BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. - George Sodini seethed with anger andfrustration toward women. He couldn't understand why they ignoredhim, despite his best efforts to look nice. He hadn't had agirlfriend since 1984, hadn't slept with a woman in 19 years.
"Women just don't like me. There are 30 million desirable womenin the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one. Not one of them findsme attractive," the 48-year-old computer programmer lamented in achilling diary he posted on the Internet.
For months, he also wrote vaguely about using guns to carry outhis "exit plan" at his health club, where lots of young women workedout.
On Tuesday, Sodini put his plan into action.
He went to the sprawling L.A. Fitness Club in this Pittsburghsuburb, turned out the lights on a dance-aerobics class filled withwomen, and opened fire with three guns, letting loose with afusillade of at least 36 bullets.
He killed three women and wounded nine others before committingsuicide.
"He just had a lot of hatred in him and (was) hell-bent oncommitting this act, and no one was going to stop him," AlleghenyCounty Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Wednesday.
The 4,610-word Web diary appeared to be a nine-month chronologyof his plans to end his misery with a shocking act of carnage at thehealth club. He portrayed himself as painfully and inexplicablylonely.
"Every evening I am alone, and then go to bed alone," he wrote."I see twenty something couples everywhere. I see a twenty somethingguy with a nice twentyish young women. I think those years slippedright by for me. Why should I continue another 20+ years alone?"
It was unclear when the Web diary was posted and whether it hadbeen updated online repeatedly since November or posted in itsentirety recently. Moffatt said investigators are trying todetermine whether anyone saw it online before the rampage.
"If anyone knew of it, they would have a moral and ethicalobligation and legal obligation to bring it forward," the policesuperintendent said.
The violence rocked the town of about 5,300 people just outsidePittsburgh.
Killed were Heidi Overmier, 46, of Carnegie, a sales manager atan amusement park; Jody Billingsley, 37, of Mount Lebanon, whoworked for a medical-supply company; and Elizabeth Gannon, 49, ofPittsburgh, an X-ray technician at Allegheny General Hospital.
"She can't be gone," said Gannon's next-door neighbor and closefriend, Carl Rady, who knew her for 35 years and said she loved towork out and pamper her dog. "It can't happen that way."
Sodini was a member of the health club and had been there twotimes Tuesday before he came back at night, police said. He did nothave a relationship with any of his victims, according to police.
In his Web diary, Sodini wrote of planning the attack since atleast November and said he tried to carry it out when the sameTuesday-night aerobics class met on Jan. 6. "I cannot wait fortomorrow!" he exulted the night before. But he backed out at thelast moment.
"It is 8:45PM: I chickened out!" he wrote. "I brought the loadedguns, everything. Hell!"
In his diary, he complained that women "don't even give me asecond look ANYWHERE" even though he was tan and fit and claimed todress well and smell nice. He listed his status as "Never married."In a chilling addition, he recorded the date of his death as Aug. 4,2009.
On that evening, he walked into the health club wearing blackworkout gear and a headband, and entered the "Latin impact" classwith four guns.
Jordan Solomon, 14, said she thought it was weird when a manwalked into the all-female class and put a black duffel bag on theground and reached into it.
"All of a sudden all the lights went out and I turned around, hestarted firing. I turned around and I saw him holding a gun," shesaid.
Solomon said the man was expressionless, and she didn't hear himsay anything as he sprayed bullets. The teenager ran out of the roomand into the parking lot, bolting into a restaurant where she toldthe workers to call 911.
Lauren Dooley, 27, who was exercising on a treadmill on thesecond floor, ran down the fire escape and out the rear of thebuilding, where bystanders were applying pressure to victims'gunshot wounds.
"You just feel like you're in a movie ... a horrible movie wheresomeone comes in and unleashes fire on everyone. You just don't knowwhat to do," Dooley said.
She returned to the gym Wednesday morning to retrieve her purseand cell phone, but the doors were locked. A sign read: "Each of usin the LA Fitness family are shocked and saddened by the senselessacts of violence that took place at our Bridgeville club Tuesdayevening."
Sodini did not have a criminal record, and he legally bought theguns he used, police said. Sodini used his cell phone a few minutesbefore the shooting, but Moffatt would not say whom he called.
Sodini's family issued a brief statement: "Our hearts and prayersare with the victims and their families and we pray for the fullrecovery of the survivors."
Six patients remained hospitalized, including the aerobicsinstructor, Mary Primis, 26, who was listed in fair condition.Primis is pregnant but said doctors told her the baby is fine.
Authorities initially had difficulty identifying the victimsbecause they had workout clothes on and weren't carrying wallets.
Sodini graduated in 1992 from the University of Pittsburgh with adegree in computer science and had worked as a systems analyst at aPittsburgh law firm since 1999.
A neighbor, Connie Fontanesi, said Sodini was so anti-social that"we really didn't learn anything personal about him."
Roberta Kozel, co-owner of Salon IAOMO, said Sodini was a regularat the tanning salon and last visited on Saturday. "He was justpretty normal, a little quiet - like the classroom nerd," Kozelsaid.
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