Five years ago, the tragic events at Columbine High School shook the nation as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold perpetrated a mass murder, killing classmates and teachers. In the years since, many have sought to understand the motives behind this horrific act. Two prevailing, yet ultimately inaccurate, conclusions have emerged in the public consciousness. The first is that Harris and Klebold, often portrayed as members of a supposed “Trench Coat Mafia” and social outcasts, were driven by revenge against bullies. The second is that their actions were simply incomprehensible, a descent into violence beyond human understanding.
However, extensive investigations by the FBI, involving a team of leading psychiatrists and psychologists, have yielded a significantly different and more nuanced explanation. These experts believe they have uncovered the reasons behind the Columbine massacre, offering insights that are both more disturbing and potentially more illuminating than the commonly held beliefs. In a summit convened by the FBI in Leesburg, Virginia, just three months after the tragedy, world-renowned mental health professionals, including Michigan State University psychiatrist Dr. Frank Ochberg, and Supervisory Special Agent Dwayne Fuselier, the FBI’s lead Columbine investigator and a clinical psychologist, came together to analyze the case. Fuselier and Ochberg have publicly shared their findings, providing a crucial perspective on the question: Why Did Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold commit such an atrocity?
To truly understand the motives behind Columbine, it is essential to discard popular myths surrounding the event, including the narratives of jocks versus Goths and the existence of a “Trench Coat Mafia”. Furthermore, it is critical to move beyond the simplistic label of “school shooting.” The key to understanding why they did it lies in understanding what they were actually trying to achieve.
Beyond a Typical School Shooting: A Planned Act of Terror
While many school shootings are impulsive acts of rage directed at specific individuals or groups within the school environment, the Columbine massacre was fundamentally different. Harris and Klebold meticulously planned their attack for over a year, harboring ambitions far exceeding a localized act of violence. Columbine High School was not the ultimate target but rather a stage, a means to a much grander and more sinister objective: to terrorize the entire nation by striking at a potent symbol of American life. Their victims, the students and teachers, were not the primary targets of their rage but rather, in their eyes, expendable casualties, what Timothy McVeigh infamously termed “collateral damage.”
The Columbine killers held a disdainful view of typical school shooters, considering their actions petty and insignificant. They boasted about surpassing the devastation of the Oklahoma City bombing and initially planned their attack to coincide with its anniversary, demonstrating a clear intent to inflict terror on a national scale. Klebold, in chilling video recordings, bragged about causing “the most deaths in U.S. history,” revealing the magnitude of their ambition. Columbine was conceived not merely as a shooting but as a large-scale bombing event. Had their crude homemade timers not malfunctioned, the propane bombs they placed in the school cafeteria were designed to kill as many as 600 people. Their plan extended beyond the initial explosions: they intended to gun down survivors fleeing the carnage. A final, explosive act was planned with cars laden with more bombs, set to detonate amidst the crowds of survivors, rescue workers, and media personnel, ensuring the climax of their terror would be broadcast live across the nation. Their aim was not just fleeting notoriety but a devastating infamy on a historical scale, akin to figures like Attila the Hun, seeking to unleash a nightmare so profound that the world would tremble before their power.
Harris and Klebold would likely have been deeply frustrated by the media’s portrayal of Columbine as simply the “worst school shooting in American history.” Their aspirations were set on eclipsing history’s most notorious mass murderers, but the focus on the school setting obscured the true nature and scale of their intended act of terror. This mischaracterization of the venue led to analyses that, according to Fuselier and Ochberg, steered understanding in precisely the wrong direction.
Unmasking the Killers: Radically Different Individuals, Distinct Motives
To truly understand why did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold commit the Columbine massacre, it’s imperative to shift the focus from a singular motive to the distinct personalities and mental states of each individual. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not a homogenous entity but rather two fundamentally different individuals driven by vastly different motivations and suffering from contrasting psychological conditions. Klebold, in many ways, is the more comprehensible of the two, fitting a more familiar profile of a troubled youth. He was characterized as hotheaded and prone to anger, but also deeply depressive and suicidal, internalizing blame for his personal struggles.
