[3][9], By design, only very few individuals (apart from Nixon and Haldeman) knew of the existence of the taping system: Butterfield, Haldeman's assistant Lawrence Higby, and the Secret Service technicians who had installed it. Harris: [in reference to the Kentucky and Arkansas shootings] Do not think were trying to copy anyone. At the end of the document was a partial transcript of the "Nixon Tape," but only the portion of the interview Eric had with Nixon. [32] Corporate security expert Phil Mellinger undertook a project to restore Haldeman's handwritten notes describing the missing 18+12 minutes,[33] but that effort also failed to produce any new information. For more information, please see our "[20], In his 2014 book The Nixon Defense, Nixon's counsel John Dean suggests that the full collection of recordings now available "largely answer the questions regarding what was known by the White House about the reasons for the break-in and bugging at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, as well as what was erased during the infamous 18 minute and 30 second gap during the June 20, 1972, conversation and why. 39, No. Klebold: [interrupts] We did what we had to do. Skip to main content. To protect our source and in keeping with prior practice, we did not provide the tape. 119 votes, 40 comments. (Richard Nixon Library) Earlier this year, on July 11, 2007, the privately run Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, was . In November 1971, Indira Gandhi visited the White House to discuss tensions between India and Pakistan. Videos Of Eric and Dylan Before Columbine. [38] The 80 ruling (Justice William Rehnquist recused himself because he had worked for attorney general John N. Mitchell) in United States v. Nixon found that President Nixon was wrong in arguing that courts are compelled to honor, without question, any presidential claim of executive privilege. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Does that look crass or NRA LOBBYIST JIM BAKER: You mean the legislative? Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. On April 20th, 1999, two students attending Columbine High School, Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold, went to their school and killed fourteen students (including themselves) and one teacher, and injured many others. Although theres evidence Nixon directed his plumbers to commit crimes and evidence he tried to cover-up his administrations role in the Watergate break-in, no ones ever found concrete evidence proving Nixon ordered the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate. "[24] Others have suggested that Haig was involved in deliberately erasing the tapes with Nixon's involvement, or that the erasure was conducted by a White House lawyer. Seated at a desk, she reached far back over her left shoulder for a telephone as her foot applied pressure to the pedal controlling the transcription machine. With that in mind I don't think it's reasonable to conclude Wayne called because he actually knew or believed without a doubt that Eric was involved. CORNISH: Tim Naftali is an associate professor of history at New York University. Initially, government investigators focused on the tapes concerning the Watergate scandal. Here are some things the tapes have revealed so far. All this coupled with the fact that Kathy really didn't want the investigators to go down into his bedroom for fear of what they might find makes me think they were far more aware of the potential danger of their son than they let on. Gotta go. However, a shocking realization took me in a different and much simpler direction. Twitter/Mickeysnoel screenshotEric Harris and Dylan Klebold, This tape, transcribed by Langman, has Harris, nickname Reb, driving with Klebold to get gear; two large fuel containers and three propane bottles. A collection of thoughtful books and memoirs written by Columbine survivors, Columbine families, journalists, and other authors. The point u mentioned about eric jokingly mocking his parents' cluelessness about what he was doing confirms they knew nothing. wince at the taste. [25][26], Nixon himself launched the first investigation into how the tapes were erased. The public didnt learn hed ordered this until 1997, when Newsweek and The Washington Post transcribed new portions of the tapes. John F. Kennedy shaking hands with Nixon before their televised debate in 1960. I want you to have that Fly CD. [3] The system was turned off on July 18, 1973, two days after it became public knowledge as a result of the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee hearings. Kennedy got us in, Johnson kept us in. He talks about specific people he will kill. Blow the safe and get it.'