http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/ ... ff02m.html"The most important thing I want to stress is that he had to be influenced by somebody — or something else — or have had something huge happen in his life," Legris said.
And that was said
after this had already happened...
Two years later, the twins still were living in Whitefish when tragedy rocked the community.
Jared Hope, a high-school friend of the twins, killed his parents and shot himself on a weekend visit home from Missoula.
According to Ciaramitaro, the Huff brothers had been out drinking with Hope the night that the murders and suicide occurred. Hope had long struggled with mental illness that was well known among friends. And the twins told Ciaramitaro that they were uneasy with Hope's behavior that night.
A site called "murderpedia.org" compiles an assortment of articles.
I won't be linking to it, but here are some quotes:
Cassidy said Kyle and Kane Huff returned to Whitefish in 2002 to attend the funeral of Jared Hope, a high-school classmate who killed his parents and himself with an illegally purchased .357-caliber Magnum revolver. The killings startled the town, which rarely has a murder, and nearly 1,000 people attended the service.
One of Ciaramitaro or Cassidy has it wrong, either/or.
Tests to determine whether Huff had taken drugs before the killings are at least two weeks away. But at least one local teen who ran into Huff at a St. Patrick's Day rave said it appeared he took drugs then.
Jolene Padgett, 17, of Snohomish said Huff seemed incapacitated. "I'm surprised he didn't end up in the hospital."
What drug, I wonder.
Huff was "quick to anger," said James Winn, a 20-year-old rave promoter in Seattle, who used to hang out with Huff and his brother near their Montana home, and also knew some of the victims.
Doesn't this suggest the choice of a Seattle rave was less-than-random?
Before he killed six people and then himself in Seattle's second-worst mass murder Saturday, Huff and his brother also tangled with local skinheads, according to a police report.
But then, in the "Journey" article...
"On a rare occasion, someone would try to pick a fight with one of the big brothers. If that happened, it was Kane — not Kyle — who was more likely to throw down.
"When Kyle got into a fight, it was almost always to end the fight," Ciaramitaro said. "He never took a swing."
Kyle would talk the aggressor down. Sometimes, he'd wrap a bear-hug around some guy who wanted to step outside. As often as not, they'd end up becoming friends, Ciaramitaro said.
Contrary to that article's sub-heading of "Not a fighter"...
But Mike doesn't see the Huffs as gentle giants. The 39-year-old Seattle man traded blows with the twins in the 2004 bar brawl.
Always arriving and leaving together, the brothers often drank at the Lobo Saloon in Eastlake. Mike and his friends, a group he described as non-racist skinheads, were also regulars.
"We were into punk music and getting rowdy, but we aren't racists," Mike said. "We fought with racist skinheads."
On the evening of May 14, 2004, Mike and his friends were enjoying a favorite band, "Butcher," when one of the Huffs and one of Mike's out-of-town buddies started jawing at each other. Mike said he tried to calm the situation down and told Huff to stop talking to his friends.
"I tried to give him a friendly warning," he said.
Huff, Mike said, responded by saying, "I can talk to anyone. ... I'm not afraid of you."
The fight was on, quickly spilling outside the bar. Mike said Kyle threw him to the ground and punched him, breaking two ribs. The other Huff and the rest of the friends joined in.
"It was huge," he said. "Mayhem."
Both brothers were treated for cuts and bruises, according to the police report.
Asked by police how the fight began, Kane (Victim 1) "said he made a comment to one of the suspects in the 'mosh pit,' and apparently people took offense to the comment. Victim 1 told me he could not remember what the comment was."
Mike recalled that the brothers knew how to fight but they were badly outnumbered. In the report, the brothers said they were "jumped."
Both sides fueled the confrontation, Mike said, but his group finished it.
Then there is this strange flourish...
A neighbor looked out her window and saw Huff bend over to write "NOW" on the sidewalk. He would write the same cryptic message twice more before ditching the spray paint...
One other thing that website provides, three pdf's:
The panel report, the police transmission transcript, the affidavit/search warrant/inventory.
Also, the "suicide" (or rather, homicide) note he left, in the photos section.
Interesting line in the supposedly-authentic note to his brother:
"Maybe someday you'll be willing to help me..." Which does two things:
1) Implies that the two discussed a plan, but Kane was unwilling.
2) Establishes that Kane did not help Kyle.
Anyone know whether identical twins usually have identical handwriting?
Other bits from other sites:
Kyle did not excel academically, spelled poorly, but was considered studious.
There are, by my count, only two misspellings in the note, both involving an extraneous "e" before "-ing". Everything else is spelled correctly, and it's not the simplest diction I've ever read.
Was fined $530 with $350 suspended, and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service—partly served aiding Salvation Army.
Also mentions of both brothers' tastes for trenchcoats, metal.
Then there is the movie some douche tried to make:
Our aim is to accurately portray Kyle’s emotional downfall. This tragedy must no longer be regarded simply as a mystery as was so often portrayed in the popular media.
It is important to understand Kyle Huff and the emotional well that ran so deep he was willing die in order to murder half a dozen others.
Oh, so let's demystify the event by half-assedly psychoanalyzing the murderer? Douche:
http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2011/ ... movie/?ampThe comments underneath are a
powerful testament to
human decency.
They also contain a couple things of interest in the real pursuit of demystifying the event.
Kyle said, “This is my art”
So, that postmodernist wasn't
completely off on a hayride of inappropriate abstraction, I guess.
Michael Hough on August 8, 2012 - 11:18 pm said:
They think they know everything about him but they dont, I am related to him by blood. His father is my grandfather who left my grandmother when she was just in her twenties, a japanese american who couldnt speak a lick of english. His dad was a peice of garbage who abandoned my dad and aunt, and left to eventually have Kyle and his brother. My condolences go out to the victims of the massacre, and Kyle because something in his life triggered him to mak this decision, he is human like us all.
Michael Hough
p.s. the last names are spelled differently because his mother changed their names after she and their dad split. It was originally Hough.
Back to the "Journey" article...
Willis Hough was a Vietnam veteran who suffered from "emotional difficulties" from the war, said Danny Ciaramitaro, 29, a longtime and close friend of the twins. At the time of the divorce, Hough was working as a seasonal maintenance mechanic at nearby Glacier National Park.
Is that
this Willis Hough...?
5458 Holly Springs Drive
Houston, TX 77056
Find on map >>
Owner: WILLIS HOUGH
Land value: $1,029,223Building value: $100
Total value for property: $1,029,323
Assessments for tax year: 2009
Prior land value: $1,029,223
Prior building value: $100
Prior total value for property: $1,029,323
Building area: 2,910 square feet
Land size: 19,608 square feet
State classification: Real, Residential, Single-Family
Neighborhood: Tanglwood
Year property was built: 1955
Condition / Desirability / Utility: Good
Cost and design: Economic misimprovement
Exterior wall: Brick / Veneer
Foundation type: Slab
Grade adjustment: B+
Heating / AC: Central Heat/AC
Physical condition: Average
http://www.city-data.com/harris-county/ ... z2Od4arKTY
Maybe not.
There's a listing for a Texas "Willis Hough" whose age is listed in the 50-54 range.
Which, given the Vietnam service, would be too young to be Huff's dad.
Is there any further legitimate non-speculative info on the dad?