Convicted Spammer, escapes from prison, kills his family, then kills himself.
This story is pretty darn horrible, and pretty unbelievable.
Edward Davidson is known as the "Spam King" he was sentenced to 21 months in jail and ordered to pay $714,139 to the IRS for spamming and tax evasion.
Apparently his wife helped him escape from prison. Once escaped he took a gun and shot her, their 3 year old daughter, a teenage girl, and finally himself.
I personally can't see what was so bad, 21 months is hardly a jail sentence, I mean if Martha Stewart can do hard time...Maybe the fine was too much? Could'nt he just wait till he got out of prison, moved to a country that allows spamming, and made enough to pay off his debts and live peaceably?
Funny enough, he and his family just drove off from a minimum security prison - it don't get any more 'minimum security' than that.
He went for some cash and a change of clothes and that's when he turned the gun on the teenage girl, his wife, three year old, and finally himself.
A baby was found in the car seat unharmed. At least that much of it was a blessing.
[MSNBC via Geekologie via gizmodo]
July 31st, 2008 at 9:10 am
Hi Patrick
Thank you for inspiring my latest posting on spam king E. Davidson. You find it on my brandnew German blog netzklatsch (net gossip); I´ve got blog on different issues in - flaw;-) - English, too (have a look at my blogger profile).
As I read in an Austrian IT journal recently, the big spam fishes come swimming along with their shark buddies no longer from the United States, but from Russia, Ucraine, China and - above all - from India. Time for mounting our good old Western gun lances (This is a joke, of course).
Nice to meet you - and thank you for your precious musings on time managing, too. Helped me a lot - it´s not so easy for a self-employed publisher and a blogger and a mother of two. bye. Iris
July 31st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Is this true? I sometimes spam on my favorite game's forum. Will i be penalized for doing that? How come 21 months just because of spamming? Wooot... He shouldn't have killed his family and who is that teenage girl? Is she his daughter.
Thank you
Charles
Money Making and Blogging Tips
http://www.resourcesandmoney.blogspot.com
July 31st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
@charles: He's a pretty big spammer - probably made a couple million off spamming then refused to pay the 700,000 in taxes he owed...
August 1st, 2008 at 11:13 am
This tale is truly a bit horrible. I posted about Spam fighting, maybe it’s useful for some people.That post is "Scambaiting Is Waiting for Scammers "
August 4th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
hey patrick - THAT's where you are hanging out now! was wondering where you were ... good post. i'm quite interested in spammers, and of course it's a tragedy that this happened.
tried "tweet this" for this post - interesting tool but a) it didn't lead back to your post and b) can't find more about tweet this - what's their URL?
August 4th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
@isabella mori: It's a wordpress plugin and can be found here: http://twitthis.com/
August 6th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Whoa... i totally missed this... This guy was a big deal... That's absolutely crazy...
People are retarded. *sigh*