Thursday, October 18, 2007

blast from the past

Here's my first real email from "Jesse." Prior to this one, it was just initial contact to get real email addresses through HBO. Once again, I've changed names of people that don't need to be drug into this anymore than they already have been.

This is from July 8, 2005 - oh and for those pervy types reading, the "balls" being discussed are bath bombs

I opened the mail and had shit to write but the minute I stopped typing on the board the travel caught up with mzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The They say there are no stupid questions but i feel stupid asking this. I'm pretty online interactive ignorant. The majority of my only experience has been really really bad experience and so now I hear all the folks in my head. The ones yelling no personal info no personal info not even a name. This is not a problem for me with you but i have this as the ???. So far 5 people from the deadwood group have asked me for an address ranging from the sweet {REDACTED} to one of the chicks on the {REDACTED} thread that actually just about scared me away from the place it was so intense. So the stupid question is-- if I succumb to my desire for the balls can I count on the stand up sense of discretion that rises from you in other situations in my case? This sounds so fucking stupid but in the case of {REDACTED} and the 3 others I just don't want to make them feel bad and in the case of chick 5-- if she knew I gave to you what i wouldn't give to her she'd find me and gut me. Or worse-- bitch and yell at me-- which is a horror throw back for auBoy and not good for his head in any way, shape, or form. I hope they aren't blue. I got enough of those myself.
Jesse
Caffeine is my co-pilot


My response

Hi, Jesse.

Relax. I'll talk about myself till the proverbial cows come home, and oh, all right, I talk shit about slebs I hate, like Tom Cruise. But I do not mention private shit that goes on between me and anybody on the boards, much to the chagrin of a few!

But I understand if you don't want to give your addy out. Just know that it's safe with me. The balls will be here for when you're ready....and, yeah, some of the nicest Lush ones are blue, but I promise not to send 'em to ya.

And yeah. Some folks are just fuckin' crazy, internets or no fucking internets.

I've gotta go make some coffee before my 10am meeting. We'll talk more.

xp


Oh, sad, gullible me, eh? Laying the groundwork with the very first email. Way to go, Janna.

But then, eight hours later, I get hit with this one:

You wrote "we'll talk more" and because i'm feelin a sudden sense of urgency I'm makin that come true on my end. There's a forest fire in Custer county and that's too close for them to not call me up. i knew it was coming I just didn't know when. it always depends on the whether the weather helps or hurts. I've been a volunteer firefighter since I was a kid but I went to the Wildfire Academy in Alamosa to get my forest fire certification about a decade ago after they lost 14 fighters at Storm King in Glenwood Springs. So far i've lived thru a lot of them but I try not to stuff down my fear because I think fear can help keep you alive. There are 12 of us going from the surrounding counties here so they're gonna chopper us over and in. Good for me with the leg cause that car sittin is murder on it. They only asked for 24 hours and i can manage that. The last piece to write will have to wait because i'd rather spend this time between now and my ride at 6 on the ridge with my laptop, wireless card, and you.

Air.

Ya the internet has pretty much sucked for me on a couple levels. I came into deadwood at magnolia's request for a couple of really good reasons but i did it kicking and screaming and I think that kinda showed in my earliest tude riddled posts. She is somebody who was the most fucking open book I've ever known but that naivete and her "people with nothing to hide hide nothing" stand got her into some serious online shit. She is a longtime, back to teenagers friends with a has been musician that still had a psycho following about 8 ago when she first got a computer. Long story short a "friend" of hers (who she forgives) let people know in a chatroom for this guy that she knew somebody who knew him.

Air.

I don't get what people will do to feel important or project importance even third or fourth hand. Like those degrees of separation. I'd never admit it about this particular tool because its fucking embarrassing cause the dick is a recluse prick and Magnolia'd never drop it because she reminds me of you in all that. I think people who have been around celebrity don't see it the same as people who want to be around celebrity. But long story short this led to Nolie hearing from a lot of freaks and one freak in particular who didn't know her but who took to wanting to write her some pretty serious and scarey shit about her friend. When she in her overly fucking diplomatic way wrote back to this person that she didn't think that kind of stuff was appropriate or comfortable for her to be talking about this thing flipped out on her. It took to stalking her and about three years into that it was finally figured out that this same freak had stalked the celebrity for 20 years-- since they'd lived in the same town.

Air.

The simplest stuff this fucking asshole did made us all laugh. Like posting in the Screech from Saved By the Bell worship forum under Magnolia's real name. Lots of other places too. But it also ferreted out pretty much her whole life and built a torment web site where it would post this stuff about her, the tool, and a few other people it was stalking. Magnolia was listed in those days and one day this freak calls her house and tells her daughter that her mother was in an accident and they really needed her father's name to start treatment because the insurance was in his name. Magnolia kept her own name and this freak was always PO-d that it couldn't track her husband cause his name was differetn. The poor kid didn't know any better and gave it up. So then they both had some pretty embarrassing shit floating around the net.

