Fiendish Killers

by Anne Williams

  hard case to crack

  Meanwhile, Detective Zoeller was having a hard time trying to crack the case of the Menendez murders. Although they had pulled in several suspects and had a few theories, they couldn’t make any of the evidence stick. The police watched in amusement as the brothers literally threw money around and little by little Zoeller began to suspect that the brothers were behind the murder of their own parents.

  The two brothers had started to argue, with Erik complaining about the amount of money Lyle was spending and Lyle complaining that Erik had become just like their father. Although Erik appeared calm on the exterior, inside he was depressed and he knew he needed to talk to someone. He decided to call his psychotherapist, Jerome Oziel and told him about his suicidal thoughts. During one of their sessions, Erik quite openly admitted, ‘We did it. We killed our parents’.

  Lyle was furious that his brother had blabbed, even if only to his psychotherapist, and he went to visit Oziel in a flaming temper. He threatened Oziel and told him that if he dared to tell anyone he would kill him too. Although by law Oziel could have gone to the police with this information because he had been threatened, he decided to make notes and tape recordings of his sessions with the brothers instead.

  Erik had a friend by the name of Craig Cignarelli. When Zoeller interviewed Craig he told the detective that he had visited Erik at the mansion shortly after the murders and his friend had asked if he wanted to know how it had happened. He told Zoeller that he knew exactly what he meant by it, and they decided to set up a meeting between Erik and Craig to try and get the story on tape. With Craig heavily wired they met for dinner on the evening of November 29. Unfortunately, the meeting was a failure as Erik told his friend that he had been lying and that they had had nothing to do with the murders.

  It wasn’t until March 5, 1990, that Zoeller saw a chink in the armour, when he received a call from a woman named Judalon Smyth. Smyth happened to be Dr Oziel’s lover and also owned an audiotape duplicating company. She told the detective that Oziel had asked her to listen to a recording of a session he had had with the Menendez brothers in which they had threatened him. Zoeller managed to obtain a search warrant for Oziel’s tapes based on the information given to him by Smyth. The tapes incriminated the two brothers, but Zoeller knew he had to tread carefully because of the patient–doctor confidentiality law regarding such matters.

  THE TRIALS

  The Menendez brothers were accused on March 26, 1990 with murdering their parents, but Erik and Lyle seemed totally unaffected by the ordeal. Throughout the hearing they appeared smug and arrogant, not in the least bit contrite over their actions.

  The Menendez brothers spent three years in the Los Angeles County Men’s Jail waiting for their trial to begin. The trial eventually took place on July 20, 1993 and, although the prosecution tried to show that they had killed in cold blood, the defence put forward a plea of self-defence after a life of abuse that had transformed the brothers into killers. In the end the jury were deadlocked and the result was a mistrial, which many considered to be a miscarriage of justice.

  A second, far less publicised, trial took place in August 1995, and this time, with the flaws of the original prosecution ironed out, Erik and Lyle Menendez were convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, plus conspiracy to commit murder. On July 2, 1996, they were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

  Lyle is currently being held in Mule Creek State Prison, while Erik is in the Pleasant Valley State Prison in California. They have both married since entering prison, but neither are allowed conjugal rights. As the brothers are expected to spend the rest of their lives behind bars, it would appear that they will never consummate their unions, which perhaps is a punishment in itself for the fiendish crime they committed in pursuit of riches.

  PART EIGHT: School Shootings

  Columbine Massacre

  For over a year, two boys, seventeen-year-old Dylan Klebold and eighteen-year-old Eric Harris, meticulously planned their attack on Columbine High School. As early as 1997 they had both hatched a plan to carry out a large massacre using guns, knives and hand-made bombs to wreak the maximum carnage. Klebold and Harris were angry young teenagers, who had a general hatred towards humanity. Added to this, they had been bullied mercilessly by their classmates and decided they would get their revenge.

  Their trademark, if you like, was a long, black trenchcoat and the other kids at the school gave them the nickname ‘the Trenchcoat Mafia’. They were both obsessed with violent video games and paramilitary techniques, and used the internet to find recipes for home-made bombs and other explosives. Their plan was to kill as many people as possible and they decided the best time to launch their attack would be when the first lunch period began, when the maximum number of students would be assembled in the cafeteria. Although on the outside Klebold and Harris appeared to be two fairly normal adolescents, little did the authorities realise quite how deep their anger went.

  the massacre

  It was on the morning of Tuesday, April 20, 1999, in the town of Littleton, Colorado, that Klebold and Harris put their plan into action. At 11.10 a.m. the two young men arrived in separate cars and parked in the school car park at Columbine High School. A few minutes later, carrying bags stuffed with explosives, they entered the school using the back door of the cafeteria and placed the bags under two of the the tables. Klebold and Harris then returned to their cars and waited for the explosion. The students started to fill the cafeteria for the first lunch sitting and no one paid any attention to the bags on the floor; they simply lay among the hundreds of other bags that had been brought in by the students as they ate their lunch.

