For images, explain its historical value or another point around which a discussion can form. 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. The "Nixon" Tape. [3] At Nixon's request, Haldeman and his staffincluding Deputy Assistant Alexander Butterfieldworked with the United States Secret Service to install a recording system. . Thirteen people lay dead at a high school in Colorado. A while back, "Bill Ockham" posted a document containing a detailed transcript of the "Basement Tapes" with dialogue not previously released to the public. So much uncertainty floating around. 43:02. An in-depth transcript of evidence item #298, courtesy of acolumbinesite.com. One of those possibilities included that Klebold's hand was situated over the magazine in the leaked photos. Is it known where exactly the tapes were Sure, the North Vietnamese would have probably slaughtered and castrated two million South Vietnamese Catholics, but nobody would have cared. [42][43], Once the "Smoking Gun" transcript was made public, Nixon's political support practically vanished. His lower half cant be seen. Charlton Heston (left), then president of the NRA, meets with fellow leaders Wayne LaPierre (far right) and Jim Baker (center) on April 30, 1999, ahead of the NRA's annual meeting in Denver. The two converse for a while, then the tape cuts out again. The reporting to follow is based on documents from acolumbinesite.com,, and the JCSO report. This quote isnt an order from Nixon to break into the Watergateits an order to break into the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C. Nixon was afraid that there was a report on the 1968 bombing halt that might contain information on his own illegal attempts to sabotage the start of peace talks to end the Vietnam War, Hughes says. 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. There are many people who know what Eric said on the tape, but cannot speak about it for legal reasons. Charlton Heston (left), then president of the NRA, meets with fellow leaders Wayne LaPierre (far right) and Jim Baker (center) on April 30, 1999, ahead of the NRA's annual meeting in Denver. They talk about how they used various people to acquire their weapons, before referring to a classmate of theirs, Brandon Larson and how "you will find his body." [3] The recordings were produced on as many as nine Sony TC-800B machines using very thin 0.5 mil (12.7m) tape at the slow speed of 15/16 inches (23mm) per second. [12], On July 16, 1973, Butterfield told the committee in a televised hearing that Nixon had ordered a taping system installed in the White House to automatically record all conversations. They name some of the classmates they hope to murder. Further reading into the book brings up a brief elaboration: "Eric got the final two boxes of ammo from Mark Manes, and said he might go shooting tomorrow. Shortly afterward, Klebold takes the camera and aims it at Harris, who is now holding the guns. 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. 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. ", 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.". I just wanted to apologize to you guys for any crap this might instigate as far as [inaudible] or something. We can't have it knocked overbrutallyto put it brutallybefore the election, he said; and Nixon responded, That's right. In the last months before the election, Nixon told Kissinger, South Vietnam probably can never even survive anyway; and I dont want it before the election with a Thiu blowup. Share to Pinterest. He told NDTV: There was disappointment at the results of the meeting. Because their story needs a villain. Goodbye. Unlike some contemporary politicians, Nixon made a habit of hiding his prejudices from the public; but his tapes certainly capture them, Hughes says. Just after the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, gun control advocates rallied at the Colorado State Capitol to protest the NRA's annual meeting that year in Denver. Dylan Klebold sits in a tan La-Z-Boy recliner in Erics basement bedroom, chewing on a toothpick while Eric Harris messes around with the now-stationary video recorder. . "The fruitcakes are going to show up. It has not been released. Parties and banquets were planned even an appearance by a comedian. 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. These little brown people, so far away, he continued, we dont know them very well, naturally you would say., WATCH: Watergate: The Miniseries on HISTORY Vault. Just after the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, gun control advocates rallied at the Colorado State Capitol to protest the NRA's annual meeting that year in Denver. NPR has obtained more than 2 1/2 hours of recordings of those private meetings after the Columbine shooting, which offer unique insight into the NRA's deliberations in the wake of this crisis and how it has struggled to develop what has become its standard response to school shootings ever since. The NRA ultimately decided to hold its convention in Denver after the shootings, albeit vastly scaled down in size. If anything I publish anywhere ever disappears, I didn't take it down. This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter. As such, this tape is not considered a part of the "Basement Tapes" by many people (it has been included here for reference reasons, and due to the fact that it is counted by authorities as part of evidence item #298).