Ismail Ax, and other Dark Matters

The alleged shooter, Cho Seung-Hui

The first two victims, Emily Hilsher, 18, and Ryan Clark, 22

UPDATE:
Thesmokinggun.com has posted a play that Cho wrote called "Richard McBeef".

Does this look like Ryan Clark? I found this on a MySpace page for Ryan Clark, 22, in Blacksburg, VA. It says he's bi. (There's another Ryan, 22, Blacksburg, VA, whose profile says he's "gay".) I know, this is how rumors get started...

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Collecting my readings and thoughts on the VaTech shootings. Here are some "facts" trickling out less than 24 hours after the shooting:

• The shooter appears to be Cho Seung-Hui (조승희)


• born in Jan 8, 1984, in South Korea


• came to the States (Washington D.C.) with his parents when he was 8 (September 1992) and was a permanent legal resident


• a senior majoring in English, but his disturbing writings raised some concern with his teachers:
  

  Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."
  
  "There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this." (Yahoo! News)



• His family runs a dry cleaning business and he has a sister who attended Princeton University


• reported to have been taking meds for depression


• from what I can surmise, the first two people he killed were his supposed girlfriend or object of his stalking, Emily Hilsher (link to her MySpace page) and Ryan Clark, her neighbor on fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory. The implication is that Clark, an RA, came to mediate an argument between Cho and Hilsher, and whether Clark and Hilsher were romantically involved is another supposition which might have sparked their murder. My armchair speculation is that Hilsher and Clark weren't involved. They were probably just friends. Clark just happened to be consoling her.


• After the first two murders, Cho went back to his room to reload, and left a "disturbing note" criticizing "rich kids", "debauchery", and "deceitful charlatans"


• He also had written on his arm in red ink "Ismail Ax"

Some sources:
Wikipedia page on Cho Seung-Hui

"You caused me to do this." (ABC News)

Newsday story

Article on a London site, "Jealous lover who killed 32 in college massacre named"

FOX Facts: Alleged Virginia Tech Gunman Cho Seung-Hui (I know, I know, FOX "Facts")

Additional links:
Jo Ann Beard's essay on Gang Lu, a Chinese PhD grad student who went on a similar killing spree in Iowa University.
"The Fourth State of Matter"

A WashPost piece on the VA killings entitled, Dark Matter: The Psychology of Mass Murder (that strangely has no reference to the Gang Lu killings)