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'Trenchcoat Mafia' opposed blacks, Hispanics, Jews and jocks
By Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press, 04/21/99
LITTLETON, Colo. - They called themselves the ''Trenchcoat Mafia,'' a dozen outcast students who hated blacks, Hispanics, Jews and athletes, and dressed up in long black dusters, like villains of the Old West.
They played World War II games, bragged about their guns, and razzed fellow students about kowtowing to the elite students at Columbine High School.
But few students took them seriously until Tuesday, when police said two members of the rebellious group took out guns and started firing.
Classmates and Denver media identified the dead gunmen as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both juniors at the school. Police refused to confirm the identities, but were seen at Harris' home, carrying out items including a computer.
The ''trenchcoats'' were seen as smart and computer-savvy, fellow students said. Harris lived in a tidy, two-story home on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac - deserted today except for a steady stream of reporters driving through the neighborhood.
Sean Kelly, a 16-year-old junior, shared a computer lab with Harris.
''They just didn't seem to be all there. They liked things like Soldier of Fortune magazine,'' Kelly said. Harris made his own video production at school in which he bragged about some of his new guns.
Authorities said the two boys killed themselves following a ''suicide mission'' in which they marched through the school, hurling pipe bombs and firing shotguns, leaving a trail of bodies. They said they learned of the group only after Tuesday's shooting.
''School officials said they had no problems with the two suspects, there were no discipline problems,'' Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Steve Davis said.
Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas said today both shooters had a juvenile record, but nothing violent. ''They were involved in the same incident, which was theft and trespass to a car,'' he said.
Other Trenchcoat Mafia members were questioned by police, including one who was led away in handcuffs Tuesday. But no arrests were made, Davis said, and there was no indication that any of the others took part in the shooting.
Kelly said members of the group made a number of ''generally derogatory remarks'' about Hispanics and blacks, and were considered outcasts by other students at the school. But officials said today that only one of the victims was black.
They had a long-running feud with some of the school's athletes, who enjoyed the popularity the Trenchcoats lacked.
''A couple of months ago, the jocks were supposed to fight them,'' said Matt Good, 16, a football player. But the Trenchcoats showed up two hours late, at the wrong spot, carrying swords and brass knuckles, and the fight was never rescheduled, Good said.
In the 1998 yearbook, a photo showed members of the group locking arms and smiling, was accompanied by the caption, ''Who says we're different? Insanity's healthy. ... Stay alive, stay different, stay crazy!''
Chris Morris, a leader of the group, is grinning broadly.
Klebold's sallow-faced picture appears on a separate page, with the statement: ''After going through many experiences in their lives, oftentimes students have regrets of past actions.''
Student Andrew Beard said members of the group often came to school in steel-toed combat boots, some of them wearing Nazi crosses. Tuesday was the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's birthday, and student Aaron Cohn said that was a significant day for Trenchcoat members, who would make references to 4-20. He said they often made anti-Semitic comments.
Beard said a dozen students joined the group last year, adopting the trademark dusters and sometimes wearing red or green berets, but the numbers dwindled to a half-dozen this year as the novelty wore off. He said he knew of no special significance for the dusters.
''Dylan said he hated the jocks, and how they could walk over people and thought they were tough,'' Beard said.
Josh Nielsen, 17, a junior at the school, said he knew members of the group as well.
''They liked playing war games,'' he said. ''That's all they could talk about. They played war games and they liked to re-enact World War II battles.''
Brooks Brown, who said he knew both gunmen, said he was walking out of school Tuesday morning when Harris warned him to leave.
''I was walking out for a cigarette and I told him, 'Hey, man' and he said, 'Brooks, I like you. Now, get out of here. Go home.' And so I didn't think twice about it.''
Brown told The Denver Post he and Harris had made up after a feud, but the boy was filled with hate.
''He did it because he hated people,'' Brown said. ''He loved the moment. He loved killing people, he liked that idea. He lived in that. That's how I knew it would end the way this did - kill all the hostages and then themselves; I couldn't see anything else.''
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