Spam King and Family Dead In Murder-Suicide

Lt.Hawkins was one of many readers sending in word that the escaped spam king discussed yesterday was found dead in Colorado, after apparently killing his wife and 3-year-old daughter. A teenager was injured, and an infant was found alive in the car.

Comments

I understand running away from prison... but

[PC and Sony Fanboy]

I can't believe someone would be so upset over being institutionalized (for their own actions, no less!) that they'd feel the need to kill their family as well as themselves.

What a sad state of affairs.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[the4thdimension]

Psychologically speaking, the very act of going to prison(even if its minimum security)can be highly damaging. There is no telling what caused this guy to snap but its likely that he didn't sit there and stew about it and decide to do it on his own. It was likely a snap decision brought on by q pretty high amount of stress and depression.

Not justifying it, just stating that its not so cut and dry as a simple choice to kill your family.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[ShadowsHawk]

It takes someone with a minor god complex. "I'm the only thing that matters to my family, so they're better off dead." I know some people here will celebrate the spammers death, but I would have rather seen him in a 8x10 cell.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[elrous0]

Truly, this guy was a EPIC level scumbag.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Trigun]

He got tired of having his box filled with unsolicited male?

(Shamelessly stolen from Fark)

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[KGIII]

I think the whole killing of his wife is a bit over the top and goes to show how he truly was a monster with no morals. He could have just killed himself and done us all a favor. Now he's hated even more, which is going some.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[jank1887]

Optimum: 8x10 cell, family alive. Not as good, but tolerable: dead by his own hand, family alive. Absolutely horrible: him dead with wife and his 3 year old child.

As a father of 3, I cannot fathom what drives a person to do that to their own child. An adult can create conflict that may drive you to retaliate. A 3 year old cannot.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Tiber]

if only he had used canadian antidepressants! I am sure I could find the mail somewhere which had extremely good rates from a company called International Pharmacy.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no telling what caused this guy to snap but its likely that he didn't sit there and stew about it and decide to do it on his own.

If he was still alive and having to defend himself in court, he'd probably plead temporary insanity.

Insanity means without reason or utterly foolish. Something must have really snapped in his head, put him on another plane of consciousness.

That's all I can think of. I can't believe a father would really kill his innocent little child. I want to believe that he would not have done so in even a remotely reasonable state of mind. He must have really lost it.

My condolences to those affected. :(

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[b0ttle]

It's so easy to criticize behind computer screen. No one knows what he's been through. Nothing justifies the killing of his wife (maybe she agreed?) and daughter (this one has no maybes), but we just don't know what really happened, and never will. So I prefer not to judge.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[ShieldW0lf]

Personally, I think the whole thing stinks. Who goes to all the trouble to escape jail so they can kill themselves when they succeed? It's not like there isn't a long list of people with motive to kill him and tidy up the witnesses. If the teenage girl was shot but escaped and is coherent enough to talk, why do the authorities talk about the "apparent" gunman? That seems to me the sort of language you use when all you have is circumstantial evidence.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[TheRealMindChild]

It isn't just prison, but institutionalization in general.

Once upon a time, I was put into a "mental health facility" (loony bin) after a drawn out period where I started seeing spiders coming at me in all directions (an extreme phobia of mine). Today, we have found out that this condition only emerges when I don't sleep at least 6 hours a night, and stress contriubutes largely to my ability to sleep. Well, about a day into this place, I was literally going nuts. They had TVs, but you weren't allowed to watch them... ever. The only game they had was a deck of cards... with 35 cards. They took away your shoes and most common clothing, where most of us had to wear a hospital gown... the place was at a constant 60 degrees F. There was one hallway... 84 steps from end to end. The only thing to do there was drink coffee and smoke. I never did either before I went there, but when the coffee cart came out, you grabbed one. There was nothing else to do. When smoke break came along, you smoked one. There was nothing else to do.

I started coming up with games to play with myself around the place to try and keep what sanity I had left. I got locked into solitary for playing "Die Hard" and being too "loud and obnoxious, which stirs up the other patients" I was told. The first visitation from my wife I was allowed to have, I had her get a lawyer and get me the hell out of there.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[jcr]

I can't believe a father would really kill his innocent little child.

This wasn't a normal father. He was a criminal. If he was self-centered enough to make his living by fraud and theft, then it's not that much of a stretch for him to decide that if he was going to off himself, he'd take a few people with him.

-jcr

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Noexit]

I spent a week in a loony bin myself once. We had the same problem with the cards. Apparently nobody in there ever played with a full deck...(wait for it)...

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[The Gaytriot]

Actually the only mental problem he had worthy of attention was ADD, apparently.
From TFA:

She noted Davidson had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A condition of his sentence was that he undergo mental health counseling..

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Xtravar]

How do we know someone else didn't do it and then make it look like a murder/suicide?

That was my first thought when I saw the headline.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[jcr]

He had every right to do himself in, but killing his wife and daughter is beyond the pale. This kind of thing makes me wish I believed in hell.

-jcr

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Opportunist]

So what you essentially say is that a criminal, no matter how "trivial" or unrelated to homicide his transgression may be, is by the very fact that he broke a law a potential mass murderer?

Good lord! The RIAA is right, the internet is full of potential terrorists!

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Anonymous Coward]

He got tired of having his box filled with unsolicited male?

No, that was yesterday's gag. Today, it seems he was actually worried about having his wife's inbox filled with unsolicited male!

(She not only gave sexual pleasure to a spammer, she helped propagate its DNA. If she and her kid didn't want the bullets, they should have opted out...)

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[wattrlz]

You must be new here. Judging is what we do.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[jcr]

No, I'm saying that someone who's demonstrated this kind of self-centeredness is more likely to kill additional people as opposed to only killing himself.