However, Eric Harris presents a far more complex and disturbing case. Outwardly, Harris presented a façade of normalcy. He was described as sweet-faced and articulate, with adults and even some peers characterizing him as “nice.” Beneath this superficial charm, however, lay a chilling reality: Harris was cold, calculating, and fundamentally homicidal. As Fuselier succinctly put it, “Klebold was hurting inside while Harris wanted to hurt people.” Psychiatrists concluded that Harris was not merely a troubled adolescent but a psychopath.
The term “psychopath” is often loosely used in popular culture to describe any violent or disturbed individual. However, in psychiatric terms, psychopathy is a specific and well-defined mental condition, one that surprisingly rarely manifests in acts of killing, or even psychosis. Dr. Robert Hare, a leading expert on psychopathy and author of Without Conscience, a seminal work on the subject, explains, “Psychopaths are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders.” Dr. Hare, who was consulted by the FBI in the Columbine investigation and by Slate for this article, further clarifies, “Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised.” Diagnosing Harris as a psychopath is not intended as a legal defense or a moral justification for his actions. Instead, it provides a crucial framework for understanding the disturbing thought processes that drove him to commit mass murder.
Decoding Harris: Contempt, Deceit, and the Psychopathic Mind
The diagnosis of psychopathy in Harris was not immediately apparent. His private journal entries began with the stark declaration, “I hate the f—ing world.” Initial media analyses understandably focused on this seemingly overwhelming hatred, interpreting it as the driving force behind his vengeful actions. Harris’ website was replete with rants expressing intense hatred:
“YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? Cuuuuuuuuhntryyyyyyyyyy music!!! …“YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? People who say that wrestling is real!! …“YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? People who use the same word over and over again! … Read a f—in book or two, increase your vo-cab-u-lary f*ck*ng idiots.”“YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? STUPID PEOPLE!!! Why must so many people be so stupid!!? … YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? When people mispronounce words! and they dont even know it to, like acrosT, or eXspreso, pacific (specific), or 2 pAck. learn to speak correctly you morons.YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? STAR WARS FANS!!! GET A FaaaaaaRIGIN LIFE YOU BORING GEEEEEKS!
This torrent of rage continued for pages, echoed in his journals and the videos he and Klebold created. However, Agent Fuselier recognized a more profound and revealing emotion permeating these outbursts, one that both fueled and overshadowed the apparent hatred: contempt.
Harris was not merely angry; he was fundamentally disgusted by those he perceived as “morons” surrounding him. These were not the outpourings of a bullied teenager finally seeking revenge. Instead, they were the pronouncements of someone with a messianic-level superiority complex, driven to punish humanity for its perceived inferiority. While it might appear as hatred on the surface, Dr. Hare clarifies, “It’s more about demeaning other people.”
Further solidifying the psychopathy diagnosis was Harris’s ingrained deceitfulness. “I lie a lot,” Harris confessed in his journal. “Almost constantly, and to everybody, just to keep my own ass out of the water. Let’s see, what are some of the big lies I told? Yeah I stopped smoking. For doing it, not for getting caught. No I haven’t been making more bombs. No I wouldn’t do that. And countless other ones.” While Harris claimed these lies were self-protective, Fuselier believes this was yet another deception. He lied for pleasure. This “duping delight,” a term coined by psychologist Paul Ekman, is a hallmark characteristic of the psychopathic profile.
Harris coupled his deceit with a complete absence of remorse or empathy, another defining trait of psychopathy. Fuselier’s conviction in the diagnosis solidified upon reading Harris’s reaction to punishment after being caught breaking into a van with Klebold. To avoid prosecution for robbery, both participated in a diversion program involving counseling and community service. While both feigned remorse to secure early release, Harris relished the opportunity to manipulate the system. He penned a seemingly empathetic letter to the victim, filled with statements like Jeez, I understand now how you feel and I understand what this did to you.
