Dylan Klebold & Eric Harris

The Columbine High School Massacre

WARNING: A single image in this article may be found disturbing to sensitive viewers.

Dylan Klebold & Eric Harris

Early Life: Dylan Bennet Klebold

Dylan was born in Lakewood Colorado to parents, Thomas Klebold and Susan Klebold.

Dylan was born into a very religious family, attending a Lutheran church were Dylan and his brother Byron attended Sunday school.

Dylan attended Normandy Elementary School during for grade 1 and 2 but then moved to Governor's Ranch Elementary School, to be part of a educational program called CHIPS(Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students), this is where he met Brooks Brown.

A year before the massacre Brooks ended the friendship with Dylan due to a fight they had outside of Dylan and Eric’s then place of employment “Blackjack Pizza” when Dylan threw a chunk of ice through the windshield of Brown’s car.

Early Life: Eric David Harris

Eric was born in Wichita Kansas to parents Wayne and Katherine Harris.

The Harris family relocated constantly due to the fact that Eric’s father was a U.S Air force pilot.

Eric finally settled with his family in Colorado after his father retired from the Air Force.

Eric and Dylan finally met up in 1996 in Junior High.

Eric suffered from depression and was prescribed Zoloft, but the side-effects of the Zoloft were too extreme for Eric to handle and was put on a different drug called Luvox.

These medications have been argued the reason for Eric’s lack of judgment and remorse on the day of the killings.

9 mm Hi-Point 995 carbine, 1 of the weapons used

Earlier Crimes

In 1998 Eric and Dylan were caught stealing computer equipment from a van, for these crimes they were charged with breaking and entering and theft.

However their criminal records were expunged due to their excellent behavior and they only had to complete community service, receive psychiatric help and attend a anger management class.

The Weapons

In one of the Movies based on the Columbine High School Massacre, their weapons were bought over the internet when in fact, a friend of Dylan, Robyn Anderson, purchased the weapons for them.

The weapons purchased was a 311-D 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun, two 9 mm Hi-Point 995 carbines and two TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handguns.

Not only handheld weapons were used by Dylan and Eric.

Dylan and Eric also constructed bombs made from carbon dioxide canisters, galvanized pipes and propane tanks, these were placed throughout the school but only 2 partially detonated.

Columbine High School

Hit Men For Hire

“Hit men for hire” was a video that Dylan and Eric made as a school project.

In this film Eric and Dylan are playing the roles of hit men sent into their school to kill certain students.

Dylan and Eric were not the only students working on this project, and even though this video showed extreme violence and made use of extremely offensive language, it was still praised by their teacher stating that it was well written and well recorded.

The Massacre

On April 20 1999 Eric and Dylan arrived at the school with their weapons and bombs.

As a diversion Eric and Dylan placed one of their bombs in a field 800 meters away from the school and set to detonate at 11:14am, but the bomb only half detonated which only caused a small fire.

They took 2 more bombs which were placed in duffle bags, into the school and placed them in the cafeteria and set them to detonate at 11:17am and they headed back outside, each covering a exit of the school.

Their initial plan was to shoot and kill any students that were to exit the school after the bombs detonated in the cafeteria.

After they noticed that the bombs did not detonate they headed back towards the school using the west entrance steps.

At 11:19am Eric yelled “Go! Go!” and started shooting at the first student to be killed, Rachel Scott who was having lunch with her friend Richard Castaldo on a grassy knoll a few yards away from the entrance.

Rachel was shot 4 times and died instantly while Richard was shot 8 times and was critically wounded.

While walking up the stairs towards the schools entrance Eric and Dylan turned around and shot at 3 more students walking up the stairs behind them, all three were critically injured.

While still on the steps they started shooting away from the school towards a group of 5 more students sitting just outside of the school entrance on the grass 2 of these students were injured and the other 3 escaped unwounded.

Stairway to entrance used

A local teacher Patti Nielson started to head outside to tell Dylan and Eric to stop what they are doing, since she thought they were working on another video project.

As Dylan and Eric came towards the entrance they shot out the glass, the glass shrapnel hit Patti in the face, this is when she realized what was really going on.

Patti ran into the library and started to warn students to get under their desks, Patti then also hid herself under a desk and dialed 9-1-1.

