Gunman was bitter over women
BRIDGEVILLE — Friends mourned for three women fatally shot during their exercise class at a Pittsburgh-area gym by a man whose online diary revealed he felt ignored by women and had an "exit plan" to avenge his rage.
George Sodini went to a sprawling L.A. Fitness Club on Tuesday night, turned out the lights on the "Latin impact" dance-aerobics class for women, and opened fire with three guns, spraying dozens of bullets before committing suicide.
"He just had a lot of hatred in him and (was) hell-bent on committing this act, and no one was going to stop him," Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Wednesday.
His 4,610-word Web diary appeared to be a nine-month chronology of his plans to end his misery with a shocking act of carnage at his gym. He couldn't understand why women ignored him, despite his best efforts to look nice. He wrote that he hadn't had a girlfriend since 1984, hadn't slept with a woman in 19 years.
"Women just don't like me. There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one. Not one of them finds me attractive," the 48-year-old computer programmer lamented.
It was unclear when the Web diary was posted and whether it had been updated online repeatedly since November or posted in its entirety recently.
Two undated videos, apparently recorded by Sodini, surfaced on the Internet and are posted on Starcasm.net. In one, he tours his suburban Pittsburgh home, starting outside and moving inside the two-bedroom, brick rancher. In the other, Sodini recorded himself standing in a doorway talking about hiding his emotions and trying to "emotionally connect" with people.
During the tour, he points out his computers, living space and a basement where he highlights his handy work, hanging paneling and a suspended ceiling. Sodini notes that a sofa and chair in his living room match and says, "women will really be impressed." He also focuses on reading material on a table that include a books titled "Date Young Women" and a paper with "Office Politics" printed on the front.
Moving through the home, he talks about a newly purchased dining room set, and shows his bedroom, which includes a bed, computer and a dresser.
"It looks pretty clean," he said. "I'm sure she'll be impressed."
Speaking to the camera in the second video, Sodini talks about hiding his emotion, how he thought he had 15 years remaining and how his objective is to "be real and be emotional" and to be able to "emotionally connect with people."
He speaks about how, in a relationship with a woman 10 to 20 years younger, "she has to feel good about this thing."
The health club violence rocked the town of about 5,300 people just outside Pittsburgh.
Killed were Heidi Overmier, 46, of Carnegie, a sales manager at an amusement park; Jody Billingsley, 37, of Mount Lebanon, who worked for a medical-supply company; and Elizabeth Gannon, 49, of Pittsburgh, an X-ray technician at Allegheny General Hospital.
"She can't be gone," said Gannon's next-door neighbor and close friend, Carl Rady, who knew her for 35 years and said she loved to work out and pamper her dog. "It can't happen that way."
Six patients remained hospitalized, including the aerobics instructor, Mary Primis, 26, who was listed in fair condition. Primis is pregnant but said doctors told her the baby is fine.
Sodini did not have a relationship with any of his victims, according to police.
