On Valentineâs Day 2008, Steve Kazmierczak killed five and wounded eighteen at Northern Illinois University, then killed himself. But he was an A student, a Deansâ Award winner. How could this happen?
CNN could not get the story. The Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and all others came up empty because Steveâs friends and professors knew very little. He had reinvented himself in his final five years. But David Vann, investigating for Esquire, went back to Steveâs high school and junior high friends, found a life perfectly shaped for mass murder, and gained full access to the entire 1,500 pages of the police files. The result: the most complete portrait we have of any school shooter. But Vann doesnât stop there. He recounts his own history with guns, contemplating a school shooting. This book is terrifying and true, a story youâll never forget.