Audrey Elizabeth Hale referred to individuals or groups who she disliked as “robots,” “clones,” or “not real” in various entries found in the journal police recovered from her vehicle after she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained approximately 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
Hale first appeared to refer to people as clones in an undated entry that appears to have been written in early February 2023.
“What makes the world full of s*** is clones full of people that are meaningless s****,” wrote Hale.
Hale similarly claimed her father, Ronald Hale, is “not real” in an undated entry which is located just six pages later.
“I hate his old cranky-man existence,” wrote Hale before declaring on the next line, “all cranky good-for-nothing mentally ill men should die.”
At the bottom of this entry, Hale wrote, “I want to kill you,” then declared, “Dad is not real.”
Throughout several entries, Hale wrote extensively about her desire to harm or kill her father, corroborating audio from the police interview with Hale’s parents that was recently broadcast by 99.7 WTN’s Brian Wilson.
In a political rant entered into her journal on February 20, Hale also referred to those who deny rights to groups of people as “robots” who are not actually live.
“God I hate those s******* politicians. Anyone who puts funding into government or presidency companies are totally brainwashed,” Hale wrote, before declaring, “it’s not everyone in the White House making criminalizing laws; it’s someone scheming.”
Hale wrote that this person or group is “not American [and] have no care in the world about what ‘Land of the Free’ means. Whatever f***** is taking away human rights is not of a human at all; just a robot.”
On the next page, Hale referenced the entry and seemed to suggest that Europe affords rights “to only those whom are Angels or Supremes.”
Hale then appeared to identify herself as a “Supreme,” and her middle school friend and basketball teammate Paige Averianna Patton as an “Angel.”
The killer then wrote, “Everyone else must die,” and in all capital letters wrote the word, “clones.”
Hale also used the words “robots” and “clones” in an undated entry that appears addressed to Patton. In this entry, Hale complained about her “manipulative” parents and claimed they once attempted to steer her away from a friend group due to concerns about “a ‘bad’ influence.”
“Let kids think for themselves, listening to parents does no damned good but to mold their premature minds into a pre-formatted program: like clones do.” Hale wrote, “The very manipulative forms teens hate and rebel to. Kids are not robots.”
In another undated entry, Hale also wrote a list of people, possessions and concepts that she identified as “real.” These include her mother and brother, her “possessions” and stuffed “animals,” “creativity” and “nature.”
Under this list, Hale wrote, “They are all real; the only things real in this life that is all a lie.” She then seemed to include Patton in the list.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy are plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuits which seek to compel Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI to release the complete writings left by Hale, including those sometimes called a manifesto.
The Star recently published an FBI memo, sent to MNPD Chief John Drake in May 2023, which “strongly” warned against the release of “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale. An FBI definition suggests the agency considers both the writings obtained by The Star and those sought in the lawsuit to be “legacy tokens” that should be kept from the public.
Though the FBI did not confirm it sent the memo in a statement to The Star, the federal agency confirmed 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].
Image “Audrey Elizabeth Hale” by Nossi School of Fine Art and “Clones” by Agnieszka Stankiewicz.