Air.

Next he moved to calling and telling Nolia what her offspring looked like, wearing, where she herself was the day before-- shit like that. She ended up moving 1200 miles away from the land she loves and people who loved her to try to escape this freak. This stuff made me insane and because I think I'm pretty fucking smart I started tangling with this thing to try to out it. I never succeeded. Neither did a cop who took on the case to use for his goal of introducing internet laws for passage about what he calls the lawless cyber Wild Frontier. He's still working on the case. It's been 8 years.

Air.

It was my insanity at the frustration of a couple years of not being able to find out who the FUCK was doing this that made sure everybody in my life knew about it. I would talk about it to the spouse and to my sister. Especially when this thing learned my name and begin its assault on me. You would not believe the elaborate means this thing goes thru to cause pain. It's a long fucking story but it created "another woman" for me-- an online lover-- and dropped her in places my wife would see. that shit was actually introduced in my divorce proceedings. I think now Mrs.X-au knows there was no woman but she didn't then and it wasn't as if I didn't make it bad enough all by myself. I didn't need any help in proving myself unworthy or fucked up. Chasing this freak was probably my only redeeming quality at that time and my vices were sex exclusive at that point so it was twice as stupid.

Air.

We-- Nolia, cop, me-- all thought we stumbled on this freak in online Deadwood. He was there first because he likes old timey Wild West shit. He lives in Colorado and is into the whole Village People cowboy outfits deal. People sick to fucking death of Magnolia going on about Deadwood pointed her to the forum. She thought she'd just lurk. The very first day Nolia went to Deadwood the first page she happened to open-- there was somebody mentioning the Celebritool and how his parents lived "2 houses down" from this guy and maybe he could hook up the Deadwood chick asking him about it. (no one lives next to this guy. He lives on a section-- 550 acres-- with the closest neighbor about 5 miles away. There are no "doors down".) She said her blood ran cold. When she paid attention to the MO of this person over a few weeks it was just too big a coincidence to not be the same freak. Cop says the same.

Air.

But Magnolia didn't bring me into it right away. She wanted to make sure I wasn't going to flip the fuck out and go after this thing again. Personally I agreed with her that this fuck h as enough of our lives already and we decided not to give it the time of day. I actually stayed away at first. She has been real real careful about what she says so as to not let it get downwind of her. She finally called me in to read some stuff that had nothing to do with the freak at all. It was you and [REDACTED]. This was interesting to us because it was so spontaneious and intoxicating and enthusiastic and inspired and delicious. It reminded us of us. I was Magnolia's {REDACTED}.

Air.

It was reading you that got me hooked and then every other fucking brilliant star that writes there. Because i didn't want to fixate I tried to get around in other threads but as I said-- that bought me some trouble I wasn't looking for. The one woman latched onto me in e-mail and while it might seem like I'm after sex talk i don't think I really am because she scared the shit out of me. Angry person too. I tried to let her down as nicely as I could by telling her i'm a fuck up who is still way too into trying to get it right right now. She was writing to Magnolia too then and asking personal questions about me. Magnolia had already learned that online in particular she can't live by "people with nothing to hide hide nothing" and shut the woman down. The woman thought it was suspicious that Magnolia would say nothing. That I'd say nothing. Then this woman decided i was {REDACTED} because "{REDACTED} says sammich and you said sammich". Okay............... At the same time she was accusing {REDACTED} of being {REDACTED} and somebody named {REDACTED} i've never seen. Our kiss of death came when the {REDACTED} thread was talking about tampons and all the details that go along with that. That don't appeal to me. By coincidence it didn't appeal to Magnolia either as she's turned off by the graphic and scatagorical in real life too. Because we both posted in the {REDACTED} thread that night she wrote both of us bitchy e-mail about being traders. Coincidence again-- we both wrote her we just weren't into the topic. It was then she decided we were the same person. Minutes after writing my "bad trader boy because there is a competition with the {REDACTED} thread" e-mail she made a fake name and dropped that post that said I was Magnolia-- but dropped it no place else other than the {REDACTED} thread. Three minutes after that she posted in the {REDACTED} thread. that doesn't make me a deducer because its just my job that trains me to look at consistencies/ inconsistencies like that. I natually follow details even if i don't want to. I believe she did do it and now hates me because I wouldn't answer the flood of apology e-mails except for a thanks and its okay in the thread itself. This i only mention because I shared this with my sister too and it was at this point she said "if you ever bring any of this to darken my door and threaten my children". She doesn't even have to finish that.

