The ‘Virgin Killer’ hoax and what it says about bodybuilders

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

On May 23, 2014, Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree in Isla Vista, California, killing 6 people and injuring 13. Afterwards, an internet troll said he went on this killing spree because he was taking the popular bodybuilding supplement creatine. And people believed it.

The ‘Virgin Killer’

London born Elliot Rodger moved to California when he was 5 years old. At age 7 his parent divorced and he started seeing a therapist. Having troubles fitting in at school, his parents moved him from school to school in an effort to find a place he would be happy.

Elliott was quiet, shy, and had very few friends. His rage began as a youngster as he was jealous and envious of others that he saw as higher in the hierarchy than himself. The lonely young boy became an introverted teenager who secluded himself amongst the fictional heroes of ‘World or Warcraft’. In high school he was bullied. Whilst financially very comfortable, wearing designer clothes and driving a BMW, he began obsessing about one thing that eluded him: a girlfriend.

In his journal he wrote:

Finding out about sex is one of the things that truly destroyed my entire life. Sex, the very word fills me with hate … I would always covet it, I would always fantasize about it. But I would never get it.

Elliott studied English at Santa Barbara City College, and it was during this time that he started planning his ‘retribution’. Through vlogs, including a final one released on the day of his killing spree, he documented his plans:

I desire girls, I’m sexually attracted to girls. But girls are not sexually attracted to me. I have a major problem with that. A major problem. That’s a problem I intend to rectify.

I, in all my magnificence and power, I will not let this fly. It’s an injustice that needs to be dealt with.

His lack of success with women became an obsession.

I’m 22 years old and I’m still a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a girl.

I will destroy all women because I can never have them.

He became a regular on forums for involuntary celibates (incels) and on bodybuilding.com where he voiced his hatred of women. In one online forum he wrote:

Start envisioning a world where women fear you.

He planned his revenge on women over many months. He purchased handguns for the day he called his ‘retribution’.

I am now armed. Who’s the alpha now bitches?

On the 23^rd of May 2014 he emailed his journal, or what others have called his ‘manifesto’, ‘My Twisted World’, to a handful of people including his parents and his therapist. In it he said:

I will arm myself with deadly weapons and wage a war against all women and the men they are attracted to.

But before anyone could act on this warning, he stabbed his two flatmates and another man to death in his apartment. He then drove to Alpha Phi sorority house near the University of California, Santa Barbara, which he described as housing ‘the most beautiful girls’. When he tried to enter no one answered the door so he shot at three women on the street, killing two, and seriously injuring a third.

If I can’t have you girls, I will destroy you [laughs]. You denied me a happy life and in turn I will deny all of you life [laughs], it’s only fair [vlog].

He then drove to a deli popular with students, and, shooting a barrage of bullets through the windows, killed one man and injured others. Driving on, he opened fire on students outside a 7-Eleven. He continued driving around Isla Vista, shooting others as he drove, and also striking pedestrians with his car.

In total Elliott Rodger killed 6 people and injured 13.

He then turned the gun on himself, putting a bullet through his head.

The Hoax

As would be expected the press were eager to report anything and everything that they could find about this tragedy. A reporter, Emma Foster, in the search for a scoop, contacted Chris Akin, an individual who was connected to some fake Elliott Rodger social media accounts.

Internet troll Akin, seeing an opportunity to entertain his fellow trolls, responded with a fabricated story that linked the killing spree to bodybuilding.

Akin described how the creatine Elliott Rodger was using changed his character, sending him to ‘dark places emotionally’. As evidence he provided fake chatlogs between himself and Elliott Rodger:

Increasing the absurdity of his fabricated story Akin added:

‘Hugh Woatmeigh’, whose tragic passing bodybuilders mourned online, never existed. He is a play on the popular meme ‘u wot m8’ (‘you what mate?’), a slang expression of disbelief popular in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Emma Foster, completely missing the joke, passed this information on to her editor and it was published as an exclusive in the Daily Mirror under the headline ‘Virgin killer ‘hooked on bodybuilder pills’’.

Akin boasted about his exploits on bodybuilding forum Fitmisc.com under the username ghettocandyman. ‘I made it on the news,’ he said in one of his posts. A torrent of accolades followed.

What does this say about bodybuilding?

Obviously, this hoax suggests that there are trolls in the world of bodybuilding. This fact is not news to anyone (except maybe Emma Foster). A segment of the bodybuilding community, especially those that have trod the seemingly well-worn path from computer gaming to bodybuilding, share a sense of humour that many outsiders do not get. And often this humour plays on the disconnect between bodybuilders and the rest of the world. This hoax is a perfect example of this.

What I think is most interesting about this hoax is the eagerness with which Emma Foster, her editor, and the many readers of this article, accepted the fact that a bodybuilding supplement could send someone on a killing spree. It seems many people believe that bodybuilders are a significant threat to society, and that the supplements that they consume just exacerbate this threat.

The existence of ‘roid rage’ is debated in the academic literature, but in the public mind it appears to be accepted as fact. That this association between bodybuilding supplementation and aggression could be transferred from exogenous hormones (which have been proven to have dramatic, and not always positive, effects on the body and mind), to an amino acid with no evidence of significant detrimental effects, is testament to the readiness of society to see bodybuilding (and bodybuilders) as dangerous.

I know about these preconceptions about bodybuilders from experience. When I started my research with enhanced bodybuilders my boss made me complete a risk assessment, and told me he was concerned that bodybuilders would lurk in the bushes outside my office, waiting to do me harm. To this day I still go the long, and less vegetated, way to my car 😉

So, next time you seek to enhance your body’s ability to respond to high-intensity training, remember this story of Elliot Rodger, and don’t risk perpetrating mass murder.

Sources:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/fullpage/secret-life-elliot-rodger-24322227

Channel 4 True Crime documentary ‘The Virgin Killer’, available at: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2e3qyq

https://www.amlu.com/2014/05/28/major-news-outlets-fall-for-elaborate-elliot-rodger-hoax/