A Vivid Portrait - Paternal Age? Family History?

THE NEW YORK TIMES

April 22, 2007


Before Deadly Rage, a Life Consumed by a Troubling Silence



By N. R. KLEINFIELD
Published: April 22, 2007
From the beginning, he did not talk. Not to other children, not to his own family. Everyone saw this. In Seoul, South Korea, where Seung-Hui Cho grew up, his mother agonized over his sullen, brooding behavior and empty face. Talk, she just wanted him to talk.




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An Isolated Boy in a World of Strangers
Cho's Behavior Alarmed Some Who Knew Him; Family 'Humbled by This Darkness'

By David Cho and Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A01

Warning signs about Seung Hui Cho came early in his life.

Cho was unusually quiet as a child, relatives said. He did not respond to greetings. He did not want to be hugged. But when Cho fought with his older sister, he would punch her with shocking violence.


Kim Yang Soon, a great-aunt in Korea, said Cho's mother told her the boy had autism. After the family immigrated to the United States in 1992, when Cho was 8, Kim would call his mother and ask how the boy was doing. "She only talked about her daughter," Kim said. "We knew something was wrong."