fire

I sure bet "Jesse" has been busy with the wildfires raging in his home state. Being a fantastic fireman and living in Colorado. Ha!

And yeah, the Supreme Court came back with a predictably lame response to the appeal, so it looks like the court case has been knocked on the head. It happened about a month back, I've been meaning to write more about it, but I've been busy and hell, it's not like this information is going anywhere anytime soon.

I'll be back.

so, that happened

I've been having such a great time away from this blog, sorry guys. But wanted to update and let you know that the appeal has been heard by the IL Supreme Court, and we're just waiting for a decision. So only the Shadow knows...

In other news, I did hear from one of Janna's schoolmates that Janna was ditched by John M back in the late 70s and was moved back in with her mother in Illinois for about a year before showing signs of being heavy with child. So who's Jessica's baby-daddy? Is it John Myrtle? Or perhaps this is where the St. James name comes in. Or maybe Janna simply doesn't know who Jessica's father is. There is a definite resemblance between Jessica and John M, though. Perhaps Janna went back for a visit to use John as a sperm donor (John Irving would approve). Does John M know Jessica exists? Vice-versa?

Janna seriously didn't need to invent people with soap-opera lives. She lives her very own. How sad.

and a ho ho ho

Happy holidays to all you folks who've followed this crap and who continue to follow it (even you concern trolls and other assorted douchebags - hey, every family has its dysfunctional assholes, right?). You've made me realize how important it is to speak out.

This past year, we moved from Civil Court to the Supreme Court. Who knows what the next year will bring? There were no reports on any new hijinks brought forth by Janna, but we learned a bit more about ancient ones that she assumed were all forgotten, or at least forgiven. Odd how many of Janna's actions throughout her adult life have been unforgivable, and how many people who were deceived by her are happy to tell me their stories.

It's been a long journey from Janet Hopper to Janna Priggie, but she hasn't traveled very far.

Have a great and safe holiday, readers.

As for Janna, I'll speak for the dozens of women you've tormented over five decades: I hope you get coal in your stocking, and please go fuck yourself.

Paula

Well, well, well.

The plot thickens.

And yeah, thanks for all the comments. I've been busy, but all is well.

Didja hear that this case has been appealed all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court? Sigh.

update

So the appeals court reversed the trial court's dismissal of the fraud case against Jann Janny Janna Hopper St. James Saint James Priggie, so now we start discovery.  Apparently they found Janna's defense of "I can't be accused of fraud because I knew I was lying" a mite hard to swallow.

See you in court, Janna.

uh. hi.

A brief update.  Still snarled in the wheels of the legal system, the appeals court is reviewing our brief and we're waiting to schedule oral argument.

A lot of visits, and comments.  Hi, all y'all.  Who knew Catfish would bounce back here?  A few words about Catfish - no, I haven't seen it, but I can pretty much figure how it ends.  I've heard a bit of questioning as to whether or not this movie is really a documentary, I doubt very much it was based on my story.  It doesn't have to be.  Shit like this happens all the time, and it's not just career con artists like Janna Janny Janna Hopper St James Priggie.  The internet's unleashed a whole mess of criminal behavior, and the legal system is still catching up in terms of how to prosecute.  Luckily, my lawyer is well-versed in internet law, but there are still precedents to be set.  Point is, a lot of lonely shut-ins have found a new way of making friends, by making themselves sound more interesting than they really are, and by stirring up drama.  It's too easy now.

So, maybe Catfish is real, maybe it's not, but the lesson to be learned is still the same.  Don't trust them till you meet them in the flesh, and even then, be wary.

P.S.  Donna, please get in touch with me (email is clickable on my profile) if you want me to direct you to some people who might be able to help you.

yawn

So, Janna's lawyer has bowed out of the case, and she's got a new person who needs to get up to speed.  More delays.

But I want to address something else entirely, or at least as part of a bigger picture.

I had another blog before this one, the one where I rhapsodized about "Jesse" and all the rest of that happy crappy.   I had photos in that blog linked to my own personal server, and a few weeks after Jann Hopper St James was kicked out of my house, I got a notice from my provider that there had been some suspicious activity going on with my files, especially a section I had uploaded for potential legal action against Janna, called "evidence," with screen grabs and photos.  Ew.  So I closed it all down in March 2007 - website and blog, because that creeped me out.

