CAMPUS KILLER BOUGHT HIS AMMO CLIPS FROM ebay; Cho deal 3 weeks before massacre.

Byline: By Mark McGivern

VIRGINIA Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui went on ebay weeks before the massacre to buy ammunition clips for one of the two handguns he used in the rampage.

The online auction site lists the purchase date of the empty clips as March 22 - about three weeks before Cho killed 32 people and then himself at the university.

Ebay said the purchase of the clips from a seller based in Idaho was legal and that the company had co-operated with authorities.

Spokesman Hani Durzy said: "In looking at his activity on the site, we can confirm that at no point he used ebay to purchase any guns and ammunition.

"It is strongly against eBay policy to try to sell guns and ammunition."

A search warrant affidavit stated that investigators wanted to search 23-year-old Cho's email accounts, including the address Blazers5505hotmail.com, which Durzy confirmed was Cho's.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators were "aware of the ebay activity that mirrors" the Hotmail account

Cho also used the ebay account to sell many books about violence, death and mayhem. Several of those books were used in his English classes.

Cho sold the books on the ebay-affiliated site half.com. They include Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Carol J Clover, a book that explores gender in the modern horror film.

Others include The Best of HP Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales Of Horror And The Macabre, and The Female Of The Species: Tales Of Mystery And Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates.

In the Oates book, the publisher writes: "In these and other gripping and disturbing tales, women are confronted by the evil around them and surprised by the evil they find within themselves."

Books by those three authors were taught in Cho's contemporary horror class. Experts say evidence such as ebay transactions can be hugely valuable in trying to learn the motivation behind crimes.

Mark Rasch, of FTI Consulting, a computer and electronic investigation firm, said: "An examination of a computer is very revealing, particularly for a person like this.

"What we find, particularly with people who are very uncommunicative in person, is that they may be much more free to express themselves with the anonymity that computers and the internet give you."

Authorities are also examining the personal computers found in Cho's dorm room and seeking his mobile phone records.

One question they hope to answer is whether Cho had any email contact with Emily Hilscher, one of the first two victims.

Authorities said Cho had a history of sending menacing text messages.

CAPTION(S):

AGREEMENT: The ammunition clips bought by Cho on ebay; ACCOUNT: Details of Cho's profile