-jcr

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Dimensio]

Email spammers are inherently and universally sociopaths. It is not unreasonable to consider that any given email spammer would, if it could be profitable, commit murder.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[j00r0m4nc3r]

So what you essentially say is that a criminal, no matter how "trivial" or unrelated to homicide his transgression may be, is by the very fact that he broke a law a potential mass murderer?

Every single person alive, innocent or guilty, is a potential mass murderer.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Chris Burkhardt]

> This wasn't a normal father. He was a criminal.

That's not fair. There are many criminals, who are also fathers, who love and don't harm their children.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Anonymous Coward]

Canadian antidepressants tend to require the use of an inordinate amount of Visine and Oreos, he may not have had ready access to these suppliments.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[b0ttle]

Yes, I'm new on posting comments, been reading them for some time. But I'm also judging, not him, you.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[TheRealMindChild]

I was not self-admitted, else I could have signed an AMA (Against Medical Advice) waiver and gotten out. I had been working 16+ hour days at work for a month and I was cracking hard. I was actually doing a paid research study for people with psychosis, and I was doing a test in an MRI machine. The spiders started coming out of every crack and I couldn't move, obviously. I couldn't help but panic and I trashed and screamed, everything I could do to get out of there away from the spiders/ They had me admitted because I was "a probable danger to myself and others".

I also have to add this little bit, because it is hard for people to comprehend situations like this if they never have experienced it... When you have a psychotic episode, you can not tell it isn't real. You can even try and reason with yourself that "This can't possibly be happening", but ultimately, every other part of your brain is telling you it is.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[ODiV]

This wasn't a normal father. He was a criminal.
I agree this guy was a complete selfish asshole, but you're treading on dangerous ground here. There aren't two different types of people: "criminals" and "non-criminals". Someone being a criminal doesn't make them morally corrupt and somehow more able to commit murder/suicide.

With the ways the laws are lately, we're pretty much all criminals. That doesn't make us any more or less likely to do something insane like this.

What this guy did was a not uncommon response to his type of situation. There are psychological factors at work that we should work to understand instead of dismissing this as just the actions of a criminal and sweeping them under the rug. That doesn't help anyone.

It's similar to our reaction to the Columbine shootings. When someone does something that far off from our own moral compass we label them as the Other. They were "monsters" and that's how they did what they did. Well no, sorry, they were human beings. Identifying them as monsters doesn't do anything constructive to prevent similar tragedies in future.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[GooberToo]

Email spammers are inherently and universally sociopaths. It is not unreasonable to consider that any given email spammer would, if it could be profitable, commit murder.

So what does this statement say about the majority of CEOs in corporate America. Keep in mind, several studies have show CEOs sociopathic behaviors in regard to their decisions.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Goobermunch]

I can't believe a father would really kill his innocent little child.

This kind of murder-suicide is a relatively common experience (murder-suicides being highly uncommon events in the first place). Customarily, they are committed by Caucasian men. The shrinks and the profilers believe that this particular type of murder is an insidious relative of a "vanilla" suicide. The male figure feels shamed due to personal and professional failings and feels that he is unable to provide for his family. In a state of depression he determined to kill himself. However, the basis for the suicidal impulse is the fear of being unable to care for the family, a result guaranteed by the suicide. Therefore, the perpetrator, as "patriarch" decides to commit suicide for the entire family. That way, he can prevent them from dealing with the consequences of his failings and his suicide. These cases often appear in connection with financial failures.

--AC

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, am sorry to hear about Spam King's passing. I never read any of his books, but I watched "The Shining" once on TV. America has lost one of its most prolific horror writers. ....

What? Oh. Sorry. Never mind.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Opportunist]

He is self-centered (or rather, more self-centered than the average Joe) because of what? Because he sent out spam emails and didn't care that he got on your nerves? By that logic, every cold calling CCA is also a self centered bastard who's ready to pop any second.

And yes, they're annoying as hell (maybe more than even spammers), but that doesn't make them more likely to go on killing sprees than the average Joe.

I fail to see the connection between being a spammer and being a murder-suicide in the making. Basically, we're all self-centered. Do I care about your wellbeing? Not really. Do you care about mine? I doubt it. Does that mean we will leap at each other's throat the moment we spot each other? Dunno about you, but I won't. Usually, people don't care too much about people they don't know.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Opportunist]

I was about to say that. If there is money in it and the chance to get caught reasonably small, some company will certainly do it. Hell, if murder was legal you'd have murder agencies pop up left and right, if the money is right.

If it is profitable and either legal altogether or at least the chance to get caught is small enough (or the fines well within the profit margin), a company will do it. The formula for profit is income minus expenses, morals doesn't exist in that equation.

And while every person may have moral concerns, they don't apply as soon as a company can absorb that moral problem. A worker there could have moral qualms because he does something he knows is "wrong", but he has to do it, he has to bring home money to feed his kids. A manager who lays off a worker he knows can't get a new job and thus is threatened with poverty might have moral concerns over it, but he can brush that aside and see that this way he can continue employing those other 10, and if he didn't lay off the one, the company might lose profit and cut the whole branch, making 12 people (i.e. the 11 and him) lose their jobs. The top management might even have moral concerns, but they can shift the blame on the investors who want first and foremost money for their investment, and the managers are responsible that this money is well invested money. The investors in turn don't even know what they invest in, they just hand money to their bank, trusting the bank to multiply that money. And the investors working at a bank might even know that a company is doing "evil things", but they have to put their moral concerns aside, they have promised their customers to do the best investments they could so they have to invest in the "evil" company, because it's the most profitable one.

