This is a list of manifestos written by mass killers and attempted mass killers, explaining their motives for their actions. Many of them have committed the killings to propagate their views.
According to a 2020 analysis of 17 mass shooters' manifestos, common themes appearing in them are: narcissism, threats to masculinity, paranoia, fame, suicide ideation, and revenge. [1] A 2017 analysis found the following themes in the manifestos of mass murderers: ego survival and revenge; pseudocommando mindset: persecution, obliteration; envy; nihilism; entitlement; and heroic revenge fantasy. [2]
The FBI conducted a study of 52 lone terrorists in 2019, which found that 96% produced either writings or videos intended to explain their beliefs to others; they found that in 88% of cases, perpetrators published their manifestos before the attack occurred, or "leakage," which is a valuable opportunity for intervention. [3]
Name of manifesto | Author | Language | Date published | Notes | Length | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Industrial Society and Its Future | Ted Kaczynski | English | 19 September 1995 | The manifesto was published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, after Kaczynski said he would end his bombing campaign if they did so. The manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natural destruction brought about by technology, while forcing humans to adapt to machinery, creating a sociopolitical order that suppresses human freedom and potential. The 35,000-word manifesto formed the ideological foundation of Kaczynski's 1978–1995 mail bomb campaign, designed to protect wilderness by hastening the collapse of industrial society. | 35,000 words (~100 pages) | [4] [5] |
Communication From the Dead | Robert Flores | English | 28 October 2002 | Flores mailed a 22 page letter to the Arizona Daily Star, who later published it online, discussing his reasons for committing the shooting and giving a chronology of his life, stating that it was about "settling accounts". Two of his victims were named in the letter. | 22 pages | [6] |
Unnamed | Seung-Hui Cho | English | 16 April 2007 | The manifesto was mailed to NBC News an hour and a half after Cho had first opened fire. Upon receiving the package on April 18, 2007, NBC News contacted authorities and made the controversial decision to publicize Cho's communications by releasing a small fraction of what it received. The manifesto was described as "rambling" and "incoherent", with Cho criticizing "rich brats" and referring to the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre as martyrs. | 23 pages | [7] |
Natural Selector's Manifesto | Pekka-Eric Auvinen | English, Finnish | 7 November 2007 | Auvinen published a "media package" through RapidShare that he linked from his YouTube channel, containing 21 files including pictures of himself, his school, and guns, as well as several word files. The word files gave background on the attack, with Auvinen describing the attack as "political terrorism" and saying that he didn't want the attack to be called a "school shooting". | 3 pages | [8] [9] |
Unnamed | Jim Adkisson | English | 27 July 2008 | A letter, or "manifesto," found in his vehicle after the shooting attributed his motivation for the rampage as a hatred of liberals, Democrats, African Americans, and homosexuals. | 4 pages | [10] |
2083: A European Declaration of Independence | Anders Behring Breivik | English | 22 July 2011 | Breivik wrote a manifesto titled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. It runs to 1,518 pages and is credited to "Andrew Berwick" (an Anglicization of Breivik's name). It was emailed to over 1000 email contacts less than an hour and a half before his bomb went off. | 1,518 pages | [11] [12] |
Manifest | Dmitry Vinogradov | Russian | 7 November 2012 | Posted on Vkontakte, expresses his hatred towards mankind, comparing humans to cancer. | 2 pages | [13] |
Unnamed | Christopher Dorner | English | 6 February 2013 | The manifesto cites anti-police sentiment as a reason for killings. | 11,000 words (~32 pages) | [14] |
Ragnarok | Alex Hribal | English | 6 April 2014 | Cites the Columbine shooters as inspiration and expresses moral nihilism. | 4 pages | [15] [16] |
My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger | Elliot Rodger | English | 23 May 2014 | Rodger emailed his 107,000-word manifesto, My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger, to 34 people, including his therapist, Charles Sophy, his parents and other family, former teachers, and childhood friends. In it he said he had originally sought to carry out an attack on Halloween of 2013, but reconsidered because he thought there would be too many police present. | 107,000 words (~300 pages) | [17] [18] |
rtf88 | Dylann Roof | English | 17 June 2015 | The manifesto was posted on Roof's website, The Last Rhodesian, which also contained several photos of himself. Roof claimed in the manifesto that he had been radicalized after looking up "black on white crime" and was lead to white supremacist websites. His manifesto was described by an expert on extremism as not belonging to the "mainstream" of white supremacist ideology. | 2,444 words (~7 pages) | [19] [20] [21] |
