Early Life
Cho's middle school photo
Seung-Hui Cho was no violent killer from the start. On the contrary, he was just a quiet, shy kid. Growing up in Seoul, South Korea, Cho was much more silent than other kids. He did not talk "to other children" or "to his own family" (Kleinfield). There were other peculiar things about him. According to his granfather, he "never hugged" and was not a happy child (Friedman). Cho was a well-behaved son, but his parents were concerned by his gloomy attitude and emptiness (Kleinfield). Family members "thought he might be a mute. Or mentally ill" (Kleinfield). Because he was so different, his parents wanted to help him in anyway possible. The family (his mother, father, older sister, and himself) moved to the United States when he was 8 years old; relatives believed "that it would help the boy gain confidence if he moved to the United States’ open society"; however, Cho still remained quiet. (Kleinfield). All that the family could do was pray that he would one day talk more and flourish.
High School
A high school photo; 2002
Throughout high school, Cho was still just as quiet. He attended Westfield High School, a rather large high school (Kleinfield). Cho "was scrawny and looked younger than his age", and "he was unresponsive in class, and unwilling to speak"(Kleinfield). This combination of unfortunate, strange traits garnered him some negative attention; some students teased him (Kleinfield). Whether he spoke or not, he was still being picked on. On the occassions Cho did speak in class, classmates made fun of his deep, hoarse voice and poor English (Kleinfield). Instead of hanging out with friends, Cho was a loner. He played video games alone in his room, shot baskets by himself, and ignored neighbors (Kleinfield). One of those neighbors, Abdul Shash, said he acted "like he had a broken heart" (Kleinfield). It was no broken heart though. Cho's odd behavior may have came from another source. As a young adult, he was diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder (Friedman). Despite his problems, his parents, as most parents do, wanted him to have a good future, so as high school winded down, he looked toward college. Unlike his sister who met Ivy League standards and attended Princeton, Cho did not attend an Ivy Leage school (Kleinfield). He instead ended up at school at Virginia Tech.
College Years
a rare picutre of Cho smiling; sent to NBC
Cho's mother hoped that college would transform her son into someone more outgoing, but those wishes were not met (Kleinfield). Throughout his time in college as an English major, Cho acted stranger than ever, and people around him were concerned. Roommates were especially put off by his behavior. When he was talking, it was something outrageous. Once he told his rommate at the time that he had an imaginary, supermodel girlfriend from outer space named Jelly, and another time he called his roommate to say that he and Vladimir Putin, the Russian President were in North Carolina together, claiming they had grown up together in Moscow (Klenfield). Such delirious statements should have been a good clue that he was not right. Cho probably had Jelly becuase he had very little luck with real girls. In 2005, a couple of girls he was following and sending messages to turned him into the cops for bothering them, and after the police came to tell him to stop bothering the girls, he told his roommate that he wanted to kill himself; he was sent to a mental health facility where they deemed him mentally ill but not an immediate danger (Kleinfield). Other times he had called for mental help Cho denied any thoughts of homicide or suicide (Friedman). In classes too, he provided proof that he was abnormal. For example, "sometimes Mr. Cho introduced himself as 'Question Mark,' saying it was the persona of a man who lived on Mars and journeyed to Jupiter. On the sing-in sheet of a literature class, he simple scribbed a question mark instead of his name" (Kleinfield). It is surprising that there was not a stronger push to get Cho more professional help that he severely needed. Still there was a foreshadowing of the events to come in the future. The semester before the shootings, "he took a playwriting class in which he submitted two one-act plays, 'Richard McBeef' and 'Mr. Brownstone', both foulmouthed rants"; "Richard McBeef" should have been particularly alarming, as in it, "a 13-year-old threatens to kill his stepfather" (Kleinfield). In fact, another student in the class read the play and immediately told his roommate, "This is the kind of guy who is going to walk into a classroom and start shooting people" (Kleinfield). There certainly were many chances to stop Seung-Hui Cho from committing murder, but alas, this troubled man was able to perpetrate a horrible one-man shooting with the highest death toll of any United States shooting. The videos broadcasted on NBC have been viewed all over the world; a Korean pastor, Joong-Ang Ilbo watched them on television, and said, "All my family said that was not the Seung-Hui we knew. It was the first time we saw him speaking in full sentences" (Kleinfield). Seung-Hui shocked the world. He was one person, but he managed to create one of America's biggest travesties.
Famous Last Words
"You had 100 billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood... You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off"(Friedman).
"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul, and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die, like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."
"I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you (expletive). I did it for them."
"Do you know what it feels like to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled up on a cross and left to bleed to death for your own amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?"
"You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."
"When the time came I did it. I had to."
"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul, and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die, like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."
"I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you (expletive). I did it for them."
"Do you know what it feels like to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled up on a cross and left to bleed to death for your own amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?"
"You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."
"When the time came I did it. I had to."