ORIGIN: In 1994, a student (belonging to a group of computer gamers and loners who were often bullied by popular and athletic students of the school) -- attending Columbine
High School near Littleton, Colorado, USA -- was given a black duster (trench coat) as a gift from his mother, and wore it to school. Soon after, the student's friend started wearing a black trench coat as well, because he liked the style. And it wasn't long before the others followed suit. They wore the long coats even when weather was warm outside. It also wasn't long before jocks in the school started to ridicule the group by calling them "a trench coat
mafia". After this, the group of friends took on the name and wore it
like a badge, adopting the name for themselves, "The Trench Coat
Mafia" (TCM) for
short.
They wore all black and in attempts to fight back against the popular athletes and jocks in the school, the Trench Coat Mafia ridiculed the jocks right back, attempting to stand up against bullies in the school.
On April 20, 1999, two students who dressed
like members in the TCM and were also bullied outcasts in the school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (who had friends who were members of the TCM), planted two
home made propane time bombs in the school's cafeteria, and went on a killing spree in the school, carrying one
Hi-Point 995 carbine rifle, a sawed-off
Savage Springfield pump-action
shotgun, a sawed-off
12-gauge double barreled
shotgun, and a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic pistol, along with numerous pipe bombs, grenades, smoke bombs, and knives. They killed twelve students and one teacher, and injured
24 other students, before committing simultaneous
suicide.
After the shooting, often termed as the Columbine
High School Massacre, the Trench Coat Mafia became an infamous icon against jocks and bullies, and catalyzed a movement of outcast students sending a message in schools across the USA (and spreading to Canada and the UK): "if you mess with us, we might just come to school one day, and kill everyone in it."
DEFINITION: A group of students in a school who are social outcasts (usually the target of bullying and called geeks, nerds, loners), who wear all black and often black trench coats, and express a disdain for jocks.
