Before Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults in her devastating March 27, 2023 attack at the Covenant School, she wrote in a journal recovered by police of her desire to “inflict pain” and share the “same fate” with a former friend and middle school classmate who is now a Nashville radio personality.
The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained photographic images showing 80 pages written by Hale in a journal recovered from her vehicle from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
The journal includes nearly 20 entries about her former middle school basketball teammate, Paige Averianna Patton, who now works in radio using the name Averianna The Personality.
While Hale repeatedly wrote journal entries professing her love for Patton (pictured above), the affection appears to have been entirely unrequited, and there is little evidence that Hale and Patton communicated regularly after graduating high school in 2014.
Toward the end of a March 2, 2023 journal entry, Hale wrote days after she attended a public event featuring Patton, the killer wrote about her desire for notoriety.
“She’s famous to me; a star to many,” wrote Hale of Patton. “Little does she know now we will soon share the same fate.”
Hale then wrote, “She will live a legend and I will die a shooter – hopefully to become infamous. No one will forget neither of us.”
She concluded the entry by declaring that Patton “will be the blessing, and I will be the horror to inflict pain” before signing the entry as Aiden.
Born a biological female, Hale identified as a transgender man at the time of her attack and began using the name Aiden after she announced her new gender identity.
The March 2 journal entry appears to be the only one obtained by The Star that could offer a possible motive for her attack on the Covenant School; however, Hale also wrote an undated entry titled “I’d Kill 2 Die” about her “motivation” for considering either her attack or suicide.
“I would have made more money since my 2nd job, but my brain thought it be better to die,” wrote Hale. She later added, “My only true motivation [equals] mass suicide.”
Both Michael Patrick Leahy, who is the editor-in-chief of The Star, and Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates the publication, are plaintiffs in lawsuits seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI to release Hale’s full writings, including those some call a manifesto.
Leahy will appear in court on Monday for a show cause hearing in the lawsuit against MNPD after a reporter claimed reporting by The Star about Hale’s writings and the Covenant investigation allegedly violated a court order issued by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles.
The Star additionally published an FBI memo last week, which was addressed to MNPD Chief John Drake and sent in May 2023. The memo “strongly” advised against releasing “legacy tokens” left by individuals like Hale.
An FBI definition suggests such “legacy tokens” include both the writings left by Hale that The Star has obtained and those sought in the lawsuits.
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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].
Photo “Averianna Patton” by Averianna Patton.
Pfftt, Audrey, a mentally ILL FEMALE. who is only known for that, being mentally ill and a murderer.
I hope she is burning in Hell.
Stop saying “Born a biological female”. She was born a female. There is no other adjective needed. But at least you aren’t confusing your readers with imaginary genders.
This is an excellent apt quote back when many Democrats were classical liberals. It applies often now and especially here:
“We are not AFRAID to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is AFRAID to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is AFRAID of its people.” –John F. Kennedy
So is it an “ongoing investigation” or preventing “legacy tokens” that might encourage other mentally ill people in the transgender community to engage is mass murder?
Come on, guys. Pick which lie it is today.
There is no investigation. Only a coverup.
How much money is the Nashville government spending to litigate well established open records laws? Enough to buy a gold whistle for Freddie O’Connell’s choochoo train? Perhaps enough to feed underprivileged Davidson County kids’ breakfast year round before school. Maybe enough leftover to pay drag queens to read to them at breakfast.
LOL!!!