Ammo Clips from eBay? Officials Probe Killer's Account

April 21, 2007 — -- In the months before his shooting spree at Virginia Tech, Seung-Hui Cho purchased two ammunition clips through the online auction site eBay, ABCNews has learned.

An eBay spokesman confirmed the sale to the Associated Press late today after separate investigations by ABCNews and the Associated Press uncovered the existence of Cho's auction account.

"It's apparent that he purchased the empty magazine clips," eBay spokesman Hani Durzy told the AP. "They're similar to what could be purchased in any sporting goods store around the country."

Cho apparently purchased a two-pack of 10-round ammunition clip magazines for a Walther P22 on March 22, 2007, less than a month before killing 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech. The empty clips were purchased on eBay from Elk Ridge Shooting Supplies. Police have said Cho used a Walther P22 during his bloody rampage Monday.

ABCNews earlier reported that the eBay account username used by Cho, "blazers5505," was the same as the prefix of Cho's hotmail e-mail address. Cho's apparent eBay account lists a Blacksburg, Va., shipping address and a ticket to Virginia Tech's Peach Bowl appearance in December 2006 was sold on the site.

ABCNews first learned of Cho's personal e-mail address and other details of the ongoing police investigation when it exclusively obtained court documents filed in the Cho case on Friday.

Andy Koch, Cho's suitemate from 2005-06, told the Associated Press he never saw Cho receive or send a package.

But earlier this week, the Blacksburg postal clerk who serviced Cho the morning of the killings told ABCNews she recognized the college senior and had seen him in the post office on other occasions. The postal clerk received and postmarked the package containing Cho's manifesto, which he mailed to New York in the midst of his rampage.

In addition to purchasing ammunition clips online, Cho appears to have sold used copies of books filled with violent themes and overtones on an eBay affiliated Web site called half.com.

One book sold on the account, "Men, Women and Chainsaws," is an academic text about gender roles in horror films. The book advances the feminist theory of a "Final Woman" in modern slasher films, the idea that while many victims die at the hands of a killer, one plucky, independent woman always survives.

Among the actresses cited in the book are Jamie Lee Curtis in "Halloween," Betsy Palmer in "Friday the 13th" and Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Eyes of A Stranger."

ABCNews has learned the book was used in an academic course called "Contemporary Horror" which was taught at Virginia Tech as recently as last semester. Another book sold through the same half.com account -- "Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha" -- was written by Ed Falco, one of Cho's English professors at Virginia Tech. Falco's niece, Edie Falco, stars in HBO's mob drama "The Sopranos."

ABCNews.com first reported Friday on investigators' attempts to use Cho's computer and cell phone records to see if the killer communicated with the first victim of his shooting spree, freshman Emily Hilscher, or others prior to his Monday morning massacre.

Last week, investigators seized both Cho's and Hilscher's computers. On Friday, police also asked a magistrate to allow investigators to mine Virginia Tech's e-mail servers for communications sent by Cho or Hilscher.

Ted Pratt contributed to this report.