TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Michelle Dohm to face judge

    Judge to decide Dohm’s fate:

    It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve heard anything about Michelle Dohm. She’s the teacher from Frederick, Maryland who is accused of threatening some of the students from her school. She will be having a non-jury trial starting April 2nd. She’s set to plead not guilty to the 12 felony counts of threatening to detonate a destructive device and two counts of misdemeanor stalking. Dohm is accused of sending threatening notes to some of the students that indicated that they were going to be blown up. She was also accused of sending additional threats after she was arrested the first time.

  • Cocaine on Craigslist

    Cops say man offered cocaine in Craigslist ad:

    Let the dumbassity commence.

    The advertisement on Craigslist New York said the man would supply cocaine to any female who responded.

    We really don’t need to go any further but we will.

    Well, detectives from the Garden City Police Department were no doubt stunned when they found the ad. They contacted detectives from the Nassau County Police Department narcotics bureau, who had a female officer respond to the advertisement and arrange to meet the man.

    Nassau police said when Joshua W. O’Neil, 32, of Albany, met the female officer Tuesday night in Garden City, he offered her crack cocaine in exchange for “sexual favors.”

    The only “favor” O’Neil received, police said, was being placed under arrest.

    Way to go there Scarface.

  • College baseball player strikes out with FBI

    FBI nabs college student:

    Jacob Haley is a 21-year-old baseball player from Lyons College in Arkansas. While his team was planning a road trip to Pensacola for a game Halley was planning a trip of his own. He had arranged to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex over MySpace in Pensacola. Except when he went to meet the girl he met an FBI agent posing as a 14-year-old girl. And the girl that he had chatted with was actually Sgt. Ski Gowitzke of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Computer Crimes Unit. When he went to meet the girl he tried to be slick about it too.

    When Halley went to meet the girl, he tried to portray himself as a member of another baseball team.

    “He was too careful,” Gowitzke said. “He even wore a red T-shirt like the other team’s.”

    It didn’t work did it, Casanova?

    Thanks to Jessica for the links.

  • Confessions of a former West Memphis 3 supporter

    My name is Trench Reynolds and I used to be a West Memphis 3 supporter.

    For those of you not familiar with the West Memphis 3 I’ll give you a little recap.

    In 1993 Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin were convicted in the ritualistic murders of eight-year-olds Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. The murders went beyond brutality. From Wikipedia…

    Three eight-year-old boys — Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore — were reported missing on May 5, 1993 by Christopher Byers’ adoptive father, Mark Byers. An intensive police search for the children was undertaken the morning after they were reported missing. Later that day, their bodies were found shoved down in a muddy creek near Robin Hood Hills. The boys were stripped naked and had been hog-tied with their own shoelaces. All of the boys had been severely beaten and abused, Byers was considered to be the most injured, having suffered a fractured skull, stab wounds to his groin, and castration, yet all three boys were inflicted with lethal wounds.

    were inconclusive as to time of death, but stated that, while Byers died of blood loss, the other two boys showed evidence of drowning. During the subsequent trial of Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin the medical examiner stated that the estimated time of death was early morning the day the bodies were found. The forensic evidence showed uncertainty whether the boys had been sodomized, although expert testimony confirmed injury to their anal area.

    Fast forward to 2001 when I first saw the film Paradise Lost. It’s a 1996 documentary that portrays the suspects as being wrongly accused because they were different from the rest of the West Memphis community. They were metalheads with long hair and didn’t practice Christianity. It also points out the flaws in the prosecution’s case making a compelling argument that the WM3 are innocent. At the time I did not consider myself a crime blogger. Back then I was more like a champion for the underdog and I understood what it was like to be an outsider because you dressed differently and didn’t follow the norm. So I bought into the propaganda and the movie’s message.

    As the years go by I gain more insight into the mind of teen killers as I write about school shootings. With each one that happens, I see more and more the telltale signs that led up to each shooting. The predispositions between school shooters and the West Memphis 3, especially Damien Echols, were uncanny yet I couldn’t put two and two together. I still believed they were innocent. Then a blogging friend of mine pointed me in the direction of some documents that were worth looking at.

    The first one was witness statement from one of Echols’ former friends that told the story about how Damien Echols’ killed a dog…

    On 10-27-92 I was at Lakeshore Trailer Park with Damien Echols when he killed a Black Great Dane. The dog was already sick and he hit the dog in the back of the head. He pulled the intestines out of the dog and started stomping the dog until blood came out of his mouth. He was going to come back later with battery acid so that he could burn the hair and skin off of the dog’s head. He had two cat skulls, a dog skull and a rat skull that I already knew about. He kept these skulls in his bedroom at Jack Echols house in Lakeshore. He was trying to make the eyeballs of the dog he killed pop out when he was stomping. Damien had a camoflouge survival knife to cut the guts out of the dog with. This statement was written by Det. Ridge at my request.

