Va. Tech Gunman Sent Package To NBC News

[maddezmom]

Source: NBC

Va. Tech Gunman Sent Package To NBC News


NEW YORK -- The gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University sent a package to NBC News, which arrived at the company's offices on Wednesday.

Cho Seung-Hui sent the box containing a manifesto of sorts, photographs and other material.


The president of NBC News, Steve Capus, turned the box over to the FBI.

Read more: http://www.wnbc.com/news/12418237/detail.html?rss=ny&psp=news

---

Gunman contacted NBC News during massacre
Rambling communication, video being examined by FBI, network says

By Alex Johnson

MSNBC
Updated: 5:01 p.m. ET April 18, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building Monday morning, Cho Seung-Hui sent NBC News a rambling communication and videos about his grievances, the network said Wednesday.

Cho, 23, a senior English major at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, killed 32 people in two separate attacks Monday before taking his own life.

Network officials turned the material over to the FBI and said they would not immediately disclose its contents beyond characterizing the material as “disturbing.” It included a written communication, photographs and video.

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in a posting on the program’s “Daily Nightly” blog that the communication was received earlier Wednesday. He described it as a very long “multi-media manifesto.”

The network said it would release a statement shortly.

more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/


(CBS News) BLACKSBURG, Va. The Virginia Tech gunman sent photographs, videos and writings to NBC in New York before he died in the massacre that left 33 people dead, authorities said Wednesday.

NBC said it turned the package to authorities on Wednesday.

"This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation. We're in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evalute its worth," said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police.

The search of the Virginia Tech gunman's dorm room and backpack produced eight pages of notes which law enforcement sources characterize as a "suicide note," reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. They say the writings "appear to be a manifesto."

more:http://cbs13.com/national/topstories_story_108094755.html

[oberliner]

1. NBC News says the materials from the gunman were sent between the first and second shootings.

From MSNBC.com:

Sometime after he killed two people in a dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building Monday morning, Cho Seung-Hui sent NBC News a rambling communication and videos about his grievances, the network said Wednesday.

Network officials turned the material over to the FBI and said they would not immediately disclose its contents pending the agency’s review beyond characterizing the material as “disturbing.” It included a written communication, photographs and video.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/from/ET/

[Stu DeBeouf]

2. WOW!

....n/t.

[johnnie]

3. Delete

I'm too "gun shy" to post anything that will get slammed. :)

[Skinner]

For the record, I thought your post was fair.

But I can understand your reluctance.

[johnnie]

11. Thanks Skinner

Very heated around here lately, and there's no use in getting myself in another mess..lol.

[orleans]

4. watching this now--unfucking real--n/t

[xchrom]

5. sweet, sweet jesus -- between the shootings.....

well that just abut says it all doesn't it?

[Divine Discontent]

6. yeah,

for me, it says he had time to go send something but the college couldn't get an email out to students cancelling classes for the day due to a double homicide at the dorm and the killer was still on the loose...

www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- check it out, top '08 stuff

[pretty_lies]

7. Why We Should Not Publicize This

All the attention should be on who was lost, and not a shred should go towards the guy who committed the crimes.

Three professors and twenty-nine others are dead. Men and women who devoted their lives to helping society and science. Wiped out by some troubled fuck whose face is plastered all over the news. Don't think that some individuals don't see this as success, as kicking out against authority. I could tell you of some internet message boards that are overflowing with praise for the killer.

The fact that Cho sent this package proves that he was very aware that he would be all over the news. And I think it must have been a big part of his motivation: if I'm going out, I'm going to get famous.

By putting his face on the news, by airing his rants, we give an incentive to other disturbed individuals, who are already lionizing the killer. Don't think that some people didn't cheer the Columbine killers, or this new VTech killer. The media have to stopped from this cycle of incentivising new killers to step up and get their fifteen minutes.

[maddezmom]

9. I agree, I don't think they should air the videos etc

but it's information that is new and it's news. Hopefully this will help law enforcement in the investigation.

BTW, welcome to DU :)

[anitar1]

36. I totally agree with you. I do not want to ever see his face again.

Why should we have to look at this thing?

[AlienGirl]

55. Which message boards are they?

[Frank Cannon]

61. They don't air videos of nuts who run onto football fields...

during NFL games, nor do the announcers talk about them, precisely because they don't want to encourage more of that kind of behavior.