You see, nobody to blame, no moral problem for anyone. Everyone can shift the blame on someone and morals don't play a role anymore, even if they did for a single person, the moment you can shift it on someone else, it's all fine, after all, you don't do evil, you're forced to, by the circumstances.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[bryce4president]

Usually, people don't care too much about people they don't know.

I think your base assumption is flawed. If this was true then the Red Cross wouldn't exist, neither would other charitable organizations that receive money from everyday people and disperse it to others in need. If people didn't care too much then they wouldn't give too much. But the fact of the matter is that the people of this world care very much about the well being of others. I'm sorry that you don't, but I think I'm speaking for the majority of people when I say that I do.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[grolaw]

Basically, we're all self-centered. Do I care about your wellbeing? Not really. Do you care about mine? I doubt it. Does that mean we will leap at each other's throat the moment we spot each other? Dunno about you, but I won't. Usually, people don't care too much about people they don't know.

Swift one there, Ayn! I guess that those firemen walk into your burning house to pull you away from a horrible death for the pay. Likewise the physicians, therapists and the other adherents to the social compact.

Public interest lawsuits, seat belts, vaccines - yep, you have hit the nail on the head: everybody is exactly like you.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Rub1cnt]

Anyone else see this as odd? He's found dead, no questions, no nothing? Anyone else think this could have been a pro hit?

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Dun Malg]

He is self-centered (or rather, more self-centered than the average Joe) because of what? Because he sent out spam emails and didn't care that he got on your nerves? By that logic, every cold calling CCA is also a self centered bastard who's ready to pop any second.

Jesus, let's have a little reading comprehension here, can we? That's not his logic at all. His logic is that the more a self-centered bastard someone is, the more likely they are to commit a few murders before committing suicide, IF they reach the point of suicide.

I've worked in telemarketing. About half of them are just regular schmoes, but the other half, well, let's just say that if they were suicidal, you wouldn't expect them to stick a gun in their mouth at home, they'd more likely bring it in to work first and "share".

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[gnick]

> This wasn't a normal father. He was a criminal.

That's not fair. There are many criminals, who are also fathers, who love and don't harm their children.

Indeed. I admit to being a criminal. I've stopped cracking accounts illegally, I've stopped buying/smoking weed, I no longer brew up explosives/build bombs, etc - I'm a married/employed father now and am no longer willing to accept the risk associated with those juvenile habits. But, I still drive ~10% over the speed limit most times. Most people speed - Cops maybe even worse than the rest of us. I've even been known to jaywalk. Most of us are criminals in one way or another.

But that does not imply that I'm remotely violent with my children. It would take an inconceivable brain fracture for me to ever become an intentional threat to my family. As a matter of fact, the only scenarios where I could envision myself becoming violent would be in defense of them, myself, or another innocent - In that order.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Psmylie]

I had a friend who was committed a few times because she would hurt herself. We would go to visit her, and each time I couldn't help but think that, if I got stuck in such a place, whatever my mental state was on the way in, I'd be insane on the way out.

It's not anything like a normal environment. Adults get treated like misbehaving and retarded children. Inmates fight over the stupidest things, probably out of boredom... What TV show was on could lead to actual violence. While I don't doubt that being in a place like that encourages people to leave as soon as possible, I don't see how it can possibly help someone with a real problem.

Hopefully, there are places that are better than the one I visited.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[PIBM]

If you were to check who are the ones donating most, you'd see that it's often (not in all cases, no) people who have suffered / had relative suffer of what they are giving for.

We had a cancer case in my wife family, and suddently everyone started talking about having given money to help fight cancer, someone at the PHD level changed direction to go fight it, and all.

So, having seen that, and heard that before, I believe many people basic reason to give isn't that they are simply thinking about the well-being of the whole planet, but more about helping on something you are aware of. In the case of blood giving, it's either that, or they are Homers wanting donuts =)

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely anyone could see that he had a problem - all his recent spam just reads "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[ScrewMaster]

Where as non-caucasian males would, customarily, just walk away with no guilt and no feelings of any responsibility?

Why would you say that? The GP is pointing out that when placed under similar levels of stress and feelings of guilt and inadequacy people in other cultures (surprise!) behave differently.

Sounds pretty racist, any way you want to try to advance that argument.

Why do people insist on labeling any perception or documentation of differences between races or cultures as "racist"? People are different, that's why we can make such distinctions as race in the first place! Furthermore, to posit that all races are equal/identical in all ways is ridiculous. For example, I'm a white guy and my girlfriend is African. I have to wear sunblock ... she doesn't. Is that a racist comment?

This kind of automatic negative reaction to any mention of racial differences immediately eliminates legitimate discourse, because now the dialog shifts from communication to accusation and defense. That, actually, is often the point of crying "racism!", because it puts the other guy on the defensive, even if he happens to be right. Maybe especially if he happens to be right.

If the facts bear out what the GP is stating (i.e., that there are such differences) then his comment is not racist, but informative. And if he's wrong, then he's probably just misinformed. Personally, I saw nothing inflammatory or racist in his commentary. At least, I'll reserve judgment before making any accusations.

Japanese males, for example, tend to commit suicide in silence, alone. Well, traditionally they do: I read somewhere that that has been changing. Regardless, am I saying that suicidal Japanese men are a. inferior or b. superior to their Western counterparts? The answer is c. neither ... I was making an observation.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[tobiasly]

I agree this guy was a complete selfish asshole, but you're treading on dangerous ground here. There aren't two different types of people: "criminals" and "non-criminals". Someone being a criminal doesn't make them morally corrupt and somehow more able to commit murder/suicide.

