Kip Kinkel

In May 1998, a year before the massacre at Columbine High, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his mother and father, and then opened fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing two fellow students and wounding 25 others. In this first in-depth television examination of a school shooter, FRONTLINE reveals the intimate inside story of how the “shy and likeable” Kip Kinkel from a solid middle-class family became the boy police call “a cold-hearted killer.”

This video recounts the tragic events of the 1998 Thurston High School shooting, carried out by 15-year-old Kiplin Kinkel. The video details Kinkel's background, the murders of his parents, and the subsequent school shooting, as well as the aftermath and impact on the victims and community.