After the 9-1-1 call a deputy sheriff arrived at the scene and started firing at Dylan who was still just outside of the entrance, Dylan reacted by shooting back at the officer but did not hit him.

After Dylan ran out of ammunition he ran inside.

While inside Eric and Dylan patrolled the hallways shooting at any student they came across, while doing this they shot Stephanie Munson in the ankle but she manage to escape.

While Eric and Dylan were on their shooting spree in the hallways, the schools coach, Dave Sanders was evacuating the students who were in the cafeteria, as Dave and another student came around a corner they walk right into Dylan and Eric, Eric ran after them and shot Dave in the chest, Dave later died in a Science class, the student that was with Dave got away.

It is believed that Dave was heading to the Library to evacuate the students there, not knowing the Library was Eric and Dylan’s next target.

Crime scene at used entrance

When Dylan and Eric entered the Library, Eric ordered all the jocks to stand up, when none of the students got up Eric shot at a random desk and injured a student hiding under it.

While in the Library, Dylan noticed that Police officers were evacuating students.

Dylan and Eric reacted by shooting at the officers from the windows but when the officers returned fire, they quickly retreated.

Eric took his shotgun and started to fire underneath the row of computer desks, with his first shot he killed fellow student Steven Curnow and with his second shot injured student Cacey Ruegsegger.

After this Eric walked to another desk and knelt down in front of it and shot the student under the table in the head, a witness stated that Eric had said “peek-a-boo” before he shot the student.

The recoil from the gun caused it to hit Eric in the face and break his nose.

9 mm TEC-DC9 pistol, 1 of the weapons used

When the 2 finally decided to leave the Library, the casualties were tremendous totaling at 11 deaths and 10 injuries occurring in the Library alone.

After Dylan and Eric left the Library the remaining students left alive, evacuated the school.

After leaving the library Dylan and Eric caused random havoc, throwing firebombs and shooting into random class rooms.

Later Dylan and Eric Returned to the Library and started shooting at Police officers again through the window but did not hit any of the officers.

Finally around 12:08pm Dylan killed himself with a shot to the head and Eric Killed himself by placing the gun in his mouth first and then pulling the trigger.

Eric and Dylan after commiting suicide

Media Aftermath

After investigation of Eric and Dylan’s personal effects after the shooting it became known that Eric was a big fan of the German Industrial Rock Group Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid (also known as KMFDM), soon after the events of the massacre KMFDM posted on their website that they do not in anyway support the actions of Eric and Dylan and that their music had no involvement in the matter.

It also became known that Eric and Dylan were very active in online gaming communities and spent allot of time playing Quake and Doom online.

Before the killings Eric created deathmatch mode maps for the game Doom, these maps were made widely available online after the killings and are known as “The Harris Levels”.

The American musician Marilyn Manson wrote a song entitled “The Nobodies” which was inspired by the events of the massacre.

Many people criticized Marilyn Manson for this song and the specific line from the song “"Some children died the other day / We fed machines and then we prayed / Puked up and down in morbid faith / You should have seen the ratings that day."” In an interview with Marilyn Mason he was asked if he could have said anything to Eric and Dylan what would it have been, Manson replied “I wouldn't say a single word to them, I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did.”

Many movies such as, Heart of America, Elephant, American yearbook and Duck! The carbine school massacre were inspired by the massacre.

Anatoly Onoprienko

 

Anatoly Onoprienko Mugshot

Early Life

Anatoly Onoprienko was born Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko and is a well known serial killer within his home country of the Ukraine and was known as “The Terminator” and “Citizen O”.

He was born on July 25 1959 in the village of Laski, in the Zhytomyr Oblast province of the Ukraine.

Anatoly was the younger of 2 boys, his brother, Valentin Onoprienko was 13 years older than Anatoly.

Anatoly along with his brother were cared for by their mother who died when Anatoly was at the young age of 4 years old.

After the death of their mother they were cared for by their grandparents.

In later years Anatoly was sent to an orphanage in the Ukrainian village of Privitnoe, while his brother was sent back to live with their father who was a War hero decorated for bravery during World War 2.

