California killer Elliot Rodger remembered happy English childhood
Elliot Rodger enjoyed an idyllic childhood in the English countryside, but felt rejected and alienated when he joined a Sussex prep school, according to his online "manifesto".
The 22-year-old student killed six people and injured 13 more when he went on a gun and knife rampage in the college town of Isla Vista, southern California, and he detailed his rage and murderous plans in the 141-page document.
He chronicled his fury and resentment in My Twisted World: the Story of Elliot Rodger, a lengthy essay he emailed to his parents and a therapist just before the killing began.
The early pages described a happy childhood in England before the feelings of rejection began at school.
He bragged about his world travel and his family lineage, detailing his father's background, saying: "Peter is of British descent, hailing from the prestigious Rodger family; a family that was once part of the wealthy upper classes before they lost all of their fortune during the Great Depression.
"My father's father, George Rodger, was a renowned photojournalist who had taken very famous photographs during the Second World War, though he failed to reacquire the family's lost fortune."
Rodger went on to detail a blissful childhood of playing outside, surrounded by family in the countryside.
"We moved to a large house made of red brick in the county of Sussex, with vast grass fields surrounding it. The house even had a name: The Old Rectory. This was where I spent my early childhood, the first five years of my life, and it was beautiful," he wrote.
"The memories I have of this period are only memories of happiness and bliss. My father was a professional photographer at the time, just in the stage of becoming a director. My mother gave up her nursing career to stay at home and look after me. My grandma on my mother's side, who I would call Ah Mah, moved in with us to help out my mother.
"I would spend a lot of time with Ah Mah during these years. This was a time of discovery, excitement, and fun. I had just entered this new world, and I knew nothing of the pain it would bring me later on.
"I enjoyed life with innocent bliss. I can remember playing in the fields and going on long walks with Ah Mah to pick berries. She would always warn me not to touch the stinging nettles that sometimes grew in our fields, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I got stung a few times. There was a swing in the back of our yard, which I had many good times on."
But the gunman later details his unhappy time at the all-boys prep school Dorset House in the Sussex downs.
He said: "I was forced to wear a uniform, which I hated because I had to wear uncomfortable socks up to my knees. I was very nervous and I cried on my first day there. I can remember two friends I made by name, George and David. I would always play in the sandpit with them.
"I didn't like school at Dorsett [sic] House very much. I found the rules to be too strict. My least favourite part of it was the football sessions. I never understood the game and I could never keep up with the other boys in the field, so I always stood by the goal-keeper and pretended to be the 'second goalkeeper'."
Rodger also remembers a time when he was terrified after getting lost on a school trip to a park.
"As my class was eating lunch, I ventured off to another area of the park, and when I returned, my class had moved on," he wrote. "I remember panicking and asking strangers for help. It was a terrifying experience for me."