faculty to identifyserious threats and these
(42:46):
recommendations contradictedprevailing post-Columbine
behavior.
They said identifying outcastsas threats is not healthy.
It demonizes innocent kids whoare already struggling.
It's also unproductive.
Outposts are not the problem.
They do not fit the profile.
(43:07):
There is no profile.
Other reason school shootersshare exactly one trait 100%
male.
Since the study they have beenfemales, aside from personal
experience.
No other characteristic at 50%and even close.
(43:30):
And the Secret Service alsosaid there is no accurate or
useful profile of attackersbecause attackers came from all
ethnic, economic and socialclasses.
The bulk came from solidtwo-parent homes.
Most had no criminal record orhistory of violence.
(43:52):
The two biggest myths were thatshooters were loners and that
they snapped.
A staggering 93% planned theirattack in advance.
The path toward violence is anevolutionary one, with signposts
along the way.
Cultural influences alsoappeared weak.
(44:15):
Only a quarter were interestedin violent movies, half that
number in video games, probablybelow average for teen boys.
Most perps shared a crucialexperience 98% have suffered a
loss or failure.
They perceived as seriousAnything from getting fired to
(44:37):
blowing a test or getting dumped.
Of course, everyone suffersloss and failure, but for these
kids, the trauma seemed to setanger in motion.
This was certainly true inColumbine, because Dylan, for
example, viewed his entire lifeas a failure and Eric's arrest
(44:57):
accelerated his anger.
So what should adults look for?
One of the things that theyrecommended was advanced
confessions.
81% of shooters had confidedtheir intentions.
More than half told at leasttwo people confided their
(45:20):
intentions.
More than half told at leasttwo people.
Most threats are idle, but thekey is specificity.
Vague, implied, implausiblethreats are low risk.
The danger skyrockets whenthreats are direct and specific,
identify a motive and indicatework performed to carry it out.
Melodramatic outbursts do notincrease the risk.
(45:43):
A subtler form of leakage ispreoccupation with death,
destruction, violence.
A graphic mutilation storymight be an early warning sign
or a vivid imagination.
Add malice, brutality, anunrepentant hero and concerns
should rise.
(46:04):
Don't overreact to a singlestory or drawing, according to
the FBI he warned us, becausenormal teen boys enjoy violence
and are fascinated with themacabre, so writings and
drawings on these themes can bea reflection of a harmless but
(46:25):
rich and creative fantasy life.
The key was repetition leadingto obsession.
The Bureau described a boy whohad worked guns and violence
into every assignment and evenin home ec class he baked a cake
(46:46):
in the shape of a gun.
The FBI compiled a specific listof warning signs, including
symptoms of both psychopathy anddepression Manipulation,
tolerance, superiority,narcissism, alienation, rigidity
, lethargy, dehumanization ofothers, externalizing blame.
(47:08):
It's a pretty daunting list andfew teachers are going to
master this.
The FBI recommended againsttrying.
It suggested one person perschool be trained intensively,
and for all faculty andadministrators.
Just to turn to that person.
(47:30):
The FBI added one final caution.
They said that a kid matchingmost of its warning signs was
more likely to be suffering fromdepression or mental illness
than planning an attack.
Most kids matching the criterianeeded help, not incarceration.
(47:51):
Columbine also changed policeresponse to attacks, so no more
perimeters.
A national task force wasorganized to develop a new plan,
and this you know.
In 2003, it released the activeshooter protocol and basically
(48:12):
what it says is if the shooterseems active, storm the building
, move toward the sound ofgunfire, disregard even victims.
There is one objectiveneutralize the shooters, stop
them, kill them.
The concept had been around foryears, but it had been rejected
.
Pre-columbine cops had beenexhorted to proceed cautiously,
(48:45):
secure the perimeter, get thegunman talking, wait for the
SWAT team.
The key to the new protocolthat was established after
Columbine was to be more active.
Mass shootings the vastmajority were labeled passive
the gunman was alive but notfiring.
Those cases reverted to the oldprotocol.
So success depended onaccurately determining the
(49:07):
threat in the first moments.
This is this.
(49:38):
Protocols have continued to bereviewed because we have had
other shootings post-2001, likethe one in the East Coast with
elementary school students andother ones that went in Florida.
We have others that are morerecent.
So a lot of the protocols, theyare revising them and shooting
them.
I'm just communicating the onesthat were established
post-Columbine, the ones thatwere established post-Columbine.
(50:03):
So this is something that isconstantly reviewed Now.
Even now, schools have theirprotocols and they do practice
active shooters in the schoolsin different scenarios.
Where do you go if you're in theclassroom?
What do you do if you're in thehallway?
What do you do if you're in theoutside?
(50:25):
And during recess, what do youdo if it's in the cafeteria?
If you're in the library, ifyou are in the bathroom?
So there is a a lot of drills,at least once or twice a year,
that students have to do thesedrills, and the teachers have to
(50:48):
know the protocols and all thatSupertron.
On the other hand, if wecontinue a little bit here, she
asked for two blocks, the twosidewalk blocks where her son
(51:09):
Danny died on, and so what theydid is that they jackhammered
one well, two of them, two ofthe blocks out of the ground and
installed in her backyard, andthey were underneath a spruce
tree that she had Around theslab.
(51:31):
She created a rock garden withtwo big wooden tubs overflowing
with petunias, and she had asturdy oak truss constructed
over the slab and a porch swingsuspended from the crossbeam,
and that's where her husband andher dog go and hang out.
(52:00):
Linda Sanders kept the Adviltablet found near Dave's body.
Her husband, dave.
He had trouble with kneeswelling so he always had an
Advil in his pocket and it wasonly one, so that's why they
know it's probably his.
She took his bloody clothes, aswath of the carpet from under
(52:27):
his head, a little fragment oftooth that chipped off when he
fell, and his glasses.
She would never let thoseglasses go.
She snapped them into aneyeglass case and placed them on
the nightstand by her bed.
She intends to leave them thatway forever.
(52:48):
The lawsuit on behalf of DaveSander outlived all other
lawsuits but chosen a part thatI read the police.
She was not at the school orthe parents.
She was angry at her situationbecause she was lonely.
(53:09):
She has lost her, her husband.
We'll be right back.
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