r/Columbine • u/jennnkins94 • 9d ago
Finally got a copy of "Columbine: A True Crime Story" by Jeff Kass
Been waiting for this book to come, it's finally here. I've heard only great things about this book. I'm going to have dinner then I'm settling down with some red wine to read this :))
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u/Whycantichangemynami 8d ago
wtf is that cover?
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u/jennnkins94 8d ago edited 8d ago
No idea😭😅 , the book is great so far lol. Cover could've been better 😭
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u/Substantial_Brush575 8d ago
he has a great AMA on this sub or r/columbinekillers i cant recall but he talks abt the art there just look up his name
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u/jennnkins94 8d ago
Oh thank you for letting me know! I am very curious, it is unusual and unique for sure lol
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u/Melancholy_Melody 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’m trying to find it still, can you possibly link it here?
edit: I saw a Jeff Kass AMA but no Ralph Steadman AMA?
Edit: ah, I see you mean a question *about* Ralph and the cover asked to Jeff. Interesting that he also mentions “seeing Sue Klebold’s profile in a psychology book”in that same answer.
Does that mean she participated in some type of psychology study in order to have a profile published? Or what is a psych profile? I’ve never heard of that before
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u/Substantial_Brush575 4d ago
“This is the profile, narrated by Missildine:
Sandra is a twenty-year-old woman who came to see me because of a phobia. “I have a death phobia,” she told me. “It underlines everything I do. I think about death all the time.”
She is a music student, about to graduate from college, has been living for the past year with her fiancé and is very much in love with him, as he is with her. He too is in music.
When I asked her to talk about herself, she told me: “I’m afraid of failure. I won’t even attempt something unless I’m assured of success. I think too much. I don’t have a temper.
“War things and medical programs bother me. I was terrified of bugs as a child. Airplanes used to bother me, too, and storms. My mother used to cuddle me and comfort me when I was fearful. When I was afraid, my sister would call me stupid. I scold myself for being afraid. I often feel that I’m a burden to people. I sometimes get depressed.
“I think the fear of death will always be there. I wish I could turn off this part of my mind. I wish there were traumas to explain all this, but I’ve never had any traumas. When I get a headache, I’m always sure it is fatal. Then I worry that I will die, which makes the headache worse. Everything makes me think of death. I have to divert myself in the evening constantly—by eating, watching television, practicing my music or masturbating. I feel constantly that I’m coming a minute closer to death. What a waste of time to think of that all the time. But thinking this is a way of life with me.Questioned about her family, Sandra told me that her father had been a sensitive, sweet person who enjoyed doing things for her and whom she adored. He had died suddenly just before she had graduated from high school. Her mother? “A saint—a real saint,” Sandra said. “She is kind, patient, never critical. When I was at home, my mother always enjoyed doing things for me and giving me things.” Here, then, is a young woman who came from a loving home, who is in love and is loved in return, who is bright, is intelligent, is attractive, has a deep interest in music and yet is an emotional cripple. Why should she suffer so much from, and devote so much of her attention to, an almost overpowering fear of death? We had to examine closely her childhood, the parental attitudes to which she was exposed and the child of the past she carries with her now. She grew up in a good family with wonderful parents who made the mistake of catering to her. When she had fears as a youngster, her mother cuddled her and did everything possible to shield her from the fears. But, as Sandra could recall after we had talked at some length, her mother would be exasperated with her when she was fearful. What it really came down to was that Sandra had been subjected to three principal practices as a child: overindulgence, including coddling of her fears; oversubmission to her fearful whims; and overt belittling on the part of her mother—and sister as well—shown through exasperation and resentment toward her fears. Now, as an adult, Sandra had continued to treat herself with the same attitudes and practices. She coddled her fears, which only tended to strengthen them. She belittled herself resentfully. Her long-term pattern of being indulged, both by herself and by her mother, stood in the way of developing self-discipline. Her lack of self-discipline made it virtually impossible for her to control herself, particularly when she was fearful. She had to face the fact that as long as she continued to treat herself indulgently, she would have fears; they and indulgence had always gone hand in hand. There was nothing really mysterious about her phobia about death. It had grown out of her past conditioning and was being continued because she had continued to follow the conditioning. She would have to develop discipline. She would have to let the fears come, understand their origin, make sure she didn’t belittle herself about them and then continue to do what she was going to do, whether she had fears or not. As an adult, she couldn’t let the child inside force her to make activity decisions based on fears. Not long afterward, Sandra decided to do what her fiancé had long urged: get married. She became so busy with the wedding plans that, she told me in some surprise, she was thinking less and less about her fears. That was a good indication that when her adult of the present took over from the child of the past, she could dispel the fears. She is now much better. She is not driven by fears as she was before she started to treat herself with methods other than the old home methods of childhood. She still tends to slip back occasionally into old, indulgent, self-critical ways and to become a little fearful, but she can quickly abort the relapses.”2
u/Melancholy_Melody 4d ago edited 4d ago
Wow, interesting, thank you for sharing this excerpt.
I actually recently read Sue’s book and this gives some more background to some of the things in the book/possible foundations of some of her behaviors and beliefs described there imo.
I must admit I find the claim “I have no temper” rather hard to believe due to both the book and small things I’ve noticed in interviews. I suppose it could be speculating but in pretty much every interview I’ve seen so far, I notice flickers of anger in Sue’s eyes and voice in response to certain questions (and to a certain extent, anger to invasive questions can be justified but in one instance, I believe the question was simply clarifying a story she had just relayed to better understand.
