Killer's diary describes plot of hate

Sheriff describes Nazi rhetoric and detailed plans for the school massacre

By Christopher Anderson and Pam Regensberg
Camera Staff Writers

LITTLETON — A handwritten diary filled with German words, Nazi rhetoric and messages of hate reveals that the two gunmen responsible for the massacre at Columbine High School had been plotting their lethal rampage for almost a year.

The diary, found in the home of one of the gunmen, contains a detailed timeline of events beginning in April 1998. A final entry on the day of the Tuesday attack declared, "It's time to rock and roll," or words to that effect, Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone said Saturday.

The diary reveals that the killers picked a time when the largest number of students would be in the school cafeteria, that they planned to burn the school down and that the massacre was intentionally timed to coincide with AdolfHitler's birth date, April 20. It also revealed that the killers expected to die in the massacre, Stone said.

"They were building bombs for this particular thing for a considerable period of time," Stone said. "They were going for a big kill."

In Tuesday's bloody assault, Eric Hanson, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, attacked their classmates with sawed-off shotguns, semiautomatic weapons and pipe bombs, killing 12 students and a teacher. They also scattered more than 30 bombs and booby traps in the building, including a hidden 35-pound bomb made with a propane tank.

Investigators say the two finished the rampage by taking their own lives.

Authorities announced Saturday that they are taking precautions against a possible school attack on Monday, even though the FBI has cast doubt on the authenticity of an e-mail message signed "Eric Harris" that threatened more deaths.

"Precautions have been taken, schools are being looked at, security is being beefed up," said Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis.

"If you are reading this, my mission is complete," the e-mail message says. "Your children who have ridiculed me, who have chosen not to accept me, who have treated me like I am not worth their time are dead."

Near the end, it warns that "more extensive death is to come" and finishes: "You have until April 26th. Goodbye."

The message was sent after Harris was already dead. Davis said the FBI has concluded the note was not from Harris, but he said investigators stopped short of calling it a hoax and he could not rule out the possibility that it was sent by an unknown accomplice of the gunmen.

The sheriff's department would not say in which home, Harris or Klebold's, the diary was found.

Along with the diary, investigators found a detailed map of the school, with specific markings of areas that were poorly lighted and the best places to hide, Sheriff Stone said.

"It also contained notations about the writer's role as a strange and different outsider," Stone said.

"We don't want jocks and other people putting us down," said one diary entry, the sheriff told reporters.

He said investigators increasingly suspect that the gunmen had help from a third or even a "fourth, fifth or sixth person" to carry out the massacre, although such an accomplice may not have been a shooter.

"I don't think it is just two guys acting alone," Stone said at a press conference in front of the school.

Investigators plan to reinterview some of the people they have talked to, including one youth who was handcuffed and detained by police outside the school shortly after the shootings began Tuesday.

"We may have interviewed someone who played a big part in this and not know that," Davis said at an earlier press conference. Two people linked to a Columbine clique called the Trench Coat Mafia have reportedly obtained lawyers. Harris and Klebold were associated with that group, whose members used the kind of black dusters or trench coats that the two wore in the attack.

Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents believe the semiautomatic weapons used in the slayings probably exchanged hands several times before the killers obtained them. Stone said he believes that someone, most likely someone over 18, helped them get the weapons.

Authorities also responded to questions surrounding a witness' report of seeing a possible third gunmen in a white T-shirt. One of the dead gunmen was wearing a white T-shirt and had shed his black coat before taking his life, Stone said.

Stone issued sharp criticism Saturday of the dead gunmen's parents, who have not spoken to reporters since the attack. He said searches inside one of their houses turned up unhidden bomb-making materials and weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun barrel on top of a dresser.

"The parents should have known," Stone said. "I think parents should be accountable for their kids' actions."

Although investigators are still working to collect evidence, they are beginning to put together the pieces to re-create the crime scene.

The FBI has taken possession of a video tape filmed in the school cafeteria and has seized the gunmen's computers, which will be searched for all information they contain.

Investigators have collected nearly 2,000 items for investigation. "Every little piece of shrapnel is a piece of evidence," Davis said.

They also are putting together a timeline of the killing spree that will reveal, among other things, when the first shots were fired and when the first SWAT team arrived.

A tape recording of emergency calls during the assault will aid in that effort. On the tape, released to reporters Friday, shots could be heard as a teacher — connected with a 911 dispatcher — cried for police help and shouted for students to stay on the floor in the school's library, where most of the victims were killed.

Authorities at first said the teacher's first name was "Peggy," but she was identified later as Patricia Nielson, 35. She was treated for a wound and released from a hospital Tuesday.

Stone took issue with recent criticism that law enforcement authorities did not enter the building fast enough and that lives were lost because of it.

He said a sheriff's deputy stationed at the school, and present when the attack began, exchanged fire with the gunmen within two minutes after the shootings began. And he said a quickly assembled, joint SWAT team of Jefferson County and Denver police entered the building within 15 minutes.

Investigators working inside the school were expected to conclude their work by the end of the day Saturday, but more technical forensic experts, including some from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, probably will not finish their work for three weeks, Stone said.

Few investigators are expected to be working today, partly because of a large community memorial gathering.

"A lot of them want to attend the memorial service, and a lot of them want to see their families and attend church services," Davis said.

Vice President Al Gore, Gov. Bill Owens and Denver Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput are scheduled to attend the memorial at the theater parking lot in the Bowles Crossing Shopping Center, across from Clement Park Library on Bowles Avenue and Long Drive in Littleton.

Owens said in a radio message Saturday that the country needs to "take a hard look at the subculture of violence, death, anarchy and incoherence that seems, in recent years, to have become so appealing to so many young people."

"What happened to the two boys who committed these crimes?" he said. "Why didn't anyone see where they were heading — and do something about it? There was no shortage of signs — from the clothes they wore, to the Internet games they played, to the 'music' they preferred, to their expressed passion for Hitler."