Connor Betts (R) was the lead singer in the group, a three-person band that performed regularly in the death metal scene. Photo / You Tube
Connor Betts (R) was the lead singer in the group, a three-person band that performed regularly in the death metal scene. Photo / You Tube
Connor Betts, who was shot dead by police after he killed nine and injured 27 in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, was the lead singer of a "pornogrind" band, a heavy metal genre defined by themes of gore and sexual violence.
Betts, 24, was a member of Menstrual Munchies, a group that released music filled with obscene, sexually-violent lyrics.
He also performed with another group called Putrid Liquid.
The "pornogrind" or "goregrind" genre has a regional following in the US Midwest and Menstrual Munchies recently played at Chicago's Summer Massacre 2 concert.
The fast and extreme music is matched by lyrics and song titles which are too obscene to publish.
Album art used by Betts' group showed dead and mutilated women and scenes of horrific sexual violence.
In an interview with Vice News, one of Betts' bandmates, Jesse Creekbaum, has denounced his actions and is removing the band's recordings from the internet.
"I feel s****y having let him be in the band, doing those lyrics," Creekbaum told Vice.
"Because I know, like, whereas I saw it as a joke — like, 'Let's play this and we'll shock some people,' and then the people that we know laugh — he didn't see it as a joke. He was like, 'F***, yeah. We're gonna do this.'
"It's like, Jesus Christ, how much of this was like real life for him?" he said.
Creekbaum told Vice that he was removing the music to prevent it becoming part of a sick memorial to Betts: " I don't want him romanticised. I don't want any of this romanticised. I want people to erase him from history."
Creekbaum also said he had already received death threats because of his association with the killer.
He said Betts brought a gun on tour with the band, suggesting they rob petrol stations, and told stories about using methamphetamine.
Other members of the scene have been quick to distance themselves from Betts, who identified himself online as an anti-fascist and railed against Nazis and gun violence.
Anti-fascist extreme metal band Neckbeard Deathcamp said Betts was a hypocrite, tweeting he was "just another dime a dozen Ohio grind dude who caped progressive politics while treating women like s***".
An earlier tweet from the band reads: "I don't know if I would use the term leftist to designate one of the dudes in Menstrual Munchies. Antifascist sure. But not great with women."
Connor Betts compiled a "hit list" and "rape list" at high school. Photo / Supplied
Earlier it was revealed that Betts was suspended from high school for compiling a "hit list" of those he wanted to kill and a "rape list" of girls he wanted to sexually assault.
The accounts by two former classmates emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing the .223-calibre rifle with extended ammunition magazines that he used to open fire outside a crowded bar.
Both former classmates told the Associated Press that Betts was suspended during their junior year at suburban Bellbrook High School after a hit list was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern they might face harassment.
"There was a kill list and a rape list, and my name was on the rape list," said the female classmate.
A former cheerleader, the woman said she didn't really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list of potential targets.
"The officer said he wouldn't be at school for a while," she said. "But after some time passed he was back, walking the halls. They didn't give us any warning that he was returning to school."
Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools officials declined to comment on those accounts, only confirming that Betts attended schools in the district.
The discovery of the hit list early in 2012 sparked a police investigation, and roughly one-third of Bellbrook students skipped school out of fear, according to an article in the Dayton Daily News.
Chief Michael Brown in Sugarcreek Township, which has jurisdiction over the Bellbrook school, did not return calls Sunday about whether his agency investigated the hit list.
Though Betts, who was 17 at the time, was not named publicly by authorities at the time as the author of the list, the former classmates said it was common knowledge within the school he was the one suspended over the incident.
