5 findings from Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale's complete diary

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Friday, September 06, 2024

Robin Wolfenden prays at a makeshift memorial for victims outside the Covenant School building at the Covenant Presbyterian Church following a shooting, in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 28, 2023. - A heavily armed former trans-identified student killed three young children and three staff in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack at a private elementary school in Nashville on March 27, before being shot dead by police. Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale, 28, who the officer later said identified as transgender. | BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

The Tennessee Star has released all 90 pages of the “manifesto” of Audrey Hale, the trans-identified shooter who killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee last year.

The journal had remained under seal from the Metro Nashville Police Department after the FBI sent the local law enforcement agency a memo stating that it “strongly discourages” the release of so-called “legacy tokens” because of concerns that future mass shooters would “immerse themselves in and study these materials for inspiration and tactics.” Critics of the move to keep the document confidential theorized that there was an effort to hide that trans ideology either motivated or played a partial role in the attack.

Over the past year, The Tennessee Star and conservative podcaster Steven Crowder have released excerpts of Hale's diary that revealed a disturbed young woman who fantasized about her “imaginary penis,” resented her parents and Christianity for their refusal to embrace her self-professed gender identity as male, and detailing her intention to open fire at the Christian school.

Tuesday’s publication of the complete manifesto contains unredacted screenshots of the handwritten journal for all to see. The contents of the diary document admiration for other mass murderers, sexual frustration, Hale’s desire to kill herself and others, in addition to providing context for her gender dysphoria.

Here are five findings from the unredacted version of Audrey Hale’s diary.