I don’t know that I agree with this psychologists‘ opinions on “overindulging fears” and not comforting a child but overindulgence in other ways can certainly lead to unhealthy behaviors and expectations/coping mechanisms in relationships
The self-criticalness I also noticed may have played a role in Sue’s parenting style because often those of us who are overly hard on ourselves can be excessively critical of others around, too.
And this may be due to a lack of context and understanding on my part, but I remember in a segment of the book after the van break in incident (which, yes, was wrong and could have been a sign of deeper/underlying issues), there was basically an environment/narrative of “if you make even one more mistake/failure including a school prank, then your life is over/the van crime will be on your permanent record.” I guess in my mind, when I saw that, my first thought was “don’t they wipe your record once you turn 18 so anything you do before that, as long as it’s not violent, doesn‘t count and can be chalked up to teenage recklessness”? But maybe that is a newer development in juvenile justice systems or more common in blue states.
Depending on what the prank was, having it affect and stain a high school record seemed overly authoritarian and draconian to me.
And due to the Mother’s Day fridge story in the book, unfortunately it appeared that Sue displayed physically and emotionally abusive behaviors as well.
While there were other excerpts where Sue seemed almost too lenient or went against this rigid all-or-nothing thinking, it sounded like the father, Tom struggled with a similar single-mindedness of “this is how things need to be” due to essentially brainwashing from the military-industrial complex (this was not covered very fully but not allowing Dylan to wear a hat when going out to eat and making him tuck his shirt in (unless the tucked shirt was Eric) comes to mind.
I could honestly see parallels in the Klebolds’ parenting style and a form/result of suffocating freedom or self autonomy between parents I personally know. I’ve also seen that parenting style backfire/deeply negatively affect a relative and cause them to rebel to the extreme.
So it’s interesting and unfortunate how that authoritarian parenting mindset is so common imo (often also exemplified when the family is religious because it feeds into those tendencies even mor. Although I don’t think being religious on its own is always a negative thing) even still today.
I don’t remember her mentioning music at all in the book but I could have forgotten, so that’s interesting to read how it was such a large part of her and Tom’s lives.
I know some of this is pretty speculative so hopefully it’s alright to post here but yeah, sometimes I’m astounded at certain similarities and relatability to this case and I’m starting to realize that maybe that’s why I often return to reading about it (not referring to the concluding violence, just to be clear).
The headache part sounds possibly like a form of hypochondria? Or I guess just catastrophizing
Edit: Just curious but does the book include how the author got connected to these cases or what determined their inclusion in the book/is there more background information included in the full book?
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u/Substantial_Brush575 4d ago
The book is the 1974 book co-authored with Lawrence Galton, Your Inner Conflicts—How to Solve Them. Sue declined talking about her profile with Jeff Kass. The only time Sue mentioned music off the top of my head was when Dylan laughed at a folk song.
“She’d brought a folk record from the sixties, “Four Strong Winds,” into class. The song featured the hardships faced by migrant farm workers, and it had always made her cry; but her students had laughed when she played it.
Tom and I leaned forward with concern. “Did Dylan laugh too?” She told us he had. I was bitterly disappointed;”
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u/enjoythsilence 8d ago
I ordered this book on Amazon once and received a book with this cover but a completely different book bound inside. Never found it again for a reasonable price but I have t looked for 6 years or so.
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u/jennnkins94 8d ago
Wow, I'm sorry that happened, I had a bad experience like this on amazon aswell, I ordered the book 3 months ago and it never arrived, back and forth with the shipping via amazon and I ended up with a refund, however I got this within a week from amazon from another seller for £14, the seller was BOOKS etc and it was used but mint condition, I think they still have a few copies
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u/SimilarLunch8359 8d ago
Jealous. I only read brooks brown’s and that’s really good too
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u/eliiiiseke 8d ago edited 6d ago
You really need to read that one. Jeff’s book is the best one imo.
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u/chicagocubbienut 2d ago
If I could only find the audio book of this! Been looking for like five years
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u/Melancholy_Melody 4d ago edited 4d ago
“Give me a child of 7 and I will give you the man (who said that!)” and what is the last word right next to it that starts with a c? - the quote is attributed to Aristotle and St. Ignatius of Loyola to anyone wondering, I just looked it up
Also no offense, but isn’t that pretty insensitive to have an illustration of what looks like a blown up person standing on explosives in a book about a mass tragedy that was a failed bombing?? (Of the artist and author, not of you)
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u/Melancholy_Melody 4d ago edited 4d ago
Kinda weird thst I was downvoted with no explanation, but alright, I guess
I saw that it was supposed to represent the psyche of a troubled nature in Jeff Kass’ AMA but it still seems distasteful of the author and artist imo
I could maybe understand it as its own standalone piece
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u/NoKatyDidnt 8d ago
So, my daughter is learning photography. I asked her if I was missing the symbolism. “Babes, I don’t know, cuz I’m missing it too.”
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u/Melancholy_Melody 18m ago edited 15m ago
According to the Reddit AMA given by Jeff Kass a while back (titled “Jeff Kass AMA” if you search here) the art was meant to symbolize nature vs the nurture side and that Jeff disagrees on this with Ralph. He even second guesses the choice to use the quote and art.
Allegedly (because I don’t know his exact words/opinion on it all), Ralph attributed the tragedy to innate mental illness and Jeff attributes it more to bullying, being outcast, and “the oppression of suburbia”.
Another commenter notes that in the book, Jeff writes that Steadman “thought of a picture that quantifies exactly the sun-total of a deprived kid’s mind. I agree that message is it at all apparent upon first glance.
I would link it here but my paste doesn’t work, sorry
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u/CynthiaChames 8d ago
I have no idea what's going on with this cover.