HATRED OF THE HUNGER GAMES ASSASSIN
British son of violent fantasy filmmaker kills six in gun rampage in ‘revenge for being virgin at 22’
A BRITISH student killed six people in California, hours after posting a terrifying video online in which he vowed to ‘slaughter’ the women who rejected him.
Elliot Rodger, 22, the son of an assistant director of the Hunger Games films, gunned down his victims from the wheel of his black BMW near the beach resort of Santa Barbara.
Most of his victims are believed to be female university students, though at least one was said to be a
ON THE surface, Elliot Rodger had everything a young man in his prime could wish for: loving, wealthy parents, a luxury family home in California, the chance to mix with Hollywood A-listers, and a sleek BMW at the age of just 22.
But beneath the sun-kissed lifestyle, a desperate loneliness and sexual frustration were gnawing away and would finally drive him to the madness of his horrific, premeditated mass murder.
The recurring theme of his inner torment is evident in numerous disturbing videos he put out on YouTube and social network postings as he increasingly seemed to spend more time living his life in cyberspace rather than in the real world.
Time after time, he talked of his inability to get a girlfriend, confessing that even though he had been through college, he had never kissed a girl, let alone had sex.
A picture emerged of a troubled young man whose fellow students were enjoying the hedonistic lifestyle of surfing, spring breaks and sorority parties, while he was left out, later undergoing therapy.
Over time, his pitiful plea for companionship and sex developed a darker edge until the point where he promised ‘retribution’ on women in general.
Two years ago, on his YouTube channel, Rodger set the tone for what was to come, posting a video of fellow students partying in Isla Vista, the town where he studied at University of California, Santa Barbara, where it is believed he was studying politics and philosophy.
In an accompanying comment, he wrote: ‘It angers me so much to see these people having so much fun here. I’m the perfect sophisticated gentleman, but these heartless girls only like to be with the obnoxious douchebags.’
Around a year ago he began posting on an internet forum called Puahate – a site describing itself as the ‘Anti-Pickup-Artist Movement’ and offers advice to men on how to pick up women.
For his first post he wrote: ‘Revenge is something to live for’ on a thread titled ‘I have nothing to live for.’ As Rodger’s ‘vlogs’ or video blogs, became more and more chilling, his worried family asked him to remove some of them from the internet only three weeks ago.
A good-looking boy, it is impossible to say what caused Rodger’s problem with women, but apart from his parents’ divorce, there are no clues in his background as to the deeply troubled loner he would become.
He was born in August 1991 in Lambeth, South London, the scion of a family steeped in photography and the cinema. His Malaysian-born mother Li Chin, now 53, and film director father Peter, 49, moved to
His pitiful pleas turned to talk of ‘retribution’
America’s West Coast when Elliot was five and his younger sister Georgia only a baby.
Elliot’s grandfather, British photographer George Rodger, was one of the founders of the renowned Magnum photo agency, and covered the D-Day landings in 1944. He was also the first photographer to enter the concentration camps at Bergen-Belsen, an experience which left a lasting impression on him, according to his widow Lois ‘Jinx’ Rodger, herself a journalist and picture editor.
Speaking from her home in Kent, Elliot’s grandmother, 89, explained that he had suffered mental health issues for some time.
She said: ‘He was a very disturbed boy. He lived in California but of course I’d known him. This is just one of those very tragic things. I don’t want to talk about it any more. This is a rather difficult time.’
Peter Rodger loved helping his father on jobs and soon picked up the passion for photography. His own career began in advertising, filming and photographing commercials for cosmetics, cars and clothing.
Yesterday, a family friend told The Mail on Sunday that Peter and Li Chin divorced soon after moving to the US and Peter later married Soumaya Akaaboune, a French actress of Moroccan-French descent who appeared in Hollywood blockbuster Green Zone. She was once married to Jamie Harris, son of the late screen legend Richard Harris.
Elliot’s early life was spent in Calabasas in the hills west of the San Fernando Valley, on the edge of Los Angeles. He recalled in one Facebook posting ‘being the smallest kid in the class’ when he was photographed at Topanga Elementary School near his home, aged seven, in 1998. His naturally dark hair seemed to have been dyed blond.
While Elliot’s father only became a big player in Hollywood relatively recently, it’s clear his mother may also have been well-connected from a photograph taken in the late 1980s, showing Michael Jackson, along with Harrison Ford and Star Wars director George Lucas, who has his arm around Li Chin.
Peter Rodger’s own breakthrough into Hollywood came in 2009, when Elliot was aged 17, with the release of his film documentary Oh My God, featuring Ringo Starr, Hugh Jackman and Baz Luhrmann and their views on organised religion. But he made it clear that the success had been achieved at some price to his family life. The project took Peter to 23 countries and he said in an interview that the previous three years had been tough on his family. He included Elliot in the on-screen credits, along with his sister Georgia. He said: ‘I put my family through a lot
of difficulties making this film because I was away a long time.’
Of children, added: ‘Kids are the purest form of humans. It’s when the influences around them start affecting them – their parents, their schools, their society, their culture, their country, their belief systems – that they start to become the people they are. I find children to be ultimately pure in heart. If you are looking for Godliness surely you are going to find Godliness in children.’ Peter Rodger became assistant director on the 2012 blockbuster The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence. Elliot was photographed at the film’s Hollywood premiere alongside his father, stepmother, and Sylvester Stallone.
By then, he was enrolled at University of California, Santa Barbara, but he made it clear in one of his earlier, more poignant, blogs, he hated university life – because he felt so excluded from its social life.
In one of Elliot’s more recent videos, he said that he was happiest during his childhood when things were more ‘fair’, though what exactly he meant wasn’t clear.
Elliot was able to afford a trip to London three years ago, taking in the Houses of Parliament , Harrods and the London Eye, posting photos online. But by January last year it was clear his social rejection had fuelled hatred in him when he wrote: ‘If you could release a virus that would kill every single man on Earth, except for yourself because you would have the antidote, would you do it?
‘You will be the only man left, with all the females. You would be able to have your pick of any beautiful woman you want, as well as having dealt vengeance on the men who took them from you. Imagine how satisfying that would be.’
By June, he wrote: ‘Once women are brought to their knees, things can be reformed. The sooner this happens, the better.’
Three months ago, he started posting YouTube videos. Again, they started innocuously – ‘Enjoying the sunset in Santa Barbara’ and ‘Awesome view of LA from a landing airplane’.
Last month, a photo on Facebook showed Elliot with his father and step-brother Jazz on a garden swingseat. The body language spoke volumes. While the younger boy and his father embraced, Elliot sat sulking at the end of the seat.
Then in the last week or so, he ramped up his YouTube activity and started talking about how he hated women in his videos.
Widely ridiculed, he had become a mini celebrity on the Puahate site.
Saying goodbye to Puahate he wrote: ‘You’re all jealous of my 10/10 pretty-boy face. This site is full of stupid, disgusting, mentally ill degenerates who take pleasure in putting down others.
‘That is all I have to say on here. Goodbye.’