More info. on VT Killer
Find a Conversation
| Fri, 04-20-2007 - 3:27pm |
I know this topic was raised in the OT thread section...but it's not so off topic anymore. Wonder when the US media will pick up on this one. Lovely for all of us, huh?
Amy
In case the link doesn't work...
EXCLUSIVE: Grandad's anger at uni murderer
Graham Brough In South Korea 20/04/2007
THE grandfather of Cho Seung-Hui said yesterday: "Son of a b*tch. It serves him right he died with his victims."
Kim Hyang-Sik, 82, said he had a doom-laden dream of Cho's parents the night of his murderous rampage - and woke to hear the news of the massacre and his grandson's death.
He watched Cho's sick video of himself holding a gun to his head.
His sister Kim Yang-Sun, 85, who also saw it, told the Mirror that afterwards her brother was so distraught he had "gone away for a few days to calm himself down and avoid more questions".
She too repeatedly referred to the killer as "son of a b*tch" or "a***hole" and said his mother Kim Hyang-Yim had problems with him from infancy.
Yang-Sun revealed the eight-year-old was diagnosed as autistic soon after his family emigrated to the US.
She said: "He was very quiet and only followed his mother and father around and when others called his name he just answered yes or no but never showed any feelings or motions.
"We started to worry that he was autistic - that was the big concern of his mother. He was even a loner as a child.
"Soon after they got to America his mother was so worried about his inability to talk she took him to hospital and he was diagnosed as autistic."
Yang-Sun spoke at her tiny one roomed shack inside a vinyl farm shelter in the Gohyang area of South Korea's capital Seoul.
The family had stayed there the night before they emigrated in 1992. Yang-Sun said Cho's mother had been reluctant to marry her older husband.
She said: "She had five brothers and sisters and she was the second eldest child. She took care of them after she graduated from high school, which meant a lot of self-sacrifice.
"Hyang-Yim was a full-time house person on one of her parents' small farms outside Seoul. She stayed at home like that for years and was still single at home when she was 29.
"We became worried that she was spending too much time at home with her brothers and sisters and family and getting to old for a husband.
"So the family decided to force her into a blind date to find a husband. She met Cho Sung-Tae on that date. He was 10 years older at 39 and still single too. They decided to get married soon after that.
"She didn't want to but her family insisted because we thought she was getting past the right age and it would be good for her.
"Her husband was very serious and quiet and careful with money. He was not very sociable and not very friendly to his mother-in-law and father-in-law.
"After they were married he went away twice to Saudi Arabia in the 80s to try to make some money in the construction boom. He came back with about £2,000, which was enough to buy a small house in Seoul. He also ran a second-hand bookstore. His mother was living in the States on a long term visit to stay with his sister. She asked him to bring his family to live there.
"His sold the house to pay for the emigration costs and rented instead but there were lots of delays and eventually the whole process to get the permissions and organise things took eight years.
"By that time the money from the house was nearly gone. They were barely making ends meet so they had nothing to lose and had this idea of the American dream where there was a lot of money to be made."
She went on: "The reaction of my brother was that Seung-Hui was a troublemaker and it served him right that he died because he caused his mother a lot of problems. He was more worried about his daughter.
"He spoke to a few reporters to express sympathy to victims' families on behalf of our family but now he has gone away. He is 82 and lives quietly on a small farm and all this is too much for him."
Other relatives admitted Cho's parents had always been aware of his problems but had neither the time nor money for specialist help.
His uncle Chan Kim, 56, said: "He wasn't like a normal kid. We were worried about him not talking.
"Both his parents knew he had mental problems but they were poor and they couldn't send him to a special hospital in the United States.
"His mother and sister were asking his friends to help instead.
"His parents worked and did not have time to look after his condition and didn't give him special treatment.
"They had no time or money to look after his special problem even though they knew he was autistic."
Edited 4/20/2007 3:27 pm ET by manec93


- Christina mom to-
- Christina mom to-
Chloe (10) Aiden(8)
oh geez, that is no bueno.
There have been other articles as well about his being referred for counselling services and appears to have other issues going on, but this type of thing will not bode well for those with autism. Rather than seeing that he was an individual whom needed help and supports and it wasn't provided, I fear the general public will see him as evil incarnate and will put some of our kids in the same category. Particularly ones like my boy who is very verbal, good intellect but quite autistic and can be aggressive.
UGH! The whole thing is just horrible.
Also, what is really killing me is the attitude of the grandfather and the bit at the end about how they didn't do anything for him because they didn't have the money. In generaly people with autism are some of the neatest, kindest people I know. For this boy to go to this extreme he must have been dealing with a lot with really no supports or treatment for his special needs. It really drives home the point of how important it is to work really hard at this with these guys because this could be one possible result of not doing anything.
