A psychiatrist and university researcher says he’s analyzed the writings of two Colorado killers and believes it is possible to predict who could be a mass murderer in the future.
“This is groundbreaking research,” said University of Minnesota researcher Dr. Jerry Ronning, who has analyzed writings of Colorado religious shooter Matthew Murray, Columbine High School gunman Eric Harris and Red Lake, Minnesota school shooter Jeffrey Weise.
Murray killed a total of four people in Arvada and Colorado Springs in December 2007. Harris, along with accomplice Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher in 1999. Weise killed nine people in a shooting spree that started at his grandfather’s house and continued at a high school in 2005.
Ronning uses a computer program that measures the frequency of words that pertain to emotion and thought.
“Of the kids who are violent, we find that they have the capacity and tendency to use much more emotional terms. They seem able to translate their feelings into words to a much greater extent than perhaps the average (person,)” said Ronning in an interview with 9NEWS at his office in Minneapolis.
According to Ronning, examples of emotional words are: happy, sweet, nasty, kill and grief. Thought words such as: consider, maybe, because and effect. Ronning says thought words keep emotional outbursts in check.
Ronning says a balance between the two indicates a stable person.
Ronning found a high level of emotional words in Murray’s writings and a declining level of thought words. His research looked at writings starting about 18 months before Murray went on his shooting rampage in Arvada and Colorado Springs.
An excerpt from Murray’s writings, believed to have been written on Aug. 5, 2007: “You raped the soul from the child in me. Crying all alone, the tears flowing down my face in a beautiful stream, the lovely misery and lonely darkness surrounding me as I see everyone going on with their meaningless vain fake lives, all the posers and wannabes, all the abusers.”
Ronning says the passage is an example of descriptive emotional words.
Then in a passage written just days before the shootings, Ronning says Murray’s writings dramatically change and become less emotional and more thought oriented.
“Just because I’m not one of the ‘beautiful people,’ just because other people don’t understand or because I’m not ‘popular’ does not mean I need to take any more (expletive) from anyone,” wrote Murray on Dec. 1, 2007, approximately eight days before the shooting sprees.
Ronning says the change would appear to be a dramatic improvement in a person’s mood, but is really a grave sign of impending trouble.
Murray slept in his own bed after murdering two people at Youth With a Mission in Arvada and his mother said he appeared happy the next morning before he drove to Colorado Springs to commit two more murders.
“If someone decided to commit suicide, everyone around them thinks they look much better because the turmoil is over and they made the decision to act,” Ronning said.
Murray’s dramatic change took place over a few weeks. Ronning says, in people who successfully recover and do not kill, the change takes place over one to two years.
Ronning found a similar improvement in the writings of Harris, before the murders at Columbine High School.
Ronning wants to see more research done on the topic. He says, much like psychologists use personality tests to identify certain traits, he believes analyzing writings of troubled teens and young adults may become a mainstream and standard practice.
His goal is to be able to predict which teens and young adults will ultimately turn to violence.
Cassie Bernall, Corey DePooter, Matt Kechter, Daniel Rohrbough, Isaiah Shoels, Steve Curnow, Kelly Fleming, Daniel Mauser, Rachel Scott, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, Kyle Velasquez and Dave Sanders died at Columbine High School.
Tiffany Johnson and Phillip Crouse died after being shot by Matthew Murray at Youth With a Mission in Arvada.
Sisters Rachel and Stephanie Works died when Murray opened fire at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.
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