"I've been caught with most of my crimes"

I was just rereading a passage from Dylan's journal and something struck me for the first time so I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts about the quote.

Dylan - 2/2/98 wrote:

I’ve been caught w. most of my crimes — xpl drinking, smoking & the house vandalism, & the pipe bombs.

What?

Dylan was caught vandalizing houses and, more importantly, he was caught with pipe bombs? By who?

Am I wrong when I say that Sue didn't seem to know about either of these "crimes" that Dylan committed? Why did Dylan say this?

Excellent conversation and question

Some people think he’s hinting at the massacre.

Some people think he’s talking about the little things he did like bullying, vandalism, even masturbating because honestly I do wonder why he felt so guilty about it... he wasn’t overly religious. It’s hard to ask and ponder without sounding like a fan girl....


I have to assume Sue knew about the rebel missions after the fact

I wonder if Zach got in trouble)

Screamingophelia wrote:

even masturbating because honestly I do wonder why he felt so guilty about it...

He may have went off the deep end with his fetish and felt a lot of guilt/shame because of it.


IMO this is why he vaporized his hard drive.

I don't recall Sue ever knowing about this, so maybe he got caught by a/the girl he liked?

Dylan got caught jerking his pecker off?

Maybe he is referring to the boss/manager/whatever at blackjack pizza when talking about being caught with pipebombs.

The house vandalism however is interesting, did Sue know about the missions?

Wayne knew about the house vandalism so maybe that's what Dylan is referring to.

Wayne writes in his notes about Eric that someone doesn't know or hasn't contacted the police or something... So to withold information maybe according to Wayne was something he should do in order to handle the situation methodically.

It doesn't seem impossible to me that Wayne would know about Dylans involvement but still choose to not tell his parents considering the fact that Eric had such anger issues and him loosing Dylan could possibly result in even worse behaviour.

munchkinphone wrote:

Wayne knew about the house vandalism so maybe that's what Dylan is referring to.

Wayne writes in his notes about Eric that someone doesn't know or hasn't contacted the police or something... So to withold information maybe according to Wayne was something he should do in order to handle the situation methodically.

It doesn't seem impossible to me that Wayne would know about Dylans involvement but still choose to not tell his parents considering the fact that Eric had such anger issues and him loosing Dylan could possibly result in even worse behaviour.

Both points are pretty solid.

I'm not sure if Sue knows about the missions BUT the one thing that makes me think she found out eventually is Judy telling Sue about Eric's site and that is why she thought when Eric and Dylan were arrested the police took action regarding the threats. Since Dylan was part of the rebel missions however... Zach would have been arrested too since he was KiBBz.

sscc wrote:

Dylan was caught vandalizing houses and, more importantly, he was caught with pipe bombs? By who?

I'd like to know a lot more about the pipe bomb issue as far as their parents are concerned. Eric was supposedly caught with one that his parents confiscated. That is HUGE if true. It shows a complete lack of parenting on their part.

If you find out your teen son is playing around with pipe bombs, you at least take action in a few areas....

1. He's not allowed to have his bedroom door shut for any length of time

2. He's not allowed to bring friends over much less have actual sleepovers

3. Surprise bedroom inspections

You should also inform the parents of his close friends what is going on.

Tracy wrote:

sscc wrote:

Dylan was caught vandalizing houses and, more importantly, he was caught with pipe bombs? By who?

I'd like to know a lot more about the pipe bomb issue as far as their parents are concerned. Eric was supposedly caught with one that his parents confiscated. That is HUGE if true. It shows a complete lack of parenting on their part.

If you find out your teen son is playing around with pipe bombs, you at least take action in a few areas....

1. He's not allowed to have his bedroom door shut for any length of time

2. He's not allowed to bring friends over much less have actual sleepovers

3. Surprise bedroom inspections

You should also inform the parents of his close friends what is going on.

Eric’s bedroom was also pretty private. I live in Colorado now and I’ve seen a lot of furnished basement with bunker type places outside the windows. It’s almost like you’re in your own separate apartment. Not the best place to put a troubled teen he probably should’ve had to move back up to one of the rooms near his parents.

I think Dylan’s bedroom was upstairs too and his parents are downstairs. His room did get searched though.

Even if he was in a guest house he didn't deserve that much privacy, especially when he started waving red flags all over the place.

I meant to comment on this thread about a year ago because I think I figured out why it didn't make sense to me.
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Dylan was saying that these were the "crimes" that he didn't get caught doing. I was struck by this when I was reading his journal from a transcript and it influenced my reading of his handwriting until I went back to it on another day. I think "xpl" is actually "xpt" and it means "except" rather than "example." Compare the t to the others that I have highlighted.

The real question might be what crimes he was caught for, in that case, since he implies that these were not even the majority of "crimes" that he committed.

sscc wrote:

The real question might be what crimes he was caught for, in that case, since he implies that these were not even the majority of "crimes" that he committed.

Well the van incident springs to mind, plus the computer hacking and the vandalism of the school locker. When was this letter written again? Do we know?

EDIT: Apparently the date was in early February. My mind is drawing a blank as to anything else besides what I've listed he could've been caught doing.

This is a really good find. I have gone around and around with Dylan’s handwriting and swear I see the shapes of letters that may or may not make a word different. But this is a great point. He wasn’t caught drinking, smoking, going on rebel missions, or pipe bombs. Unless Sue omitted lots of stuff in her book. She didn’t know about the missions because she states that she thought Dylan and Zach were so clever making a “phone” that causes her phone to get static or some sort (which is exactly the busy boxes Eric brags about in his journals). Dylan’s mom thought they were being inventive and creative but they were being inventive and creative so they could use it on messing up phone lines. I doubt he’d considered being caught with a pipe bomb at blackjacks since the manager only told him to get rid of it. No reports to parents or police.
He was caught with the van, hacking locker numbers, and locker vandalism by feb 98.
I’m gonna have to agree with you on this one. I can see that as an “xpt” instead of “xpl”

The „xpt“ makes much more sense. Sue writes in her book that she found a pack of cigarettes in his room after his death. Only then did she realize that he was smoking and had been lying to her about it the whole time. Great find!