REnee
Edited 4/20/2007 4:27 pm ET by rbear4
I had meant to chime in on the of-topic thread, but didn't have a chance.
I am not surprised by this news, because I saw some shades of Peter's thinking in those rants that were released by the news media. The guy clearly had major
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
oh, Paula, your story is oh so familar. I too thought the boy had TOM issues when i heard the video tape. His rants and pattern of speech was very similar to Weston. My son has good supports and people to listen to him and diffuse his anger. But I can totally see how left alone w/o any supports and only people who think you're strange could prompt one of his senarios to blow up into something much much bigger much scarier.
I'm really sorry that this is probably what will be the focus of so much media attention. Autistic people are not deranged killers out to spill innocent blood. They are sweet and kind and often misunderstood.
This makes me want even more to protect my children, but also to make sure that they are ready and able to go into the world. We have so many more social skills & life skills to work on. I really think even more it's my responsibility to make sure they're getting that teaching as the system just doesn't "get it".
Betsy
Well, this is still upsetting to me on a number of levels. I will probably be incoherant so forgive me if I ramble. Rina, I know I need to let this go. You are right.
Since I have so many family in the area, and who are alums, I knew it was a matter of time to see if anyone we knew was affected. We found out one of the survivors who is in the hospital now is a family friend. He seems to be doing ok, healthwise at least. His poor parents had to drive to Blacksburg to get information because they couldn't get through the phone lines. A minister there took the parents in bc all the media etc. had taken all the hotel rooms. I think they have a room now, but the first night it was the kindness of strangers. Another family friend was one of the policemen on the scene and from what it sounds like, he is doing less well, psychologically. Stuff like this doesn't happen in Blacksburg very much.
But on the autism angle, it seems like the media isn't really making a big deal of that. Hopefully they will not. Perhaps it was fortunate the young man sent his package to NBC, an "autism friendly" station. Hopefully the media won't go in the autism direction.
I agree Paula, though this poor child was disturbed on a number of levels, and autism is certainly not the reason for what happened, you can't help but grieve over the fact that he never had early intervention. What did they tell parents 20 years ago anyway other than your boy has autism? And since he probably had good academic skills, the school system didn't intervene. Combine that with decades of bullying, (didn't ABC do a story a couple of weeks ago called, "Kids with Asperger's Bullied on a Daily Basis?) and other neurological, maybe, or psychological or emotional problems. So sad.
I agree with you about TOM. Eric is the same way as Peter. Since he still young, he mostly gets verbally aggressive, so far not physically usually and just over things like you say, that no one else might understand. But I am mindful and fearful of that side of him. We just have to keep working on building up social skills. Eric totally admits he is "like a volcano." We've discussed volcanoes and Eric says he doesn't have a "rumbling" stage like a real volcano, he goes from silent to boom. I am pleased at this awareness, but we have to work on getting aware of the "rumble," to get ready for the boom, if that makes sense.
I also feel for the poor mother. I thought it was nice though that at the memorial service yesterday they included the Cho boy's name too, since his own family is in grief. It reminded me in a way of the Amish community forgiving the family of the man who broke down in the school house.
It also just makes me want to hug Eric more and savor every minute.
Katherine
Hey Katherine..
I am sorry about your friends it is scary. I think at the time I didn't want any body to jump to conclusions about what this young man had or didn't have as to what drove him to the edge.
Lets face it, it is a scary thought. And I was just reading somewhere in my e-mails about how Scizoprenia and Autisim in the early days would get mixed up in diagnosis people. And people with autisim would get the mistaken label of schizoprenia. I will make a seperate thread for that article.
Trust me as I read more about the shooter and also just other things that bothered me this past week ihad my slight visions of Joshua taking out a Automatic rifle and plowing down a bunch of innocents. It is scary stuff. But then again I think I understand my child better. I think I understand who he is better
We don't have a cultural gap here, where they may very well have been a cultural gap with Cho. I know some cultures have a very hard time accepting mental illness and and understanding learning disablities etc esp in cultures where high achievement is the key to there socitey. So how much did these parents truly understand what was going on with there son when they themselves may be very private people themselves. Cho did spend some time in a mental institution back in 2005. And in other states with waiting periods, this may have been caught before he ever got the guns he did.
I am feeling like this isn't a matter of letting it go any more but raher look at the fact we are more understanding of our kids. ASnd I would like to think we might catch their problems quicker and deal with them differently. Our kids are recieving services and help. i also think becaus eof this incident hopefully more eyes may be open to prevent it from happening again. And when people learn to look fo rthe red flags even if it starts out small they might be a little wiser.
Rina