Columbine: A True Crime Story, a victim, the killers and the nation's search for answers (Paperback)

~ Jeff Kass (Author)
Key Phrases: school shooters, basement tapes, Wayne Harris, Jefferson County, Tom Klebold (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"On Nov. 21, 2008, the Harris and Klebold parents were sent the same letter requesting cooperation. "Your stories have yet to be fully told, and I view your help as an issue of historical significance," it said. "In 10 years, there have been no major, mainstream books on Columbine. This will be the first, and it may be the only one." The letter came not from Mr. Cullen but from Jeff Kass, whose Columbine: A True Crime Story, published by the small Ghost Road Press, preceded Columbine by a couple of weeks.

"Mr. Kass, whose tough account is made even sadder by the demise of The Rocky Mountain News in which his Columbine coverage appeared, has also delivered an intensive Columbine overview. Some of the issues he raises and information he digs up go unnoticed by Mr. Cullen." --Janet Maslin, New York Times USA TODAY

"A decade after the most dramatic school massacre in American history, Jeff Kass applies his considerable reporting talents to exploring the mystery of how two teens could have planned and carried out such gruesome acts without their own family and best friends knowing about it. Actually, there were important clues, but they were missed or downgraded both by those who knew the boys best and by public officials who came in contact with them. An engrossing and cautionary tale for everyone who cares about how to prevent kids from going bad." -------Ted Gest, President, Criminal Justice Journalists<br /><br />

"On Nov. 21, 2008, the Harris and Klebold parents were sent the same letter requesting cooperation. "Your stories have yet to be fully told, and I view your help as an issue of historical significance," it said. "In 10 years, there have been no major, mainstream books on Columbine. This will be the first, and it may be the only one." The letter came not from Mr. Cullen but from Jeff Kass, whose Columbine: A True Crime Story, published by the small Ghost Road Press, preceded Columbine by a couple of weeks.

"Mr. Kass, whose tough account is made even sadder by the demise of The Rocky Mountain News in which his Columbine coverage appeared, has also delivered an intensive Columbine overview. Some of the issues he raises and information he digs up go unnoticed by Mr. Cullen." ----Janet Maslin, New York Times

"What was it about Columbine? Of all the school shootings over the past two decades, it's the one that festers, an ugly wound that won't heal... Kass' book... [a] straightforward chilling account of what happened...." --USA TODAY

"What was it about Columbine? Of all the school shootings over the past two decades, it's the one that festers, an ugly wound that won't heal... Kass' book... [a] straightforward chilling account of what happened...." --USA --USA TODAY

Review

"What was it about Columbine? Of all the school shootings over the past two decades, it's the one that festers, an ugly wound that won't heal... Kass' book... [a] straightforward chilling account of what happened...."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ghost Road Press; First edition (March 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981652565
• ISBN-13: 978-0981652566
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #62,347 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the Other Book?, May 1, 2009

By	D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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I read this and the Cullen book at the same time. They're both good. This one has more facts. If you're a mental health professional or a teacher I think this is more informative.
Both writers have been compared, at least by their publishers, to Truman Capote (the New York Times reviewer said "which book, Breakfast at Tiffany's?"). A major difference is that "In Cold Blood" simply set out to tell a story, whereas these books try to point the finger of blame. Capote also had the unfair advantage of being a genius.
We read these books looking for some way it could have been prevented, and some way to stop it happening again. We hope for some DSM diagnosis or FBI profile that will label the killers. Maybe we are trying to undo the past. The books suggest that some of the precautions we take now would not have forestalled Columbine. For example metal detectors would have been useless because Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold started the killing from outside the school, at the top of an outside staircase, and then shot their way in.
Adolescent suicide is notoriously difficult to predict. Neither killer fitted the usual profile for adolescent murderers. They were white and middle class, with high academic achievements, church affiliations, and even the stay-at-home mothers and disciplinarian fathers that are supposed to be such a panacea against crime. The failure to follow up on Guerra's affidavit requesting a warrant to search Harris's house was the most egregious failure. Both books emphasize the lies and cover-up by the Jeffco sheriff's department.
This book lacks an index, which is annoying when there are so many characters to keep track of. It is illustrated with drawings and handwriting done by Klebold and Harris and with photographs. It has a soft cover that curls back if you leave the book lying flat and opened. The Cullen book is more elegantly written and produced. It is a smoother and more readable narrative. There are no illustrations. Kass jumps about and describes his research methods in great detail.
Kass has dug more diligently and uncovered a lot more facts than Cullen. For example he ascertained that Sue Klebold had been a pupil of Hugh Missildine, the author of "Your Inner child of the Past" and uncovered a case report by Missildine that seems to be about her. Cullen erroneously describes Kevin Albert as a psychiatrist. Kass says that he is a psychologist, and that the psychotropic medications were being prescribed by a family doctor. Cullen erroneously says that Luvox was taken off the market. It remains a popular drug and can be prescribed now under its generic name of fluvoxamine. Such errors reduce my faith in Cullen.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book sheds some much-needed light, April 7, 2009

