Was "January's incident" the ketchup tampon thing?

As you know, Dylan wrote the following in Eric's 1998 Yearbook: "My wrath for January’s incident will be Godlike. Not to mention our revenge in the commons. GAWD SO many people need to die."

What happened in January? The tampon thing? I get the impression that whatever happened was the last straw.

No January 1998 is when they were arrested for breaking and entering and stealing from the van. My sister also thinks the ketchup tampon thing is a mix of a couple difference imcidents of bullying in 98 involving Rocky's cronies against a few different kids, Eric and Dylan amomg but not only. For whatever that's worth.

"January's incident" occurred on January 30th, 1998 when Tim Walsh arrested Eric & Dylan for breaking into a deserted van and stealing about 1700$ worth of electronics.
After stealing the goods, they drove along Deer Creek Canyon Road to a parking lot inside of Deer Creek Canyon Park, about 4 ½ miles away from the location where the van was parked. This location was only about 1 ½ miles away from Dylan’s house.
Walsh saw a dome light illuminating from the parking lot and decided to investigate, where he came upon Eric and Dylan sorting through the stolen goods.
Eric started to lie claiming he found the electronics stacked in the grass, while Dylan eventually came clean and told Walsh about the van.

Speaking of Dylan, this video of was taken on the same day of the van break in.



It looks like it's around 2 pm in that video, so this was taped only 5 to 7 hours before the infamous January incident.
To this day some people claim this was the straw that broke the camel's back and sent them over the edge, although I personally believe it was many things combined, but this was definitely a big factor.

So it was just the boys being arrested for committing a crime? That's dumb. Why would Dylan think a police officer doing his job was deserving of "wrath"?

Or was Walsh abusive to the boys, I wonder? The basement tapes being censored does hint at a cop being incriminated on the tapes. I guess that would explain why Dyl referred to it as an "incident."

sympathyforEandD wrote:

So it was just the boys being arrested for committing a crime? That's dumb. Why would Dylan think a police officer doing his job was deserving of "wrath"?

Or was Walsh abusive to the boys, I wonder? The basement tapes being censored does hint at a cop being incriminated on the tapes. I guess that would explain why Dyl referred to it as an "incident."

They hated any type of authority.
They felt like they were above most people, and should be free to do whatever they wanted, regardless of the consequences.
As Eric stated, "I cant deprive a stupid fucking dumbshit from his possessions if he leaves then sitting in the front seat of his fucking van out in plain sight and in the middle fucking nowhere on a Fri fucking day night. NATURAL SELECTION. fucker should be shot".
He was the type of person that would want to kill you for chewing too loud, or opening your soda can awkwardly.

I haven't seen any hard evidence that proves that Walsh abused either of them. Everything is circumstantial.
There was a butt-rape rumor started awhile back that was debunked when the person who started it came clean that it wasn't true. There also were fake documents going around that added fuel to that rumor.
I'll see if I can dig up the links regarding that.

It's kinda fascinating this video was shot a couple of hours before the mood for the massacre was set. We get the last glimpse of Dylan with normal future.

I always assumed the January incident was the arrest.

Revenge in the commons was for ketchup


Unless something else happened in January that we don’t know about...

Screamingophelia wrote:

I always assumed the January incident was the arrest.

Revenge in the commons was for  ketchup


Unless something else happened in January that we don’t know about...

Yeah, I assumed that revenge in the commons was for the ketchup incident. They hated authority, so the arrest in January always made sense to me as being what Dylan was referring to.

The Ketchup Incident is a myth.

lol wrote:

The Ketchup Incident is a myth.

I'd say the ketchup incident has risen to somewhat mythical status among people interested in Columbine, but I do think it happened.
Dylan came home covered in Ketchup and told his mother he had the worst day of his life.
Chad Laughlin claimed to have caught the tail end of it, and Brooks Brown claimed it was true too, although I put more belief into Chad's version.

I do admit that the details might of been skewed over the years.
It might of been tampons, it might of been packets, but regardless I do believe that an embarrassing situation involving Dylan and ketchup went down.

There’s definite proof that it happened but the circumstances of it have been told in so many different ways we don’t know really know the full extent of it but there’s proof that it did happen.

Screamingophelia wrote:

There’s definite proof that it happened but the circumstances of it have been told in so many different ways we don’t know really know the full extent of it but there’s proof that it did happen.

Absolutely! Agreed.

