EBay spokesman: Killer bought clips for gun

Seung-Hui Cho had a superb feedback rating on the auction Web site.
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- The Virginia Tech killer went to eBay to buy ammunition clips for one of the types of guns he used in the rampage, a spokesman for the auction site confirmed Saturday.
Using the handle Blazers5505, Seung-Hui Cho bought two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22 -- one of two handguns used in the massacre of 32 people. The clips were bought 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."
On eBay and affiliated sites, Cho also sold several books with violent themes, tickets to Hokies football games and a graphics calculator that contained several games.
"The calculator was used for less than one semester then I dropped the class," he wrote.
Feedback rating
Cho's eBay feedback rating from other users was superb -- 98.5 percent. Only one person gave him a negative rating. The site says the person has had an account since January 2004.
On the eBay-affiliated Web site 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," by H.P. Lovecraft; 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 could have been merely selling the used books at the end of the semester.
Computer forensics have played a major role in the investigation into Cho's motives. Authorities are examining the personal computers found in his dorm room.
Digging up records
Experts say that when the subject of an investigation is a loner like Cho, such records can be a rich source of information.
An examination of a computer is "very revealing, particularly for a person like this," said Mark Rasch of FTI Consulting, a computer and electronic investigation firm. "What we find ... particularly with people who are very uncommunicative in person, is that they may be much more communicative and free to express themselves with the anonymity that computers and the Internet give you."
Andy Koch, Cho's suitemate from 2005-06, said he never saw Cho receive or send a package. He said if a student receives a package from FedEx or UPS, it is usually delivered to the dorm, and a note is left on the door if the student is not home.
Cho's computers likely will hold records of any e-mail communications he had. But they could also show the topics he researched, online purchases he made, his essays and diaries and photos.
Investigators also are seeking his cell phone records on the theory that he may have warned someone about what would become the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
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