  The timers on the bombs had been set to detonate at 11.17 a.m., but when Klebold and Harris realised that it had gone past the allotted time, it was obvious their original plan had failed.

  The boys decided to enter the school anyway, wearing their long trenchcoats to conceal the weapons and utility belts full of ammunition. Harris was armed with a 9-mm carbine rifle and a 12-gauge pump sawn-off shotgun, while Klebold carried a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun and a 12-gauge pump sawn-off shotgun. As well as the guns they carried knives and bags crammed with handmade bombs.

  At 11.19 a.m. two pipe bombs exploded in an open field several blocks away, which the boys had planted as a diversion for the police. As they heard the bombs explode Klebold and Harris opened fire on some students who were innocently sitting outside the cafeteria. Seventeen-year-old Rachel Scott was killed outright, while her companion Richard Castaldo lay injured.

  Inside the school the remainder of the students and teachers were unaware of what had happened. They had put the noise down to a senior prank, which was a tradition among the older students in the weeks leading up to graduation. Some students who were walking out of the cafeteria actually saw Klebold and Harris holding their guns, but thought they were paintball guns and so just kept on walking. All three were shot and wounded.

  Then the two boys swung round and fired at a group of students who were eating their lunch on the grass and only one managed to get away. As Klebold and Harris walked towards the school they started throwing small bombs indiscriminately and it was then that one of the teachers, William Sanders, realised that this was no prank. He yelled at the students in the cafeteria to hit the deck and so when Klebold peered into the window it looked as though it was empty.

  The two boys entered the school together using the doors on the west side, firing all the time and yelling and shouting. At this stage a policeman had arrived at the school, having been alerted to the explosions, and for a while there was a brief exchange of fire between the officer and Harris, but Harris managed to hold him off and the two boys ran down the north hallway, laughing.

  It was only the students in the cafeteria who were aware there was anything going on; all the others were attending their classes as normal. One student, Stephanie Munson, who was walking down the hall away from her class, was confronted b
y Klebold and Harris and was hit in the ankle, but managed to hobble away to safety.

  As the gunmen ran through the building toting their weapons, students and teachers fled and hid wherever they could. By 11.29 a.m. the two boys had reached the library and this is where they killed the largest number of victims. In the seven and a half minutes they were in the library, they killed ten people and injured a further twelve.

  In the meantime police and SWAT teams had gathered outside the school and watched as students poured out of the windows and doors, screaming, with many showing signs of injury. The police tried desperately to evacuate the building as they had found a number of explosive devices and were eager to clear the area before they went off.

  Harris and Klebold, however, were now on the second floor continuing with their mission. They hunted down any students who were hiding in the classrooms or bathrooms, and although it all happened so quickly, their actions had a devastating, and what later turned out to be a lasting, effect.

  The last shots heard to be fired by Harris and Klebold were at 12.30 p.m., which is when they turned their guns on themselves, thus ending the Columbine massacre. As no one had actually witnessed the two boys taking their own lives, it was not until 4.00 p.m. that the police managed to declare the building a safe area. At the end of the tragedy there were thirty-four casualties, including fifteen deaths.

  a town in panic

  The district had six hospitals, all of which had been put on alert as soon as the news of the shooting had been reported. Terrified parents ran to the school, desperate to see if their children were safe, and watched in horror as the students ran from the building. Many parents scanned the lists of children who had been taken to the hospitals, but for many it was a long and agonising wait, often ending in sorrow.

  Everyone in the town of Littleton was affected by the frightening events of that day and many people wanted to try and apportion the blame on someone. But of course no one can ever be certain why Klebold and Harris committed such a horrific crime. In fact it took many months of intense investigation before anyone could come up with some possible answers.

  As the police investigations continued they managed to build up a picture of the lives of the intelligent, well-mannered young men, who had come from good homes. Bit by bit they uncovered reasons for their intense anger and realised that for quite some time they had been seeking their revenge. Eric Harris had posted a website which quite blatantly expressed his hatred towards the inhabitants of Littleton and, in particular, the teachers and pupils at Columbine High. On this website they also posted detailed accounts of their experiments with pipe bombs.

  The police also uncovered a diary in Harris’s bedroom, which gave details of his and Klebold’s intention to kill as many as 500 people. From the pages of this diary it would appear that Columbine was to be only the start of their revenge and they listed further atrocities that they would like to have carried out.

  Teachers had already expressed concerns about Klebold and Harris who, on more than one occasion, had shown disturbing signs of violence. They openly bragged about getting their revenge on the school that they felt had ridiculed them and treated them like outcasts. The pair had also made a video as part of a school project which showed them running through the corridors, wielding guns and killing everyone in sight. Unfortunately, no action was ever taken and the boys’ parents were never informed of the teachers’ suspicions. It would appear that both Klebold and Harris had managed to hide their violent tendencies from their parents and so it was hard to apportion the blame in that direction.

