Columbine

It took ten years to write. That’s because Cullen had to sort through the truth from the rumour, gossip, misinformation and the urban myths that so often swirl around a tragedy and have a life of their own, threading their way into the lexicon of popular culture. It takes a book like this to set the story straight, and even then, it may not be as straight as it could or should be.

That one word. Columbine. The images come quickly. The trench coat mafia. Goths with death wishes. Witchcraft.  Satanic heavy metal music warping impressionable minds. Boys in black in basements doing unspeakable acts. Drugs and debauchery all round.

In fact, it was nothing like this. In his research into what really happened at Columbine, Cullen demythologises the stories that many came to believe were the truth. In a perfect storm of inaccurate media reporting, slap-dash work by the local authorities, police ineptness, and community gossip, the tragedy took on a mythical nature of its own, spawning stories that were nowhere close to what happened and how it happened.

It is human nature to want to explain such a catastrophic event. We want reasons. Reasons are often how we rationalise terrible events. Columbine is not a perfect book. The author has come to some of his conclusions about the lives of the perpetrators, Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold, through reading the investigators’ psychological profiles on the two boys. However, as an investigative journalist, he has done well in deconstructing the mythology around Columbine and shows us how irresponsible journalism can perpetuate untruths that linger to this day. Cullen was one of the first reporters on the scene, so he was able to analyse, right from the beginning, how the story of the tragedy became so twisted. Cullen dissects what happened in the forty-nine minutes that terrified America and the world.

Included in the book are the drawings and writings from Eric’s diaries. Reading the killer’s words and seeing the drawings is disturbing, but one does not have to be a forensic psychologist to quickly arrive at the conclusion that both boys had severe mental health issues. Dylan and Eric’s acts were the culmination of a number of factors, including personality problems, that eventually manifested in the massacre. One cannot but wonder when reading this book, whether some signs were missed by teachers and parents. Dylan Klebold went to the school dance only three days before. He wrote about love in his diary. And yet, he was planning a massacre and building up an arsenal. Eric Harris showed signs of psychopathy, but why were they missed? Neither boy was bullied at school. Cullen lays that myth to rest. Both had a lot of friends, and both came from stable homes. Something, however, went terribly amiss.

There are a lot of ‘if only’ moments as a reader and frustration that this is one of those fell-through-the-cracks stories. Why didn’t the parents of the boys’ notice anything? What about teachers? Friends? Any other people that came into contact with the boys? Cullen attempts to answer these questions.

Cullen writes in an accessible style and is never sensationalist. His research is meticulous. The book’s structure jumps back and forth in time, and there is follow up of the aftermath. It’s a disturbing read but one you can’t put down.