My Manifesto | Christopher Harper-Mercer | English | 1 October 2015 | The manifesto, carried on a USB drive, was given to a UCC student in Snyder Hall. It was later released by investigators. In the manifesto, Harper-Mercer wrote his actions were done to serve Satan, who, according to Harper-Mercer, would "reward" murderers in hell by turning them into "gods". A large portion of the manifesto was devoted to describing Mercer's hatred of black men. He also described having "kinship" with various other mass and serial murderers, including Ted Bundy, the Columbine shooters, and the Sandy Hook School shooter. | 6 pages | [22] [23] [24] |
The Great Replacement | Brenton Tarrant | English | 15 March 2019 | Tarrant wrote a 74-page manifesto titled The Great Replacement, a reference to the "Great Replacement" and "white genocide" conspiracy theories. In the manifesto, several anti-immigrant sentiments are expressed, including hate speech against migrants, white supremacist rhetoric, and calls for all non-European immigrants in Europe who he claimed to be "invading his land" to be removed. He also cited the work of other far-right killers such as Anders Breivik and Dylann Roof. | 74 pages | [25] [26] |
An Open Letter | John Earnest | English | 27 April 2019 | An anti-semitic and racist open letter was posted on 8chan shortly before the shooting and signed with Earnest's name. Earnest's letter was influenced by Christchurch and took responsibility for the Escondido mosque fire. | 9 pages | [27] |
The Inconvenient Truth | Patrick Crusius | English | 3 August 2019 | The El Paso police chief, Greg Allen, said that they are "reasonably confident" that a manifesto, titled The Inconvenient Truth, was posted by the suspect on the online message board 8chan shortly before the shooting. The manifesto in question is explicitly inspired by Christchurch. | 2,300 words (~7 pages) | [28] [29] |
Techno-Barbarism: A Spiritual Guide for Discontented White Men in the Current Year +4 | Stephan Balliet | English | 9 October 2019 | Structured in a similar way as the Christchurch manifesto, it has a list of "Achievements" alluding to first-person shooter games. | 11 pages | [30] [31] |
Unnamed | Mohammed Alshamrani | English | 6 December 2019 | Posted on Alshamrani's Twitter account, it condemned the United States as a "nation of evil" for their supposed crimes against Muslims and humanity. | 4 pages | [32] |
Skript mit Bilder | Tobias Rathjen | German | 19 February 2020 | In the manifesto, Rathjen called for the murder of all people from various non-European nations, and described himself as an incel, as he had not had a relationship in nearly 20 years "out of a fear of the state surveilling him". He also accused Donald Trump of stealing his ideas. | 24 pages | [33] [34] |
A White Awakening | Nathaniel Veltman | English | 6 June 2021 | Inspired by the Christchurch terrorist's manifesto, the manifesto was found on a thumb drive inside of Veltman's residence. | 74 pages | [35] [36] |
You Wait for a Signal While Your People Wait for You | Payton Gendron | English | 12 May 2022 | Titled after a quote from the Christchurch terrorist, the manifesto is focused on mass immigration and holds anti-Black views. The manifesto was originally posted on Google Docs two days before the attack and had not been modified since. The author describes himself as someone who initially identified himself as being on the "authoritarian left", before he developed American neo-Nazi, antisemitic, eco-fascist, ethno-nationalist, populist, and white supremacist views influenced by Tarrant, Breivik, Roof, Earnest, Robert Bowers and The Daily Stormer . The manifesto is largely plagiarized from The Great Replacement. | 180 pages | [37] [38] [39] |
The Downward Spiral of "Ethan Miller" | Ethan Miller | English | 28 August 2022 | Posted on Wattpad, the manifesto describes his isolation and solitude as well as his inspiration by the Columbine High School massacre. | 15 pages | [40] |
Post-modernism and Its Consequences for Our Nation [lower-alpha 1] | Unknown, first name Isaque [41] | Portuguese | 26 September 2022 | A few hours before committing a shooting at the Barreiras school, the perpetrator published a manifesto on his Twitter account. In his manifesto, the perpetrator claimed to be superior to others, in addition to containing speeches in favor of racial supremacy and hate speeches against different communities such as the LGBT community, the residents of Bahia and the school community itself, in addition to stating that his intentions were to murder as many people as possible so that they "felt divine wrath". | 29 pages | [42] |
