A phenomenon commonly observed in young assailants in which the perpetrators intentionally “leak” details of their attack to friends, adults, teachers, or other acquaintances—either out of nervousness or an egotistical desire to see how far they can push their luck at getting away with (often literal) murder right under the noses of everyone around them.
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Leaking Term Timeline in Columbine
The timeline below shows where the term Leaking appears in Columbine. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 17: The Sheriff
...dreams of setting pipe bombs off at school. Detectives believe that if Eric and Dylan leaked information to Chris, they must have leaked it to more of their friends—leaking is “a...
(full context)
Chapter 42: Diversion
...paper argues that killing is justified in “extreme situations,” and through it Eric once again “leaks” to those around him without giving his plans away. Eric also writes papers on “The...
(full context)
Chapter 48: An Emotion of God
...boys would make a total of three target-practice trips with Mark Manes, and Dylan would leak the fact that he and Eric had acquired shotguns and had practiced with them to...
(full context)
Chapter 50: The Basement Tapes
...several more times, joking about killing jocks and blowing up the school. Dylan, too, is “leaking indiscriminately,” displaying the pipe bombs in public. Eric tells Zack Heckler he’s trying to make...
(full context)