. And so anything we do here is going to be a matter of trying to decide the best of a whole bunch of very, very bad choices.". .. Dylan takes the camera then and begins filming Eric. The Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colo., was at the time the deadliest school shooting since the late 1960s, threatening to provide a tragic backdrop to the NRA's previously scheduled annual. It's just strange,obviously I could be and probably an wrong,but a part of me always thinks he wanted to be caught as an excuse to back out. BAKER: I talked to Delfay this morning, and he said they stand ready to help us orchestrate whatever we want to do. [3] Three months later, microphones were added to President Nixon's private office in the Old Executive Office Building and the following year microphones were installed in the presidential lodge at Camp David. The final report, dated May 31, 1974, found that these other explanations did not contradict the original findings. Since said 1999 screening with family members, the unreleased tapes have presumably never been seen by any members of the general public. For example, Eric named 5 girls who never called him back and "Bill's" transcript contains 4 out of 5 of names. Is that the family??? 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. He initially lost several cases,[47] but the courts ruled in 1998 that some 820 hours and 42 million pages of documents were his personal private property that must be returned to his estate. Around the same time, leaders discussed how to respond to the shooting at Columbine High School in nearby Littleton, Colo. More than 20 years later, NPR has obtained secret recordings of those conversations. The people you are most likely to get in that member meeting without an exhibit hall are the nuts," says LaPierre. The tape then stops once more, before cutting back to a closeup of Harris' face; he is now alone and begins to talk about his family, apologizing for the agony that he knew the coming events would put them through and telling them that it was not their fault. 10k Lead Tracking. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold documented their madness with journals and videos. And they dismiss conservative politicians and gun industry representatives as largely inconsequential players, saying they will do whatever the NRA proposes. Not to say anyone could guess the magnitude of what he was planning, but how many red flags did they miss or simply choose to ignore? It's at once hard to imagine this took place but can be. [8] Significant phone lines were tapped as well, including those in the Oval Office, Old Executive Office Building and the Lincoln Sitting Room, which was Nixon's favorite room in the White House. Cabinet Room Recordings: Tape #s 47 - 129. That fuc*ing shotgun [he kisses his gun] straight out of Doom. One recorder, labeled as Exhibit 60, was marked "Secret Service" and the other, Exhibit 60B, was accompanied by a foot pedal. In the end though, I doubt we'll ever know what was on it especially in light of Jeffco announcing this past January of having destroyed the Basement Tapes and other Columbine related evidence. The two converse for a while, then the tape cuts out again. There, he says: "NOT IN THE COLUMBINE GUIDE: [.] [10] Hundreds of hours are of discussions on foreign policy, including planning for the 1972 Nixon visit to China and subsequent visit to the Soviet Union. Kissinger mentioned this to Nixon as far back as March 1971. He believes that members of all those groups are arrogant and that they put themselves above the law. After 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech in 2007: "This is a time for people to grieve, to mourn, and to heal. Dylan adds that they can have his things as well. The Basement Tapes were filmed by the murderous architects of the Columbine Massacre. The "Nixon" Tape. Kissinger responded that the Indians are bastards anyway, and agreed that Gandhi was a bitch. A little later, Nixon added, we really slobbered over the old witch.. Afterward, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office confirmed that the tapes had been destroyed and that no copies are known to exist at all, meaning that the tapes would be lost forever if true. [36] The Judiciary Committee rejected Nixon's edited transcripts, saying that they did not comply with the subpoena. Solicitor General and acting head of the Justice Department Robert Bork fired Cox. columbine shooting, columbine tapes, columbine videos, basement tapes. Wow the leader follower thing started quicker thank I thought. We still don't have a specific transcript for what Eric recorded the morning of the massacre, but the transcript noted that morning message was only a few moments long. The Columbine Basement Tapes - Everything you need to know about them Columbine Video Archives 25.7K subscribers Subscribe 5.4K 240K views 4 years ago TWITTER. 