The Tennessee Star released on Tuesday the purported manifesto of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale, who killed three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
Much of the material in Hale’s 90 pages of writings has already been reported, including her rantings about her gender.
“So now in America, it makes one a criminal to have a gun or, be transgender, or non-binary,” Hale wrote in one journal entry. “God I hate those s***head politicians.”
Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief of The Star, said on Tuesday that he’s releasing the entire document for the public to see.
Nashville shooter Audrey Hale's full 'manifesto' was released today. I didn't see much new when I scanned it briefly. Hale did view Columbine as an inspiration, hated her dad, and had fantasies of anal sex w/ a 'young brown girl w/ a big ass' pic.twitter.com/bfHczmydoz
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) September 3, 2024
"We legally obtained this handwritten journal – which we refer to as The Covenant Killer’s 2023 Journal to distinguish it from the many journals written by Hale prior to 2023 – in early June of 2024 from a source familiar with the MNPD investigation,” Leahy said.
“We have had a First Amendment right to publish these unredacted documents from the moment we legally obtained them.”
Leahy did say that he hesitated to publish the documents after he was threatened with contempt proceedings by NashvilleJudge I’Ashea Myles, who has ruled that the materials should be kept secret.
“This ‘Sword of Damocles’ has been held over my head by Judge Myles since June 17, 2024, and we have held off on publishing The Covenant Killer’s 2023 Journal, in part, until our legal defense financial resources have reached a sufficient level such that I can hire counsel to represent me in the event Judge Myles seeks to resurrect this false claim against me,” he said.
The Star has an appeal pending against Myles’ ruling.
According to Myles’s July ruling, the evidence held by law enforcement includes more than 100 gigabytes of data—far more evidence than her 90-page manifesto.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