A little backstory before I continue : my friend Sarah and I had decided at the end of 2006 to start a company which we decided to name after my dog.  Of course, I had to reserve the domain name right away, even though we weren't anywhere near ready to use it.  I hadn't even thought about it since Christmas.

Imagine my surprise at, not 24 hours after closing down my other blog and domain, receiving an email from this provider letting me know we'd just had a sudden huge spike in visits (like, as in from flatline zero to hit after hit after hit), and that, again, the activity seemed suspicious, with several whois searches as well as many unsuccessful file name searches.  Really?  I asked Sarah if she'd been checking out our domain, absolutely not, she'd completely forgotten that I'd even reserved it.  So...the only other person on the PLANET that knew the name of our domain?  Janna Saint James, because I told her about it over the holidays, before her duplicity was exposed to me.  And sho'nuff, seeing the "Jesse"-related search terms was enough to creep me the fuck out.  So, clearly, Janna was still monitoring my blog, and had wrongly assumed that I'd moved my photos to my other domain.

A month later, I was still paranoid about Janna's deception, because she was still, y'know, maintaining that "Jesse" was real and I'd received a postcard from "Aidan" and a package from "Krista" from fucking AUSTRALIA.  I contacted the post office in Australia, asking them if they could pull the slip and tell me who the sender of the package was since I wasn't expecting any packages from there.  They said they couldn't do that, but that they'd get in touch with the sender and it was then up to them to get in touch with me.  Well, a very nice chap sent me an email a day or so later - turns out he works at one of those mail forwarding places - this one, in fact.  Riiiiiight.  He gave me an address for "Krista" in White Plains, NY (that turned out to be the White Plains Mall).  He even remembered what was in the package.  Bravo, Janna!  Too bad I decided to investigate. P.S. have a look at the testimonials page for a good little snicker.  "Aidan B" in Illinois left feedback the exact same week I got the postcard.

So...after all that, I started a private blog to keep my real friends advised as to my whereabouts, as well as where my head was at.  But...I decided to do a test and not let my friends know about it for a week or so, just to see if Janna would try to find me, even though there was no link to the blog from my profile.  I did know there were other ways to find blogs that weren't password-protected, and since Janna's poking around my other sites clearly established to me that she was way way way more computer-conversant than she claimed (and still claims) to be, I decided to see how savvy she really was.

It took a day and a half for her to find me.  My blog tracker told me that, and then she posted something on her blog, asserting that one of my concerned friends had contacted her with my blog address because they were worried about my state of mind, or somesuch horseshit.  Wow, what a headfuck!  Imagine if I HAD told my friends, that would've just twisted me up in knots, making me suspicious of each and every one of them, would've made me question my own sanity.  That's how she operates, and that's what she was counting on.

I bring this all up because to this day, she tries to tweak me.  That's okay, because it hasn't worked a whit since early 2007 - well, it at least hasn't made me feel paranoid and crazy, like maybe "Jesse" really DOES exist etc. etc.   It still irritates the crap out of me, though, but I don't think that's the effect she's trying to have.  And in fact, the irritation is more and more mingled with boredom of late, like reading all the books in Barbara Cartland's oeuvre, and yawningly realizing that book number 101 is just like book number 1, except perhaps just that little bit more ridiculous.

So I hope Janna Saint James Priggie is happy with her new lawyer, because she's going to be seeing an awful lot of her over the next couple of years.  And since the tweaks don't really tweak much anymore, I guess it's a win-win situation.

PS  It's amazing how much all my vintage clothing and household items have accrued in value since I started collecting it almost two decades ago.  I could go on for years.

Funny thing

I've been meaning to do a quick update for some time now, but wouldn't you know it, I've actually been super busy with my real life and chuffed that the blog for my fledgling company gets six times the amount of hits that this site gets. And this site gets a load, although many of them are searches for some other Janna, something to do with sexy times (one would imagine these seekers are flying solo). Then again, who knows, maybe it is the same Janna. She seems to like inflicting sexy times onto her unknowing targets. But my e-comm website, they're all there for ME, man! Yay!

So, anyway, real life intrudes upon the mess Janna made of my past real life. Hence, the quick update turns out to be not so quick.