“But he wrote that strictly for effect,” Fuselier explained. “That was complete manipulation. At almost the exact same time, he wrote down his real feelings in his journal: ’Isn’t America supposed to be the land of the free? How come, if I’m free, I can’t deprive a stupid f—ing dumbshit from his possessions if he leaves them sitting in the front seat of his f—ing van out in plain sight and in the middle of f—ing nowhere on a Frif—ingday night. NATURAL SELECTION. F—er should be shot.’“
Harris’s consistent pattern of grandiosity, glibness, contempt, lack of empathy, and a sense of superiority aligned perfectly with the criteria outlined in Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist. This alignment convinced Fuselier and other leading psychiatrists involved in the case that Eric Harris was indeed a psychopath.
This diagnosis provides a chilling explanation for Harris’s shockingly callous behavior during the massacre: his capacity to shoot classmates, pause to taunt them as they writhed in agony, and then coldly execute them. Because psychopaths operate with a fundamentally different cognitive and emotional framework than non-psychopathic individuals, their actions often appear inexplicable to us. However, once this framework is understood, their behavior becomes, paradoxically, more predictable. Psychopaths adhere to stricter behavioral patterns than most people because they are unconstrained by conscience, driven solely by their own self-aggrandizement. This stark difference is so pronounced that Fuselier trains hostage negotiators to recognize psychopaths in standoff situations, advising an immediate shift in tactics if a psychopath is suspected. It is akin to switching between entirely different operational modes of the human mind.
For a psychopath, victims are devoid of intrinsic value. They are merely instruments, means to an end in the psychopath’s pursuit of their desires. Not only do psychopaths lack guilt for destroying lives, but they also fundamentally fail to grasp the emotional impact of their actions on others. Dr. Hare writes, “Because of their inability to appreciate the feelings of others, some psychopaths are capable of behavior that normal people find not only horrific but baffling. For example, they can torture and mutilate their victims with about the same sense of concern that we feel when we carve a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.”
The Partnership: Mastermind and Driven Follower
The psychopathy diagnosis also transformed the understanding of the dynamic between Harris and Klebold. Initial reports often portrayed them as equal partners in the Columbine massacre. However, the psychiatrists involved in the FBI investigation now firmly believe that Harris was the mastermind, the driving force behind the attack. While Klebold participated, it was Harris’s psychopathic drive and meticulous planning that orchestrated the tragedy. The partnership, however, did allow Harris to deviate from typical psychopathic behavior in one significant aspect: he exercised restraint. Psychopathic killers often crave the stimulation of violence, leading to serial murder as they seek to constantly satisfy this addiction. Yet, Harris managed to maintain relative control for the year he and Klebold spent planning the Columbine attack.
Dr. Ochberg theorizes that the two killers formed a complementary, albeit destructive, symbiotic relationship. The cool, calculating Harris served to temper Klebold’s volatile temper, while Klebold’s outbursts of rage provided a form of stimulation that Harris, in his psychopathic detachment, may have lacked or sought to experience vicariously.
Reflecting on the potential trajectories of their lives had Columbine not occurred, the psychiatrists believe Klebold, lacking Harris’s driving psychopathy, would likely never have conceived or executed such an elaborate attack on his own. He might have engaged in petty crimes, potentially leading to intervention and support, and conceivably could have gone on to live a relatively normal life.
Their assessment of Harris is, in a grim sense, more reassuring. Harris, in their view, was not a misguided youth who could have been rehabilitated. He was, they believe, fundamentally irredeemable – a brilliant, conscienceless killer relentlessly searching for the most diabolical scheme imaginable. Had he lived and further developed his murderous capabilities, the potential for even greater atrocities is terrifying to contemplate. In this dark perspective, his death at Columbine may have inadvertently prevented even greater horrors.
Understanding why did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold commit the Columbine High School massacre requires moving beyond simplistic explanations of bullying or inexplicable rage. By delving into the distinct psychologies of these two individuals, particularly Eric Harris’s psychopathy, we gain a more profound, albeit deeply unsettling, understanding of the motivations behind this tragic event and the chilling capacity for calculated violence that can exist within the human psyche.