Air.

My sister has helped save my life and I won't do anything to bring stupid or danger to her or her family. As kids she saved me from my parents too. She not only helps keep me strong she also makes it possible to move forward. this summer for the first time my son is coming to me for two weeks. In the past I've been able to see him at Christmas and in summer but only by going to him and having supervised visits there. Mrs. X-au totally trusts my sister and that along with the fact miniAu can tell her if he hates being here now has brought her to let him come stay with the auSis. He'll be just a few acres away from me. This fuckin freaks me out because I don't know him and vice versa but there too auSis is gonna make it all good.

Air.

I don't even deserve this chance so I gotta make it good. The last night i was alone with him he was just a flesh lump. I left an infant alone to go score drink and drugs after being clean for months. I'd been sober, safe, and sane for so long his mom finally felt it was safe enough to go out for an overnight shopping girlfriend deal in nyc. It's no excuse but we were living in the east then and i'd been covering the aftermath of 9-11 for two months straight. The auBoy is soft and had a rough time with the magnitude of that. I didn't know where to put it or how to escape it after awhile. Getting megahigh just seemed like the way to go. So that little baby lay there on his back all alone while I went to buy and then worse lay there all alone while my body was busy playing tennis with life and death on the living room floor. By the time I got out of the hospital they were both gone. The house was empty but that was nothing compared to the vacant space in me.

Air.

So what the fuck is this you're thinkin? What the fuck is he telling me this for? we're back to catching a chopper within minutes. if I wasn't going where i'm going right now and wasn't afraid about it I'd never write this. this way tho, if something happened to me I was able to tell you some shit I would have wanted to tell you over time we didn't have. This way I've calmed myself before the firestorm and covered my ass in case that mistress death decides to fuck me.

I'm sure it's easy for you to be beautiful every day. For lots of women. But it takes soemthing special to be so incredibly beautiful flat, black, and white on a computer screen. You so shine. I'll think of you when I cinch that harness around my thighs.

Jesse
Caffeine is my co-pilot

Just call me sucker.

13 comments:

Sheila O'Shea said...

Interesting how she seemed to be setting things up so if somebody came along and took her to task for her previous misdeeds, the excuses were already made in advance. "Don't believe that person, they're a crazy stalker! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

Of course, it's easier for me to notice this because I already know that it's fake. It's like the way you think when you reread Go Ask Alice at some point after you've found out that the book was pretty much pulled out of Beatrice Sparks' ass--what seemed like a case of Truth Stranger Than Fiction turns out to just be Fiction Stranger Than Truth.

Liz said...

She's really incredibly good at what she does - and people who say they wouldn't have be taken in are just fooling themselves. Really, how would you have known at that point?

Unknown said...

My head is spinning.

Anonymous said...

It gets better. Or should that be worse? Trust me.

Stephen Banks said...

Having read a of of this, and believeing it to be real (I did not originally think it was to be honest - i mean harlan elison - go figure?) - I have to wonder what's being left out here? I know this is your life Epi but given you've decided to post at length about it - i figure why not ask.

What was it Jesse / Janna wanted? What made him/her continue contacting you? Obviously a lot of these emails were canned, prolly sent out to anyone who took the bait.

Did they want money? Surely not right away.

Intimacy? Was that the hook s/he was looking for?

I know you don't have to answer and can tell me to flip off - but we're vested now - do you think that was what she wanted? Some sort of online intimacy or relationship thru the pesudo guise of the scarred fireman and maybe she cast her net out to anyone she could and you took the bait?

Sick and twisted of her i know :-( i think you're quite brave and I applaud you. Well i would but they'd think me mad here at work.

dcmus1c said...

As I posted before, this happened to me too by Janna. But wow. I moved on. It took a lot of time, but even back then I didn't go on a rampage about it. I don't think you need to feel stupid or anything and I don't think you need to keep *proving* things. It's easy to see how you got sucked in because you really seem to enjoy this drama. Why post the emails?

Unknown said...

I wanted to say this earlier, don't know why I didn't. Thank you for being brave enough to share this and to continue sharing. I know it has to be hard on you all over again.

Anonymous said...

