# Has a SDMB regular ever been a newsworthy criminal?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 20, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402 "2023-11-20T01:40:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/1 "2023-11-20T01:40:17Z")
Someone makes the news for one notorious reason or other and one of us who knows them realizes, “Wow, that’s RandyAndy, a frequent poster!”
Here is an old thread about dopers who knew someone in the news, but those persons were not members of the SDMB,
> [@Anybody ever known someone that did something so wrong it made the news?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-ever-known-someone-that-did-something-so-wrong-it-made-the-news/77339/3):
>
> I wish I could find a link to this somewhere online, but it was more than ten years ago. Before we were married, Leigh-Anne and I were out visiting some friends one night, a fraternity brother of mine and his girlfriend, who went to high school with Leigh-Anne. When we got home, the 11 o’clock news was one, and they had live coverage from the scene of a double murder in Mentor, where we lived at the time. A husband and wife had been murdered, apparently shotgunned to death while they slept. As …
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/2 "2023-11-20T04:15:13Z")
I remember at least one regular who admitted to serious crimes when he was younger–but don’t remember his SDMB handle.
Anyone?
But few of us know regulars’ real life names.
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### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/3 "2023-11-20T05:46:17Z")
I don’t want to go into too much detail but I did make national newspapers (twice, one without my name, the next day the same article with my name added) over 20 years ago.
We were caught red-handed, faced a minimum ten year sentence. The trial failed for various reasons, including unnecessary fabrication of evidence. If the police had just done their job I would have been incarcerated.
This did happen in Zimbabwe, so not _that_ newsworthy!
ETA: drug bust, with non-addictive personal consumption chemicals only. I do now know the full name of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/4 "2023-11-20T12:49:40Z")
**Moderator Note**
I was just going to close this, since doper’s real names are rarely known and this could easily result in someone being doxxed. I am going to leave it open for now, but be very careful about posting any identifying information.
Here is the official rule:
> [@](#):
>
> **No posting of personal information.** To reiterate the above, do not post others’ private contact information (email, phone, mailing address, etc.), whether or not they are public figures. When speaking of others who are not public figures, do not use real names and be cautious in your use of details that could enable individuals to be identified.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/5 "2023-11-20T14:33:16Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> I remember at least one regular who admitted to serious crimes when he was younger–but don’t remember his SDMB handle.
A lot of us committed serious crimes when we were younger, me included depending on how you define serious. That’s not the question. OP wants to know about Dopers who ended up on the news because of something notorious which doesn’t necessarily even have to involve crime.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/6 "2023-11-20T14:43:49Z")
I am in a few seconds of this Frontline special about a high profile criminal case. Except, I’m a lawyer who was involved; **not** the accused.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unj1AYubGLw)
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/7 "2023-11-20T14:47:08Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> A lot of us committed serious crimes when we were younger, me included depending on how you define serious. That’s not the question. OP wants to know about Dopers who ended up on the news because of something notorious which doesn’t necessarily even have to involve crime
I was once the subject of an APB for breaking into a government building, which — misses it pretty close, I guess?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/8 "2023-11-20T15:02:03Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> A lot of us committed serious crimes when we were younger, me included depending on how you define serious.
It’s statements like this that make me question my life choices. I’ve never committed a serious crime when younger. Or even a non-serious crime. Unless you count speeding, illegal parking, or publishing.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/9 "2023-11-20T15:23:14Z")
If I were in charge, I’d incarcerate you for that Oxford comma. I was just briefly a drug dealer (MDMA when it was new and LSD). I don’t think it’s a big deal but I would have done time.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/10 "2023-11-20T15:31:13Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> OP wants to know about Dopers who ended up on the news because of something notorious which doesn’t necessarily even have to involve crime.
