Cho Seung-Hui's Graphic Plays Are Released

AOL as obtained through an employee, Ian MacFarlane, copies of Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui's graphic plays, Robert McBeef and Mr. Brownstone. Ian, also a former classmate of Seung-Hui's was so shocked by these plays that he wasn't surprised to learn his former classmate was responsible for the deaths of 32 students:

When I first heard about the multiple shootings at Virginia
Tech yesterday, my first thought was about my friends, and my second
thought was "I bet it was Seung Cho."

Cho was in my
playwriting class last fall, and nobody seemed to think much of him at
first. He would sit by himself whenever possible, and didn't like
talking to anyone. I don't think I've ever actually heard his voice
before. He was just so quiet and kept to himself. Looking back, he fit
the exact stereotype of what one would typically think of as a "school
shooter" – a loner, obsessed with violence, and serious personal
problems. Some of us in class tried to talk to him to be nice and get
him out of his shell, but he refused talking to anyone. It was like he
didn't want to be friends with anybody. One friend of mine tried to
offer him some Halloween candy that she still had, but he slowly shook
his head, refusing it. He just came to class every day and submitted
his work on time, as I understand it.

A major part of the
playwriting class was peer reviews. We would write one-act plays and
submit them to an online repository called Blackboard for everyone in
the class to read and comment about in class the next day. Typically,
the students give their opinions about the plays and suggest ways to
make it better, the professor gives his insights, then asks the author
to comment about the play in class.

When we read Cho's plays,
it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted,
macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of.
Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each
other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I
was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come
in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave
reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in
case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn't pressure him to give
closing comments.

After hearing about the mass shootings, I
sent one of my friends a Facebook message asking him if he knew
anything about Seung Cho and if he could have been involved. He
replied: "dude that's EXACTLY what I was thinking! No, I haven't heard
anything, but seriously, that was the first thing I thought when I
heard he was Asian."

While I "knew" Cho, I always wished there
was something I could do for him, but I couldn't think of anything. As
far as notifying authorities, there isn't (to my knowledge) any system
set up that lets people say "Hey! This guy has some issues! Maybe you
should look into this guy!" If there were, I definitely would have
tried to get the kid some help. I think that could have had a good
chance of averting yesterday's tragedy more than anything.

While
I was hesitant at first to release these plays (because I didn't know
if there are laws against it), I had to put myself in the shoes of the
average person researching this situation. I'd want to know everything
I could about the killer to figure out what could drive a person to do
something like this and hopefully prevent it in the future. Also, I
hope this might help people start caring about others more no matter
how weird they might seem, because if this was some kind of cry for
attention, then he should have gotten it a long time ago.

As far
as the victims go, as I was heading to bed last night, I heard that my
good friend Stack (Ryan Clark) was one of the first confirmed dead. I
didn't want to believe that I'd never get to talk to him again, and all
I could think about was how much I could tell him how much his
friendship meant to me. During my junior year, Ryan, another friend and
I used to get breakfast on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Shultz Dining
Hall, one of the cafeterias on campus, and it was always the highlight
of my day. He could talk forever it seemed and always made us laugh. He
was a good friend, not just to me, but to a lot of people, and I'll
miss him a lot.