Month: February 2016

rainflesh:

Masterpost of clothing and other items worn by Dyl!

I wanted to make a visual reference with everything in one place. I used my own shirts for the comparison photos (excluding the DJ Spooky one, which is a project I’m still working on and isn’t quite accurate, and the Setting Sun shirt, which has been a bit of a challenge to find).

There’s some things I left out too, such as his hammer and sickle pin on his boot, and the lovely teal shirt he wore during his senior class photos. And his Wrath shirt. I might add those later though!

Please let me know if I made any errors in the descriptions. I definitely don’t want to spread any misinformation or anything like that. 

Masterful Masterpost!  *applauds*  I’m now tempted to ask @rainflesh if I can borrow this beautiful summary for a certain section on my FAQ.  😉   And yah, his Setting Sun tee is quite the challenge. haha

Do you know if Dylan at least liked school a little bit (aside from the bad side of it)?

I really think Dylan loathed and endured Columbine, tbh.  Oh, sure, he might’ve had pockets where it seemed o..k momentarily – like hanging out with Brooks and Zack in the sound booth in drama class while sneaking a drink or making up blatantly violent stories in Creative Writing class with Eric or sometimes enjoying the creative aspects of Vid production class but as for the rest?  The overall feeling for him was a combination of both dread and of intense dislike.  Because the school atmosphere had a tendency to put him in a funk or certain aspects of it made him angry in terms of the snobby culture and the amount of favoritism that took place, even with the teachers, it just revolted him.   He used to like learning and being open to new things to soak up like a sponge but that was earlier on when he was younger.. Middle School started sucking but High School was the worst.  By then, he’d lost that love for learning in the environment where enjoyment of learning was supposed to be encouraging and possible, only it wasn’t. 

Do you think Dylan owned a kippot? Or ever went to Temple? Or celebrate any Jewish holidays?

Dylan was raised in a household of mixed religious traditions both Christian Lutheran denomination and also of the Jewish faith. They celebrated Christmas, – maybe Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur or Hanukkah but for certain Passover was definitely practiced at their household as Sue wanted to instill her side of the family’s Jewish traditions with her sons. Dylan being the youngest person in the house would’ve annually recited aloud the Four Questions at every Passover seder. Can’t you just imagine him mumbling those memorized recitations?  Given that he participated in Jewish traditions with his family and his relatives on his mom’s side of the family, I would say it was pretty likely that Dylan owned a Kippot (or Yarmulke as most Americans tend to refer to it).  And you can bet that he was not keen on wearing it too since he personally did not seem interested in conforming to Judeo-Christian traditional religion. He would’ve been basically something he had to wear a couple of times a year for tradition sake since he was a small boy. Temple on a rare occasion probably but not a regular thing. I posted an article regarding his mixed faith household here.

What do you think Byron did when he found out that Dylan was in the columbine shooting and dead?

Klebold’s brother stunned

When news of the Columbine shootings broke, Byron Klebold raced home from work to see if his brother and friends had escaped the gunmen.

“I’ve got to see if everybody’s OK,” Klebold, a 1997 graduate of Columbine, told co-workers at Ralph Schomp Automotive.

Other employees who also had ties to Columbine left to check on family and friends as well, personnel director Jim Biner said.

Those workers have since returned to their jobs at the Littleton car dealership.

Byron Klebold, 20, is still grieving.

The gunmen attacking Columbine turned out to be Byron Klebold’s brother, Dylan, 17, and Dylan Klebold’s best friend, Eric Harris, 18.

“It’s really been shocking for everyone. We’re a family here and we look out for each other. Our hearts go out to Byron,” Biner said. “This kid’s great.” Byron Klebold has worked at the Littleton car dealership since last August. He was a “lot technician,” meaning he washed and moved cars, shoveled snow and did similar duties. “It was an entry-level job, but man, he’s good,” Biner said.[source]

Sue: “When I got home my husband told me the police were on their way. I had so much adrenaline in my system that even as I was changing out of my work clothes, I was racing from room to room. I felt such an urgency to be ready for whatever might happen next. I called my sister. As I told her what was going on, I was overcome by horror, and I started to cry.
Moments after I hung up the phone, my 20-year-old son walked in and lifted me like a rag doll in his arms while I sobbed
into a dish towel. Then my husband shouted from the front hallway, “They’re here!”  [source]

Around 8:00 p.m., a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy arrived and told
the Klebolds they had to leave but could get some clothes. Tom went first, accompanied by Inskeep and the deputy. Susan was next, and left with two birds and two cats. Emotion then broke through. Byron started
crying and hugged his dad. Tom, Susan, and Byron then left in separate
cars. Each parent was accompanied by at least one friend.
– Columbine: A True Crime Story – Jeff Kass

You don’t hear much about Dylan’s relationship with his brother. I’ve read Bryon being kicked out of the house because of drugs, but what was the relationship between the two?