Anatoly was outraged because of the abandonment of his family and during his life at the orphanage, Anatoly started hearing voices.

Anatoly during documentary interview

Murders

Anatoly’s first murder was committed next to a motorway where he saw a couple trying to fix their car, Anatoly stopped his car next to them and shot and killed them in cold blood with a hunting rifle.

Not all of Anatoly’s murders were committed solo.

In 1989 in the village of Bratkovychi located in the province of Lviv Oblast in the western Ukrain, Anatoly and his friend Serhiy Rogozin who he met at a gym, decide to rob a house.

During the robbery Anatoly and his accomplice were caught by the owner of the house, Anatoly and Serhiy reacted by killing the owner of the house along with the owner’s wife and five children.

Anatoly and Serhiy parted ways a few months after their crime.

Another one of Anatoly’s crimes was killing a family asleep in their car, shooting them at point blank range.

After Anatoly killed them he realized he did not now what to do with the bodies, he climbed in the car and sat with the corpses for over 2 hours, afterwards he set the vehicle on fire.

After these crimes Anatoly started following a pattern for his murders.

He would locate and mark isolated houses, force entry and started his murders by killing the adult male of the house, he would then rape the adult female and then batter and murder the children.

Anatoly’s murder weapon of choice was a 12-gauge shotgun that he used to kill his victims at point blank range.

After the murder Anatoly would steal what he could, set the house on fire to destroy any evidence and flee the scene.

On December 24 1995 he broke into the home of the Zaichenko family in Garmarnia, central Ukraine.

Anatoly used a double barreled shotgun to kill the family of 4 which included 2 young boys.

On January 6 1996 Anatoly committed 3 murders following the same formula for each incident.

Anatoly would park next to a motorway and flag other cars giving the impression that he needs assistance fixing his car, when the victims would stop to give assistance he would shoot them at point blank range.

These incidents are only a few of the murders and crimes that Anatoly had committed

Anatoly’s total bodycount comes to 52 killings of which 21 were children no older than 15 years.

 

Wrongful Arrest

During the hunt for Anatoly, a man named Yury Mozola was arrested on suspicion of committing the murders that Anatoly was actually guilty of.

During the questioning, Yury was tortured to force a confession, but Yury refused to admit guilt to something he did not do and died during the questioning.

Anatoly with his girlfriend

Arrest

Pyotr Onoprienko, a cousin of Anatoly, allowed Anatoly to stay with him.

After sometime living with his cousin, Pyotr found a stash of weapons in Anatoly’s room.

Pyotr fearing for the safety of his family, told Anatoly that he will have to find sanctuary someplace else.

Anatoly became very angry, once again he was being abandoned by family and he started making threats towards Pyotr and his family but ultimately left without a serious consequence for Pyotr’s family.

After he was kicked out of his cousin’s house Anatoly moved in with his Girlfriend and her 2 children.

Pyotr was deeply disturbed by the threats made towards him and his family by Anatoly, so much so that Pytor reported the weapons cache found while Anatoly was staying with him, to the local deputy police Chief Sergei Kryukov.

Pyotr also informed Sergei of Anatoly’s current whereabouts.

On the 7th of April 1996 a taskforce was assembled to investigate Anatoly and ultimately arrest him.

9 days after the assembly of the task force Anatoly was arrested at the residence of his girlfriend.

Evidence

At the residence were Anatoly was arrested, officers found many pieces of incriminating evidence.

Among the items found was a stereo system of the same make and model as one stolen from one of Anatoly’s victims and upon further investigation investigators concluded that it was the exact same stereo system stolen form the victim’s house.

Also upon her return officers noted that Anatoly’s girlfriend was wearing a ring that belonged to one of Anatoly’s victims.

In total over a 120 pieces of evidence was collected tying Anatoly to the murders, including a 12 gauge shotgun, hunting rifle and pistol.

Anatoly during a documentary interview

Trail and Conviction

Anatoly ultimately confessed to killing 52 people and stated that the voices he started to hear while he was living in the orphanage told him to commit the murders, in light of this fact Anatoly’s Lawyer Ruslan Moshkovsky pleaded insanity, this was overruled as Anatoly was deemed mentally sane by a psychiatrist.

