BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The disturbing manifest and videos of Cho
Seung-Hui delivering a snarling tirade about rich "brats" and
their "hedonistic needs" had some marginal value to police, but
they didn't add much that investigators didn't already know,
officials said Thursday.
The self-made video and photos of Cho pointing guns as if he
were imitating a movie poster were mailed to NBC on the morning of
the Virginia Tech massacre.
A Postal Service time stamp reads 9:01 a.m. -- between the two
attacks that left 33 people dead. University officials announced
Thursday that Cho's victims would be awarded their degrees
posthumously and that other students might have the option of
ending their semester immediately.
In much of Cho's videotaped rants, the 23-year-old speaks in a
harsh monotone, but it isn't clear to whom he is speaking.
"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided
today," Cho says in one, with a snarl on his lips. "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."
In another, he appears more melancholy, saying: "This is it.
This is where it all ends. What a life it was. Some life."
NBC said the package contained a rambling and often incoherent
23-page written statement, 28 video clips and 43 photos.
It was given to State Police but contained little that they
didn't already know, Col. Steve Flaherty said Thursday. Flaherty
said he was disappointed that NBC decided to broadcast parts of it.
"I just hate that a lot of people not used to seeing that type
of image had to see it," he said.
On NBC's "Today" show Thursday, host Meredith Vieira said the
decision to air the information "was not taken lightly." Some
victims' relatives canceled their plans to speak with NBC because
they were upset over the airing of the images, she said.
"I saw his picture on TV, and when I did I just got chills,"
said Kristy Venning, a junior from Franklin County, Va. "There's
really no words. It shows he put so much thought into this and I
think it's sick."
The package helped explain one mystery: where the gunman was and
what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of
gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom
building.
"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South
Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban
Washington. "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."
There has been some speculation, especially among online forums,
that Cho may have been inspired by the South Korean movie
"Oldboy," part of Chan-wook Park's "Vengeance Trilogy." One of
the killer's mailed photos shows him brandishing a hammer -- the
signature weapon of the protagonist -- and in a pose similar to one
from the film.
The film won the Gran Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival in
2004. It was the second of Park's "Vengeance Trilogy" and is
about a man unjustly imprisoned for 15 years. After escaping, he
goes on a rampage against his captor.
The connection was spotted by Professor Paul Harris of Virginia
Tech, who alerted the authorities, according to London's Evening
Standard.
It has become commonplace for movies or music to be linked to
especially violent killers. One blogger for the Huffington Post,
filmmaker Bob Cesca, dismissed the connection as "the most
ridiculous hypothesis yet."
Authorities on Thursday disclosed that more than a year before
the massacre, Cho had been accused of sending unwanted messages to
two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's
orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released
with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.
The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning
signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among
other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen,
vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much
that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged
to get counseling.
Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling;
others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing
two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored
military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack
and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him
swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho
holding a gun to his temple.
