Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

This fine work of investigative journalism by former Rocky Mountain News reporter Jeff Kass is possibly the best book written on the subject that I have read. Kass not only tells the story of the development of Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold through their own writings and interviews the author conducted, but he also shows the common denominators among school shooters across the country.

The book also tells the story of Kass' ten-year battle to get police records of Columbine released, the Columbine killers' parents own battles to block that information, and the flaws in the system that allowed this tragedy to happen.

The two most noteworthy things for me that set this Columbine book apart from others I have read is that this is the first book written by a journalist who actually covered the story in the town that it happend. The second is that Kass, unlike other books on the subject, actually has new--never before seen information.

Kass uncovered a previously undisclosed federal deposition from the lawsuit filed against the company that manufactured the psychiatric drug taken by Columbine killer Eric Harris. The deposition is from Robert Kriegshauser, the Jefferson County diversion counselor who supervised both Harris and Dylan Klebold after they were arrested for breaking into a van. Kriegshauser has never spoken publicly.

Kass also unearthed a psychological profile of Dylan Klebold's mother, Susan Klebold, from when she was a teenager. The profile, reprinted in the book, shows an eerie preview of Columbine, the psychiatrist treating Susan concludes she has a "death phobia."

Fellow gunman Dylan Klebold's never-before released college applications essay shows a child only two months before the shooting writing that he knows he has made poor decisions in his life and with the people he has chosen to hang out with.

Kass also has uncovered a videotape of John Kiekbusch, one of the lead Columbine investigators who later came under scrutiny by a grand jury for alleged cover-ups, acknowledging mistakes at Columbine and contradicting the advice dispatchers gave to students in the library, where ten of the 13 Columbine victims were killed.

As a parent I found this book to be both unnerving and sad. Kass' storytelling is captivating. He pulls no punches--beginning the book on the day of the shootings, and working backward to the beginning--moving forward as we witness the boys' downward spiral into hate, depression, and violence. Along the way we get a look into their family life, Dylan's Jewish ancestry, Eric's pinning to be with lost friends and his desire to just be accepted and included in the environment that fueled his insatiable rage. Kass highlights the Schoels family and their struggle to come to terms with their son Isiah's murder, their journey from victim to crusader.

Ten-years after Columbine we still can't comprehend how two seemingly normal boys could have done something so horrible. Kass does an exemplary job of connecting the dots and getting us closer to an answer. This book will stay with me for a while.

We all want to know about the shooters themselves, and the author does an excellent job of nailing the profiles (and providing some much-needed skepticism about what the experts say). He also provides some exclusives and links Dylan Klebold to other school shooters. He notes that Eric Harris is the "outlier."

But I am giving it five stars because Kass does a phenomenal job of nailing the parents. That's the missing half here. He talked to the parents briefly and got some interesting records on them. But the parents tried to shut him out. That to me was a big part of the story - how they not only slammed the proverbial door on his face but then fought him. I thought that said a lot. One of the lawyers even said Kass' sources should have his hands cut off. What a phrase for the killers' parents to say.

The parents have barely spoken to anyone else. But the author takes those statements in-depth and shows how (mostly the Klebolds) talked but only in a very "marketing" way. They only talked to a couple select reporters and doled their statements out to make themselves look good. All the while, the Klebolds said they wanted an investigation into school shootings but tried to stop any attempts. I walked away with a feel for who they were.

Same for the Harrises. Eric's dad was the military guy, but the Harrises were actually the mellower family. They really wanted to be left alone and didn't pop their heads up at all. But the author brings us into a meeting they had with police and you get a feel for who they are. Bottom line: The Klebolds say Dylan was troubled, then say they never saw anything amiss. The Harrises had warning signs too - it looks like the dad exploded a pipe bomb with Eric - but come across as flummoxed.

Of course I wish the author would have gotten more info on the parents. But his research is extensive and he went beyond the info out there to give an analysis.

The author does the same thing with the local police and the feds. They all tried to stop him from getting info. Again, that in itself tells the story. But in the back of the book he reprints selected letters he wrote to the police (and the parents) to show you how the work is done. That in itself is an interesting view into the journalism. You can see how a book like this could take ten years to write.

I have read this book with a critical eye. It is the best of the new books on Columbine. This book at least tells the story without rewriting history. This author was actually here, and covered Columbine from day one. He lived the tragedy. He tells the truth with this book.

It is honest and has a few very unique items that cannot be found anywhere else. The author has found an interview with Robert Kriegshauser, the Diversion Officer who worked with Dylan and Eric before Columbine. Kriegshauser has been "invisible" for ten years, and has many things to tell that answer a lot of questions on the failure of the Diversion Program. Never before seen, it gives new light to the interaction between the Sheriffs Dept. and the two Killers.

A very good read. I would have liked to have seen another 2 or 3 hundred more pages, because the subject is so complicated,but it does the job of telling the facts of the Columbine tragedy without the editorializing and absurd errors in the other newly released books.

Very accurate. Thought provoking.

Randy Brown

A Columbine Parent.

I read this book after just finishing David Cullen's Columbine and at its beginning I found myself wondering if the two authors were writing about the same two individuals. Mr. Kass comes upon this story with what appear to be some preconceived biases that are fed by the air of deception that has surrounded the case since the beginning.

Throughout the book he appears to really want to blame the usual suspects, guns, video games, a cliquish high school culture, etc... But he can't quite do it. The evidence to the contrary is too great. He almost glibly attempts to dismiss the symbiotic relationship between the two shooters and Eric Harris' psychopathic personality which was the catalyst and driving force behind the attack. He glosses over the facts that it was Harris who built the bombs and Harris who did most of the shooting. He offers vague descriptions of how Harris and Klebold were bullied but beyond some references by Brooks Brown, offers no substantiation. Kass cannot commit to any real cause of the killer's actions. The psychological causes don't support where he wants to place the blame and neither do the facts.