Screamingophelia wrote:

There’s definite proof that it happened but the circumstances of it have been told in so many different ways we don’t know really know the full extent of it but there’s proof that it did happen.

Yes, there is definite proof it happened. Claiming it is a myth is an outright lie. The story has been told by many people. We don't know for sure if it was directed at only Eric and Dylan or a bunch of loners. We don't know the full extent, as you said. But the incident 100% actually did happen.

Sorry. I meant that the Ketchup Incident occurring to Eric and Dylan is an outright myth. There were definitely stories and reports of ketchup packets and I believe tampons covered with ketchup thrown at TCM members but none were towards Eric or Dylan. There was also that myth where Rocky apparently went up to Eric and Dylan, and told them "Why don't you two fags kiss?" That never happened. People confused that with Rocky and his gang of idiots going up to Eric Dutro (the first one who started wearing a duster and got everyone to follow) and Joe Stair messing around with each other grabbing each other by the balls, and Rocky and the others went up to them, and they did it to piss him off because he was a massive homophobic

A lot of bullying incidents never happened to Eric or Dylan. People just linked it up to Eric and Dylan, because they keep thinking they were with the TCM and ran away with it. Classic mass hysteria. Shit in a cup thrown at them? TCM members dealt with that. Not Eric or Dylan.

You're telling me out of what? 2,000 students at Columbine High School, and yet no one seemed to mention Dylan getting ketchup squirted at him or tampons thrown at him in the cafeteria where there's a lot of witnesses? If kids remembered Dylan pushing a girl down and playing rough in gym, and calling her  a "bitch", then surely enough kids would remember that type of incident, especially with how big it sounds, and again it happened in the commons. We have sources from how many? Maybe one? Brooks...I don't trust a word he says when it comes to these things. He over-exaggerates on many things. He over-exaggerated on saying Eric and Dylan were the two biggest losers at Columbine High School. Not to mention that he did not speak to Eric or Dylan in their junior year. He wasn't close to either of them.

And with all respect to Sue some things she said in her book were questionable or just factually incorrect, but she just ran with some of this. I always think Sue maybe got the incident from Dylan in 7th grade confused with the apparent "Ketchup Incident" that apparently happened to him in his junior year. In Dylan's 7th grade year he came home from school, and went straight to his room and on his bed and covered himself under stuffed animals until the next day.

Screamingophelia wrote:

There’s definite proof that it happened but the circumstances of it have been told in so many different ways we don’t know really know the full extent of it but there’s proof that it did happen.

I want to believe my sister that is was a mix of different events against a mix of different students but....she mentioned her ex that she was dating at the time would know. He recently reached out to her so I'll see if she could ask him. He was a football player.

milennialrebelette wrote:

Screamingophelia wrote:

There’s definite proof that it happened but the circumstances of it have been told in so many different ways we don’t know really know the full extent of it but there’s proof that it did happen.

I want to believe my sister that is was a mix of different  events against a mix of different students but....she mentioned her ex that she was dating at the time would know. He recently reached out to her so I'll  see if she could ask him. He was a football player.

I can believe that too. I think events probably got mixed up and conflated too especially after all of these years. I believe something of the sort (probably not tampons etc... ) happened to Dylan and Eric mostly because of Sue's book and what Chad had said. I do have someone I could ask as well... but I haven't figured out how to bring it up! It feels so awkward to do it out of the blue!

Quote :

There was also that myth where Rocky apparently went up to Eric and Dylan, and told them "Why don't you two fags kiss?" That never happened. People confused that with Rocky and his gang of idiots going up to Eric Dutro (the first one who started wearing a duster and got everyone to follow) and Joe Stair messing around with each other grabbing each other by the balls, and Rocky and the others went up to them, and they did it to piss him off because he was a massive homophobic

Here is another version of that story:

A lanky kid in a black trench coat threw his similarly dressed buddy up against the wall and poked his finger in his back like a pistol. "Stick 'em up," he said, and started patting down the buddy, leaning spread-eagle against the wall.

Dozens of other students stared. They were eating lunch in the Columbine High School cafeteria when the two suddenly leaped into their antics.

Then students began smirking, laughing, jeering.

"You freaks!" one yelled. "You nerds!" screamed another.

One athlete walked up to the pair and said, "You know, you're sooo gay."

The incident, which occurred last year, illustrates what it’s like to be a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia at Columbine High.