Have you read Confessions of a Former Spammer? These assholes do things like scrape emails from support websites for recovering gambling addicts and then send them invitations to online gambling sites. This is more than just fraud or theft. They prey on the weak and vulnerable for their own profit. And they do it in the most cowardly way possible, where they never even have to meet or see their victims.

You're correct in that these types of generalizations aren't really productive, but I think it's a rather safe assumption that anyone who has made millions off of spam aren't just a thief but truly a sociopath. They know that they're ruining the lives of others; they just don't care.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Chris Burke]

I've worked in telemarketing. About half of them are just regular schmoes, but the other half, well, let's just say that if they were suicidal, you wouldn't expect them to stick a gun in their mouth at home, they'd more likely bring it in to work first and "share".

You were happy when I brought in donuts for everybody. Now I bring in bullets to share and you're upset? Geeze, people are so flighty and fickle, such hypocrites, sometimes it just makes me want to snap!

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[UncleTogie]

Next time, do what I did:

Chart the staff...while they're charting during shift change.

They look at you for a sec and scribble. Look right back at them, note the lack of eye contact, and write that down. Watch them again and repeat.

You'd be amazed how weirded out they get when they notice someone observing THEM... and the fact that it's while they're charting just makes it more delicious!

Other fun activities:

Invent an imaginary friend, but ONLY react to it in the presence of ONE staff member. They'll get weird looks when they talk about your imaginary friend, as no one else has seen it but them, and YOU don't have ANY idea what they're talking about...

At night, on a sleepless wing, do the "chicken". This requires enlisting some help. Start clucking from the room nearest the staff's station. When you hear them draw near, stop. The next room will take the cue and start clucking. They'll go bananas trying to figure out who to bust.

Convince your roommate that he's hearing voices at night... by whispering into your pillow.

Remember, folks, the trick to staying entertained is creativity!

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Mr Abstracto]

Usually, people don't care too much about people they don't know.

I think your base assumption is flawed. If this was true then the Red Cross wouldn't exist, neither would other charitable organizations that receive money from everyday people and disperse it to others in need. If people didn't care too much then they wouldn't give too much. But the fact of the matter is that the people of this world care very much about the well being of others. I'm sorry that you don't, but I think I'm speaking for the majority of people when I say that I do.

If people usually cared about people they don't know, there would be no need for the Red Cross and other charitable organizations to exist in the first place.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[Locke2005]

You're confusing cultural differences, which are real, with racial differences, which are illusory. Yes, in the predominant "black" culture in the US, it is more socially acceptable for men who don't feel they can adequately provide for their families to abandon them; I believe statistics show there are proportionally more black single moms. That doesn't mean all people with dark skin buy into this cultural norm. A large number of caucasian men also abandon their families -- there is just more of a stigma attached to it in their culture. Also, the genes for African external physical characteristics are dominant genes, so saying the behavior of "blacks" in America is caused by their race, when many of them are in fact of predominantly European, not African decent, is just bad science. I'm a redneck married to an African woman from Sierra Leone. Cultural, Africans are different from American blacks. American blacks assume I am biased against them and shy away from socializing with me until after they get to know me. Africans have been dealing with diversity for so long that it is second nature for them; they make no assumptions about me and welcome me with open arms. Of course, the Africans immigrants I deal with are some of the best and brightest people from Sierra Leone and Nigeria who had the motivation and means to emigrate to the US. They are not necessarily representative of the average person from their countries. Does acknowledging cultural differences I've observed with my own eyes make me a racist?

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[dubl-u]

What he is saying is everything we do is driven from a selfish motivation. Firefighters derive a sense of satisfaction from protecting people and that is why they do it.

This is a rhetorical trick that has always annoyed me. By definition, all motivation for action is at some point internal. To say that all motivations are therefore equally selfish is idiotic.

Let's assume that:

• Attila the Hun liked killing people.
• Torquemada liked torturing people.
• Mother Teresa liked helping people.
• Gandhi liked making the world more just.

That they are all personal motivations is undeniable. Calling them equally selfish, and saying that therefore people are equally selfish is a trick where you confuse two different meanings of selfish.

We are born with a capacity for compassion, in the same way we are born with a capacity to run. Whether we choose to develop those capacities is up to us.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[darkfire5252]

Swift one there, Ayn! I guess that those firemen walk into your burning house to pull you away from a horrible death for the pay. Likewise the physicians, therapists and the other adherents to the social compact. Public interest lawsuits, seat belts, vaccines - yep, you have hit the nail on the head: everybody is exactly like you.

There is a difference between caring about 'people' and caring about 'an unknown person'. Firemen, physicians, etc, clearly care about people a great deal. Those who donate to the Red Cross are trying to help people. However, if you take a fireman aside and tell him "Jim Bob in Kentucky has died", the odds of him shedding a tear are very low. Similarly, if you told me that a woman in Florida read my post and thinks I'm mentally ill, would I care? Hardly.

People often care about people. People often care about humanity. But do people often care about every actual instance of 'some person they don't know' ? Not hardly.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[drinkypoo]

Yeah, keep in mind that IBM in Germany built the machines for managing the concentration camps, wrote the software, printed the punch cards, and even sent people on site to do service. The service contract payments went to IBM in New York, not to IBM Germany. Now, you can argue all day whether that means the IBM of today should be held responsible for that, or for that matter if the Krups of today should be held responsible for making gas chambers, but either way you just have to remember not to expect morality from a corporation.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Tragedy + Distance (or time) = comedy

Search Google for "Towery" for a good example.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

"Mother Teresa liked making people suffer."

Fixed that for you.

Re:I understand running away from prison... but

[grolaw]

I lived two blocks away from her - 800 West End Avenue - in the 1960's - and I had more than a few discussions with her about her "Objectivist" views.

