Explore a Decade of Dave Cullen's Research
Dylan Klebold's Journal
Summary & Commentary
I organized the complete contents of Dylan Klebold's journal (43 pages) into these 3 web pages. (The black marks are redactions by Jefferson County):
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First 15 pages of Dylan's Journal
March 1997-October 1997. From the Existences cover to an entry full of 'fuck' and 'suicide.'
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Second 14 pages of Dylan's Journal
November 1997-August 1998. "I have lost my emotions" to first hearts pages and ending with "This is prob. my last entry." (An apparent reference to his impending suicide.)
Last 14 pages of Dylan's Journal
January 1999-April 1999: "This shit again," through the erratic entries and most of the hearts pages, to "the final battle—the pain of humanity is to love," to the last entry, beginning: "To my love..."
Unlike what Eric wrote — which we loosely refer to as Eric's journal — Dylan composed a traditional journal. It's occasional diary-like entries, and most of it has nothing directly to do with the attack, which he did not foresee. Dylan worked through private hopes and fears on these pages, long before he dreamed of murder.
The journal covers two years: from March 30, 1997, until the last few days before his suicide on April 20, 1999. Dylan mentioned suicide in that very first entry. He refers to his depression right on the cover.
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Dylan Klebold was very systematic. All the entries fill exactly two pages, and follow the same formatting conventions, including the three-line header on the top right. (When Sue Klebold interviewed me for her book, we talked about that. She chuckled and she said it was very much Dylan's personality to be so precise and fastidious that way.)
Dylan stuck to his conventions even when he was distraught enough to sit down to contemplate suicide on paper. He also stuck to it when he was drunk, which he copped to in some entries.
It's revealing that Dylan dispensed with all these conventions the last few months before the Columbine attack. The entries suddenly became highly erratic, and Dylan also stopped dating them at that point.