So, IMHO, I don't think they should be airing this crazy murderer's videos.

[marshall]

64. It's saving NBC's bacon

In the debacle that was the Imus affair it gives them something to air in that morning slot. But I do wonder what the fallout will be, since there is so much disagreement on whether they have aired the stuff.

[robinlynne]

8. wait a minute. he shot 2 people, then walked over to the post office, then went back and shot 30

more?

how can it be a package?

[soothsayer]

10. he prolly had a priority mail box all ready to go. this was totally premeditated

(right? bought the glock march 13, waited 30 days, bought the walther on april 13, filed off the serial numbers, bought the chains and locks)

[maxsolomon]

12. you're correct

i'd wager his computer will show meticulous unabomber-level planning & very disturbing search histories.

he also did this with another person living in the same room as him.

well-regulated militia, my aunt fanny.

[Penndems]

13. BREAKING: Gunman contacted NBC News during massacre

Source: MSNBC

Rambling communication, video being examined by FBI, network says

BREAKING NEWS
By Alex Johnson

MSNBC
Updated: 4 minutes ago

Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building Monday morning, Cho Seung-Hui sent NBC News a rambling communication and videos about his grievances, the network said Wednesday.

Cho, 23, a senior English major at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, killed 32 people in two attacks Monday before taking his own life.

Network officials turned the material over to the FBI and said they would not immediately disclose its contents beyond characterizing the material as “disturbing.” It included a written communication, photographs and video.

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in a posting on the program’s “Daily Nightly” blog that the communication was received earlier Wednesday. He described it as a very long “multimedia manifesto.”



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/from/ET/

[Blue_Tires]

14. wow...this just gets stranger and stranger

:scared:

[Penndems]

15. Indeed

There was earlier breaking news from CNN concerning a order handed down by a special judge declaring Cho mentally ill.

And now this.

[LSparkle]

16. Tweety's comparing Cho's face to Mohammed Atta ...

Ridiculous ... Speaking of them "following us home," maybe they're ALREADY HERE!!!!

Be afraid, be afraid, terra, terra, terra ...

This entire nation has gone batshit crazy (imho).

[Penndems]

17. Geez, are you serious?

I don't watch "Hardball" much anymore - and now I know why. :(

[AlienGirl]

42. Ah, the hard-hitting science of physiognomy...

[KoKo]

20. "Manchurian Candidate." n/t

[musiclawyer]

18. NBC news should say that it's turned it over to FBI and ....

retained no copies. Otherwise this sends a very bad maessage, one that will be heard by the sick puppies out there who want their 15 minutes of fame before going down in flames.

[Penndems]

19. Excellent suggestion - let's hope that they didn't retain copies

There are just too many nuts out there looking for an excuse to capture the spotlight.

[IADEMO2004]

38. NBC magic, Immediately turned over, and made copies???

[Penndems]

40. Yep, thanks

Guess tonight's "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" broadcast answered that question.

[Kagemusha]

21. The free press acting as a government agent and retaining no record?

Tell me you're joking. Or at least didn't think this through fully.

[xxqqqzme]

27. Olberman had a guy on (a profiler or something)

that was lamenting the CMC announcing it was the largest number killed - he said that only gives some sick-o out there a goal to best.

[RamboLiberal]

37. Brian Williams said on news tonight they made copies

They showed some of the videos and a lot of photos.

[razzleberry]

22. I believe everything MSNBC tells me.

ya sure

[Penndems]

23. All of the media outlets are reporting this, not just MSNBC

n/t

[hippiechick]

24. So can all the folks who want to blame VT for not stopping him ...

... now blame NBC instead?

:shrug:

[zerox]

25. Package was apparently mailed

I believe NBC just recieved this item this morning.

[Bicoastal]

26. Exactly.

Cho apparently put down the wrong address and zip code, otherwise it would have arrived sooner. AMAZING that the post office went ahead and sent it in after all that--with that guy's name on the package, I would have been worried it was a bomb, or anthrax, or some such.

[AlienGirl]

41. So much of the mail-sorting is automated that no human eyes necessarily saw it before delivery. nt

[RamboLiberal]

50. Brian Williams said tonight a postal employee

noticed the name and personally brought it to the attention of NBC news. I do wonder what security NBC or the post office did on the package before opening it.

