Reading between the lines - "no more beer"

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Latest Member: garrymoore

[DogIsYourName]

I direct you to the question at 4:30 in the following clip from paradise lost;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFN36nFE60o&feature=related

Lawyer: "Once you get out of here are you going to buy the beer?"

Echols: Nodding. "The whiskey..." chuckles... "...no more beer."

Post conviction, the WMPD report:

"Jessie claimed that he had been drinking Evelyn Williams whiskey that Mrs. Hutchson had bought him and Jason and Damion were drinking beer."

http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/jmpc.html

[Rudder]

I read this post this morning but had things to do, so I didn't reply. I'm surprised no one else has commented on this unless it's been covered before. I never picked up on it in the film and you're right, that seems rather odd. Echols sits there talking about buying whiskey and smoking a fat blunt, yet all of a sudden, "heh, heh, no more beer."

[mikespadre]

I guess beer brings out the killer in him....

[Rudder]

And that's what makes this statement even more bizarre, Todd. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, knows that whiskey makes you ten more times meaner than beer.

[Jeanie]

But keep in mind that he wasn't just drinking beer - he was drinking beer on meds, which could be equivalent to whiskey - or worse...

[Jeanie]

By the way, Dog - stellar observation!

[pagodajade]

I, too, read this in the morning but had somewhere to be.

Good post, Dog.  We must discuss this further.

And farm says you cant read.   ;)

[boohiss13]

Damien didn't drink beer normally, he didn't like it, but Jason did.

[Jeanie]

Damien didn't drink beer normally, he didn't like it, but Jason did.

Not normally - just the night he killed three eight year old boys...

[Rudder]

Damien didn't drink beer normally,

Only come children killing time.

[Fwarm]

Didn't generally drink beer? Where you there with him Boo? No? Then you don't know do you.

[Rudder]

I want to smoke a large. fat, blunt with Boo boo.

[BlackAngel]

Scott

Didn't generally drink beer? Where you there with him Boo? No? Then you don't know do you. 
 
 Didn't he sniff gas too, as for the beer part since they were all under age, you usually drink what you can get.
                 
rudder
.

   .--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I want to smoke a large. fat, blunt with Boo boo.   

Rudder you just scared me,

Dog

Now your catching on good job. I never noticed that either, but since all this crap happened and Damien has a PR person looking out for him things have changed, there was once a letter he wrote were he signed it SIN-cerely....That was taken down rather quickly. He has to look good. now.
Jan

[MsBiznMphs]

there was once a letter he wrote were he signed it SIN-cerely....That was taken down rather quickly. He has to look good. now.
Jan

Seriously?  That is just plain weird.  When did he write that letter (roughly) and who was it to?  Details, please, details!
Thanks!

[DogIsYourName]

Yes, I am surprised nobody has connected this "no more beer" comment before.  It dawned on me when I was reading the notes of Misskelley's first post-conviction confession that Echols had said "no more beer" during Paradise Lost.

It sounds like most of you see where I am coming from with this, but I am going to lay the logic out in detail anyway.

Usually, when someone laughs and makes a comment like "no more beer," it implies that heavy drinking got them into a bad situation in the recent past (or an ongoing situation, such as alcoholism). 

At the time when Echols made this comment, he had already been incarcerated for some time awaiting trial.  We can assume that he had no beer while in jail, because he was not drinking age and the police aren't going to give alcohol to a minor.  Therefore, his "no more beer" statement almost certainly refers to a situation that occurred soon before he was arrested. 

The typical hangover-from-hell scenario usually only results in a person swearing off beer for a short period of time.  Therefore, Echols' comment probably does not refer to a hangover.  Instead, it most likely refers to his present situation -- sitting in Court, waiting for the jury verdict.  I can't think of any other recent occurrence that Damien possibly could have been referring to with his spontaneous, off-the-cuff "no more beer" comment.

This means that Echols attributes drinking beer, at least in part, for why he was on trial for triple murder.  The only way that drinking beer could possibly contribute to him being on trial is if he did some act while under the influence of the beer that is relevant to his arrest.  During all his court testimony, numerous interviews, and news stories up to this date, Echols has never once said the police singled him out because he drank beer, or because he got very drunk.  He never blamed any of his suspicious activities on beer.  Dressing in black, listening to Metallic, magick, teen angst, depression, etc. -- none of that has anything to do with beer drinking.

The only way I can think that beer drinking, in Damien's mind, could possibly have to do with him fighting for his life in court is if his drinking was directly connected to the murder of Steve Branch, Michael Moore, Chris Byers.  After all, if they had not died, he would not be sitting there in court.  So, at a very minimum, "no beer" implies Damien could have stopped the murders if he had not drank the beer.  At a maximum, it implies Damien committed the murders while drunk on the beer.

This implication is corroborated by Misskelley's statement to police.  Misskelley said he drank whiskey, and they drank beer.  He could have said that they shared whiskey and beer but he did not.  Which also corroborates why Damien would offer whiskey as an alternative -- because he did not drink whiskey that day. 

-dog.