Fascinating thing, her royalty revenues had ceased - those were 26-year copyright terms prior to the 1976 amendments - and she was quite happy with her Social Security check and her rent-controlled apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Her public pronouncements were not the life that she lived. Objectivists are self defeating and John Galt is a character lifted from French post-modernist literature - pure infringement.

She also benefitted from free medical care - treating her lung cancer. Amazing that she accepted that which she would have denied others....a hypocrite of the first order.

beware

[appleLaserWriter]

spam kills

Re:beware

[Victor_0x53h]

This is your family on spam.

Re:beware

[Like2Byte]

beware (Score:5, Funny)

by appleLaserWriter (91994) Alter Relationship on Friday July 25, @09:07AM (#24333167)

spam kills

Man, where's '+1 Tasteless' when you need it? Funny....but tasteless.

Coward.

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't necessary for him to take them with him. May he burn in hell.

Re:Coward.

[Bastard of Subhumani]

You're just jealous because he went one better than you. Right, Hans?

Re:Coward.

[Anonymous Coward]

As an atheist, it does make me wish there really was a hell for guys like this.

The christians have it so easy sometimes :)

Re:Coward.

[bsDaemon]

I always say that I'd like to meet the Atheist who doesn't say "god damn it" or "go to hell," and he lesbian that doesn't use a dildo... but they both seem to be very elusive specimens.

Re:Coward.

[DustyShadow]

But I bet you never say "I wish there was a heaven for that guy" when someone dies in a really heroic act.

Re:Coward.

[Dorkmaster Flek]

I know you were going for comedy points, but it's more a force of habit and generally accepted "curse phrase" by society than a religious affirmation.

Re:Coward.

[operagost]

Ok. But what about the plastic cock?

Re:Coward.

[spuke4000]

Ok. But what about the plastic cock?

Do I detect the start of a new /. meme?

This quote says it all

[iamhigh]

"What a nightmare, and such a coward," U.S. Attorney Troy Eid said. "Davidson imposed the 'death penalty' on family members for his own crime."

Re:This quote says it all

[LordKaT]

It's the fundamental problem with being institutionalized in America: it's all about vengeance, not social rehabilitation.

Re:This quote says it all

[R2.0]

"It's the fundamental problem with being institutionalized in America: it's all about vengeance, not social rehabilitation."

That's right - the US penal system killed that little girl and her mother.

Asshole.

Re:This quote says it all

[hansamurai]

The guy was in a minimum security farm prison, if you ask me it had a lot more to do with social rehab than vengeance. The guy wasn't going to be able to access an uncontrolled computer in the two years he was there, if they wanted vengeance they may have sent him to a maximum security prison for longer than two years.

Re:This quote says it all

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much. Seriously, the US prison system breeds criminals - if you're not one going in, you sure as hell will be coming out.

Re:This quote says it all

[Anonymous Coward]

That's right - the US penal system killed that little girl and her mother.

Asshole.

You can throw all the pejoratives you want, the fact remains that the US penal system does an excellent job of making petty criminals into hardened criminals. Never mind issues like prison rape. This guy may have been serving in a minimum security facility but he US penal contains a number of penal facilities that are such hell-holes that being sent there could be construed as cruel and unusual punishment.

Re:This quote says it all

[Hyppy]

You can't seriously believe that everyone sent to prison is a criminal, can you?

Re:This quote says it all

[bsDaemon]

There are no guilty men in prison, haven't you heard? Everyone in there is innocent...

Re:This quote says it all

[LordKaT]

Have you ever been in the "farm system" (as you so daintily put it)? Let me tell you what life is like behind the bars at the "farm system":

Dorm living with fully grown men. These "dorms" are sometimes the size of a gymnasium. A gymnasium full of grown men. Fully grown, under enormous stress, living in close quarters. Honestly, you'd have much less stress living in a car.

2 minute showers, enforced.

Scheduled bathroom times. Gotta shit? Hold it until shit time, which is usually at the start of the day and the end.

Forced labor. They don't even bother matching you up with work from your skillset. Too fat? Go work in the yard. Too stupid to know how to kill someone with a knife? Kitchen work.

This "farm system" isn't about rehabilitation, it's about "serving your time" and getting the fuck out.

That's not rehabilitation, it's life structure enforcement. Rehab means breaking a person down into their individual pieces, examining all of those pieces, finding out what's wrong, and then learning to live life with the knowledge that you have a problem.

Re:This quote says it all

[PunkOfLinux]

That wasn't the point. Studies have *shown* that the prison environment is actually *more* destructive to the rehabilitation of criminals. Rather than focus on incapacitation, we should be focusing on rehabilitation, which, dollar for dollar, has a *much* higher rate of return than prison. I'm not saying we should keep murderers out of prison, but unarmed robbery? Please, just help the people actually survive, or, if they do it for the 'thrill' help them with that. It works something like 30% better than prison.

Re:This quote says it all

[tsstahl]

As in 100%? Of course not. But I think "innocent man sent to jail" is very, very rare.

Now

How about a 10% error rate? Gov. Ryan commuted the sentences of all Illinois death row inmates after DNA testing exonerated ten percent of them.

Personally, I don't consider a ten percent error rate on death sentences 'rare'.

I'm also willing to bet that you are not an American black male of average build and average height living within 5 blocks of a Martin Luther King Drive.

In my experience, the more heinous the act, the more desire exists for SOMEBODY to pay for it, the higher likelihood of someone being made the fall guy.

Re:This quote says it all

[tb()ne]

2 minute showers?!? Living in dorms?!? Waiting to shit?!? That's outrageous!

