All American Tragedy: The (latest) killer we sent forth

Yes, It’s happened again. Cue the shock. Cue the disbelief.
Why, oh why, do they always act surprised? Nothing encourages repetition like success.
Yet again this week, a messed up young man went on a homicidal rampage, this time at Northern Illinois University. He burst into a classroom in NIU’s Cole Hall and murdered five innocent students before finally shooting himself to death.
And yet again, he’s been turned into an instant celebrity.
The only truly startling aspect of this latest episode (although perhaps it shouldn’t be) is that it happened so very quickly after the previous one.
You remember the last one? It was just this past December when another disturbed guy, a teenager, loaded up his guns and took out 8 people in a Von Maur department store in Omaha’s Westroads shopping mall, then shot himself to death.
Then, as now, the victims weren’t even cold when the endless exploration of the mass murderer’s neuroses began.
What “drove” him to it?
Fortunately, as it happens, he told us.
In no uncertain terms. His revelation should inform every step society in general and the media in particular take.
After the killing rampage at the Westroads mall, a suicide note was discovered. In it, the shooter includes a simple sentence that tells us everything we need to know about where he was coming from. He wrote "now I'll be famous.”
Pretty twisted, eh? "Now I'll be famous."
Where could he possibly have gotten that idea?
Where could he possibly?
Where in the world?
Why everywhere, of course.
He believed committing suicide while murdering a lot of other people would make him “famous.”
…because it’s true.
Historically it has been the very wise policy of news organizations big and small not to report suicides. Besides being an intrusion into the private problems of a troubled individual and now a grieving family, such attention obviously could encourage other messed up people to become copycats. Such discretion, however, isn’t even considered when someone snaps out and goes on a homicidal/suicidal rampage. Kill a bunch of people and your life story, however ignominious, is suddenly headline worthy material.
In the aftermath of the Northern Illinois University massacre, we were quickly told who the killer was, that he was 27 years old and “an honors student” from the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village. He was in his high school band and chess club.
He’d been a student at NIU, studying sociology.
He had a troubled past.
He’d enlisted in the Army but washed out.
He may have just broken up with a girlfriend.
He had mental problems but had gone off his meds and so on, and on, and on. Sure enough, "now, I'll be famous."
Not that there isn’t a lurid fascination with the internal workings of a psycho killer but, seriously, whatever happened to discretion and sensitivity to the consequences of publicizing a suicide?
That’s ultimately what these bloodbaths are, suicides. They’re also mad bids for attention as most suicides are. But, in today’s environment, this kind of suicide guarantees the successful attraction of more nationwide, perhaps worldwide, publicity than most people can hope to achieve in a lifetime. So if you’re disturbed enough… Hey! Why not give it a try? That’s been the message delivered loud and clear after every one of these episodes going back before Columbine.
“DO try this at home. You’ll be ‘famous.’ You’ll have all the preposterous minutiae you’ve griped about for years exhaustively aired out for all to see.”
And this in a society absolutely fixated… obsessed… with the notion of being “famous.”
Yes, yes, the tragedy these episodes create is clearly “news.” But why does the reporting go all the way to rewarding a mass murderer with precisely the kind of attention he went on his rampage to get?
The psycho who murdered more than 30 people in last year’s Virginia Tech massacre even sent photos and video to NBC to better get his face and message out, knowing full well he’d be dead by the time anyone saw it. It was all about becoming a celebrity.
If we’re going to highlight anyone in the wake of these tragedies, how about profiling someone like 20 year old Catalina Garcia of Cicero Illinois. Catalina was an immigrant from Guadalajara beloved by her family. Relatives say she was going to school to “become somebody in life.” Her definition of “becoming somebody” was getting an education so she could be a teacher someday. She did not decide to murder anyone to become famous. She was murdered in the NIU rampage.
Julianna Gehant wanted to educate kids too. She was still a student at 32 years old, an “overachiever” according to relatives. Her dedication to getting an education was such that she’d joined the Army and served in Bosnia and South Korea. She’d become a staff sergeant and an army recruiter, but dreamed of being a second grade teacher. It was for that that she was studying at NIU when she was gunned down.
How about Dianne Trent? She was working at Von Maur in the Westroads Mall when the shooting broke out there. Rather than drop, run and hide, she called 911 then stayed on the phone as the crazed gunman approached and described him right up until she herself was shot. She didn’t try to become famous by killing people. She tried to help. It’s probably what cost her her life.
Perhaps we should dwell on the story of John MacDonald. MacDonald was a 65 year old grandfather who just happened to be Christmas shopping at Von Maur. He was in a pretty good hiding place well sheltered from the lunatic’s view, and his bullets, but he didn’t stay there. Instead, he saved the lives of possibly a dozen other people who were cornered nearby by abandoning his own refuge, standing up and confronting the killer. MacDonald was one of the last to die in the rampage. He wasn’t trying to be “famous” but he certainly should be.
It’s merely unfortunate that the media give such people so little attention after bloody tragedies like the ones at NIU, Omaha, Virginia Tech or Columbine. On the other hand, it’s true criminal culpability that they instead give so much attention to the suicidal maniacs who orchestrated these same atrocities.
NBC was hit with an outraged chorus of criticism for its nationwide dissemination of the rants, photos and video sent by the Virginia Tech killer. Such condemnation was richly deserved. But was it enough? And should it be confined only to NBC because it so very blatantly rewarded a suicide?
What about the hundreds of other news organizations who’ve done essentially the same thing, given these unhinged crazies precisely what they wanted.
In effect, they have advertised for more troubled souls to imitate them and promised a reward, plentiful exposure.
It’s time to stop promising the next nut all the publicity he wants if only he kills himself in a sufficiently spectacular fashion. Logic and heartbreaking experience dictate he will rise to the invitation.
It’s time to simply decide: No.No, we will not publicize this act of suicide. We will not turn these deranged people into celebrities and their lives into epics for mass consumption. We will not even reveal their identities beyond mentioning they were sad and troubled cases.
That’s right. We will not even reveal their names.
These are suicides and you don’t report the names of suicides.
By now, you’ve probably noticed that the names of the NIU, Omaha and Virginia Tech killers appear nowhere in this writing. They shouldn’t.
There is ample precedent for censoring, yes censoring, the content of major stories to avoid publicizing names that ought not be publicized. Rape victims, minors involved in crimes, any instances where such revelation is considered inappropriate.
How’s this for “inappropriate?” Reveal this person’s name, picture and life story and you get more people killed! Pretty simple really.
“Now I’ll be famous,” he said.
Is everyone listening?
Good enough rationale for resisting the temptation to “break” the story… at the expense of a few lives?
Let the gunmen's families mourn their self destructive loved ones and the psychopathologists ponder what sent them awry. For everyone else, they should be nonpersons. Let us not encourage anyone else to be like them.
It’s time for this to become the accepted default decision and a fundamental tenet of journalistic ethics. We must not turn these people into celebrities any more.
Oh sure, easier said than done. It’s easy to imagine some sick, thoughtless, mercenary newsroom decision makers taking the same course as NBC and rewarding the lunatics with their beloved attention. But that decision must become the unacceptable one, until only the fringe tabloids of print and broadcast dare try it. Eventually, let us pray, no one will.
Do we have the fortitude to do the right thing on this?
Einstein is quoted as saying the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That is precisely what we, as a society, have done with these deranged individuals. It’s time to truly change what we do or we will see the same, bloody, tragic results over and over indefinitely.


February 21, 2008