[fidgeting wildly]

62. Well, that was a sloppy headline.

I see they've changed it now to something more reasonable. "Gunman contacted NBC News during massacre" made it sound like he called them during the violence.

[Penndems]

28. MSNBC posted a photo that Cho sent them on their website:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/

[RamboLiberal]

29. Photo he sent to NBC

<snip>

Among the materials are 23 QuickTime video files showing Cho talking directly to the camera, Capus said. He does not name anyone specifically, but he talks at length about religion and his hatred of the wealthy.

The production of the videos indicated that Cho had worked on the package for some time, because he not only “took the time to record the videos, but he also broke them down into snippets” that were embedded paragraph by paragraph into the main document, Capus said.

The package also includes several photographs showing Cho in different locations, sometimes posed against a white, cinderblock wall. In some of the photographs, Cho is holding handguns “consistent with what we’ve heard about the guns in this incident,” Capus said.

Other photographs show Cho holding a knife, and some show hollow-point bullets lined up on a table, Capus said.

“This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation,” said Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police, the lead agency investigating the shootings. “We’re in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/

[pretty_lies]

30. The Media Must Stop Showing These Pictures

Look at this guy: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED US TO SEE.

Posing like an action movie star.

This sort of thing just encourages more sick bastards to "go out with a bang". We have a positive feedback loop between news publicity and violent crime committed for the sake of publicity. It has to stop.

[RamboLiberal]

31. I agree - every violent sick whacked young man

Probably has that photo as his wallpaper as we speak! My fear is some looney tunes out there is going to try to outdo this whack job. I'm just sorry Cho offed himself - wonder if he'd have been as brave in prison!

[Bicoastal]

32. The public wants to see them...

..what are they going to do? :shrug:

Honestly, I doubt it'll make any sick people any sicker...

All I can say is, a picture speaks a thousand words, doesn't it?

[pretty_lies]

33. Prove It.

And when you've done that, explain how the public interest is served by giving a violent, depraved killer publicity.

The killer obviously acted with the media in mind. He knew that the prurient interest of commercial news would splash him, NOT HIS VICTIMS, all over the TV.

And as I said above, there are internet message boards cheering him on right now. It is absolutely an incentive for mass murder.

Natural Born Killers was a horrible movie, but it contained the essential truth we're seeing today.

[Chico Man]

35. Natural Born Killer

Why yes, you are right.. it is exactly what is happening..

[AlienGirl]

43. I am the public, and I want to see them. The Unabomber was found after his manifesto was published

I have a longstanding interest in forensic psychology. I can't be the only one who does. I also can't be the only one who thinks that we may be better served by being able to know what the dangerous patterns of thought and behavior are, so we can recognize them if we see them again, than by having all that evidence kept secret.

Tucker

[Name removed]

45. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

48. Agreed.

First thing I thought of was Unabomber. When Theodore Kaczynski's brother saw the manifesto, he immediately knew who had written it.

Unabomber

[Name removed]

51. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RamboLiberal]

53. I have mixed feelings on this - but mostly I agree with you

I think we do have a right to know. But I also know this is fueling more sickos out there.

[aaronbees]

56. 100 percent agree with you

As chilling as it is, it's part of the story whether we like it or not. And if MSNBC didn't show this information, DUers and others would be howling about suppression of information and the infantile conspiracy theories would multiply like mad.

[AlienGirl]

57. Conspiracy theories are, no doubt, already going. They always do.

[depakid]

39. You really expect the corporate media to act responsibly?

I gave up all such expectations after Reagan, Bush AND Clinton deregulated them.

[Up2Late]

47. Oh, that's just one of the pictures, did you see the one where he's holding a Hammer?

I'll add them if I can find them again, but here's more news, it looks like NBC News is going to show the video of his rant, or just did. Check out the "Breaking New" banner at the top:

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18145941/>

Personally I like this one, but most American "news" papers are not showing this one.

<http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=595772007>


South Korean activists pay silent tribute to the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech in the U.S., near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, April 18, 2007. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won

[marshall]

68. They're too busy showing footage of the gunman

A friend of mine who is a professor at a university in Pusan, South Korea emailed me soon after the nationality of the killer was known. She said it has sent shock waves through her university community and that the government is also highly alarmed.

