Media attention in the wake of the Colorado shootings has focussed on how Murray did exactly the same thing with the passages he left behind about those killings. Most were rewritten works from others, including those of Eric Harris, one of the Columbine killers. This blog was the first to point out that Murray also identified Aleister Crowley as one of his models.
Kevin Vaughan of the Rocky Mountain News reveals more details of Murray's copycat behavior in his December 12, 2007, article, "Murray posted links to Columbine videos between sprees." Here are extracts from that article:
In the hours between deadly attacks on Christian centers in Arvada and Colorado Springs, Matthew Murray posted links on the Internet to videos featuring the Columbine killers and a man who carried out a 2005 murder-suicide with religious overtones.
Murray, 24, also appears to have created a Web page on the Web site MySpace.com in which he posed as a woman named Sarah, used the screen name "Chrstnnghtmr" - apparently for "Christian nightmare" - and listed English occultist Aleister Crowley as among his heroes.
* * *
A law enforcement source on Tuesday confirmed Murray used the screen name "nghtmrchld26" on an Internet message board for people disillusioned with some religions.
Eleven messages posted between Sunday's attacks by "nghtmrchld26" spoke of abuse at the hands of Christians, of leaving this nightmare behind to a better place, and quoted liberally from the hate-filled screeds of Columbine High School killer Eric Harris.
Two of the posts also included links to videos featuring Harris and fellow Columbine killer Dylan Klebold that are posted on the Web site YouTube.com.
One five-minute video features still images of Harris and Klebold as well as actors who played them in a movie about the April 20, 1999, attack on the high school. As the pictures flick through in slide- show fashion, the song Anarchy from the band KMFDM plays.
A poster for KMFDM hung on the wall in Harris' bedroom the day of the Columbine killings.
Another message has a link to a video called Hitmen for Hire - a project Harris and Klebold did for a marketing class. In the video, they pose as hit men who get even with students who bully others.
A third message contains a link to a chilling video made by a young man named Ricky Rodriguez, who talks into the camera as he lovingly loads bullets into a gun. Rodriguez, who was raised in a religious organization called The Family International, alleged that he was repeatedly physically and sexually abused.
After making the video, he arranged a meeting with a prominent member of the group and stabbed her to death in January 2005. He then drove to Blythe, Calif., and killed himself.
* * *
Between the two attacks, Murray left 11 posts on the Internet message board, the first at least two hours after the Arvada shooting, the last a few hours before the one in Colorado Springs.
That first message, time- stamped 3:34 a.m. on Sunday, began, I made a God out of blood . . . not superiority. The words came from the KMFDM song that appears on the video about Harris and Klebold. A link to that video is included in the post.
It was not clear Tuesday what time the message was actually left - it was possible the time stamp was from the Central Time zone, meaning it might actually have been posted at 2:34 a.m. Denver time.
A later post began, Here's the kind of anger when kids get abused and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and included a link to the Hitmen for Hire video.
Another post began, This kid went through abuse in christianity just like me and my friends and included a link to the Rodriguez video.
Follow-up messages includes passages in which Murray professed frustration with his religious experiences.
Me, I still believe in a loving God . . . but not the christian god who is full of hate . . . and never did anything at all all these years while I've cried out for answers for spiritual truth . . . your christian God never did one thing about any of the abuse me and my christian friends went through . . . why the f*** should I care about any morals?
Other messages quoted liberally from the diatribes of Harris.
The last, time-stamped at 11:01 a.m., ended simply:
YOU CAN'T KILL ME
CUZ I'M ALREADY
INSIDE YOU
SICK
Those words came from the song (Sic) by the band Slipknot.
Posts on the message board match closely with a MySpace page on which Murray appears to have made himself out to be a 23- year-old woman from Englewood.
The MySpace profile has the name "~*Sarah's*~ Chrstnnghtmr," and the user's latest blog entry, left on Saturday, is titled My Prayer and lists the lyrics of the song Among the Flames, by the metal band Setherial.
Among Murray's postings before the New Life Church shootings was an entry titled Prayer, with the same lyrics.
"Chrstnnghtmr" also describes growing up being abused and tormented by christians, and writes about being home-schooled and being part of Youth With A Mission in Denver. One part of the profile begins:
Of course, LOTS of hypocrisy and NO REAL love to be found at YWAM Denver.
Passages are similar
Other nearly identical passages appear on the MySpace page and the message board.
The quote We sold our souls to Rock and roll Mind Control is listed next to the MySpace user's picture; Murray used a similar quote to sign off a Nov. 16 entry on the message board. In that entry he wrote, I sold my soul to rock and roll mind control.
Other similarities include an entry in MySpace called You raped the soul from the child in me, which is part of a posting by Murray on the message board Aug. 5. The words are similar to lyrics of a song called Crwn Thy Frnicatr by Psyclon Nine, with the word raped substituted for the original ripped.
The MySpace page features the song Mr. Crowley.
The Ozzy Osbourne song, covered by a different artist on the page, is a reference to Aleister Crowley.
One of Murray's postings on the message board, left between the shootings, ends simply:
Mister Crowley.~ by Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News, December 12, 2007, "Murray posted links to Columbine videos between sprees."
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