[4]. They came to an agreement, with Jefferson County quickly screening the tapes for them, and then putting them in a vault "indefinitely. The second tape simply contained small amounts of footage of Klebold, Harris and two other boys, presumably in footage recorded for a school project. Everywhere else it said it was a civic. When an unknown party filed an open records request to view the unreleased tapes, they received a notice that the sheriff's office "no longer [had] any documents in its possession responsive to [their] request." [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. Finally, Harris turns the camera to his previously seen journal which he now dubs the "Writings of God," flicking through the book while talking about his beliefs, before showing various "Doom drawings" that he had done near the back of the book. Harris: Susan, [referring to his friend] sorry. In the aftermath of the shooting, McQueen reasons that "normal" members would stay away from the site of the tragedy leaving only the group's most extreme members as attendees. She has generally been straight with me." The shooters' parents, as well as many families of the shooters' victims, all supported the suppression and destruction of all the tapes.[2]. He states that there are seven and one-third days left, before listing off five names. A week before that bombing, the NRA put out a fundraising letter calling the ATF "jackbooted government thugs," and after the bombing, LaPierre had defended this rhetoric. It's at once hard to imagine this took place but can be. the so-called Milk Fund and Watergate trials. That was a pure creation of mythology. Hey, /u/Alive_Brother_1515! Great question, honestly. I could have blamed them and been the national hero! Or was it a last ditch attempt to BE caught, he seems to have dropped so many hints and no one noticed. They discuss the role of Republican politicians in the Columbine fallout as well and say they too are looking to the NRA for guidance. [15] Richardson refused and resigned instead, then Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus was asked to fire Cox but also refused and resigned. Nixon then ranted about the kind of public image his staff should project for him. The tape was labelled "Top Secret Rampart." "For NRA to scrap this and the amount of money that we have spent ". But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 119 votes, 40 comments. We are in deep s*** on this deal. A collection of thoughtful books and memoirs written by Columbine survivors, Columbine families, journalists, and other authors. 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. I always assumed it was on a poster or something rather than handwritten, and that it wasnt necessarily filmed on person. 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. 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. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. He can be heard on the recordings obtained by NPR calling some NRA supporters "nuts." "The "Nixon" microcassette tape that Eric Harris recorded the night before the massacre. 40:19. Implement it, Nixon said, referring to a secret plan to expand government burglary and wiretapping. There was another reason Nixon wanted his cronies to steal the Brookings Institution report. Share via email. Facing certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction in the Senate, Nixon announced his resignation on the evening of Thursday, August 8, 1974, effective as of noon the next day. Nixon recordings are numbered by location of the original recording. From the time that the federal government seized his records until his death, Nixon was locked in frequent legal battles over control of the tapes. Eric's "Nixon" Tape; Were They on Psychotropic Meds? A few lines from it were transcribed, and appear in my book. Klebold then takes the camera and films Harris, who also records a goodbye message. There were a reported five tapes, two of which would later be released; one called Hitmen for Hire, and the other tape of the two shooting at Ramparts Range. Videos Of Eric and Dylan Before Columbine. He takes a small drink and tries not to The panel was supplied with the evidence tape, the seven tape recorders from the Oval Office and Executive Office Building and the two Uher 5000 recorders. Is this inside the Harris home???? 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. They then move on to discussing the weapons, before getting into their personal philosophical views, and talking about various people who they believed had done them wrong. 4. "Idiots, Hypocrites, Demagogues, and More Idiots: Not-So-Great Moments in Modern American Politics." In December 1999, Time . Thank you for your submission to r/Columbine! Those kids were only trying to be accepted by others. Murderous Minds: Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris - Columbine High School Shooting Documentary. Her posture during the demonstration, dubbed the "Rose Mary Stretch", caused many political commentators to question the validity of the explanation. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. How do you think we got ours? see full image 1 / 3 It was all just their own paranoia.. Again, they talk about their plans to murder people, before discussing various things such as credit card fraud and tests, and inventing excuses on why they would need certain parts that they were still to purchase for their upcoming attack, in case anyone was to ask them. The final of the Basement Tape, reported to have been recorded around 30 minutes before their murderous rampage, is transcribed by Langman. 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. Hes wearing a plaid shirt, either dark blue or black with white; the shirts untucked. [22], In a grand-jury interview in 1975, Nixon said that he initially believed that only four minutes of the tape were missing. [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. Did Dylan Commit Suicide . My guess is that Eric simply restated what he said on the "Basement Tapes" and in his journals about how people are going to pay for what they've put him through and how hard his life has been. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are once more in the family room of the Harris home. An in-depth transcript of evidence item #265, courtesy of acolumbinesite.com.