Screenshots of AOL user profiles for Eric Harris

Columbine shooters | Eric Harris | Eric's AOL profiles

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Below you can see screenshots of AOL profiles for Eric Harris (screenname REB). You can also see the text-only version of the profiles if you're having trouble reading them. Unfortunately, virtual data breaks down over the years and the quality of these screenshots has deteriorated. The profiles created quite a stir back when they were first discovered.

Some of the images below are of fake accounts attributed to the Columbine High shooter. Others are profiles that made news for other reasons, which are noted along with the screenshot.

You can see this WBS chat profile for RebTheJuvey as well. WBS used to be a big web-based chat network but was bought out by the Go Network in early 2001. When it was still WBS, Eric had a couple of webpages hosted through them that got a lot of media attention. You can find those linked to the index of Eric's websites. I captured the HTML for posterity before it disappeared.

The following profiles have been debunked as fake, though they surfaced in the media immediately following the shootings and were mistakenly reported as belonging to Eric Harris. There was also an ICQ profile posted in Eric's name and one for Dylan which surfaced a few months after the shootings. These profiles were proven to be fake, and were later erased by ICQ. I've included them here to illustrate how the shootings affected the mainstream Internet and how copycats and pretenders surfaced in a variety of websites and social media. Several people cropped up claiming to be the shooters, friends or girlfriends, or family members. Some claimed to have known the victims, but got fundamental information about them wrong, such as one person who wrote to tell me about their "best friend Isaiah Shoels - I called her Issy" (Isaiah was a guy). The hoaxes have died down considerably since then, but it's interesting how some folks who relate to a tragedy have felt the need to pretend to have been a part of it.

Ben Cardenes, who lived in Colorado at the time of the shootings and attended LHS, created fake AOL profiles (shown below) at the time the massacre was all over the news. As he explained later the idea was a joke to promote his site, capitalizing on the media sensation surrounding Eric Harris' internet-based hit list. Here's what his site said on Wednesday, April 21:

"I play baseball and Hockey, and am the leader of a small mafia consisting of me and about 30 of my friends."

One page of the site, called "The Hit List," names several people, including a substitute teacher, calling her "the meanest damn sub around."

The site's authors later admitted in print on the site, "This page was made by Ben and Dave as a joke...Nothing hear [sic] is to be taken seriously, unless you are crazy."

Here's a screenshot of the site as it read before:

...and after the media got a hold of it and went nuts over the fear of another shooting in the works:

The site (http://www.angelfire.com/co/DonBennie/) was later shut down by the webhost.

Ben's AOL profiles

Not sure who this really was, but it was another of the profiles that was initially thought to be related to the shootings but was later debunked as a fake.