This new world of games changed the way he communicated. The language in his manifesto is inspired by the language used in the games: strategizing, speaking of tasks, primary and secondary weapons, using percentages.
For example, he wrote: “I know there is a[n] 80%+ chance I am going to die during the operation as I have no intention to surrender to them until I have completed all three primary objectives AND the bonus mission. When I initiate (providing I haven’t been apprehended before then), there is a 70% chance that I will complete the first objective, 40% for the second, 20% for the third and less than 5% chance that I will be able to complete the bonus mission.” This is game talk.
However, Dr. Kathleen Puckett believes that games alone cannot take the blame for Breivik’s—or any other mass murderer’s—actions. “Games were his way of having a social life,” she said. “It does facilitate an artificial connection. He had to be the leader—it’s a matter of needing to get to the place where he thinks he needs to get in the world. Nobody knows how great and grand he is. All of these people who live online are dissatisfied with their person-to-person contact in real life.” Gaming does not create lone wolves, but they are drawn to that world.
Breivik’s reality was now based on cover stories, fake identities, avatars, secret bank accounts, and lies. But the relationships he made via his computer would not keep him satisfied for long. And underlying all this, he had a wish to become someone, to be famous, to be free from anonymity.
IN SEARCH OF WEAPONS
In 2009, Breivik visited Prague in an attempt to purchase illegal weapons. In his manifesto, he speaks of being “fit as hell” during this time but says he was trying to avoid any sexual involvement with girls, as this would complicate his plans. No one-night stands for him.
“I’m not that person any more. I did screw two girls in Prague, though,” he admits. “But that was mainly because there was a realistic chance that I would end up dead during establishing a weapons connection.”
Biological needs were evidently his rationalization for sex outside of marriage, a small sin, he claimed, when compared to the “huge amount of grace I am about to generate with my martyrdom.” He referred later to how he must keep his morals and motivation at a high level. “A week prior to the execution of my mission,” he wrote, “I intend to spend a portion of my funds on a high quality escort girl.” But first he would attend his final martyr’s mass at Frogner Church in Oslo, hoping to ease his mind. “I will get tense and very nervous,” he predicted. “It is easier to face death if you know if you are biologically, mentally, and spiritually at ease.” At this point, Breivik had given up on having a meaningful intimate relationship, and he had replaced a connection with humans with a connection to his ideology.
The only gun he had was a Benelli that he had obtained in 2005 after his hunting-license application had been approved. His friends, who were also shopping for hunting rifles at this time, found his choice strange, as it was not the best hunting rifle. But then again, Breivik wasn’t planning on using it for deer hunting. Nor was he planning to hunt animals when he purchased the €800 silencer, created specifically for automatic rifles, in 2011. He had other game in mind.
Unable to obtain the weapons he had deemed necessary during his trip to Prague in 2010, he decided to purchase a semiautomatic Ruger rifle and a semiautomatic 9-mm Glock 17 pistol through legal channels back in Norway, using his hunting license and his affiliation with a pistol club as justification.
So far, he had managed to hide various items he had collected for these phases in waterproof Pelican cases that he buried in a remote area of the forest. He also hid equipment and materials in his mother’s apartment, as well as the basement storage room. In the police investigation following the attacks, they discovered 112 relevant purchases, from ninety sellers in ten different countries between September 2009 and July 2011, of effects that could have been connected to the planning and execution of the massacre. Most of these sales took place via the Internet, especially eBay. The police weren’t able to find any relevant purchases before the autumn of 2009, which led them to believe that that was when Breivik had started planning his mayhem. (However, this turns out not to be correct. That may have been the time that he decided to go through with the killings, but his planning had begun much earlier.)
After having kept busy in front of his computer for almost three years, and content that he needn’t worry about his mother or friends discovering his motives, Breivik returned to working out in 2009, trying to replace the body mass he had lost while writing his masterpiece and playing computer games. At this time, he also began “another steroid cycle.” In the gym, he made a special effort to keep to himself.
