Natural Born Killers

  -From Eric Harris’ journal, 12/20/98

‘Shit left to do at 3/22/99’ list written by Eric.

Letter written by Eric to the owner of the van him and Dylan broke into in January 98′.

Dear Mr. Ricky Becker,

 Hello, my name is Eric Harris. On a Friday night in late-January my friend and I broke into your utility van and stole several items while it was parked at Deer Creek Canyon Road and Wadsworth. I am writing this letter partly because I have been ordered to from my diversion officer, but mostly because I strongly feel I owe you an apology and explanation. 

 I believe that you felt a great deal of anger and disappointment when you learned of our act. Anger because someone you did not know was in your car and rummaging through your personal belongings. Disappointment because you thought your car would have been safe at the parking lot where it was and it wasn’t. If it was my car that was broken into, I would have felt extreme anger, frustration, and a sense of invasion. I would have felt uneasy driving in my car again knowing that someone else was in it without my permission. I am truly sorry for that.

 The reason why I chose to do such a stupid thing is that did not think. I did not realize the consequences of such a crime, and I let the stupid side of me take over. Maybe I thought I wouldn’t be caught, or that I could get away. I realized very soon afterwards what I had done and how utterly stupid it was. At home, my parents and everyone else that knew me was shocked that I did something like that. My parents lost almost all their trust in me and I was grounded for two months. Besides that I have lost many of my privileges and freedom that I enjoyed before this happened. I am now enrolled in the diversion program for one full year. I have 45 hours of community service to complete and several courses and classes to attend over the course of my enrollment.

 Once again I would like to say that I am truly sorry for what I have done and for any inconvenience I have caused you, your family, or your company.

 Respectfully,

 Eric Harris

Excerpt of a journal entry written by Eric, April 12, 1998.

Isnt america supposed to be the land of the free? how come, If im free I cant deprive a stupid fucking dumbshit from his possessions If he leaves them sitting in the front seat of his fucking van out in plain sight and in the middle fucking nowhere on a Fri-fucking-day night. NATURAL SELECTION. fucker should be shot..

Above are pictures of Eric Harris and his mother Kathy Harris. I was reading the book Columbine: A True Crime Story by Jeff Kass and came across something that I found to be interesting. Kathy Harris, the mother of Eric Harris, one of the Columbine shooters, may have squandered Eric’s chances at being a marine. 

Eric was being recruited by Sgt. Mark Gonzales in early April of 1999. Gonzales had gotten Eric’s name from a list of high school students that he had access to through his job. He called the Harris home on Friday, April 2nd, where he spoke to Eric, who expressed an interest in joining the marines. After a brief phone interview, Gonzales scheduled an interview with Eric on Monday, April 5th, at 1:00pm at the local recruiting office. Eric had two individual meetings with Gonzales, both of which went well. A meeting was setup at the Harris house, where Gonzales had a meeting with the Harris family to answer any questions they may have. 

During the interview, Gonzales noted “Mom (referring to Kathy Harris) wasn’t too keen on combat-related jobs”. Gonzales told her that “it’d be Eric’s choice and there would be lots of other jobs to chose from.”, though knowing her son, I’m sure Kathy wasn’t confident that Eric would chose a non combat-related job. Below is an excerpt from “Columbine: A True Crime Story by Jeff Kass” regarding Kathy’s conversation with Gonzales. 

“Gonzales was there about a half hour. He was getting ready to leave when Katherine Harris left the room and came back with a prescription drug bottle.

“What about this?” she asked.

“What’s that?” Gonzales asked.

Katherine Harris said it was Luvox. Gonzales had never heard of it before. He asked if it was like Ritalin or Prozac, which he classified as mood-altering drugs and therefore a disqualifying factor for the Marines. She said it was.

“We got a problem,” Gonzales said, and explained to them that recruits cannot be on any prescription drug, even penicillin. For more serious drugs such as Ritalin, recruits had to be off the drug for a year.”

As you can see, Eric was on his way to becoming a marine, before his mother showed recruiter Mike Gonzales a bottle of prescription medication that Eric was taking. I don’t believe that she had malicious intents when showing the Sgt. Eric’s medication, but I do believe that she was aware that it would keep Eric out of the marines for at least another year. Below is another excerpt from Jeff Kass’s book on Columbine. 

“If the meeting had gone well, the plan was for Eric to do some more screening then sign up on Saturday the 17th, take a physical exam, and be sworn in at the federal courthouse in downtown Denver (where the Columbine lawsuits would later be heard). Instead, Gonzales went to his car and called his boss on the cell phone. Eric Harris wasn’t going to be a player, he said.”