By	Lazlo - See all my reviews

Ten years after the shootings, I feel two key issues remained about Columbine.

The first is the parents of the shooters. Who are they? And where were they in the months and years leading up to Columbine?

The second issue is, `What causes school shootings?'

Jeff Kass explored both in "Columbine: A True Crime Story, a victim, the killers, and the nation's search for answers". He has come as close as anyone I've seen to answering these important questions.

It's clear in his book that Jeff Kass briefly talked to the parents of the killers. But he included some interesting new information about them, including a psychological profile of Dylan Klebold's mother that I found very compelling. He also wrote about what the parents knew prior to the shootings, and how they reacted to them- it provides insight about how to stop school shootings. He wrote that Dylan Klebold's mother, according to her writings (when Dylan was in a youth anti-crime program) pegged the profile of a school shooter. She didn't realize it, but Dylan matched the profile. Some of the information about the Klebolds and Harrises also comes from the remarks they made to police on the day of the shootings. It's incredible. Jeff Kass spoke with the Klebold's lawyer (and evidently got inside the Harris house).

The author also takes a compelling environmental approach I hadn't considered before reading this book. He has connected shootings in suburbs and small towns like Columbine. He also shows that they occur in the West and South of the United States and explains why. Whether psychology or environment play the stronger role seems open to debate; I can't tell if the author takes one side or the other.

These are the areas that have gone unexplored by most reporters. This book -for now- is the first and definitive one about Columbine.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The true journalistic account, April 30, 2009

By	malihi - See all my reviews

I thought I knew a lot about Columbine and the killers but I gained new insight from Kass' book. What I liked in particular was his use of the killers' actual writings (and drawings). When you have a situation like this - hundreds of pages of writings and drawings at your disposal - I figure there are three approaches. You can essentially ignore the writings and incorporate their ideas into your narrative. Or you can lean heavily on the writings and allow them to speak for themselves. The third path of course is to blend the writings with the narrative. I thought Kass did a good job on that third path. The writings themselves are quite chilling, and even to those who know Columbine, the writings are a reminder of how twisted the killers were.

But this is not just a question of how to tell the story. It also points up a big difference between the Kass book and the Cullen book. Cullen mostly takes the first approach - he barely quotes from the writings and says, `I'm going to tell you what they mean.' That's OK if you want to take someone else's word for it. But when you read the actual writings Kass includes in his book, you realize discrepancies in Cullen's interpretation. Cullen and Kass both follow the conventional wisdom and say Eric Harris was a psychopath. But Kass is more nuanced and maybe more accurate.

Cullen and Kass agree: Psychopaths lack feelings. But the writings Kass highlights show Eric as full of emotion. Eric feels sorry for what will happen to his parents, he wants to be more popular, and he pines for a better relationship with his dad. Now I will say, Kass doesn't fully address this discrepancy, but he does bring it up. Cullen doesn't address it at all. It's as if Cullen has a theory and wants to keep it neat.

One point about the writings Kass includes is Dylan's school essay on gunning down jocks (or it might be "preps.") This shows Dylan as a full-blown killer (another discrepancy Cullen does not address - he stresses how much Dylan was into love). I'm not sure the whole essay, however, needed to be reprinted.

The point is if you want somebody to tell you what to think, and to cut out anything that goes against their pet theory, read the Cullen book. If you want some expert interpretation but also want to decide for yourself, catch the nuances, and have other points of view, read the Kass book.