3:42. and our Early on the morning of the shooting, Eric made an audio recording on a tape labeled "Nixon." The name "Nixon" is not a reference to the President, but rather to the last name of a man they interviewed for a school project. ROBINSON: No, I'm talking about something concrete PR CONSULTANT TONY MAKRIS: Like a victims fund ROBINSON: Yeah, we create a victims fund, and we, uh, we give the victims a million dollars or something like that, uh. [20] Haldeman's notes from the meeting show that among the topics of discussion were the arrests at the Watergate Hotel. [6], On August 19, 2013, the Nixon Library and the National Archives and Records Administration released the final 340 hours of the tapes that cover the period from April 9 through July 12, 1973. Is it known where exactly the tapes were found? The final words spoken on the recording are of Harris saying "That's it. They suggest that their story should be made into a film, speculating on whether Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino would direct it. We are in deep s*** on this deal. I remember that CLUE with a picture of a fuse is the last part of the basement tapes. Not because guns are responsible, but because we care about these people? Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Evidence Vols. Where can I learn more about that? But he also knew that this would probably hurt his reelection chances in 1972which is why he delayed withdrawal until 1973. [20], On November 21, 1973, Sirica appointed a panel of persons nominated jointly by the White House and the Special Prosecution Force. The shooting was dubbed "the Columbine High School massacre" and the implications and impact of the event continue to be discussed over two decades later. RC. This is just the point when she is a bitch, Nixon said. When the footage cuts back in, it is of Harris alone in a moving car, with the camera mounted on the dashboard. Such a sicko, Oh it was a honda prelude? 3. Dylan is wearing a black baseball cap on backward, exposing a B embroidered in white on the back of the hat the Boston Red Sox logo. "Bombthreat before she blows" coincidence. Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre is on the line, as is longtime NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer and advertising strategist Angus McQueen, among others. "The hair on the back of my neck stood up" when this thought occurred to her, Hammer says. While some critics of the NRA claim that the organization is beholden to the firearms industry, NRA leaders on the call claimed the opposite that the industry was ready and willing to follow their lead. It zooms in on it. Lead Investigator Kate Battan told me there is nothing else significant on it. Woah, I never knew that Eric's dad accused him of taking LSD. Is this inside the Harris home???? The other three tapes, the Basement Tapes, were under a court-ordered seal. "People will die because of me," Eric said. "The fruitcakes are going to show up. "Don't anybody kid yourself about this great macho thing of going down there and showing our chest and showing how damn tough we are. Roche published an article for Times on the tapes on December 20 soon after viewing them, dubbing them the "Basement Tapes". "On the other side, if you don't appear to be deferential in honoring the dead, you end up being a tremendous s***head who wouldn't tuck tail and run, you know? House Committee on Un-American Activities. Great question, honestly. It kinda sheds some new light on what his parent's might've thought about his mental state. . In this tape, Harris and Klebold are in the Harris basement-level family room. Cookie Notice On it, Nixon and H. R. Haldeman are heard formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved. [28] The panel also determined that the recording consisted of at least five separate segments, possibly as many as nine,[29] and that at least five segments required hand operation; that is, they could not have been performed using the foot pedal. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. I agree," says Makris. Columbine High School mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on the day of the rampage in the school's cafeteria. Its at once hard to imagine this took place but can be imagined visually by reading the descriptive transcripts. The NRA strategists on the call sounded shaken and panicked as they pondered their next step into what would become an era of routine and horrific mass school shootings. [14] On October 19, 1973, he offered a compromise; Nixon proposed that Democratic U.S. The locations are broken into five groups: White House Telephone Recordings: Tape #s 1 - 46. Over the next four decades, the Nixon Library and the National Archives released 3,000 hours of tape that it considers in the public interest, holding back the rest for family privacy or national security concerns. This is not a time for political discussions or public policy debates." A school bus in 1999 passes a billboard advertising the NRA's annual meeting in Denver, previously scheduled to take place just 10 days after the shooting at Columbine High School. A subreddit focused on constructive discussion to better understand the events that took place surrounding the mass shooting at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999. [3], On February 16, 1971, a taping system was installed in two rooms in the White House, the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. -We know Eric saw a psychiatrist and was prescribed antidepressants.