Gunman bought ammunition clips on eBay

Cho went to eBay to buy ammunition clips for one of the types of guns he used in last Monday's rampage, a spokesman for the auction website confirmed on Saturday.

Using the handle Blazers5505, Cho bought two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22 - one of two handguns used in the massacre. The clips were bought on March 22 from a gun shop in Idaho.

"It's apparent that he purchased the empty magazine clips," eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said. "They're similar to what could be purchased in any sporting goods store around the country."

Cho also sold several books with violent themes, tickets to Virginia Tech football games and a graphics calculator that contained several games. The site says Cho had an account since January 2004.

Computer forensics have played a major role in the investigation into why Cho carried out the massacre. Experts say that when the subject of an investigation is a loner like Cho, such records can be a rich source of information.

On the eBay-affiliated website half.com, several books were listed for sale under the screen name "blazers5505."

They include "Men, Women, and Chainsaws" by Carol J. Clover, a book that explores gender in the modern horror film; the publisher's note reads: "Do the pleasures of horror movies really begin and end in sadism?"

Others include The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, and The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates - a book in which the publisher writes: "In these and other gripping and disturbing tales, women are confronted by the evil around them and surprised by the evil they find within themselves."

Books by those three authors were taught in his Contemporary Horror class, meaning he merely could have been selling the used books at the end of the semester.

Authorities are examining the personal computers found in Cho's dormitory room. They also hope to glean any relevant information from his e-mail account and that of Emily Hilscher, one of the first two victims.

Cho's computers could also show the topics he researched, online purchases he made, his essays and diaries and photos.

Source: China Daily/agencies