The few people he did interact with said that he spoke about a book project, and that he soon would be traveling to market his book, which was why he needed to be in good shape. The book he referred to in these conversations evidently was his grand creation, his manifesto. Realizing that no publishing house would want to buy his masterpiece, he started gathering (farming) e-mail addresses of people on Facebook who would be interested in his cause and who would also likely spread the information to others. The massacre was his “marketing plan” for his vision, the largest-scale advertising he could think of, just as their bombings were for Kaczynski and McVeigh.
While still in Oslo, he noted that his funds were running low. He decided to sell his dear Breitling Crosswind watch and his Montblanc Meisterstück pen, along with other luxury items, in order to strengthen his operational budget. He sold the Crosswind for €1,800 and the pen for €200. This left him with €3,750 in the bank, and the same amount in cash, along with a car he valued at €4,500. The Montblanc was one he had purchased on the way back from Liberia in 2002, a symbol, at that time, of the successful businessperson he hoped to be.
A QUIET, ISOLATED PLACE
In 2010, he began looking for a remote hiding place in Sweden, not far away from Oslo. During July of that year, he contacted several real estate agents, explaining that he was in the process of writing a book about investing in stocks and that he needed a quiet and isolated place. Agents responded to his polite, eloquently written e-mails and personal inquiries, but he changed his mind and decided to remain in Norway.
Only in the spring of 2011 did he sign a rental agreement for a farm located in the rural town of Åmot. Why did he stall? Maybe he wanted to gather more material. He might have been trying to save money. Perhaps he was just putting off the inevitable.
As he was now pressed for time, he moved all the materials he had been storing at his mother’s home to this new residence, and not a moment too soon. Seeking a property had taken him more time than he had planned—which is curious, considering how well organized he was. Perhaps, at that last minute, he was unconsciously sabotaging his own efforts. After all, the lone wolf killer does not necessarily take any pleasure in the actual killing. It is, as they themselves say, “collateral damage.” However, his ideology got the best of him, and he continued with his plan.
Norwegian law requires that anyone leasing farmland must cultivate it according to the public listing. Breivik was permitted to use a specific farming ID number, mandatory for the ordering of large amounts of fertilizer from the national supplier. His scheme, justifying his order, ran ten pages and stated his purpose as testing the production of sugar beets. Following him along through his obsessive planning, trying to get into his head and read his thoughts, one can’t help but imagine what this clever and focused young man might have accomplished if he had not been so twisted.
With limited time and limited capital, there was little opportunity for introspection. He had made his bed, so to speak. Now he would check the list of items still essential for a successful mission and what capital he would have to lay out for their purchase:
1. Plastic sheeting: 30 Euro.
2. Aluminum/wood ramp for loading and unloading truck: 30 Euro.
3. Fertilizer—large 500 kg bag: 1 × CAN, 1 × N34, 1 ×
0-5-17 (for show), repeat after a couple of weeks: 2,000 Euro.
4. Cement mixer—rent or buy: 100 Euro.
5. Ethanol 96%, × 6L: 30 Euro.
6. Blue Police flashing LED light—for one of the trucks: 150 Euro.
7. Splash proof face mask: 30 Euro.
8. Fork jack—for 600 kg sacks: 200 Euro.
9. Plastic base for 600 kg sacks (used with above): 200 Euro.
10. Refrigerator: 100 Euro.
11. Freezer: 100 Euro.
12. Fume hood: 1,000 Euro (not yet decided).
13. Micro balloons, 20 kg. Glock 17: 700 Euro.
14. More ammo: 1,000 Euro.
15. Dunnage air-bag for securing transport load, bought from eBay: 100 Euro.
16. Straps/net for securing large load in truck, may use aluminum/metal profiles with screws to support them.
The chemicals proved to be a hellish mixture, much like the one used by McVeigh, and it is unnerving to learn how readily available they were at nearly any agricultural wholesaler. Breivik must have been concerned about how ordering these dangerous ingredients went unquestioned. Surely the chemicals, along with the various mechanisms needed for ignition, would cause a stir somewhere along the line.