-We know Eric's dad caught him with a pipe bomb and just made him detonate it.-We know the gun store called Eric's home phone to let him know his "ammunition was ready" and Wayne flippantly dismissed them saying he didn't order any.And we know that on the day of the attack Wayne called 911 almost immediately saying, "I think my son might be involved!" They name some of the classmates they hope to murder. The final of the Basement Tape, reported to have been recorded around 30 minutes before their murderous rampage, is transcribed by Langman. [18], The contents missing from the recording remain unknown, though the gap occurs during a conversation between Nixon and H. R. Haldeman three days after the Watergate break-in. She has generally been straight with me." A few lines from it were transcribed, and appear in my book. They go on to talk about how they hate all races: ni**ers, spi*s, Jews, fuc*ing whites. They also mention enemies that abused them and friends who didnt do enough to defend them. He can be heard on the recordings obtained by NPR calling some NRA supporters "nuts.". ", Says Hammer: "If you pull down the exhibit hall, that's not going to leave anything for the media except the members meeting, and you're going to have the wackos with all kinds of crazy resolutions, with all kinds of, of dressing like a bunch of hillbillies and idiots. His staff created the impression of warm, sweet and nice to people, reads a lot of books, a philosopher and all that sort of thing. "Everything we do here has a downside," NRA official Kayne Robinson says on the tapes. After introducing himself he said: "my son is Eric Harris and I'm afraid that he might be involved in the shooting at Columbine High School" and more. ", Asked for comment, a current NRA spokesperson said, "It is disappointing that anyone would promote an editorial agenda against the NRA by using shadowy sources and 'mystery tapes' in order to conjure up the tragic events of over 20 years ago.". The reporting to follow is based on documents from acolumbinesite.com,, and the JCSO report. the so-called Milk Fund and Watergate trials. On the tape he explains what his motives are and why he and Dylan are doing NBK. If we have a fuc*ing religious war or oil or anything. He claimed that it was an intensive investigation but came up empty. And, and it's gonna, it's gonna be the worst thing you can imagine.". The NRA considered other options as well, as illustrated by this exchange: NRA OFFICIAL KAYNE ROBINSON: Is there something concrete that we can offer? And inside, then-NRA President Charlton Heston delivered the defiant message that its leaders had planned out in their private calls a message very similar to the group's position on mass shootings today: The national media is not to be trusted, and any conversation about guns and the NRA after mass shootings is an untoward politicization of the issue. Three days later, it was made public during the televised testimony of Butterfield, when he was asked about the possibility of a White House taping system by Senate Counsel Fred Thompson. For images, explain its historical value or another point around which a discussion can form. Is there anybody we ought to be talking to? The transcript is around 1500 words longer than what was released by Peter Langman. As Eisenhower was for ending Korea.. I know my mom and dad will be just like just fucking shocked beyond belief. Goodbye," before Klebold sticks his face in the camera and also says "Goodbye." Mario Tama/AFP via Getty Images When Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman suggested that you could blackmail Johnson on this stuff, Nixon said they should steal the report to blackmail him.. So Im gone. Not long after the article's publication, furious family members of the deceased threatened to sue Jefferson County, considering the fact that not even they had been given access to the recordings. The tape then finishes. The Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colo., was at the time the deadliest school shooting since the late 1960s, threatening to provide a tragic backdrop to the NRA's previously scheduled annual convention in Denver. This gets at one of the centrally weird things about the Nixon tapes: they allow Nixon to continue offending people and incriminating himself long after his death. https://lostmediawiki.com/index.php?title=The_Basement_Tapes_(partially_found_Columbine_killers_video_diary;_1999)&oldid=197604. And in those private moments, the NRA considered a strikingly more sympathetic posture toward mass shootings than the uncompromising stance it has taken publicly in the decades since, even considering a $1 million fund to care for the victims. Some one who becomes angry easily . Read many questions regarding the tapes, but never even considered how they where discovered. In 2006, Jefferson Country Sherriff Ted Mink was told by the courts that he was now allowed to release the remaining footage should he want to, but he ultimately declined to do so, fearing that some troubled youths may be inspired by the recordings. The panel determined that the buzz was of no consequence and that the gap was the result of an erasure[27] performed on the Exhibit 60 recorder. "We got a call from Congressman Tancredo, who is as good as they get, and he's nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof," says Baker. You feel responsible? 