INSIGHT GAINED

A few days ago, I mentioned researching some old inmates' criminal histories and what I learned from that pursuit. But I was so fixated on the feds creating a pedophile rather than catching one, I neglected to mention some other insight I gained during the process. 


My last bunky at MCC was a cyber stalker who gained considerable notoriety in the media after his apprehension. In one of several local articles featuring his MO, it was mentioned that he responded to a text message sent to him by law enforcement using a sophisticated VPN (anonymizer) thinking the feds wouldn't know or couldn't prove from whom the message came. The only problem with his logic was that the feds had only messaged one person with that email address (or number) and thus, could prove the message came from him! This was my aha moment.

At some point during my endless process with the feds (5+ years), I returned home to see a hand-written message affixed to my door which read something along the lines of "this is Angie. I lost your number but remembered your address so I came by to see if you know of anyplace I can work. My number is (so-and-so). Please call me if you know of any available jobs." 

This note was written on what looked like a sheet of outgoing office mail address stick-ons and struck me as extremely suspect. I didn't know too many escorts who moonlighted doing office work. In fact, in 20 years of selling hooker ads, I didn't know any! Plus, I didn't know anybody named Angie (at least in the business), and had allowed very few clients up to my apartment. This was clearly bull shit!

Still, I was curious. So I went to the corner phone kiosk (or whatever you call those new-fangled deals which let you make phone call free to anywhere in the United States) and dialed "Angie's" number. It went to a cut off phone. Did Angie write down her number incorrectly? A dumbass hooker could do that. But I wasn't tricked. This was the authorities' way of discovering my burner phone number was a more likely explanation. I was the only person given this number. So anybody who called would be me. Nice try.

When I read how the feds tricked MC, I knew my intuition was correct. Maybe a year later, I got a suspicious email along the same lines. This time there was a voice mail set up for me. I called from a corner phone and left the message "I know you're law enforcement trying to compile evidence on me." That was the last time I received any message like that. 

But in the end, what was really more of an aha moment while doing this mindless research was the realization that I'd been bunking with somebody who had severely whitewashed his crimes in describing to me exactly how he managed to get a 37 month bid. My information (which I also read) was surprisingly accurate. And assuming my bunky's was anywhere near as close, he did some seriously deranged shit to get himself locked up.

When you're in prison with so many dysfunctional people, you get desensitized to just how fucked up they truly are. That's part of prison life. Whatever your crime, you'll be placed with inmates with big problems. And it will affect your outlook from that period forward.