Or maybe that's why it's called punishment - it's not supposed to be pleasant. I won't defend the deplorable conditions in PMITA federal prisons or deny that they're just making bad people worse or deny that they make no significant effort to reintegrate prisoner with law-abiding society. But you haven't convinced me that there's anything deplorable going on in the "farm system." Most of your description sounds like boot camp in the military

That's not rehabilitation, it's life structure enforcement. Rehab means breaking a person down into their individual pieces, examining all of those pieces, finding out what's wrong, and then learning to live life with the knowledge that you have a problem.

Oh, so we should have just turned him over to the Scientologists?

The "problem" that a lot of these people have is simply that they are criminals and they will happily break the law if they think they can get away with it, not that they have some psychological problem that will be cured by counseling or psychotherapy. And fear of consequences is more of a deterrent than realizing you didn't get enough attention from mommy. I would be interested to see some statistics on repeat offenses for white collar criminals who spend time in Club Fed, as opposed to those who spend time in PMITA federal prison.

Re:Woo!

[Anonymous Coward]

Celebrating someone killing their family. Fuck you.

Re:Good

[JasonWM]

WTF is this? There is a dead woman and child and you pop off at the mouth calling them things like "crotch fruit?" After seeing such comments the only conclusion I can extract is that I hope you never breed, we need less people on this earth that act like you just did.

Re:Sad...

[Hognoxious]

I guess that's what happens if you get into a pound-in-the-ass federal prison. You'd rather die than to ever return there.

But he was at one of those white-collar resort prisons. That's why he was able to escape.

A couple more details

[j_snare]

I saw another article that linked to this one http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9985333 that had a couple of other details.

It sounds like they weren't just a big happy family...

Very typical psychopath

[blind biker]

Doesn't care about anyone (millions of people inconvenienced by his spam), doesn't have a conscience and leaves a trail of misery and destruction behind.

Psychopaths are very charming but still, girls, try not to marry one.

Re:Very typical psychopath

[GregAllen]

Psychopaths are very charming but still, girls, try not to marry one.

I would say "sociopath". There are female sociopaths, too.

The same comment applies to boys: try not to marry one. Especially you young, unsuspecting geeks out there. She is very charming, but don't ignore the red flags. Just see my .sig to know where it could lead you. :)

So this is the guy that inspired the name...

[insomaniac]

SpamAssassin

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod me down if you like, but DEATH to all spammers. I'm glad he took his crotch-fruit with him, so they won't grow up to spam like daddy.

I'm not sure if you're aware of this but you weren't the victim in this story. I know, I know, it's very hard to consider other people but there is a 3 year old girl dead, a middle aged woman dead and an injured teen. All of them (to our knowledge) completely innocent.

They most likely have other family members and friends, I think you should consider these people to be the victims in this story, not you. Our thoughts and condolences should go out to them, not some nepotistic sentiment that they would automatically become their felon of a father.

Damn...

[Stanislav_J]

Good riddance to him. But how sad for his family. Why do assholes like this feel the need to take others along with them when they decide to check out? It's times like this when I'm sorry to be an atheist -- I want to believe that he's burning in Hell. Mere nonexistence is not a sufficient punishment for him.

So much for spammers being "non-violent" criminals...

Dumb

[raedeon]

Putting mentally unstable people in minimum security is a bad idea

The sign on the way out

[the4thdimension]

"Attention: You are now escaping. Please turn back immediately."

What a weak, cowardly little man...

[Red Samurai]

From TFA:

"Davidson, 35, was sentenced in April to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay $714,139 in restitution to the IRS after pleading guilty to falsifying header information to send spam e-mail, tax evasion and criminal forfeiture."

So, all it took for this guy to snap was 21 months and a shitload of debt? He must've known the consequences if he was ever caught. If you ask me, he killed in the wrong order.

TGIF

[Wiarumas]

...and it was such a pleasant Friday morning until I heard this news.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I would be willing to take a lifetime of spam to spare the life of his wife and daughter. The positive news of the story (the spam king is gone for good) pales in the shadow of this tragedy.

Re:Jackass

[R2.0]

"He also didn't deserve death for what he did; the jail time and fines/restitution was plenty."

Don't you mean his FAMILY didn't deserve death? Because whether or not he deserved it is moot - he did it to himself.

Jesus

[TheRealMindChild]

It should also be a lesson to all you married folks out there that feel you should help your spouse break jail... even you aren't clear of the line of fire. I am sure you can apply this metaphor to friend-of-the-quiet-guy-at-the-post-office and such, but this is so screwed up, my reality detector is going nuts.

Suicide

[caffiend666]

Suicide is the ultimate statement of self-empowerment and control. We now know for sure, this man was unconcerned about disrupting countless lives, and now even destroying them; for his own sense of peace, prosperity, and control. What he feared most was being out of control of his own life, and didn't care about the lives of others. A person unconcerned about disrupting millions of lives for five seconds at a time, could not be bothered to have his interrupted for a few months. Poetic in a monstrous pig way.

yes yes YES!!!!!

[CdBee]

Thank god, somebody actually gets it. I sit here in Europe gritting my teeth at all the Americans flooding the web chatting cold-bloodedly about killing criminals or locking them away for life, with no apparent conception of the idea that people can be reformed or that punishment ought to be appropriate rather than exemplary if you want people to respect the law.

Re:Jackass

[dreamchaser]

I know he did, but what I meant was even his death isn't something to be celebrated. The man was obviously deeply disturbed. Implying that someone like him should die (and that implication has been made many times here on /.) is just whacked.

A thousand words...

