Columbine: Chapter 44 Summary & Analysis

Eric begins putting his arsenal together just before Halloween of 1998, building “cricket” bombs from fireworks and several batches of pipe bombs. He charts his “production data,” rating his creations from “excellent” to “O.K.” Eric’s journal entries from this time period express a desire to “destroy as much as possible” and not get “sidetracked by feelings of sympathy [or] mercy.” Though Eric was a psychopath and unable to feel empathy, Cullen writes, he did comprehend the pain he would cause others—and still longed for it.

Eric continued to “script Columbine as a made-for-TV murder,” using fear and terror as his “ultimate” weapons. He had adopted terrorist tactics in order to ensure that the fear he was going to create would endure, and was planning an act of “performance violence” that would play out like a piece of “theater.” He made reference to his “audience” and enjoyed anticipating their confusion and grief. The large-scale “performance” Eric was planning, Cullen writes, would ultimately fail—he would not top the Oklahoma City bombing record, which he hoped to do, and would be “lumped in with the pathetic losers who shot people.”

Eric is caught with alcohol, and lies spectacularly to his father to get out of trouble. He manages to convince his diversion program officer that everything at home is “great.” His grades are up, and his teachers leave “glowing” comments on his end-of-term report cards. Dylan, meanwhile, continues to “tank.” Dylan’s diversion officer warns him that if he does not improve, he could be terminated from the program and sent to prison.

Eric continues building pipe bombs and attempting to acquire guns. A recent bill passed by Congress, the Brady Bill, requires background checks, and Eric rails against the bill in his journal, writing “its [sic] not like I’m some psycho who would go on a shooting spree.” Eric has plenty of explosives, but now he is in desperate need of guns and ammo.