My sense is that relationship grew apart in their teen years. Byron went to another high school while Dylan was in Jr. High. Byron likely began to hang with a group that was into smoking pot and possibly doing other drugs on a regular basis. This caused some tension in the family with the parents who, in addition, were also having some bumpy patch marital issues of their own. Unlike, Eric looking up to his three years older brother, Kevin, the gap experience for three years older Byron and Dylan became a vast chasm over a period of time where both boys were co-existing in their separate universes and neither could find common ground between one another. Byron was the troubled boy who caused drama in the family and Dylan was considered the ‘golden child’, the gifted one who was being groomed to follow an academic path to a future successful career. I think, Byron probably took the hint and picked up the subliminal messages his parents were inadvertently giving out, picking up on the fact that he wasn’t seen as the talented one and was resentful, and so he plunged himself into waffling in school with mediocre grades and partying.

According to Dylan (in the Basement Tapes), he recalls from his own POV “how popular and athletic his older brother Byron was and how he constantly “ripped” on him, as did his brother’s friends”  Basically, I think this amounted to Byron taking out his resentment on his kid brother who was somehow better than him by default. Dylan as a Jr. HS student was then at the age where he no longer wanted to spend as much time with mom and dad but he also didn’t really have a connection with his older brother so he began to isolate himself in his bedroom playing video games when he got home from school. It seems as though Byron let Dylan try alcohol and weed in his company and sadly, this may have been the only times they had a rare bonding moment. When Byron was kicked out of the house, basically asked to leave by his parents because of his drug habit in ‘97, Dylan then acquired his brother’s old bedroom. After that, I don’t think Byron came around much at all. Dylan probably only saw him for holidays or birthdays. Dylan essentially went from youngest to the old child in the household. Dylan was falling deeper in his depression and feeling numb and disconnected, I think most of his memories with his brother were not the best and so he seemed completely ‘meh’ about possibly never seeing his brother again. It’d be a sense of disdain and apathy sort of a ‘who cares, he never really gave a shit about me anyway and besides, he’s a fuck up with drugs and can’t get his shit together.’ On Dylan’s diversion intake form under the category of ‘least supporting family member’, he elects Byron as least supportive and then offers: “not involved w/ my life (not a problem).”. I think this basically says it all as to how he felt about his oldest brother. It’s a sad testament of the two brothers completely content to disengage from one another’s lives.

Byron, as the older brother now in his early twenties, was too self involved in his own life and apparently unable  or unwilling to reach out to his younger brother and be that supportive figure for him. Dylan, in turn, seemed to feel that Byron just abandoned him over a long period of time and his leaving home and being physically absent from his life seemed to have made no difference than if his brother was still living and co-existing in his own separate universe in the bedroom right next door. It’s sad really that they were like two ships passing one another by in their own home. I think Byron must have many regrets regarding how he conducted himself during that time period and that he literally just ignored or devalued his baby brother’s life rather than being mature enough and less self involved to be a supportive figure in Dylan’s life. That said, I do not think the problem ends and begins with Byron being a deadbeat brother to Dylan. It would seem that Byron’s own issues – his acting out with a drug habit he wasn’t about to quit, was possibly a result of some depression/mental health issues he was struggling with on his own and used drugs to cope – but also, in connection with some undercurrent, dysfunctional dynamics existing some where in the Klebold family unit. One contributing factor would be that Tom considered one son a fortuitous piece-of-cake  and the other an underachieving problem child. If both boys suffered depression, it would seem Byron wasn’t able to keep up appearances and tread water looking ‘normal’ and studious the way gifted Dylan was able to slack just enough but breeze through average level stuff while struggling with the challenges of those AP courses. Byron’s coping method may have been to just to throw in the towel with trying to be that A-B student and just not putting in a whole lot of effort  and also tuning out the pain with the use of drugs. He may have been even more discouraged because Dylan out performed him by default.  During the time period that the family was having issues with Byron’s drug problems, the family underwent group counseling. It was probably something Sue elected to do to help her family during a troubled time but I’m sure dad and the boys all went through it digging their heels uncomfortably and attending sessions perfunctorily. Meanwhile, the root, underlying family issues were never effectively aired and addressed. I’m sure for Dylan that must have been excruciatingly embarrassing to voice any thing that was hurting him in front of his family and so he probably fidgeted and mumbling one word answers the entire time.