“If I messed up by being flagged,” he wrote, “I would be neutralized before I finalized my operation.”
On Monday, July 11, 2011, Breivik had to transfer €2,000 to his credit card in order to reserve a second vehicle from Avis. The vehicles were to be used on that deadly day of the attacks, July 22. He also consumed “a lot of exquisite food and candy” in order to “recharge” his batteries and increase his morale. He had to take care of more dangerous chemical mixing that required wearing his protective suit. As was his habit, he drank a Red Bull and swallowed one of his dangerous ECA stacks (a combination of ephedrine, caffeine, and aspirin) as rewards for the difficult tasks and to give him the extra energy he needed.
So far, his cover had been effective. The farmer working the land adjacent to his later described Breivik as a city-slicker type who seemed to know nothing about actual farming. Moreover, his neighbor must have thought it strange that this young man, wearing fancy clothes, had covered up all his windows. Yet, this suspicion did not amount to anything further. The owner of a bar not far away, who had once worked as a body-language profiler for the airport in Oslo, later informed the police that there was nothing unusual about this young man who would order an occasional drink in his establishment.
Now living on the farm, Breivik was extremely isolated, working on his manifesto and his bomb, occasionally watching a little television. Although he had been working as covertly as possible, he did break his pattern once to visit his three best friends since childhood.
On June 30, 2011, his log noted: “I guess I have been somewhat reckless in regards to maintaining my social network. Choosing complete isolation and asocial behavior would probably have better ensured my secrecy. However, complete isolation and asocial behavior can also defeat the whole purpose if you end up losing the love for the people you have sworn to protect. Because, why would you bless your people with the ultimate gift of love if every single person hates you?”
It is not clear in his log whether or not he actually spent much time with his friends. However, he worried that he would appear suspicious if he didn’t visit them. He may have even, in a brief moment of loneliness, wanted to say good-bye. In their eyes, he was probably improving his life by moving away from his mother’s house, to the farm, and breaking free from his obsession with computer war games.
Claiming to be the “glue/social administrator” of this group of pals, he wrote how, in his absence, a particular member had been stepping up to fill his shoes. Whether or not Breivik actually was the metaphorical glue of his small circle is unclear. His narcissistic thoughts seemed to increase the closer he got to his mission, almost as if he were developing a bravado to propel himself through the final days of preparation. If he were to carry out his actions, he needed to justify them to himself. In short, he needed to convince himself that he was a savior.
The last two or three months before the massacre, he estimated, using the language of his beloved games again, that he had a thirty-percent chance of being reported to the system protectors at the National Intelligence Agency in the middle of his pursuit.
Was there ever a time that he paused to reflect on the carnage he was striving desperately to commit? Here, in his own words, written in the spring of 2011, he explains how he evaluated what his actions could mean to the innocent people whose lives would be in jeopardy should his efforts not be stopped.
“My concerns and angst relating to this phase impacted my motivation to a point where I had to initiate specific counter-measures to reverse the loss of morale and motivation. I decided that the correct approach to reversing it was to initiate another DBOL steroid cycle and intensify my strength training. I also spent some time locating and downloading new music. A lot of new vocal trance tracks and some inspirational music by Helene Bøksle. In addition, I decided I would allow myself to play the newly launched expansion, World of Warcraft—Cataclysm. The combination of these three counter measures, in addition to my 3 weekly indoctrination/meditation walks, resulted in my morale and motivation again peaking.”
So, there would be no searching his soul at this point.
