July Read.

So this book was recommended in Oprah's July issue for 25 great summer reads. Columbine By Dave Cullen I bought the magazine just to have that list.

This is not a bloody, violent book, but just an accurate account of the years prior to the massacre, the massacre and the years after. This book is based on 10 years of interviews, hours of tapes, more than 25,000 pages of police evidence and the killers' journals that were 2 years before and home videos. I just have a few facts to share that most people don't know.

"It had not really been intended as a school shooting at all. Primarily, it had been a bombing that failed."

Eric and Dylan set the date 1 year prior to the massacre.

The Columbine crisis was never a hostage standoff. They had no intentions of making demands. SWAT teams searched the building for over 3 hours, but the killers were lying dead the entire time. They had committed suicide 49 minutes after beginning the attack. The killing and terror had been real. The standoff had not.

They originally thought there were 4 or 5 shooters. They also suspected a conspiracy of 8-13 people because they thought 2 kids couldn't pull something like this off on their own.

In 2003, the killers parents answered all the victims parents questions under oath privately. It took several days. The public wanted the answers too, but the judge concluded confidentiality. Four years later he settled on a compromise, the transcripts would be sealed in the national archives for 20 years. The truth would come out in 2027 twenty-eight years after the massacre.

No Goths, no outcasts, no snapping. No targets, no feud, and no Trench Coat Mafia. Most of those elements existed at Columbine-which is what gave them such currency. They just had nothing to do with the murders. No connection to Marilyn Manson, Hitler's birthday, minorities, jocks or Christians.

Originally 15 crosses went up on the hill, 13 for the victims 2 for the killers. The killers two lasted only three days.