There’s a nice post on the Stranger’s forums (a local Seattle rag), offering an interpretation of the motivations behind the Seattle zombie rave murder. “Pernapi” writes about the incessant need to find reason in chaos from all corners:

The doctor will say he did it because there was a physiological imbalance. The psychologist will say he did it because he needed counseling. The teacher will say he did it because he didn’t learn a sense of community in school. The mother will say he did it because he wasn’t loved enough. The father will say he did it because he wasn’t brought up with a firm enough hand. The church will say he did it because Satan had power over him.

All of these things may be true. […] What we will never know is THE truth.

It’s a thought-provoking way of looking at the situation. It seems to say that when significant events happen, we all find what we want or need in them, based on our own predispositions. Among the speculative/paranoid circles that I travel in, the thought has come up more than once that perhaps the “real” explanation behind the whole thing is that the killer, Kyle Huff, was some kind of mind-controlled sleeper assassin who either intentionally or accidentally had his trigger set off, unleashing a wave of violence for some arcane conspiratorial reason.

Really, there’s nothing more to back it up than a hunch, and the overall strangeness of the whole scenario. Certainly, this kind of wild speculation treads the line when it comes to good taste and respecting the dead. But is it any more far out than any of the other various explanations being put forth for such a seemingly purposeless event?

An article on the Stranger’s blog suggests that Huff was “some sort of delayed and inverted high school shooter.” So what evidence is there that Huff was something more sinister than this? Admittedly not much. But there is a chain of peculiar correspondences, an associative web which paints a darkly surreal picture which is tempting to infuse with belief. You’ll probably have to take what follows with a grain of salt, but then, that’s how I’d recommend you take most anything.

First off, we have this whole zombie-themed party. Aside from the more popular “living dead” idea most of us know zombies by, there is another explanation for what zombies are that I found on a website about the plant datura:

Criminals who did not seem to improve their records upon other means of punishment sometimes were turned into Zombies. A strong herbal brew containing, among other plants, Datura combined with the extremely potent extract of the puffer-fish poison (d-tubucucurine) was given to the criminal. The effect of the brew was to stupefy the convict to the point of pseudo-coma and to numb his physical sensations. In this state a person is unable to respond to any kind of stimulus, although they may well be consciously aware of them. The Zombie-to-be was declared dead and placed into a coffin with an attached air-tube and a funeral ceremony was conducted. After 3 days or so the coffin was retrieved from the ground and the Zombie was given another dose of Datura followed by an ‘initiation into the after-life’, in which he was brainwashed in accordance with the rules of the new order. From that day on he was given regular doses of the Datura concoction to maintain the hypnotic state. The spirit of the victim was thus literally forced to get out and stay out of the body and the Zombie lost all sense of self or ego-identity.

For people who’ve done any research into the lore of ritual abuse, or supposed CIA mind control methods, this is an interesting connection. Though the information that follows is probably highly speculative in nature, compare the above with a document found online called “Operation Open Eyes” about the alleged steps that black ops personel use to create a deep-cover “sleeper” assassin. During what’s referred to as Stage 4 of the programming:

The subject will be told he is a “Super Human” and all laws are written for other people. The subject’s moral code, respect for the law, and fear of dying is replaced with new “Super Human” feelings.

This is the Level that turns a subject into a “Clear Eyes”, i.e., a fully programmed “sleeper” assassin, who can commit crimes as serious as murder, and afterwards have no shame, guilt, or remorse.

The Level 3 Super Human “overwrite” replaces the subject’s own morality and/or religious ethics with a program that makes him believe he is beyond all human laws. If the intent of the programming is to create a programmed assassin who will kill on cue, all morality, fear, and revulsion of bloody body parts must be eliminated. The Super Human “overwrite” eliminates both. The Super Human “overwrite” also gives the subject the feeling of immortality and invincibility.

Also in that same document, they discuss the next level in which a “trigger” is embedded into the subject’s subconscious:

[…] a code word, sequence of numbers, or a voice imprint is “etched” into the subject’s brain. This is commonly known and referred to as the “trigger” which will activate the subject into action.

At this point, it may be worth recalling that Kyle Huff is said to have mysteriously spray-painted the word “NOW” in three locations just before committing his heinous crime. Did this have something to do with his trigger? There’s no way to know.

One other interesting correlation culled from that document:

Once a “Clear Eyes” is “triggered”, accidently or on purpose, the subject is beyond recall. […] If the programmed subject is told to walk into an armed camp and assassinate an enemy leader, the subject will carry out his program with no regard to his personal welfare, whether he lives or dies, or how he is supposed to escape. In most cases of programmed “Clear Eyes” who commit murders or assassinations, the subject is killed on the spot, either by an innocent bystander who kills only to end the killing, or by an agency operative who is on site to insure nothing goes wrong, in other words, that the subject “self destructs” or is killed.

So what does this prove? Maybe it doesn’t prove anything. Maybe it sheds light on real activities that go on without our knowing. Maybe sleeper assassins don’t even exist. Maybe it proves that we’ll go to great lengths to find purpose and meaning where none may readily exist.

If nothing else, temporarily adopt this, or any other explanation for that matter. But do so wholeheartedly. Once you do so, you’ll start to see this story in new ways. If you’re a doctor or a psychologist, you’ll look for cues in those arenas. Or if you’re a conspiracy theorist, stories like this will seem especially compelling to you:

Seattle police detectives investigating Saturday’s Capitol Hill shootings have been unable to open Kyle Huff’s computer but are not optimistic it will provide a motive for the mass killing.

Police confiscated two computer hard drives, one installed recently, from Huff’s North Seattle apartment, but computer viruses have prevented police from retrieving data, said Capt. Tag Gleason, head of the violent-crimes unit.

“It’s a piece of information we’re looking at. We’re not banking on it as a smoking gun,” Gleason said.

Huff, a 28-year-old pizza-delivery driver, gunned down six people at a Capitol Hill party Saturday morning before shooting himself. It was the worst mass killing in Seattle in 23 years.

Police have been unable to find any record that Huff was treated for mental illness or was on psychiatric medication. Nor did there appear to be any confrontation at the party, however slight, that may have set Huff off, Gleason said.

Maybe his computer was rigged to self-destruct upon tampering. Or maybe not. The other interesting item in this article:

Finding a motive is important to reassure the public, Gleason said.

Another article follows this line of thought on the Seattle Times:

Motive is not required to convict a person of murder, but the need to understand why is so strong that it can consume grieving families, said Frank Ochberg, chairman emeritus of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the University of Washington.

“They can’t do the work of grieving because their reflex thinking goes to the motive and meaning,” said Ochberg, who studied the Columbine school shootings in Colorado. “You could argue that it’s a human impulse. From the families’ perspective, it has to be dealt with.”

But it’s not always as easy as that as another person is quoted in the same article: “It has to be justified in your mind. If there was a justification we could accept, we could find a way to deal with it. But I’ve learned sometimes you don’t get answers.” Personally, I think this is the case with life in general, not just with horrific killings. Things happen and we construct meaning around it in order to live with it, and diminish it’s chaos in our lives. As in the case of the possible conspiratorial explanation provided above, perhaps the meanings that we create are entirely up to us. Perhaps we build them as a reflection of what we need and want - and fear - out of the world. I don’t know that we have any other options but to make ourselves aware of this and just keep going.