Before his violent shooting spree at a Pittsburgh-area LA Fitness, George Sodini published blog posts and YouTube videos about his plans. Both give a glimpse into the sad and disturbing mind of a murderer and the reveal the dark side of social media.

George Sodini walked into an LA Fitness exercise class unloading 50 rounds of ammunition on the participants, mostly young women. His violent shooting spree left four dead and another ten injured.

His blog has been taken down, but gave details about Sodini’s planning that he wrote as after he, “realized that this project was going to drag on.” He had made another attempt in January, but lost his nerve before entering the sports club.

There are still copies of his full blog floating around, but they’re not for the faint of heart. In it he details his loneliness and 18 years of celibacy that led to his rage.

Sodini’s YouTube videos give a closer look at his obsession with women. He starts off professing how easy it was to hide from his emotion for one more day leading up to his attack.

Another video seems to intentionally illustrate the life of the self-appointed George Pittsburgh. Sodini boasted about his late-model car and suburban home as if he filmed it for an online dating site.

During the tour of his home, Sodini’s coffee table held further hints of his deep-seated anger at women. The table was littered with dating books on how to meet women.

George Sodini’s online persona was that of a pathetic and lonely man that ached for human companionship. However it also shows a deeply disturbed and potentially psychopathic killer.

Since the advent of social media, everyone has been able to share their lives on the Web in hopes of being understood by others. Sodini gives us one more reason to wonder whether that’s necessarily a good thing.

Related:

Entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 8:55 pm under Social Media.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
Stumble It!