[joedoc]

In the comments here yesterday about this guy escaping from the can, I expressed surprise at the thuggish, almost murderous look the guy had in his recent mug shot.

The guy's a spammer, I thought, but he looks like a serial killer.

Now I feel really creepy about what's he's done to his family. I don't care about what happens to him; he should suffer for all eternity for killing his wife and child.

I just don't understand the brain activity that would make him do this for 21 months in the can. He's white collar; he may have received parole after a few months for good behavior.

Maybe it's misfiring synapses, but I just don't get it.

Re:Woo!

[PunkOfLinux]

Yes, because in modern America, we're still responsible for the missteps of our parents. That child had NO reason to be killed.

Just reading the comments here changed my thoughts

[erroneus]

Initially, I was considering "taking back" my previous suggestions that a death penalty be imposed for hardcore spammers. I had gone into great detail about my reasoning behind the notion, but it could easily be summed up by a conclusion that people who go through the extreme measures that spammer go through to circumvent various security measures, hack on private users' PCs to create botnets, and have generally caused the vast majority of the crap that endangers the systems and services around the planet (some of which are 'critical' and/or sensitive in nature) are nothing short of antisocial psychopaths and should be considered dangerous. People have commented that my conclusions are extreme, but I have to disagree. You have to consider what it takes (or what has to be missing) for a person to work so hard to cause so much damage and care so little about it. It's nothing the average 'business man on the street' would be capable of doing even if he were skilled enough to pull it off. It is the characteristics that enable the behavior of a spammer that mark him as an antisocial psychopath.

But as I was saying, I was considering retracting my previous suggestions because now that I see in the news a story of an actual dead spammer, I feel a bit sickened. And not sickened by the additional death and injury exclusively, but by the situation as a whole, leaving me uncertain that I would want spammers put to death. Truthfully, I'm still not sure, and am more certain that it was simply anger and frustration over the whole problem of spam to begin with. But one thing I am more certain about than ever before:

Spammers are DANGEROUS people.

The characteristics that indicate they have no moral boundaries to commit crimes, elude and evade security measures, hack into private computer systems and create networks of compromised computer systems used to create hell on a global scale, are the same characteristics of mass murderers. Before you disagree with me on this point, break it down for yourself. If you see major differences between the mentalities of the two (spammers and mass murderers) please detail them here. I'm not afraid of being wrong. I just don't think I am in this case.

The right metaphor for the right time

[Moraelin]

Well, "Flying Spaghetti Monster damn it!" doesn't really roll off the tongue that well, plus he's not as much into fire and damnation. So, you know, it would end up a bit on par with, "Dear Enemy, I curse you and hope something slightly unpleasant happens to you. Like an onion falling on your head."

And the Invisible Pink Unicorn is too cute to be taken seriously when it comes to damning, so that one's out of the question too.

Tooth fairy? I suppose she could get scary if you speak with your head under your pillow, but a damnation that depends on that is kinda unreliable.

Santa Claus? What's he going to do if he damns you? Bring you a lump of coal? With the prices of energy lately, being damned by Santa might actually be a blessing these days, if you know what I mean.

So, you know, as non-existent personifications go, the Christian god wins hands down. Now _that_ guy can damn properly. It still doesn't mean we _believe_ in him, but he's the right non-existent guy for the job.

Have you ever been in the army?

[Moraelin]

Well, there may be more than you wrote there, I wouldn't know, never been to jail. But what you do write, is no worse than army life anywhere in the world. And some even use conscription to inflict it on almost every male. Not that I defend conscription or anything, but it's not living hell either.

Dorm living with fully grown men. These "dorms" are sometimes the size of a gymnasium. A gymnasium full of grown men. Fully grown, under enormous stress, living in close quarters. Honestly, you'd have much less stress living in a car.

A lot of barracks out there pack a lot of grown men in a large confined space. Maybe not gym sized, but nevertheless. And they're under stress. Tough shit, learn to cope.

Frankly, I'm not exactly an extrovert myself, but I really don't get the "OMG, it's a big place with lots of men" mentality. So was the army, so is the office, etc. Most of human history happened that way. Whether you'd be packed with a lot of agricultural workers in little more than a big barn, or packed in a small house together with your extended family, or as a soldier in a longship/tent/barrack with at _least_ 8 or 10 members of your squad/decuria/watchamacallit. Go back to prehistory, and you'd be sleep with a lot of men, women and children in the confined space of a cave. It may seem like the end of the world if you spend your life in a basement trying to avoid contact with other humans, but it's not. Most humans are actually made to be social people. Being in a crowd won't kill you.

2 minute showers, enforced.

Well, the navy manages to live on even more inconvenient showers, to conserve water. It's giving up a bit of comfort, no doubt, but it's not the end of the world.

Scheduled bathroom times. Gotta shit? Hold it until shit time, which is usually at the start of the day and the end.

Ever pulled guard duty in the army? You're supposed to stand there and not desert your post until your time is up. This also means you can't go to the bathroom whenever you wish.

Forced labor. They don't even bother matching you up with work from your skillset. Too fat? Go work in the yard. Too stupid to know how to kill someone with a knife? Kitchen work.

Well, tough shit, sherlock. Noone asked me if my aspirations or skill set were perfectly matched to running with an assault rifle up hill, or operating a big loud AA gun. Nor if, say, cleaning the floor is against my religion.

Plus, that's the story of most people's lives even outside prison. You're rarely in a position to get your ideal dream job, or most people's work day would consist of getting blowjobs and surfing for porn. Instead most people get what's available. The guy behind the counter at the gas station or the one frying your burgers at McDonalds also aren't really paired to the best match for their aspirations and skills.

And again, if you look at human history, it used to be even worse.

