Explore a Decade of Dave Cullen's Research
Parents
Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold
The Parents' Depositions
Transcripts have been sealed by the court for 20 years, due for release in April 2027. They are held by the National Archives and Records Administrations, which will own them when the seal is lifted, which presumably mean public release and access to everyone.
The depositions were originally videotaped, but apparently on transcripts remain. They were given the same week, covering two lawsuits: Rohrbough v. Harris and Taylor v. Solvay (a pharmaceutical company).
Dates of the depositions:
-
Judy Brown: Monday, July 28, 2003
-
Sue Klebold: Tuesday, July 29, 2003
-
Tom Klebold: Wednesday, July 30, 2003
-
Wayne Harris: Thursday, July 31, 2003
-
Kathy Harris: Friday, August 1, 2003
(Judy was deposed as a fact witness.)
A Mother's Reckoning
Wayne & Kathy Harris, and Tom & Sue Klebold were vilified after the attack, and responded rationally: with brief written statements and then silence.
That changed in 2009 with Sue Klebold's revealing essay for O, The Oprah Magazine, I Will Never Know Why.
Eight years later, Sue Klebold's powerful memoir, A Mother's Reckoning, provided the most extensive information about the parents, family life, and her POV on the killers available, by a country mile.
Here also is my Vanity Fair piece on Sue's first on-camera interview ever, with Diane Sawyer.
Feb 2017: Sue Klebold posted a brave and insightful TED Talk:
Published articles
There had been only three significant articles prior to Sue's book:
David Brooks' 2004 New York Times column, Parents of a Killer.
It was based on a long conversation Brooks had with Tom and Sue Klebold. The column format limited it to about 800 words, but Brooks chose them wisely. It is an incisive, empathetic column, not to be missed.
Susan Klebold's 2009 essay for O, The Oprah Magazine, I Will Never Know Why.
You won't get closer to the source than this. Dylan's mom wrote a candid, articulate, 5,000-word essay. It had two primary topics, which just happen to be the two I get asked about the parents most:1) What did she and Tom see in Dylan before the murders, and 2) What has their life been like for the next ten years? She did a masterful job at both. It's required reading for anyone interested in the case. But brace yourself: it's heartbreaking.
A very few critics complained that the piece was not revealing enough. I find that absurd. We can wish she and Tom had some magic insights, but the reality is that the vast majority of teen suicides take their parents by surprise—whether or not they kill other people on the way out. None of the prominent psychologists I worked with on the case expected the Harris or Klebold parents to hold great surprises. They considered that possible, but not probable.
I find Sue credible and sincere. Her perspective of a mom who sees the severity of her son's depression only in retrospect is invaluable. Read it.
My 2010 Daily Beast essay, The Last Columbine Mystery.
It's a reported piece, based on my interviews with Bob Curnow and Linda Mauser. Bob met with both the Harris and Klebold parents. Linda and her husband Tom met with the Harrises and Tom also met with the Klebolds. These are the only known meetings between the parents of the killers and victims. I reported on all four meetings in the Afterword to the paperback edition of the book, and focused on the Harrises in this article I adapted for the Daily Beast.
Books
Andrew Solomon's excellent, Far From The Tree.
Sue Klebold's A Mother's Reckoning.
Other fragmentary information
I found all sorts of other bits of information about the parents, particularly the Klebolds. Sources included: the questionnaires they filled out for the Diversion program, Wayne's journal on Eric released by Jeffco, the police file on the single interview between the Klebolds and investigators, my interviews with Lead Investigator Kate Battan about that meeting, and interviews with people close to the families—some conducted by me, others in published accounts by journalists I trust.
Tom and Sue Klebold also agreed through their attorney to fact-check a list of information I compiled prior to publication of the book. In that process, they also added a few details here and there, through their attorney.