A Call to Arms | Juraj Krajčík | English | 12 October 2022 | Just a few hours before the attack, links to a 65-page long manifesto were posted on Twitter. In the document, the author does not provide their name, claiming it is not of importance and "will be known later anyway", but identifies himself as a man of Slovak origin born on July 28, 2003, who has decided to "execute an operation" against "the enemies of the white race". The manifesto blames Jews and LGBT people for "causing harm to white people" and celebrates mass murderers, including Breivik and the perpetrators of Christchurch mosque shootings and Poway synagogue shooting. | 65 pages | [43] [44] |
Unnamed | Aiden Hale | English | 27 March 2023 | Hale's manifesto was not originally released to the public pending a lawsuit for their release, but on November 6, 2023, 3 pages were leaked online by Steven Crowder followed by the Nashville MPD opening an investigation. the leaked manifesto included far-left views, anti-white sentiments, and extreme hatred for those Hale considered to have white privilege. The leaked pages also included the plan Hale would go through the day of the shooting, with the top of the page being adorned with the words "Death Day". | 3 pages released, unknown number unreleased | [45] |
A White Boy Summer to Remember | Ryan Palmeter | English | 26 August 2023 | Palmeter had three manifestos, two of which were not released to the public. One of them was released by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. It contains sentiments of racism against African Americans and anti-semitism. He cited the perpetrator of the Christchurch shootings as the "main inspiration for [his] methods…and targets." [46] | 26 pages released, unknown number unreleased | [47] [48] |
The Order, also known as the Brüder Schweigen and Silent Brotherhood, was a Neo-Nazi terrorist organization active in the United States between September 1983 and December 1984. The group raised funds via armed robbery. Ten members were tried and convicted for racketeering, and two for their role in the 1984 murder of radio talk show host Alan Berg.
Fourteen Words is a reference to two slogans originated by David Eden Lane, one of nine founding members of the defunct white supremacist terrorist organization The Order, and are accompanied by Lane's "88 Precepts". The slogans have served as a rallying cry for militant white nationalists internationally.
In the United States, domestic terrorism is defined as terrorist acts that were carried out within the United States by U.S. citizens and/or U.S. permanent residents. As of 2021, the United States government considers white supremacists to be the top domestic terrorism threat.
Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, tax resistance, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Accelerationism is a range of revolutionary and reactionary ideas in left-wing and right-wing ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, infrastructure sabotage and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations, otherwise referred to as "acceleration". It has been regarded as an ideological spectrum divided into mutually contradictory left-wing and right-wing variants, both of which support the indefinite intensification of capitalism and its structures as well as the conditions for a technological singularity, a hypothetical point in time where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.
The 2014 Isla Vista killings were two misogynistic terror attacks in Isla Vista, California. On the evening of Friday, May 23, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others by gunshot, stabbing and vehicle ramming near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), before fatally shooting himself.
The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory that claims there is a deliberate plot to cause the extinction of whites through forced assimilation, mass immigration, and/or violent genocide. It purports that this goal is advanced through the promotion of miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non-white immigration, racial integration, low fertility rates, abortion, pornography, LGBT identities, governmental land-confiscation from whites, organised violence, and eliminationism in majority white countries. Under some theories, Black people, Hispanics, and Muslims are blamed for the secret plot, but usually as more fertile immigrants, invaders, or violent aggressors, rather than as the masterminds. A related, but distinct, conspiracy theory is the Great Replacement theory.
The Charleston church shooting, also known as the Charleston church massacre, was an anti-black mass shooting and hate crime that occurred on June 17, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine people were killed, and one was injured, during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest black church in the southern United States. Among the fatalities was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. All ten victims were African Americans. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting at a place of worship in U.S. history and is the deadliest mass shooting in South Carolina history.