Basically, I don't know. If you'd be telling me that there's something inherently humiliating or inhuman about the work they're asked to do, ok, I might even show some sympathy. But, basically, OMG, they're like Army Lite, with actually less stress and effort than the real Army... heh... dunno, fails to move me much.

Error: Order of Operations

[Anonymous Coward]

Just once, I'd like to see these murder-suicide perpetrators do The Right Thing (TM) and *start* with the suicide!

Re:Error: Order of Operations

[Dun Malg]

Like the old blond joke, eh?

Blond comes home, finds her husband in bed with another woman. She bursts into tears, pulls a gun from the bureau, and points it at her head. The husband shouts, "No, don't shoot!" The blond replies "Shut up! You're next!"

Why we punish, why we forgive

[spun]

Most humans have a natural desire for justice and fairness. This is evolutionarily advantageous, it helps us build functional societies. Punishment is a tool. It is never 'right,' or 'good' to punish, those are moral judgments. Sometimes, it is effective, that is all we need say about it.

This was no more right or wrong than a rat eating its babies, or a lion killing an antelope. Shit happens. We punish transgressions like this not because the act is wrong or bad, but because it is ineffective, it doesn't work for society, and we are programmed to uphold what is right.

All punishment starts from within. It usually starts from a moral judgment or a feeling that something is not right with the universe. But right and wrong don't exist outside the minds of sentient beings.

You know the saying, "Judge not, lest ye be judged?" One will not make moral judgments against another unless one thinks that making moral judgments is a good thing. If you think it is a good thing, you will do it to yourself.

There is no place you can hide from your own judgment. People who make moral judgments are trapped in their own skulls with a monster they can't hide from or defend against. They use their own power against themselves.

This man has no capacity to damage society anymore. There are therefore only two possible reasons to hope for a Hell for him to suffer in. One obviously faulty reason is the hope that his suffering will restore some kind of balance to the universe. But his actions never had the power to put the universe out of moral balance. Nothing does.

The other reason is the hope that his suffering in hell will somehow deter others. Which might be true if there were any kind of proof it was happening, but there isn't.

Wanting to punish this dead man only reinforces the desire to punish in general. It tells the part of our brain that makes judgments and metes out punishment that it is doing the right thing. And some day, all that righteous anger, pain, and humiliation will be directed internally, at the person making the judgment, as soon as they fail to live up to their own internal rulebook.

Don't get me wrong, discernment is a good thing. Knowing what works and what doesn't, and why, is a good thing. And fortunately, doing 'good' does not require moral judgment, only discernment and self interest.

Perhaps the worst thing about moral judgment is that it gets in the way of true discernment. If one thinks that certain things are inherently evil and need to be punished, one will have a hard time honestly recognizing when one is doing those things. I said there was no defense against the monster in our heads, that is not quite true. One can lie to oneself.

But if one refrains from judgment, both internal and external, one can really, honestly look at one's actions, decide which are effective and which ineffective, and reward the effective actions. Reward is the only motivator for new behaviors.

Wow, long rant. And I will admit, forgiveness is hard. It is much easier to give in to the feelings of anger and moral righteousness. I still do much of the time. But I don't judge myself for judging myself. :)

So don't judge this guy. Realize his actions were part of a larger pattern, that they weren't effective, that they did not bring him what he wanted, that they are detrimental to society, and that those sorts of actions should be punished only to help society function better, not because they were evil. He is now beyond the ability to harm society, and beyond our ability to witness his punishment, so all practical reasons to wish for punishment are gone.

What is left is only the mind's desire to judge everything in the universe, and harm that which is judged evil. Acting on that desire is harmful to the self.

Re:Good

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"You can't deny the world would be a better place if all spammers would kill themselves and their snowflakes."

Yeah, the number next to my spam folder would say (0) instead of (30). I really want to spend human lives to change that. /sarcasm.

Wrong Framework

[Anna Merikin]

Sociopathy is not a disease like flu with a cause and exact symptoms; it is a disease of the psyche, which itself is a virtual reality in that we do not interface with the world except through the psyche as medium. As Bruno Bettelheim said, "personality is perception".

If a person believes it is OK to do anything for money -- that money, itself, is the entire meaning of life, and if that person marries another who feels the same then they might delay having children until their futures could be secured. And if that security was taken away then that sick individual, always working rationally from a mistaken perception (that money is all) might feel it was his responsibility to relieve them of a future filled with poverty.

It is not fun getting into the mind of sociopaths/psychopaths, so I'm just saying....

Wait a second........

[Anachragnome]

Where the hell is all the Tinfoil-hat suspicion I usually see around here?

The guy more then likely had money stashed. He more then likely went to others for help once he escaped. Doesn't anyone think its possible that he was killed for this money by someone even sleazier then himself?

Nobody questions that there is an unrelated teenage FEMALE and a BABY involved? WTF?

C'mon /.

Escape, THEN kill yourself and family? Why not just fucking bedsheet yourself at the first "lights-out"?

This sounds HIGHLY suspect to me. Cheeeerist! I can think of dozens of scenarios that would explain this just as well as the scenario posited by the "authorities". And none of them as cheery as a murder/suicide.

Would you kill your kids if killing yourself?

[zetetikos]

I wish someone would do a study of folks who think it makes sense to kill their kids if they decide to kill themselves. It's seems like it would lead to a good way to identify people for whom some preventive counseling would be a great benefit to society. I did a little googling about it without any luck.

I get so tired of seeing these stories about parents killing themselves and their kids and just can't imagine the mindset where this makes sense to them. The evil in our world that is done to kids seems boundless, but this stuff seems different and in some ways more incomprehensible since it's usually folks who are not normally violent criminals.