The Trenchcoat Mafia is the informal name given to a group of outcast students from Columbine High School, in unincorporated Jefferson County, Colorado (near Denver and Littleton). This group of students became the subject of media scrutiny after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. In April, 1999, two students from Columbine High School, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before committing suicide. Address 6201 S. Pierce Street City Columbine CDP, Jefferson County, Colorado 80123 Established 1973 Type Public Secondary Superintendent Dr. Cindy Stevenson Principal Dr. Frank D. DeAngelis Grades 9 to 12 District Jefferson County Public Schools Mascot Rebels (American Revolution) Colors Navy Blue and Silver School website Columbine Home Page Columbine... The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in an unincorporated section of Littleton, Colorado located in Jefferson County, near Denver. ... Yearbook photographs of the two perpetrators. ...

Media Presentation

The perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were identified by the media (and by Harris's father in a 911 call on the morning of the attacks) as part of the group in the days immediately following the event. The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in an unincorporated section of Littleton, Colorado located in Jefferson County, near Denver. ... Yearbook photographs of the two perpetrators. ...

The students in the Trenchcoat Mafia were not implicated in the shootings. One reason the Trenchcoat Mafia became associated with the massacre is that Harris and Klebold wore black leather dusters, a long coat similar to a trenchcoat. The term 'Trenchcoat Mafia' was used in media reports, and the term stuck in the public memory. In My Merry Oldsmobile songbook featuring intrepid automobilists wearing dusters A duster is a light, loose-fitting coat. ...

After the shootings, the students in the Trenchcoat Mafia publicly distanced themselves from the shooters. None of the students in the group were ever formally charged with involvement in the shootings, and all have been cleared of any foreknowledge of what was being planned.

The name 'Trenchcoat Mafia' became briefly infamous in the aftermath of the shootings. In many towns across the US and Canada, it became a catchphrase for outcasts, youths that communities were worried about. Some schools across the nation banned wearing trenchcoats, arguing that the long coats could be used to conceal weapons. A moral panic is a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. ...

American media compared the massacre to a dream sequence from the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries in which protagonist Leonardo DiCaprio wears a black trenchcoat while shooting six of his classmates and teacher with a shotgun. The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 film based on the book of the same name by Jim Carroll. ... Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974[1]) is an 3-time Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor well known for his roles in blockbuster movies such as William Shakespeares Romeo + Juliet (1996), Titanic (1997), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York...

See also

• Trench coat
• Trenchcoat Brigade

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Trenchcoat Brigade is a four-issue mini-series of comic books that was published in the 1999 by DC Comics Vertigo imprint. ...

External links

• Who was behind the Columbine High School shootings?
• Hoax Trenchcoat Mafia page