Anatoly appeared in court in big brown cage, not for the safety of others but for his own as people were so outraged by his crimes and wanted to kill him.

The crowds were causing such an uproar that it was feared they would start a riot, police officers were employed to insure the safety of the court and Anatoly during the time of the trail.

On the 31^st of March 1999 Anatoly was sentenced to death by Judge Dmitro Lypsky and in accordance to Ukrainian law stated that he had to be shot.

A few years later Capital punishment was abolished in the Ukraine and Anatoly’s sentenced was changed to life in prison.

Anatoly in the cage while in session

Ed Gein

 

Ed Gein while being arrested

 

Early Life

Ed Gein was born Edward Theodore Gein to George and Augusta Gein in La Crosse, Wisconsin on the 27^th of August 1906.

Ed was the eldest of two children, he’s younger brother was named Henry Gein.

Ed and his brother lived in almost constant solitude under the rule of their mother who taught them from a young age that all outside people especially girls, “are the devil’s children” and that the only person they were allowed to trust was only herself and each other.

Ed never seemed to find a problem with his mothers tyranny almost following her every word and rule, much to the dismay of his younger brother Henry who had allot of issues with the way that they were being raised by Augusta.

Henry was constantly beaten by Augusta because of his extrovert personality, unlike Ed who had an extremely introvert personality but not even this or his loyalty to his mother could help him escape the abuse from Augusta.

Even into their late 30s the Gein brothers stayed attached to the family farm on the outskirts of Plainfield, Wisconsin, it was only after the death of their father in 1940 that they started to work outside of the farm as handymen for the town’s people.

The Gein brothers were described as honest, loyal and hard working men.

Death of Henry Gein

On May 16 1944, Ed reported to the local authorities that his brother went missing after they were burning a marsh on their farmland the previous day.

With a search party following him he almost instantly guided them to the dead body of his brother lying on a patch of land untouched by a fire.

Even though the local authorities were suspicious of the circumstances and a possible Cain and Abel scenario due to bruises found on Henry’s head, no further investigation was conducted and the cause of death was concluded as asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation.

First known Murder

After the disappearance of Bernice Worden a local hardware store owner, local authorities got a call from Bernice’s son stating that he believes Ed is responsible for his mother’s disappearance.

Her sons suspicion was based on a order placed for a gallon of anti-freeze by Ed Gein and that the receipt for that order was the last receipt written out by his mother.

It was later determined that Ed shot Bernice with a .22 rifle.

Ed Gein's Farm house

Arrest, Evidence and Trail

Already suspicious of Ed due to the event with his brother, investigators raided Ed’s home and what they found was shocking to say the least.

Furniture, eating utensils, masks and clothing items made from human body parts were found in almost every corner of Ed’s home, most notably a belt made from woman’s nipples, soup bowls made from human skulls and masks made from human faces.

Also found in the home within a burlap sack was the severed head of Bernice Worden.

Moving the investigation to a shed located on the property, the investigators found the body of a woman, later confirmed to be the headless body of Bernice Worden, strung up by the ankles and mutilated.

After the arrest Ed was questioned by County Sheriff Art Schley and finally got a confession from Ed, but during the interrogation Art assaulted Ed and the confession was ruled inadmissible.

In Waushara County court Ed was found mentally incompetent and unable to stand trail and was sent to a state hospital for the criminally insane.

After 11 years in Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, Ed was found sane enough to stand trail.

Ed’s trail lasted a week and he was found guilty of first degree murder on November 21st 1968 by Judge Robert H. Gollmar.

Ed spent the rest of his natural life in a metal hospital.

Death

Ed Gein died of heart failure due to cancer on July 28 1986 in the Mendota Mental Health Institute and was buried in the Plainfield Cemetery.

Notable Events

On March 21 1958 while Ed was incarcerated his house burned down and it was suspected to be arson committed by the some of the folks living in Plainfield at the time.

Ed Gein became the inspiration for the horror movies, Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence of the Lambs.

After being constantly vandalized Ed Gein’s Tombstone was stolen in the year 2000, recovered in 2001 and is now on display in a museum in Waushara County.

