Gym gunman's diary of hate
The gunman who murdered three women at a Pennsylvania gym posted a chilling diary on the internet in which he seethed with anger and frustration towards the opposite sex.
Hate-filled George Sodini said he could not understand why they ignored him, despite his best efforts to look nice. He had not had a girlfriend since 1984 and had not slept with a woman in 19 years.
“Women just don’t like me. There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one. Not one of them finds me attractive,” the 48-year-old computer programmer wrote.
For months, he also wrote vaguely about using guns to carry out his “exit plan” at his health club, where lots of young women worked out. On Tuesday, he put his plan into action.
He went to the sprawling LA Fitness Club in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bridgeville, turned out the lights on a dance-aerobics class filled with women, and opened fire with three guns, letting loose a fusillade of at least 36 bullets.
Sodini killed three women and wounded nine others before committing suicide.
“He just had a lot of hatred in him and (was) hell-bent on committing this act, and no one was going to stop him,” Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said.
The 4,610-word web diary appeared to be a nine-month chronology of Sodini’s plans to end his misery with a shocking act of carnage at the health club. He portrayed himself as painfully and inexplicably lonely.
“Every evening I am alone, and then go to bed alone,” he wrote. “I see twenty-something couples everywhere. I see a twenty-something guy with a nice twentyish young women. I think those years slipped right by for me. Why should I continue another 20+ years alone?”
It was unclear when the web diary was posted and whether it had been updated online repeatedly since November or posted in its entirety recently. Mr Moffatt said investigators were trying to determine whether anyone saw it online before the rampage.
“If anyone knew of it, they would have a moral and ethical obligation and legal obligation to bring it forward,” the superintendent said.
The violence rocked Bridgeville, a town of about 5,300 people.
Sodini killed Heidi Overmier, 46, a sales manager at an amusement park; Jody Billingsley, 37, who worked for a medical-supply company; and Elizabeth Gannon, 49, an X-ray technician.
Sodini was a member of the health club and had been there twice on Tuesday before he came back later that night, police said. He did not have a relationship with any of his victims, according to police.
In his web diary, Sodini wrote of planning the attack since at least November and said he tried to carry it out when the same Tuesday night aerobics class met on January 6.
“I cannot wait for tomorrow!” he exulted the night before. But he backed out at the last moment.
“It is 8.45pm: I chickened out!” he wrote. “I brought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!”
In his diary, he complained that women “don’t even give me a second look ANYWHERE” even though he was tanned and fit and claimed to dress well and smell nice. He listed his status as “Never married”. In a chilling addition, he recorded the date of his death as August 4, 2009.
That evening, he walked into the health club wearing black workout gear and a headband and entered the Latin impact class with four guns.
Jordan Solomon, 14, said she thought it was weird that a man walked into the all-female class and put a black duffel bag on the ground and reached into it.
“All of a sudden all the lights went out and I turned around, he started firing. I turned around and I saw him holding a gun,” she said.
She said he was expressionless as he sprayed bullets. The teenager ran out and into the car park, then into a restaurant, where she told workers to call police.
Sodini did not have a criminal record and legally bought the guns he used, police said. He had used his mobile phone a few minutes before the shooting, but Mr Moffatt would not say who he called.
Sodini’s family issued a brief statement saying: “Our hearts and prayers are with the victims and their families and we pray for the full recovery of the survivors.”
Sodini graduated in 1992 from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in computer science and had worked as a systems analyst at a Pittsburgh law firm since 1999.
Neighbour Connie Fontanesi said he was so anti-social “we really didn’t learn anything personal about him”.