  AND THE NIGHTMARE GOES ON

  Just days after the massacre a letter was sent to the Rocky Mountain News, which placed the blame on the teachers and students of Columbine for treating Klebold and Harris as outsiders. The letter ended in a threatening tone with the words:

  You may think the horror ends with the bullet in my head, but you wouldn’t be so lucky. All that I can leave you with to decipher what more extensive death is to come is ‘12Skizto’. You have until April 26. Goodbye.

  Security was increased in the town for the following Monday, but nothing happened and the note was then believed to be the work of a sick prankster.

  A mother of one of the wounded students walked into a gun shop and proceeded to shoot herself in the head, having been so traumatised by the events on April 20. A seventeen-year-old student was arrested when he claimed that he was going to finish the job that Klebold and Harris had started.

  Although the shooting at Columbine was the worst act of school violence in America up until that time, it was not to be the last and several copycat attacks followed. It drew the nation’s attention to the problem and exacerbated the fear that these events would continue and possibly escalate in severity.

  History of School Massacres

  Of course, school violence and students with guns are not exclusive to the US educational system and we can go as far back as 16th-century Scotland to see students rebelling against the authorities. The Royal High School in old town Edinburgh, Scotland, had a new teacher by the name of Hercules Rollock, but his appointment was to have major repercussions. Rollock didn’t have the skill to control his students and consequently they missed a lot of valuable study time due to disruption during the lessons. These students were the sons and daughters of wealthy politicians and businessmen, and the school board were scared that they would pull their children out of the school. To try and rectify the situation they decided to ban the week-long autumn holiday that was coming up so that the students could catch up on their lessons, but this caused outrage. The students gathered weapons and food and barricaded themselves inside the school as a protest. The school officials called on the magistrate of the town, Bailie John Macmorran, to come to the school to see if he could resolve the situation. Macmorran thought the best way of dealing with the students was by battering down the door and taking them by force. However, as they approached bearing a battering ram, one of the students yelled that they would shoot the magistrate if they came any closer. However, the men ignored the student’s warning and rammed the door anyway. William Sinclair, the student who had warned the men, wasted no time in firing at Macmorran, killing him with two shots to the head.

  bath, michigan

  On Wednesday, May 18, 1927, farmer Andrew Kehoe lost control and went seeking revenge. His gripe was because the mortgage on his farm had been foreclosed and he found out that the taxes he loathed paying were going towards a new school building, despite the fact that he was treasurer on the school board.

  At 9.40 a.m. just after the Consolidated School of Bath had opened for the day, a bomb exploded in the north wing killing nearly forty students and teachers. A bomb in the south wing was defused before it could do any damage, otherwise many more students would have died.

  As worried parents rushed towards the school, Kehoe had got back into his car and drove into the school grounds. He leaned out of the window and beckoned for the school superintendent, Emory E. Huyk, to come over to his car. As Huyk approached Kehoe fired a shot into the back seat of his car igniting the dynamite concealed in the padding, killing himself and the superintendent.

  The following morning the police discovered Kehoe’s wife lying in a barn on their farm with her skull crushed. Kehoe had also placed dynamite in his home, barn and wagon shed, destroying everything – determined that the mortgage company would not get their hands on any of his precious belongings.

  cologne

  The Cologne massacre took place on June 12, 1964, in a Catholic elementary school in a suburb of Cologne, Germany, called Volkhoven. The lone gunman was a man called Walter Seifert, who had reportedly broken down when his wife died giving birth to their child. He suffered from tuberculosis and had also been diagnosed as being schizophrenic.

  The reason for his drastic action was that, in his mind, he felt he was being unfairly treated by the government, whom he said were cheating him out of his war pension. To get his revenge Seifert made himself
a flame-thrower out of a garden insecticide sprayer and bought himself a lance.

  On June 12, Seifert headed for the school armed with his flame-thrower and lance and went into the school playground, after first blocking off the main gate using a wooden wedge. He smashed in the windows of the individual classrooms and then pointed his flame-thrower inside, setting everything on fire. When he was confronted by one of the teachers, Gertrud Böllenrath, he stabbed her with his lance shouting, ‘I am Adolf Hitler the second!’

  After leaving the school grounds he swallowed a quantity of insecticide E605, which is very toxic when ingested. He had hoped the poison would take effect before the police caught up with him, but he was apprehended quicker than expected, but died in hospital the following day.

  The death toll at the school was eight children and two teachers, and a further twenty children and two teachers were treated for severe burns.

  dunblane

  Dunblane is a sleepy town of just 9,000 people on the edge of the Scottish Highlands, which was taken unawares by a school shooting that left the inhabitants in a state of disbelief. The Dunblane massacre took place on Wednesday, March 13, 1996, and remains to this day one of the deadliest attacks on children in the UK to date. A total of sixteen children and one adult died, as well as the lone gunman, Thomas Hamilton.