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Twisted Pals Conspired in Twin Massacres

Posted Sep 26, 08 3:27 AM CDT in World,  Crime & Courts 

(Newser) – Gunmen who carried out two school massacres in Finland a year apart urged each other to slaughter their classmates, reports the Times of London. Suicidal shooter Pekka-Erik Auvinen, who killed eight near Helsinki last year, left a message of encouragement for Matti Saari to carry out his own school massacre this week that claimed ten lives. The two also played violent video games together online, according to reports in a Finnish newspaper.

Before his own attack Auvinen, 18, had written to Saari: “If I can’t do it, I know you can make it."  Auvinen himself was inspired by the Columbine school massacre and there are fears if other copycat massacres across Finland.
Source: Times (UK)

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Candles mark a memorial near the Kauhajoki vocational high school in Kauhajoki, western Finland.   (AP Photo)
Candles are seen lit near the Kauhajoki vocational high school in Kauhajoki, western Finland.   (AP Photo)
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