Kyle Huff.
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Perhaps the scariest thing about Kyle Huff is that we may all know someone like him. Quiet, isolated, shiftless, different. And mysterious. What did he do all day, anyway? In Huff's case, "life was a series of frustrations best characterized as just 'hanging out,'" says a new report on the life and death of Huff, 28, who killed six teens and adults and wounded two others March 25 at a home on Capitol Hill. He was unemployed, living with his twin brother, going nowhere fast. "His daily schedule was described as searching the Web at home, playing his drums from 4-6 pm, and listening to heavy metal music. At night, he would wander through bars and clubs, either alone or accompanied by his brother Kane. Even at raves—in a setting where acceptance is often cited as a major virtue—he was described as a wallflower who stood at the side of the room as the music played and ravers danced."
Friends and acquaintances were unable identify any concrete goals in his life. "There was no history of any long-term relationships with women; he was not dating anyone," says the report issued by a Seattle Police Department review panel that was headed by Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox of Boston. "His one attempt to start a relationship a few months before the shootings was met with rejection despite his multiple phone calls that were not returned and flowers left at the young woman's door that were not acknowledged. The woman explained that Kyle was not her 'type.'"
By then, Kyle Huff, the 6-foot-5, 270-pound "gentle giant" from Montana, had begun planning to kill those responsible for his bleak existence—a life so unsatisfying that only mass murder could give it meaning, the panel report suggests. He had no specific victims in mind, just unnamed faces in a crowd—the young people who indulged themselves in the music and drugs of the rave scene, the "mean girls and sissy boys," as one witness describes ravers. "As early as the beginning of February," says the July 17 report, "he was seen by several employees at Studio Seven in downtown Seattle sitting in his truck watching as people arrived for the Robogirl rave. He sought information online as to upcoming rave events, and browsed websites about raves and the lifestyle of ravers." On March 23, he wrote an apparently undelivered suicide letter to his brother explaining the motive for his soon-to-be-launched attack, "defending society from the promiscuous rave culture that he perceived as dangerous and evil."
The following day, March 24, he attended a zombie-themed rave at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. Huff, "known by friends not to be particularly affectionate and somewhat uncomfortable with physical contact with acquaintances, would have found the frequent shows of affection among ravers rather off-putting or even phony," the report notes. "Additionally, the cute characters worshipped by ravers, such as 'hello kitty' and 'care bears,' would likely seem bizarre to him. More important, Huff would likely feel out of place in a culture where promiscuity and 'cuddle puddles' (a group of people lying together on the floor, hugging and massaging each other) are commonplace, especially since his own relationship history was characterized by few girlfriends and no long-term romantic/sexual relationships."
Additionally, the rave community in Seattle is generally known for its alternative gender roles, something that "would certainly have been antithetical, if not threatening, to Kyle Huff. Although his perception may have been colored by depression and delusion, he felt that the rave culture was 'raping' him," a term he had used a day earlier when writing his suicide note. "It is not unusual for a mass killer to focus his own disenchantment upon a group of people, and suggest that mass murder is the right thing, the noble thing, a duty to squash the enemy," the panel says. Although police were unable to locate any record that Kyle Huff had been treated for mental illness or taken psychiatric medication, it's more than likely that Huff was severely depressed and even somewhat delusional at the time he committed the mass murder.
At the rave, "Huff stood out from the crowd. He looked, dressed, acted, and talked differently from everyone else." One witness said he gave off bad vibes. Another "asserts that Kyle had previously attended raves and was publicly humiliated and ridiculed by some of the younger attendees. According to this view, ravers laughed at him because of his age, his shyness, his conventional clothing, and his hulking physical appearance. To these 'hippies,' [Huff's term for them], he was not young enough, not cool enough, not funny enough, not trendy enough. He didn't take their drugs, appreciate their music and dances, nor did he engage in their forms of deviant sex. Even among ravers noted for tolerance and acceptance, Kyle was an outsider, someone who did not fit into the crowd." The witness also contended that Huff was invited to the after-hours party at the home on East Republican Street "only because he was an easy target for his hosts' humiliating remarks. They were looking to have a little fun at Kyle's expense." (Other witnesses contradict that claim).
