Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale mentioned consuming pornography in the journal police recovered from her vehicle, and in one entry wrote she must “resort to cartoon porn” due to her inability to find a romantic partner.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained the journal police obtained from Hale’s vehicle after her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, from a source familiar with the investigation.
Hale, who was born a biological female but identified as a transgender man at the time of her attack, wrote in one entry about having to “resort” to porn due to a lack of romantic partners.
In a journal entry dated March 13, 2023, Hale wrote about her plan to attack the Covenant school, “2 more weeks. Thank f*** I planned to die, plan in mind.”
At the bottom of this page, Hale wrote, “Life of a virgin f**…” On the next lines, the killer continued, “No sex in real life / No love in real life.”
Hale then drew arrows pointing to the sentences, “Resort to cartoon porn” and “or let my stuffed animals f***.”
This page follows a three-page entry Hale titled “My Imaginary Penis,” in which she described her struggles with gender identity and graphically detailed using stuffed animals to simulate heterosexual intercourse.
“I can pretend to be them [and] do the things boys do [and] experience my boy self,” Hale wrote. She described taking photos of the stuffed animals over the course of hours, to the point where she lost track of time and could not exercise at a local gym.
“God, I am such a pervert,” Hale wrote. “I waste too much time in my fantasies.”
In an undated journal entry, Hale also appeared to include “porn” as the first entry under a list of items Hale labeled “Nature.” Other words Hale wrote under the “Nature” column include sex, murder, queer, loner, love, and hate.
Transgenderism and pornography have been linked before, including in a 2019 article in the peer-reviewed AG About Gender journal, which revealed many transgender pornographic performers use the work to finance expensive medications and surgeries related to their gender transition.
Pulitzer prize-winning transgender author Andrea Long Chu, who was born a biological male and now identifies as a transgender female, has received national recognition for his writings about pornography, including the claim, “Sissy porn did make me trans.”
The linking of transgenderism to pornography comes as the consumption of transgender pornography is reportedly on the rise, as information provided by the pornographic website Pornhub revealed in 2022 that demand for such videos grew in popularity by 75 percent in 2022.
Previously, the website reported searches for such content rose significantly between 2010 and 2017.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the lawsuits seeking to compel Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI to release the writings left by Hale, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
Earlier this month, The Star published an FBI memo sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023 that “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale. An FBI definition suggests the federal agency considers both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuits to be “legacy materials” that should be withheld from the public.
The FBI declined to confirm that it sent the memo in a statement to The Star but acknowledged that it sends such “products” to local law enforcement.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
The best thing that Hales parents could do for Nashville is to reveal the names of the doctors treating Hale. So we will never allow our children to seek counseling from them.