The victims of the crime receive short shrift in the book; they appear to be nothing more than props in the story, the lone exception being Isaiah Sholes, whose family receives a chapter devoted solely to them. One of the great controversies of the crime, the Cassie Bernall story, does not even rate a mention.

The most bothersome feature of the book comes at the end in which Mr. Kass details his difficulties in acquiring responses to his requests for documents from various government agencies, vaguely hinting that it is all part of the ongoing cover up. All writers experience difficulty acquiring documents but to somehow underscore is efforts he treats us to copies of his correspondence with various lawyers and government agencies. In spite of his letters, what Mr. Kass pictures as conspiracy is likely simple bureaucratic incompetence.

In spite of its shortcomings the book is worth a read if only for the raw data Kass provides. He prints drawings from the killers day planners and verbatim re-printings of some of their writings, giving us an insight to their minds that has evaded the public before now. But if you are already familiar with the case, don't look for anything new here.

Good book BUT I don't see why people try to constantly compare it to Dave Cullens' "Columbine" book all the time. The two books are apples & oranges.

This one is a narative (It covers the parents testamonies a little better, and catches a slip up that Sue Klebold made in her statements early on.)

Cullens reads more like a action novel, still the same facts but very "First person" perspective. it reads faster but no less informative.

Now for the bad part.

I feel that ANY book about a historical event has to be unbiased and this one isn't. It has a extreme twinge of "anti-gun setiment" that I found distasteful. I don't care how you stand on a issue a book that's supposed to be about facts shouldn't reflect your personal feelings at all. Cullens book was completley unbiased.

Jeff Kass also tries to make some kind of connection to the fact that Columbine happened because the boys "Lived in the West" where "The gun is a more acceptible response" and then even tries to connect The Virginia tech Massacre to this theory becasue it took place in the south. Cho Seung Hui was a South Korean immigrant, I doubt he felt a connection to old west gunfighters anymore than Eric & Dylan did.

Dwayne Fuselier was a top FBI profiler, when he tells you they did it for apocolyptic fame and not because they were bullied outcasts, it's time to accept it.

Sadly this book doesn't.

If you are interested in Columbine then I think you must read the Kass book. Unlike Cullen, who's only giving you the information that supports the FBI's psychological assessment, Kass is laying it all out there. Sometimes, especially in the beginning, he's giving you too much background information. And there's not an index to help you. However, I got a better feeling for the two boys as human beings and a closer look at the parents and families. If you are interested in the Diversion program and the counselors especially you will get a lot more information on that in this book. I was not impressed by the counselors! But I was interested in the argument that it may have been the Diversion program that pushed these boys over the edge.

One of the most revealing inclusions is the paper that Dylan wrote in which he identifies with a murderer who looks like himself and that his teacher found "disturbing." Cullen omits the fact that the victims in this story are preppies who had taunted the killer previously, setting up Dylan's conclusion that he understood why the killer had acted the way he did. In the end I thought Kass did a better job of explaining Columbine than Cullen by putting this crime in the context of other school shootings. You can see that Dylan especially fits the mold of the typical school shooter, to the extent that you can measure such a thing. I gathered from Kass that the problem is largely one of alienation in which school shooters perceive themselves as inferior and without alternatives in the homogenous society of small-town or suburban America. The whole world seems to be against them and they're willing to lash out indiscriminately against an oppressive system symbolized by the school.

One thing that Kass points out is that as computer geeks these two kids were poised to ride the coming wave of technological innovation to successful careers if they'd cared about that. But they obviously were far too troubled psychologically. We get the first mention in the Kass book on the part of Sue Klebold that Dylan had always been fascinated with guns and explosives. I didn't see that in Cullen. There's a lot of stuff like that in this book that make it worth comparing to Cullen. In the end, the most frustrating thing about this is the police cover up, for me. Those people are supposed to be serving the public interest. As the parent of one victim said, "We were planning the funeral and they were already planning the cover up." Kass ends the book by stating: "It is no leap to expect that thousands of Columbine documents remain locked in government file cabinets." It doesn't sound like we'll ever know the whole story on Columbine. There are too many people, including the parents, who are too afraid of the legal repercussions for that to happen. That is perhaps the most chilling conclusion of this remarkable book.

This is the third book on Columbine I've read in the past few months, following both Dave Cullen's and Brooks Brown's. I think I'm done now.

Kass's book, while not a page-turner like Cullen's, is really quite good, and packed with facts that you won't find in any other Columbine book. Kass interviews a lot of the people who were close to Harris and Klebold, as well as many of the investigators. He even spoke to the parents of the killers briefly (and sent them letters), in an attempt to get them to talk. He speaks of their hypocrisy in wishing to figure out what caused the shooting, yet being totally unwilling to open up to investigators.

The book itself is stuffed to the brim with facts that were not found in either Brown's or Cullen's book. I think anyone wanting to get a good overview of what happened at Columbine would do well to read all three of these books. At this point, I think we know all there is to know until the Sheriff's department releases the Basement Tapes or other information they are keeping secret. (Kass has no love for the police department and their vast cover-up of evidence, and neither do I. It's amazing to me that they tried to shift blame for their own mistakes and refused to release evidence time and time again.)

The only thing I disliked about this book was that it inexplicably does not include an index in the end. For a supposedly more scholarly book to not have an index is baffling.