For the past 17 years, I have worked as a project coordinator for a subagency within the Department of Defense. In 1991, I met Bill Kinkle, then the proud father of a 10-year-old son, Kip. Much has been made in the media about how Bill Kinkle and his wife were educators, but no one in the media has looked into Bill Kinkle's background.
For 14 years, Bill was a research coordinator for various educational studies at three universities in the Pacific Northwest. Much of his work was related to Department of Defense research into the affect that certain psychotropic drugs would have on academic performance and overall intellectual development. Following the Springfield shooting, I have made an effort to quietly review documents from his work. I have been able to discern the following information from these reports.
- Bill was in no way involved with the medical aspects of the tests, but was instead hired to develop complex testing methods for evaluating the effects that this medication had on children.
- 37 children were tested. Although the names of the subjects are not in the materials I have clearance to review, I have found a release signed William Kinkle in 1993 authorizing his son to be evaluated to become a part of the study. Important note: I did not find any information which would indicate that Kip was taken into the study although I have found no information to contradict that he did. Further, the double blind nature of the testing indicates that a substantial portion of those tested would have received placebos.
- The primary drug that was used in the tests was fluvoxamine, a drug that was not, at the time Bill Kinkle was involved with the project, approved by the FDA. It has since been approved and released in this country under the name Luvox.
- The study was stopped at one location. (I believe it was, based on my memories at the time, the University of Washington, but the records are incomplete as to where the problem arose). Three subjects, all on the drug rather than placebo, each developed significant psychosis that had not been exhibited prior to entering the study. Although I am not a psychiatrist and I am not fully able to accurately provide a diagnosis, each of the three suffered from intense delusions of grandeur and violent and angry impulses. The decision to take the three off the drug was more or less an end to the study at that school, where the entire studied population was nine. The Department of Defense wanted the research to continue, but the psychiatrist to whom the grant had been issued refused to continue the project, deeming the project dangerous to the children.
- I was shocked to discover reports in the mainstream press which stated that Kip Kinkle had been placed on Luvox by a psychiatrist at the University of Oregon, who's Department of Psychology had sponsored one of the three studies. Although this psychiatrist is not listed in any Department of Defense records as being involved in the study, the news reports say that BILL KINKLE requested the drug.
- Bill Kinkle's signatures are on the reports dismantling the University of Washington survey. He was undoubtedly aware of the side effects of this drug.
- Although there are conflicting reports as to whether he was actually taking the drug at the time, Eric Harris, one of the two boys that was in the Columbine shooting, was prescribed the drug six months before the shooting.
- When the FDA was in the process of providing approval for Luvox, they requested any information from government agencies regarding any testing on the drug, but the Department of Defense did not turn their information over regarding the studies and the negative effects that this drug had on children.

I do not claim that Luvox caused the shootings, but it is clear that serious questions exist as to whether the drug is safe and whether the government in some way, through testing of the drug, created Kip Kinkle.
I am posting this of this site because I am frustrated in figuring out the best way to bring this question to the forefront without risking my livelihood. Much of this is speculation and I am assuming a number of links-- first and foremost that Kip Kinkle was ever accepted into the study or given Luvox as part of the study, rather than a placebo.
I do not purport know what has happened, and I have no interest in going to the mainstream media with these claims. However, I knew Bill Kinkle, and he struck me as a good, honest man. I would like to know why he died.