I should take my own advice and pay better attention. The OP specifically asked about a newsworthy criminal.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/11 "2023-11-20T15:33:36Z")
Not a SDMB poster, but I had a co-worker who got busted for raping his adopted daughter. Got life and, it was big news.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/12 "2023-11-20T15:34:19Z")
Since we have the same name, I like to say it’s me, but my grandfather and one or two of his brothers are mentioned in at least one mafia book that I have. My family, at least the ones I know, were never _in_ the mafia, but we had enough contact with them to be mentioned in the same breath as the actual mafia people. My dad had to appear before a grand jury in a mafia related case back in the 70’s. When they were dating, my mom thought it was ‘cool’ when they had the FBI (or whoever it would have been) following them around all night.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/13 "2023-11-20T15:41:27Z")
I’ll just say that you never see Cecil and D.B. Cooper in the same pictures.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/14 "2023-11-20T18:55:57Z")
Not me, or a poster here as far as I know, but at Roku I worked closely with Brandon Marshall, who was killed by police at Roku headquarters in a bizarre incident where he ingested some pills at work, acted erratically, and then attacked police who were called to check on him. I wasn’t at the office at the time of the incident.
> **[Sheriff's Deputy Lawfully Shot, Killed Saratoga Man: DA](https://patch.com/california/saratoga/sheriffs-deputy-lawfully-shot-killed-saratoga-man-da-0)**
>
> A Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy lawfully shot and killed an intoxicated, armed man in Saratoga in 2013, according to a report.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2023, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/15 "2023-11-20T22:30:08Z")
There’s at least one troll who trolled here and pretty much every other place on the Net, who trolled so obnoxiously that he actually managed to get criminal charges against him for it.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2023, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/16 "2023-11-21T03:35:19Z")
I guess David (Snopes) Mikkelson falls under this category for some of his later escapades. He did admit to plagiarizing some of the articles he wrote. In the early days of Alt Folklore Urban he also hung out on the Alt Fan Cecil-Adams Usenet group which predates the SDMB.
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### Author:  [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2023, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/17 "2023-11-21T12:17:04Z")
Idle thoughts about [Missing people](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-missing-that-you-really-want-to-see-on-the-board/914010/812) and I sometimes entertain the idea that one of us could be a serial killer. 😵💫
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/18 "2023-11-21T16:26:00Z")
They’ll never find out.
Bwa ha.
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### Author:  [@thevolleyballer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thevolleyballer)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2023, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/19 "2023-11-22T09:54:55Z")
Not related to Unca Cecil, but how about a radio show call-in confession? This sorta famous shock jock liked baiting women into getting them to admit they were shallow or golddiggers, in that vein. 1 called up obviously pissed and pissed off @Tom (2 separate things). She was slurring her words, to be clear, but they ask callers if they consent to being put on the air & she agreed. She bragged that among other things women were just smarter than men cause they can manipulate by crying, and no1 will suspect them of violence. Then came the bombshell: she bragged about staging a shooting to make it look like her man had attacked her, then himself & got away with her claim of suicide. Note that the DA didn’t say she didn’t do it; he filed a case against her for filing a false report [that some1 stole her cell phone when she had it], but didn’t say it was for sure suicide. Possibly because of the high bar of proof & the crime happening so long before, she likely got away with it.
Here it is, the infamous case of Ahwatukee Sue:
[Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3514748441882703&set=p.3514748441882703&type=3)
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### Author:  [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2023, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-sdmb-regular-ever-been-a-newsworthy-criminal/993402/20 "2023-11-22T10:28:36Z")
> [@E-DUB](#):
>
> Not a SDMB poster, but I had a co-worker who got busted for raping his adopted daughter. Got life and, it was big news.
If we’re going to go down that tangent, I remember a thread here where some poster said their coworker was the guy who voluntarily flew to Germany to be eaten by the German cannibal. Can anyone dig up that thread?
Edit: It was @Revtim in 2003: [An old colleague of mine was voluntarily cannibalized and killed. TM friggin' I.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-old-colleague-of-mine-was-voluntarily-cannibalized-and-killed-tm-friggin-i/166236)
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