I think it's important to keep everyone updated, and there ARE a fair amount of people who do check in here, all of them people who knew Janna Saint James Priggie in one of her many masks. This fact is, for me, double-edged. Part of my soul feels bolstered at having these comrades-in-arms, it makes me feel a little less gullible/stupid, because I see how convincing she can be, even in person and not over the intertubes. The other part of my soul feels gutted at knowing other people have been cut to the quick by her, and that even my lawsuit against her hasn't curtailed her impersonation activities one iota.

So let's start with the lawsuit. It's been going on since February 2008 (oh lawsy, almost two years). It's been, I kid you not, to-ing and fro-ing with complaints and responses in a Goldilocks & the Three Bears fashion, where the first complaint wasn't detailed enough, the second was too detailed, mere technicalities, etc etc and really it's just all about delaying it so I run out of money (or patience). There were issues with the judge retiring and a new fella taking his place, more delays and catching up.

Janna's lawyer kept making oblique overtures about Janna's insurance company making some kind of settlement offer for amounts in the neighborhood of $15,000. What the what? Insurance? What kind of insurance covers you against fraud and defamation? I'll have to check my policy, because I'm pretty sure I don't have that in mine. If someone breaks into my car, sure, I'll get reimbursed up to a grand, I think. But fraud? Wow, Batavia's got some comprehensive insurance plans. But who even thinks of getting coverage for this, unless you're already afraid of getting sued for fraud and defamation? WhatEVS. I said thanks, but no thanks.

So, the past almost-two years has been spent just trying to secure a trial. It's cost me a pretty penny, and it's a good thing I have vintage couture up the wazoo, because it's become my Janna Prosecution Fund. Just before Christmas, the new judge orally dismissed the case with prejudice (a tersely scrawled order followed, no actual reason given).

I'm appealing, of course, and don't worry, Goldilocks, we'll draft a complaint that the new judge deems just riiight. But I just did want to put down for the record that it's not cheap, it's a long and painful process, I've been disappointed by this being a potential deterrent, and there's more of the same to come. But...

Janna may have kicked my paranoia into permanent high gear and mangled my trusting nature, but I still have hope that I will emerge from this with the law on my side. My lawyer likes setting precedents, and I still have an assload of vintage, so I'm in this for the long haul.

And that gets me into the next part, now that you know where we are legally. Janna and what she does.

She did this in the late 70s/early 80s, with the band Styx. She convinced many people that she was the beloved of Tommy Shaw, the lead singer of Styx. Before the internet, when it was harder to be faceless. But she was good, nay, great with the letters. I've seen these letters, about darling "Janny," as she was known back then, going on tour with the band. Even then she managed to get the letters postmarked from cities other than her own. Funny how Tommy seemed to exhibit nearly identical symptoms to "Jesse" and blow me if they didn't have identical handwriting too! I'll post Exhibit A here later, when I pull the scans off my external drive.

I'd like to add that I do not believe for a moment any of the things she has alleged about Tommy Shaw, or Dan Fogelberg, or, well, other people she at least had the sense to fabricate after that (except for poor Anne Martel).

So Jan or Jann or Janny or Janet or Janna Saint James St. James or Hopper or Priggie or god knows what has been doing little riffs on this abused/bipolar/suicidal/drugtaking theme for over thirty years. And maybe longer, because lord knows who's gonna get in touch with me in the future. And she's still doing it. I know. People have gotten in touch with me.

So, Janna, some suggestions as to how to keep yourself from being so easily exposed (or found). Things you need to avoid/change to better fool your marks/avoid those you've already burned:

1. Quit with the letter J. Why limit yourself? Call your alter ego something that begins with a different letter, fer chrissake. Baby steps - try the letter K. Krista Kelly Knudson. There ya go. Because, Jessica Jillian James? Really? Really? Jesus Jucking Jhrist, lady.

2. Stop dying of cancer. Try dying of a heart attack, I know it's less drawn-out and you can't milk that as much, but think of the surprise factor that your other alter egos can then capitalize on. And being bipolar is so last decade. Try having Tourettes. Or narcolepsy. That would be good, because then you could combine it and you could die in a horrendous car accident because your narcolepsy kicked in while you were driving. What are the odds? ZOMG!

3. Your obsession with being molested. Stop that. It trivializes what real abuse victims have to deal with.

4. Ditto your obsession with dead children. It trivializes the pain that women who have really lost children have to deal with.