Nano - I don't not answer people, unless they're anonymous scumbags spouting threats and other in(s)anities. However, I can't tell you for certain what goes on in Janna's sick mind when she sets off on a fishing expedition. Only she can do that. I can guess, from the way she set me up as well as her traps for the Fogelberg people, that she likes to first lay out the "bait," if you will, of a seemingly eligible man who only has glowing things to say about their bestest friend, the lovely Janna. She then of course becomes a good friend to the suckers, because she's such a good friend of John Q. Wonderful. Money? Who knows? "Jesse" got in touch initially because I offered to send him bath bombs, so receiving gifts are obviously a big part of her MO. Online intimacy, fo' sho'. The ability to manipulate people seems to be a big one also, and I sense she probably gets off on that more than anything. She is, after all, a self-referenced Evil Genius. She talks a lot about bullying, but that's only because she's the biggest bully of them all. And she's reeeeally good at it.

dcmus1c - you haven't moved on that far down the road, you're leaving me comments here, so it still rankles, no? Janna St. James clearly learned nothing from her Fogelberg near-miss, since she continued on to fuck with me years down the line. Keeping a low profile didn't stop this bitch from headfuckery of the highest order, so I'm trying a crusade to keep her from screwing with others in the future. I post the emails (and will most likely post more) to show how goddamned good she is at the set-up. I have as much of a right to criticize the way you've dealt with her as you have criticizing me for my methods, ie no right at all. You're not me, I'm not you, we all deal with our damaged psyches differently. I've moved on in many ways, but that piece of shit Janna Saint James is still stuck to my shoe. I'll scrape her off eventually. If it bothers you, you don't have to read it.

alan - I like it! are you a writer?

A - pshaw. T'weren't nuthin'.

Unknown said...

Oh come on, dcmusic. That might be YOUR process, but it doesn't work for everyone. Audrey, no need to tell you this, but I'm going to say it - YOU POST THESE EMAILS IF YOU WANT. If it helps you heal - do it.

Appletini said...

Got to say this... that second email he sent you contained one simple piece of bullshit that would have made me cut him off ASAP.

That is the comment about "he lives on a section (550 acres)." City denizens such as yourself (and probably Janna) wouldn't know this right off hand, but a section equals one square mile -- always! And, one square mile is always 640 acres.

Anyone who lived on a section, or a quarter-section or hell, even anywhere out in the real rural country would fucking know that. And, anyone who writes "a section" and then says it's 550 acres is a fucking poser at best.

So, I'm not saying anyone who didn't live in the country should bother knowing that though. It's kind of useless information for a city person, KWIM? However, I'm sure you can see where all her little bullshits build up over time.

Into one. Big. Turd.

P.S. Oh, and some of the way s/he talks about ranching and stuff is just completely bogus-sounding. No ranchers I'VE ever known talk that way. What'd she do, just watch Brokeback Mountain and think she knew cowboy lingo?

She's a lousy liar.

Anonymous said...

Abby - it helps me heal, g'dammit! Thanks.

audrey - THIS is why I'm posting the emails! Thanks for the info. I know less than jack shit about the country, or cowboy talk, you're so right about that. I wouldn't know a section or an acre if it kicked me in the face. I know 20 NYC north/south blocks are about a mile. But that's probably one of the reasons Janna settled on me to fuck with, because she knew I was a city mouse. "Jesse" did tell me toward the end that his "grandfather's" ranch was something like 15,000 acres, which sounded SO ludicrous to me I had to look it up and it was something like 23 miles, but I assumed I misheard and he really meant 1500 acres, but then he died so I couldn't ask.

She did watch Brokeback, and even reviewed it, as "Jesse." I think it's in one of the blogs. But this was before then. Maybe she watched Rhinestone.

dcmus1c said...

So you are saying that these emails came from Janna posing as Jesse, and posting them to show how crazy she was? Okay, I understand that.

But you did talk to a man on the phone, didn't you? And it's the same guy who you talked to online and who, I guess, wrote to you, isn't it?

So how can she be him? I mean, yeah, she sucks for being a part of it, but are you saying she wrote these emails?

She was a part of what happened to me and facilitated it, but there WAS a guy, and he's not innocent either. What happened to the actual guy that you were talking to?

I'm not trying to accuse, I really want to understand it because it helps me understand what happened to me.

Anonymous said...

dcmus1c - yes, I think the emails came from Janna posing as "Jesse." There may have been another man, but I suppose it's not inconceivable that it could have been Janna herself. "Jesse" didn't sound terribly butch, a tenor at best, and as I've said, most of the time he barely spoke above a whisper.

Janna made such a big deal about not being able to lose her accent, the one that she got from living in England with her Russian mother (which is what she told me) or from having an Australian nanny (which is what she told my friend), that I can't help but wonder if she has any sort of foreign accent in her real life at all. Maybe she sounds pure Chicago when she's talking to her husband.

So, what's the answer? Again, I don't know for sure. I'm in your boat, dc, I want to understand too, and all I can do is scrutinize the information I do have and with help from people like audrey, or you, maybe unearth a nugget of truth here and there.

I'm not beyond thinking, though, that Janna's entire family is tied up in this somehow, and that her brother, daughter and husband are fully aware of her hijinks and are disinclined to stop her, for whatever reason.