THE COUNTDOWN
On Day 8, in his log, he continued his online search for the correct way to purify salicylic acid. After many hours of searching the Net, using various search phrases, he managed to locate a single YouTube clip, with very few hits (views), which explained in detail an unconventional method for synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid from aspirin. Breivik, not one to settle for the first method he found, figured out a way to substitute an air-drying method of his own for the more expensive laboratory pumps in the illustration. Confident that his method was viable, he set out to create this material that most people can’t even pronounce.
The following day, he decided to form an evacuation plan, in case his neighbor, or anyone else, decided to stop by and see what he was up to. The potential scenarios must have been chilling, as he began to mentally sketch out an emergency plan in his head. He wrote later that day: “I would have to pack my largest backpack with survival gear and relating [sic] equipment, including survival rations, 10L of water, weapons, ammo and suitable clothing. I started to prepare the above.”
When Day 14 of his log rolled around, he seemed to be in a lighter mood. Evidently, he had been following the Eurovision song contest with a passion. “Crap music,” he admitted, “but a great TV show, all in all.” He had been following the semifinals and would watch it online after a day’s work. Norway had entered with—what he considered a crappy, politically correct contribution—an asylum-seeking Kenyan who performed a bongo song.
“Very representative of Europe,” he said, obviously aiming his sarcasm at Norway. “In any case,” he added, “I hope Germany wins.”
“BOOM”
In the middle of June, Breivik was ready to test his first bomb. He prepared his test device and drove off to an isolated site he had picked out for the event. He lit the fuse, sprinted out of range, and waited. It was probably the longest ten seconds he had ever endured. Here is his description of what happened. Breivik’s written language and the smiley face he added makes one think he was sending an e-mail to a friend, instead of rehearsing for mass murder:
“BOOM! The detonation was successful!!! :-) I quickly drove away to avoid any potential unwanted attention from people in the vicinity. I would have to come back a few hours later to investigate the blast hole, to see if both compounds had detonated.”
After returning from a restaurant, where he had celebrated his success, he went back to the blast site and evaluated the explosion. His primary compound had detonated successfully, but the dry picric acid booster had not detonated at all. He felt that he could solve the problem, commenting in his log that “Today was a very good day as I really needed this su
ccess.”
There was no turning back for him. Yet was he moving forward with purpose, or putting off the inevitable? Because of his indecision about finding the right property for his pseudo-farm, he was already behind schedule. His mishaps, if that was what they were, would continue.
His Day 52 log entry speaks of how much he had been relying on the Internet, both for his continual flow of journaling his thoughts, and the functions he would be counting on to promote his book (his manifesto) when the time came for him to publish it electronically. His day included an attempt to reinstall Windows 7 on his computer, to no avail. Something was wrong, either the network card or the phone line itself.
He drove into town to get it fixed by a computer expert. Told the machine would be ready for him the next day, he returned to prepare the chemistry equipment required to manufacture more batches of a chemical called DDNP, which, when triggered by a detonator, acts as a primary charge that then ignites the main secondary charge. When finished with that task, he purified the last batch—yes, the last and final batch—of picric acid, yielding several liters that had to be chilled. Drawing closer and closer to the day he had been working toward for years, he then drove to town and bought three portions of Chinese takeout. “Beef with noodles and fried rice, yummy!” he wrote. “I took an early night as I didn’t have any PC.”
After a full day’s work, Anders Behring Breivik went to bed early, exactly one month prior to the day he would commit the most reviled act that his nation would ever experience, an act that would forever brand him as the most evil and hated man in the world.
On Day 73 of his log entries, he wrote:
“Wednesday July 13—Day 73: I cleaned my 3M gas mask today. It was full of AL powder/smearing and the multifilter were [sic] full of AL dust. Unfortunately; these are my last multifilters (particle and vapor filter combined) so I can’t replace them. I do have a couple of sets of particle filters but I believe they won’t be of much use to filter the diesel fumes when mixing ANALFO.
The Mystery of the Lone Wolf Killer Page 3