43:02. An NRA spokesperson called the story a "hit piece" and complained that the NRA was denied the tape. GettyColumbine school shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. [3] The system was expanded to include other rooms within the White House and Camp David. I think his last goodbye message describes his hatred for the school's jock-first culture. President Lyndon Johnson meeting with presidential candidate Richard Nixon at the White House onJuly 26, 1968. Its about a half an hour before our little judgment day. This is why I've always been more interested in hearing Eric's 'Nixon' tape than seeing/hearing the basement tapes. Around the same time, leaders discussed how to respond to the shooting at Columbine High School in nearby Littleton, Colo. More than 20 years later, NPR has obtained secret recordings of those conversations. I always assumed it was on a poster or something rather than handwritten, and that it wasnt necessarily filmed on person. By Brittany Shammas. For the duration of the phone call, about five minutes, she kept her foot on the device's pedal, causing a five-minute portion of the tape to be rerecorded. He shot lance kirklin with a shotgun in the face, and was the one that visciously called Eric over to Isaiah and said "is that n****r dead, make sure he's dead". He lacked substantial support in the Senate as well; Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott estimated that no more than 15 senators were willing to even consider acquittal. I'm sorry if this is easily obtained information somehow but I haven't found it. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. I wish that it was the law that presidential meetings had to be tape recorded, Hughes says. The shooters' parents, as well as many families of the shooters' victims, all supported the suppression and destruction of all the tapes.[2]. Any thoughts? ", In 2003, a fifteen-minute recording of the killers shooting at the Rampart Range was released, and in 2004, a short film the two had created for school five months prior to the massacre titled Hitmen for Hire, both of which many people suspected to have been two of the five "Basement Tapes". It has not been released. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. We had the idea before the first one ever happened. He addresses and apologizes to his parents, saying theyre the best, and what hes about to do is his and Klebolds fault and not theirs. The camera then cuts out and back in, still showing Harris holding the guns, but in different clothing. And the investigation was not supposed to be there so soon. "The dirty secret of this day and age is that political gain and media ratings all too often bloom on fresh graves. [1], In February 1971, a sound-activated taping system was installed in the Oval Office, including in Nixon's Wilson desk, using Sony TC-800B open-reel tape recorders[2] to capture audio transmitted by telephone taps and concealed microphones. The Basement Tapes (partially found Columbine killers video diary; 1999), Evidence item #265 (One 8mm tape, recorded mid-March 1999), Evidence item #298 (Two 8mm tapes, one recorded April 11th, 1999, one date unknown), Evidence item #333 (One 8mm tape, recorded late March to April 20th, 1999), Lost advertising and interstitial material. Bloomsbury Publishing 2007.12.26 p.30, Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) page 4, Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) page 11, Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) page 36, Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) page 44, Advisory Panel on White House Tapes (1974) page iv, National Archives and Records Administration, Impeachment process against Richard Nixon, Master list of Nixon's political opponents, Committee for the Re-Election of the President, Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act, "Secret Oval Office Recordings by Roosevelt in '40 Disclosed", "WashingtonPost.com: President Taped Talks, Phone Calls; Lawyer Ties Ehrlichman to Payments", "The Nixon Tapes: Secret Recordings from the White House", "The Untapped Secrets of the Nixon Tapes", "WashingtonPost.com: Court Battle Set as Nixon Defies Subpoenas", "President Refuses to Turn Over Tapes; Ervin Committee, Cox Issue Subpoenas", "WashingtonPost.com: Nixon Forces Firing of Cox; Richardson, Ruckelshaus Quit", "The Crisis: The Secretary and the Tapes Tangle", "Nixon nearly "blew my stack" over