5. And violent rape, in a cornfield or otherwise. It trivializes ... you get my drift. And if you must persist in this lie, at least stop making your assailants Mexican. It's racist. and repetitive.

6. Find another outlet besides #5 above to blame your obesity on. Like maybe Pizzeria Uno. Or Hot Pockets.

7. Llamas, sheep, horses, or any other livestock. A no no.

8. Guys in bands. Seriously. You have to stop saying you were the beloved of/bore the dead child of guys in bands. Especially the bands you chose. In fact, stay away from the topic of music altogether. You know next to nothing about music, and left to your own devices, your taste SUCKS. So, try lawyers or doctors instead. Be the ex of F. Lee Bailey, or Christian Barnard. It'll make you seem smarter, at least.

9. Super-insane fractured families in which all the participants hate each other. Try drawing from a family life other than your own.

10. Stop talking about Dr. Hunter Thompson as if you knew him. If there's anyone that'd transcend the afterlife to kick your ass for demeaning his good name, it's him. Add to that a plea to stop mentioning Ted Bundy, because eeeewwww.

11. Find a new trinket obsession, besides crabs, pirates, skulls, voodoo, mermaids, and the Wizard of Oz. In case you were wondering, you're not one of the good witches. You're the one the house fell on.

12. Stop using ludicrous hippie names for your alter egos. That also means stop pretending you do yoga. A circle can't do a triangle.

13. I don't know what you can use instead of failed suicide attempts; they're just SO convenient in keeping your victims in line, so I guess you can keep this one.

14. Dancing. You. do. not. dance. You can barely walk.

15. Say no to drugs. And multiple personalities.

16. Professions - no more firemen, journalists, EMTs, cowboys, nurses, or teachers. Become something else. Perhaps something more apt - burger flipper, or Wal-Mart greeter.

17. Quit calling yourself a writer. You're a creative typist.


Shit, that's too much for now. I'm sure my list of suggestions could go on and on. But it's a start. If my suing Janna didn't stop her from pulling this shit to date, at least she shouldn't make it so easy for people to figure out who she is.

So, that's it for now.

F is for Fake

Just a little update on my lawsuit against Janna. The judge agreed to proceed with the fraud charge against her, but for some inexplicable reason, decided against a few other charges, including defamation (what can ya do, the original judge retired in the middle of the complaint to-ing and fro-ing, and the replacement is new at his job). But hey, that's what appeals courts are for. So, we're going to go ahead with prosecuting Janna for fraud in civil court, and we're going to appeal the other charges. Fun fun fun. Almost two years and counting. Don't you love the legal system?

I'll tell you, though. I love my lawyer. She is fierce.

I was gonna drop another little bombshell here, but I think I'll do a little investigatin' myself first. Let's just say styx and stones may break my bones, but old handwriting never dies.

How's that for obliquely screwing up metaphors?

wow

I don't know who all you folks are who're still reading this blog, but hey, I hope none of you are new victims of Janna's.

But still, I'm super-happy that I'm getting more hits on my business website than this blog here. For a while it wasn't that way.

I have been asked this, and I've worked it out a bit in therapy, so I want to put it here, by way of explanation as to why this blog exists. In my journey in learning about Janna's background, I have met other people she has done this to in the past. While I appreciated their assistance and their candor, I could also see how revisiting the dreadfulness that Janna's monstrous mendacity created made them relive it all over again. I felt enough of that while simply going through my receipts for taxes and coming across gifts I'd purchased for Janna et. al. last year.

So, in addition to really truly not wanting anyone else to go through what I've gone through these past few years, I also really truly do not want to get a phone call or email from someone in ten years' time, asking the question: "sorry to bother you, but I think I've been the victim of internet fraud by a woman called Janna Saint James Priggie." I would rather put all of this out there now and be done with it. I don't want to be thinking about Janna ten years down the road.

Get it? Got it? Good.

watch this space

Just thought I'd poke my head in here, say howdy to all those folks that are still sticking with this blog. The newspaper article about Janna St. James and her factitious disorder is forthcoming, I'd say within the next couple of weeks. Research and fact-checking is a bitch, or so I'm told.

If it's available online, I'll post a link. Otherwise, I'll figure out another way to distribute it to those who desire to read it, and to those who deserve to know.

Oh, and I'm doing well, by the way. Feel free to send me an e if you have any questions. I'll do my best to answer you.