Dylann Storm Roof is an American white supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and mass murderer who is currently awaiting execution on death row at USP Terre Haute for perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. During a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Roof killed nine people, all African Americans, including senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney, and injured a tenth person. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. He later confessed that he committed the shooting in hopes of igniting a race war. Roof's actions in Charleston have been widely described as domestic terrorism.
The Atomwaffen Division, also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front, is an international far-right extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist network. Formed in 2013 and based in the Southern United States, it has since expanded across the United States and it has also expanded into the United Kingdom, Argentina, Canada, Germany, the Baltic states, and other European countries. The group is described as a part of the alt-right by some journalists, but it rejects the label and it is considered extreme even within that movement. Atomwaffen has been described as "one of the most violent neo-Nazi movements in the 21st century". It is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and it is also designated as a terrorist group by multiple governments, including the United Kingdom and Canada.
The Aztec High School shooting was a school shooting and murder–suicide that occurred on December 7, 2017, at Aztec High School in Aztec, New Mexico, United States. The perpetrator, William Atchison, a 21-year-old former student, entered the school in the morning disguised as a student and hid in the school restroom. He was discovered before he could launch a major attack, but fatally shot two students before killing himself. Investigators believe that the quick actions of the teachers in barricading doors to the classrooms helped prevent mass casualties.
On November 2, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Tallahassee Hot Yoga, a yoga studio located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. The gunman, identified as Scott Paul Beierle, shot six women, two of them fatally, and pistol-whipped a man before killing himself.
The Christchurch mosque shootings were two consecutive mass shootings on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on 15 March 2019. They were committed by Brenton Tarrant who entered both mosques during Friday prayer, firstly at the Al Noor Mosque at 1:40 p.m. and later at the Linwood Islamic Centre at 1:52 p.m.
The Poway synagogue shooting occurred on April 27, 2019, at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, United States, a city which borders the north inland side of San Diego, on the last day of the Jewish Passover holiday, which fell on a Shabbat. Armed with an AR-15 style rifle, the gunman, John Earnest, fatally shot one woman and injured three other persons, including the synagogue's rabbi. After fleeing the scene, Earnest phoned 9-1-1 and reported the shooting. He was apprehended in his car approximately two miles (3.2 km) from the synagogue by a San Diego police officer. A month before the shooting, Earnest had attempted to burn down a mosque in Escondido.
On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States. The gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Wood Crusius, killed 23 people and injured 22 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime. The shooting has been described as the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history.
On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were African Americans, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch, but the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. He formally entered a plea of "not guilty" on May 19, 2022. On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; as of that date, federal charges are still ongoing, and the federal prosecution also expressed their intention to seek the death penalty.
In the United States, the populist Great Replacement conspiracy theory holds the view that "political elites" are purposefully seeking to increase the number of racial minorities in an attempt to displace the white American population. Believers in the conspiracy theory have used it as a racist trope in an attempt to advocate anti-immigration policies and dogwhistle to xenophobic ideology. The theory has received strong support in many sectors of the Republican Party. According to David Smith, "Two in three Republicans agree with the 'great replacement' theory." As a result, it has become a major issue of political debate. It has also stimulated violent reactionary responses, including mass murders. The name is derived from the "Great Replacement" theory, invented in 2011 by the French author Renaud Camus; it is promoted in Europe, and it also has some similarities to the white genocide conspiracy theory, popularized by the American terrorist David Lane in his 1995 White Genocide Manifesto.
Terrorgram refers to a decentralized network of Telegram channels and accounts that subscribe to or promote militant accelerationism. Terrorgram channels are neo-fascist in ideology, and regularly share instructions and manuals on how to carry out acts of racially-motivated violence and anti-government terrorism. Terrorgram is a key communications forum for individuals and networks attached to Atomwaffen Division, The Base, and other explicit militant accelerationist groups.
Police found his four-page manifesto, titled "Ragnarok" and dated three days before the attack, in a backpack stowed in his locker.
Hale had a manifesto and detailed maps of the school
In the collective writings by Hale found in her vehicle in the school parking lot, her planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School