Watergate tape gap", "Rose Mary Woods Dies; Loyal Nixon Secretary", "Truth in a Lie: Forty Years After the 18 Minute Gap", "Cracking Watergate's Infamous 18 1/2 Minute Gap", "National Archives Has Given Up On Filling the Nixon Tape Gap", "National Archives Releases Forensic Report on H.R. According to Haig, the president was "spectacularly inept" at understanding and operating mechanical devices, and in the course of reviewing the tape in question, he may have caused the erasures by fumbling with the recorder's controls, though Haig could not say whether the erasures had occurred inadvertently or intentionally. We need to get a chain reaction going here. Just know Im going to a better place. They released the final batch of tapes in 2013. This also makes me wonder if Wayne Harris saw the tape on the kitchen table before he made the 911 call or if he even noticed it before the police obtained it. Nixon made this callous statement after the National Prayer Breakfast in February 1972, while talking to Chief of Staff Haldeman and Reverend Billy Graham about the Vietnam War. And as you can see, the final tape was inside the camera, so wherever that was. The content of the three tapes is disturbing, shocking even. What would Vietnam have looked like if the war had ended earlier? Did Dylan Commit Suicide . Here are some moments. . White House lawyers first heard of the gap on the evening of November 14, 1973, and Judge Sirica, who had issued the subpoenas for the tapes, was not told until November 21, after the president's attorneys had decided that there was "no innocent explanation" they could offer. The strategists ultimately decided that canceling their convention would deny them a platform to respond to criticism and also that a cancellation would be an opportunity for attacks by the national media. For more information, please see our Harris: Yea . Well, you're true. Privacy Policy. hide caption, Charlton Heston, then the NRA's president, delivered a defiant message at the organization's 1999 meeting: "Why us? They want us to play the heavy in their drama of packaged grief." ", Charlton Heston, then the NRA's president, delivered a defiant message at the organization's 1999 meeting: "Why us? "Made that point earlier. It wouldnt have been too bad, Nixon guessed. Who is more keenly aware than I am that, from a political standpoint, we should have flushed it down the drain three years ago, blamed Johnson and Kennedy? he asked rhetorically. Our plan is better, not like those fucks in Kentucky with camouflage and .22s. By July, he was speculating about reviving the House Committee on Un-American Activities to investigate government whistleblowersor in his words, going after all these Jews. I specifically remember reading something about the tapes being found in Erics closet with the word CLUE written on the door/above it. 1973 President Richard Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate. He even mockingly impersonated his parent's on the Basement Tapes saying something like, "If only we would've asked the right questions." Harris tells Klebold to "say it now," prompting Klebold to begin giving a goodbye message to his friends and family. He takes a small drink and tries not to [35] Later that month, Nixon released more than 1,200 pages of edited transcripts of the subpoenaed tapes, but refused to surrender the actual tapes, claiming executive privilege once more. "At that same period where they're going to be burying these children, we're going to be having media trying to run through the exhibit hall, looking at kids fondling firearms, which is going to be a horrible, horrible, horrible juxtaposition," says NRA lobbyist Jim Baker on the conference call. [15], According to President Nixon's secretary Rose Mary Woods, on September 29, 1973, she was reviewing a tape of the June 20, 1972 recordings,[17] when she made "a terrible mistake" during transcription. Would love your thoughts, please comment. A school bus in 1999 passes a billboard advertising the NRA's annual meeting in Denver, previously scheduled to take place just 10 days after the shooting at Columbine High School. "That's one very good argument, Jim," replies PR consultant Tony Makris. Hey, /u/Alive_Brother_1515! The content of the tapes was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Columbine investigation during its first few months right up until the point that Jeffco officials provided . [8] The system was installed and monitored by the Secret Service, and the tapes were stored in a room in the White House basement. An overview of the history of the "Basement Tapes," courtesy of acolumbinesite.com. In addition to mapping out their national strategy, NRA leaders can also be heard describing the organization's more activist members in surprisingly harsh terms, deriding them as "hillbillies" and "fruitcakes" who might go off script after Columbine and embarrass them. Time wrote about the videos and CNN has a voluminous record of Columbine reporting.