Ed Gein's Tombstone in 1999

Ed Gein's Tombstone before vandalism

  

Daisy De Melker

Daisy De Melker Mug Shot

Early Life

Daisy was born Diasy Louisa Hacorn-Smith on the 1st of June 1886 at Seven Fountains which is located in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa to Mr. and Mrs. Hancorn-Smith,, she was born with a split pallet.

Daisy lived with her parents at Seven Fountains for most of her pre-teen life.

When she turned 8 her father left Seven Fountains along with 2 of her brothers to Zimbabwe to see if he can’t start a better dairy farm as the one in Seven Fountains was slowly starting to fail.

Daisy stayed with her mother till she was 10 years old then Daisy left Seven Fountains to go live with her father in Zimbabwe.

At the age of 13 she returned to Cape Town to study at the Good Hope Seminary School.

Daisy became a qualified nurse and started to work at the Berea Nursing home in Durban located in Kwazulu Natal one of South Africa’s eastern provinces.

Daisy frequently went on holiday to Zimbabwe, on one of her visits she met Bert Fuller a civic servant, they decide to marry but Bert contracted Black water fever and died on the day they would have gotten married.

First Murder

Daisy’s first murder was her first husband William Cowle with whom she had one child Rhodes Cecil Cowle.

On the morning of 11 January 1923, Daisy fixed William a glass of Epson salt water that is used to flush your bowls of impurities and saw this as the perfect opportunity to poison him, due to the bitterness of the Epson salt mixture the taste of the strychnine poison was disguised.

Daisy summoned a doctor after William started complaining of extreme pain, when the doctor arrived William’s condition became worse he was turning blue in the face and was foaming at the mouth.

William died that same day, the doctor suspicious of poison refused to sign the death certificate but the district surgeon Dr. Fergus, concluded that it was chronic nephritis and cerebral hemorrhage.

Daisy was the sole beneficiary to William’s estate and received approximately $2880.00

Second Murder

Her second murder was her second husband Robert Sproat.

On 6 November 1927 Robert begin to show the same symptoms as her previous husband, this after Robert drank a beer opened by Daisy once again laced with strychnine poison, Robert died that same night.

A doctor once again concluded the cause of death as chronic nephritis and cerebral hemorrhage.

Once again Daisy being the sole beneficiary of her husband’s estate received approximately $6400.00

Third Murder

Daisy’s third and final Murder was that of her own son, Rhodes Cecil Cowle.

On the 2^nd of March 1932 Rhodes and a fellow co-worker became very ill at work after drinking coffee from a thermos that was prepared by Daisy, Rhodes’s colleague James Webster recovered from his symptoms making it obvious that he did not consume as much of the tainted coffee as Rhodes did, Rhodes was not so fortunate and died on the 5^th of March in the afternoon at his home, this time Daisy used arsenic.

Trail and Execution

After the death of Rhodes, William Sproat brother of the late Robert Sproat finally became suspicious enough to go to the authorities.

After William Sproat made his case the authorities received a court order to exhume the bodies of Daisy’s alleged victims.

Traces of the poisons were found in all three bodies and also some characteristics present that goes hand in hand with the poisons used.

Arsenic Poison preserves the body and this was present when the autopsy was done on Rhodes, while William and Robert’s bones had a hint of pink discoloring, this being common in the case of strychnine poisoning due to the strychnine’s pink color.

Daisy De Melker Outside of the court

With this very suspect events Daisy was arrested a week after the bodies were exhumed.

Daisy’s arrest and trail got allot of attention due to the fact that she would be only the second woman ever to be hanged in South Africa.

The evidence was starting to pile up against Daisy and was becoming more and more compelling with each witness taking the stand.

There were over 70 witnesses called to testify against her and less than 20 called in her defense.

Among the witnesses called were expert toxicologist Dr. J.M. Watt, Rhodes’s co-worker James Webster and the chemist from whom Daisy bought the arsenic she used to kill Rhodes.

After a grueling 40 days of trail, Judge Greenberg finally sentenced her.

Daisy de Melker, one of South Africa’s most infamous serial killers with a body count of 3 men consisting of 2 husbands and her own son.

Daisy de Melker was given the death sentence, which at that time in South Africa was death by hanging.

Her execution was carried out in the morning hours on 30th December 1932.