Homeowners gathered this morning outside their tidy brick homes in Scott with one question in mind: Why did neighbor George Sodini kill three women in a nearby gym and then himself?

"We will now all have to live with the fact that we knew him, but obviously we did not really know him," said Candace Gettys, 58, of Orchard Spring Road, who lived a few houses away for 12 years. She said the two would "chit-chat about our lawns, things that were going on," when they saw each other.

"He was always very friendly, if not a bit reclusive," she said.

Starting about two years ago, she noticed changes in Sodini, 48, a systems analyst at K&L Gates, a Downtown law firm and University of Pittsburgh graduate.

"He was always a little off, but he became even more so," Gettys said. She said she sometimes saw Sodini's mother visit and another woman she thought was his sister, but those were the only visitors she ever saw — and they didn't come often.

She hadn't seen him for weeks.

"His house was looking a little less tidy. The lawn was looking overgrown," she said. "To be honest, I assumed he was away on vacation."

Gettys was horrified after she turned on the television last night and saw police searching a silver Nissan Altima, the car driven by Sodini.

"When I saw that car, granted there are a million Nissan Altimas around, it was just a gut feeling," Gettys said. "He's been strange lately. There's always been something not quite right, but when I saw that car, it clicked for me and something just told me it was him, he's the one who did this."

Sodini kept an online blog ( georgesodini.com ) in which he talked about his neighbors — and his plans to kill young women at LA Fitness Center in Collier, where he worked out.

Bob Fox, 45, who moved across the street 14 years ago, was one subject. Sodini wrote about Fox and young women visiting his house.

"I am so shocked. I cannot believe he was writing about us. That is so creepy," Fox said. "It shows you never really know somebody."

The online diary begins in November, nine months before the massacre.

In December, Sodini said the women at the gym were just a some of the 30 million American women who rejected him.

"Many of the young girls here look so beautiful as to not be human, very edible," he wrote.

Sodini complains about his inability to attract women, rails against his family and details how he "chickened out" on Jan. 6 when he first planned to execute "young girls" at the gym.

K&L Gates hired Sodini in 1999. He worked in the firm's finance department.

"Most people there are OK and I would never have a shoot 'em up there," Sodini wrote. "They paid me for 10 years, so far!"

James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University, said some individuals reach a point in their lives where they're "so miserable ... there's little reason to live any more," he said. "Life is that unhappy. But there's a desire first to get even with those who he holds responsible. It wasn't an individual he holds responsible but, in a general sense, young, active people in these clubs and the world in general that wouldn't give him the time of day."

Sodini's blog states he has not had a girlfriend since 1984 or sex since 1990.

"Who knows why. I am not ugly or too weird," he wrote. "Did it maybe only 50-75 times in my life. Getting to think that a woman now would just, uh, get in the way of things. Isolated."

On New Year's Eve, Sodini wrote that his "anger and rage" eased when he took up weight lifting. "I guess strenuous exercise is necesary for a man."

Family members and others mentioned in the blog did not immediately return telephone calls.

The day before the planned shooting, on Jan. 5, Sodini went to the gym and found it to be crowded. "Tomorrow should be good," he wrote.

He added that a woman in the gym "gives me a certain look every time I am there," but she left before he could approach her.

"Better that I do not get sidetracked from tomorrow's plan anyways. Life is just playing games," he wrote. "Why should I continue another 20+ years alone• I will just work, come home, eat, maybe do something, then go to bed (alone) for the next day of the same thing."

On the day of the planned shooting, Sodini wrote what he thought would be his final entry:

"I can do this. ... The future holds even less than what I have today. ... God have mercy. I wish life could be better for all and the crazy world can somehow run smoother. I wish I had answers. Bye."

Later, though, he wrote that he "chickened out."

"I brought the loaded guns, everything," he wrote. "Hell!"

Sodini did not post again for more than three and half months.

On May 4, he began to revisit his plan: "The problem is I feel too good now to do this but too bad to enjoy life."

The next day, he wrote that alcohol might "take the edge off" and help him pull off the plan. He had not had a drink since 1988, he wrote, but bought a fifth of vodka and a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey.

On May 18, Sodini went on a date but shared few details. "It was with a woman I met on the bus in March. We got together at Two PPG Place for lunch."

Sodini wrote a short entry on May 29: "Another lonely Friday night, I'm done. This is too much."

On Monday, Sodini wrote that he took time off from work to practice his "routine." He wrote that he stopped drinking again because "total effort needed."

"I need to work out every detail, there is only one shot. ... Tomorrow is the big day."

His last blog entry read:

"Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell. Christ paid for EVERY sin, so how can I or you be judged BY GOD for a sin when the penalty was ALREADY paid. People judge but that does not matter."

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