Richard McBeef: Virginia Tech Killer's One-Act Play

One of the less surprising revelations about the Virginia Tech massacre is that Cho-Seung Hi, the killer, was a writer. Mass murderers often are. However, Cho-Seung Hi's writings weren't graphomaniacally scribbled in thousands of journals; they were plays and short stories, presented at Virginia Tech creative writing classes. And with remarkable alacrity, these manuscripts are now hitting the internet.

One of these writings is Richard McBeef, a one-act play featuring a 13 year old boy who accuses his step-father of pedophiia and the murder of his real father. A lot of Cho's classmates are claiming that this play was a tell tale warning of Cho's violent intentions:

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.

I think this is probably just retrospective analysis: nothing truly worrying stands out about Cho's writings to me. The opinion I have of Richard McBeef and Cho's writing is pretty much the same as his creative writing professor: it's silly. What stands out isn't the violence or the alienated attitudes of the main characters, it's the complete incompetence of Cho as a writer. If it weren't for the fact that Cho just brutally butchered 32 people, Richard McBeef would be utterly laughable. It is sad that his murders on Monday guarantee that a play as crappy and boring as Richard McBeef will be pored over by scholars for decades to come.

That said, he's still a better writer than Kenneth Eng , and only slightly more morally loathsome (I'd link you to ToM favorite Kenneth Eng's jubilant gloating over the Virginia Tech massacre, because "an equal number of black and white people were killed", but wouldn't you know, YouTube shut down his account. Gee, I wonder why.)

Virginia Killer's Violent Writings [Smoking Gun]