Killer’s dad tells of ‘horror story’
‘Mind taken over by a disease’
NEW YORK — The British father of the “virgin killer” Elliot Rodger has described his family’s “American horror story” after his “beautiful, kind, sweetheart of a boy” grew up into a mass murderer.
The Hollywood filmmaker has set up a website to help families and friends on the “front lines of the mental health crisis.”
Peter Rodger, a director on The Hunger Games film, said it was his life “duty” to tackle mental health issues and try to prevent a similar tragedy after his son murdered six other students before taking his own life.
“I think that his mind was taken over by a disease,” Rodger told ABC News in his first interview since his London-born son went on a killing rampage in the California student town of Isla Vista last month.
“It will haunt me for the rest of my life. This is the American horror story, or the world’s horror story, when you have somebody who on the outside is one thing, and on the inside is something completely different. And you don’t see it.”
Elliot Rodger, 22, left behind a 140-page manifesto and online videos in which he described his hatred of women, lamented that he was still a virgin and declared that he planned to carry out a “day of retribution.” Rodger said that he had no inkling that his son — whom he described as “an incredible liar” — harboured a murderous rage.