Author Leaks NIU Gunman's Secret Past

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 14, 2009 7:00 PM CST
Author Leaks NIU Gunman's Secret Past
This photo shows Steven Kazmierczak, identified as the gunman who killed five people at Northern Illinois University in February.    (Associated Press)

The student whose killing spree took five lives and injured 18 at Northern Illinois University had a history of mental illness and revered figures like Adolf Hitler and Ted Bundy, CNN reports on the first anniversary of the attacks. Steven Kazmierczak even wore a tattoo depicting Jigsaw, the Saw films' sadistic narrator, and had a history of attempted suicide. NIU police say they never got wind of such warnings.

"How could it be a red flag if it never came to us?" said the university's police chief. But David Vann, who culled the information on Kazmierczak for a book about the shootings, said the writing was on the wall. Kazmierczak had been hospitalized several times for mental illness and was known as "strange Steve" by roommates. "What does a mass murderer have to do to get noticed?" asked Vann. (More Steven Kazmierczak stories.)

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