I wonder if foreign media is also showing wall to wall coverage of the "multi media package"? If I were a parent of one of the victims I would be horrified. I'm just waiting for one of the NBC newshounds to ask a grieving parent "How does it make you feel to know this face was the last thing your son or daughter saw?" as they shove one of those scowling disturbing photos at them.

[Up2Late]

70. NPR Reported today on "All Things Considered" that the Families are outraged...

...at NBC, and several of them canceled their appearances on the "Today Show" this morning.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9692307>

[saigon68]

65. TOO LATE

He is now an "Action Star"

The genie once released form the bottle, is difficult to put back in.

[XemaSab]

34. What a freak

n/t

[superconnected]

44. Gunman recorded video manifesto between shootings

Source: Komotv.com

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Midway through his murderous rampage, the Virginia Tech gunman went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs."

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone, in an excerpt shown on "NBC Nightly News." "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

NBC said the package contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera.

He repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.


Read more: http://www.komotv.com/news/7082831.html

[Xenotime]

46. This ushers in a whole new way of getting your message across.

[mainegreen]

49. So "Ismael" was not just a word jumble, but has some significance.

This guy will be studied now in criminal psychology classes me thinks.

[ends_dont_justify]

52. People prefer the boogeyman to a real flesh and blood, defeatable villain

It justifies there's nothing anyone could have done...based on the way he spoke, I'd say that his reaction time may have been slower than those of educated technological students.

What the message really is, is 'evil is undefeatable, yeild to a greater force, we'll comfort you'. They may as well paint horns on him and say 'satan is going to get you muahahahaha'

[Synnical]

54. "rails against Christianity and the rich."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-0418vatechnbc,0,6099801.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

. . . Much of the rant is incoherent and filled with obscenities. He rails against Christianity and the rich.

``Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats,'' he says, apparently reading from a manifesto. ``Your golden necklaces weren't enough you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.''

The package, which arrived at NBC two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, bore a Postal Service stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire.

. . .

[truthisfreedom]

58. Publishing the manifesto should be a crime. Publishing his pictures from that package

as well. I believe that it further inspires nutjobs like this to have their "day in the sun" when they see the attention this brings. Anyone who has murderous plans and suicidal thoughts could be lured into acting out by the excitement of knowing that they'll dominate the news for days or weeks.

[Berry Cool]

59. I understand your concerns, but we still have a First Amendment in this country

that a lot of people were very vocal about defending last week...for the wrong reasons.

And now you want to make a crime out of publishing something?

[THUNDER HANDS]

63. so will writing books about him be a crime as well?

or news stories about him?

I mean, you shoot 60+ people, terrorize a college campus and commit the largest mass shooting in American history - you're bound to become famous regardless of whether your videos or diatribes are published.

I think this is a valuable part of this whole story and I'm glad it's been published. Insight into the mind of a psychopath is newsworthy, IMO anyway.

[Wiley50]

60. A Kernel Of Truth

If someone did a horrific act such as this
to protest the criminality of Smirk, Snarl and their misadministration
The act itself would still be horrible
but it wouldn't make Smirk and Snarl into Choirboys

These are quotes from the manifesto I see, so far, in this thread:

``Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats,'' he says, apparently reading from a manifesto. ``Your golden necklaces weren't enough you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.''

Gotta say I agree, but not gonna kill 32 people over it

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone, in an excerpt shown on "NBC Nightly News." "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

This is pretty nuts, but you begin to see his tortured logic

However, if Smirk and Snarl decide to try to stay in office past 1/09, all bets are off for me

[marshall]

66. I wonder if he was mad about the Duke case?

The rants against the rich and privileged sound like they are aimed at people like the rich lacrosse players.

[Frank Cannon]

67. He was mad at John Edwards' haircut and his huge house

Seriously, I don't think this guy knew what he was mad at. It's obvious that he was just plain crazy.

[marshall]

69. He sounds schizophrenic to me

My brother developed schizophrenia when he was 17 and Cho's rants sound a lot like my brother's. My brother had an imaginary friend and he stalked girls, but luckily he has never been violent enough to hurt anybody.

The delusions can be triggered by things they read or experience. I imagine Cho's rants about other people's hedonism had something to do with the fact that he was pursuing girls who didn't want anything to do with him, and he begrudged people who did seem to have happy relationships with the opposite sex.