Trenchcoat Mafia

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The Trenchcoat Mafia is the informal name given to a group of outcast students from Columbine High School, in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado (near Denver and Littleton). This group of students became the subject of media scrutiny after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. In April, 1999, two students from Columbine High School, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before committing suicide.

[edit] Media Presentation

The perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were identified by the media (and by Harris's father in a 911 call on the morning of the attacks) as part of the group in the days immediately following the event.

The students in the Trenchcoat Mafia were not implicated in the shootings. One reason the Trenchcoat Mafia became associated with the massacre is that Harris and Klebold wore black leather dusters, a long coat similar to a trenchcoat. The term 'Trenchcoat Mafia' was used in media reports, and the term stuck in the public memory.

After the shootings, the students in the Trenchcoat Mafia publicly distanced themselves from the shooters. None of the students in the group were ever formally charged with involvement in the shootings, and all have been cleared of any foreknowledge of what was being planned.

The name 'Trenchcoat Mafia' became briefly infamous in the aftermath of the shootings. In many towns across the US and Canada, it became a catchphrase for outcasts, youths from the goth subculture, and other youths that communities were worried about. Some schools across the nation banned wearing trenchcoats, arguing that the long coats could be used to conceal weapons. This may have worsened the public perception of goth subculture.

American media compared the massacre to a fantasy sequence from the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries in which protagonist Leonardo DiCaprio wears a black trenchcoat while shooting six of his classmates and teacher with a shotgun.