    It’s been said that animal killings are a precursor to serial killings.

    Another was testimony from Echols’ himself about how he would have done it if he was the killer. I’ve lost that document to the ages but part of it can be found here.

    During the trial Damien took to sparring with the prosecution and stated his opinion of what he thought the alleged killer might or might not have done. He said the killer would enjoy hearing the victims scream and would have thought the murders were funny.

    After seeing those I felt that they were guilty however I felt that they did deserve a new trial. I based that on the fact that one of the prosecution’s witnesses who was portrayed as an “occult expert” received his degree from a correspondence school that was no longer accredited.

    That was until yesterday when I read this article from an Ohio newspaper about the witness, Dale Griffis. Yes, he did receive a degree from a correspondence school that is now defunct. However, what the documentary fails to tell you is that Griffis is a well-studied former police officer who specialized in ritual killings. He is also the author of several cult related books. He also has some more information about Damien Echols’…

    “When he got done testifying, what you didn’t see on television, what you didn’t see in the movie ‘Paradise Lost,’ was the fact that Damien Echols said, ‘I got three, I had 10 more to go for my coven, but that damn cop from Ohio stopped me,’” he says. “What bothers me is people aren’t told the truth of what happened.”

    Dale Griffis is not just some guy off the street who considers himself a cult expert, he’s got the background to prove it.

    So now I think that the West Memphis 3 are unequivocally guilty and justice has been served. No new trial is necessary. I should have been tipped off when I saw what a cause celebre that the West Memphis 3 are. Celebrity causes when it comes to crime are usually misguided.

  • Frank Fechteler’s YouTube videos

    Thanks to reader Clay here is Frank Fectheler’s YouTube videos.

    I wonder if there were other videos that have been removed because I found these to be fairly innocuous. These videos aren’t even close to the Columbine Rampart Range tapes. These videos just show Fechteler firing some guns at a gun range and two showing setting off some bombs in the woods.

    But I guess in a small town this would be enough to warrant a search of the house.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the plot was uncovered I just don’t think these videos are all that.

  • Wentworth pleads guilty

    Naperville Man Pleads Guilty In MySpace Sex Abuse:

    John Wentworth, who I posted about here, has pleaded guilty to felony charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and indecent solicitation of a child.

    Unfortunately, the most he’s looking at is seven years in prison.

  • Osantowski may get more time in prison

    Teen imprisoned in massacre plot could get longer sentence:

    It seems that the Michigan Mutant, Andrew Osantowski, may be spending more time behind bars than his original 4 1/2 year sentence.

    The Michigan Court of Appeals said the trial judge made an error in calculating Osantowski’s sentence. Macomb County assistant prosecutor Josh Abbott said that Osantowski’s minimum sentence should be at least 7 to 10 years.

    Of course I’m sure this will be tied up in appeals until kingdom come.

    Also, his conviction was upheld.

  • Underwood trial gets change of venue

    Murder trial moved:

    Kevin Ray Underwood, the accused killer of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin, has been granted a change of venue in his murder trial.

    Kevin Ray Underwood, 28, will be tried in Cleveland County instead of McClain County, Judge Candace Blalock decided.

    Defense lawyer Silas R. Lyman II filed a motion for a change of venue Jan. 12, arguing that an impartial jury could not be obtained in McClain County.

    To support his motion for change of venue, Lyman submitted a survey of McClain County residents that showed most already assumed Underwood’s guilt.

    For those of you who are unfamiliar with the case, Underwood is accused of killing Jamie Rose Bolin, sexually assaulting her after death, attempting to decapitate her after death, and had plans to consume her flesh. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

  • More information on the Newington plot

    Affidavit details NHS attack plot:

    More information has been released about the plot to attack Newington High School in Connecticut and the suspect Frank Fechteler.

    First, let’s discuss his arsenal.

    Police reports state three of the five videos displayed a male later identified as Fechteler firing long guns at a range. The videos are labeled Mosin Nagant, Mossberg 500 rapid fire and Saiga .223.

    During the interview, he admitted to the plot in writing and also told the school resource officer he had “made more than 40 pipe bombs including CO2 bombs, copper pipe bombs, small pipe bombs with end caps, dry ice bombs and cherry bombs.” He told the officer they were made in his basement using gun powder from ammunition and materials such as copper, which were obtained while digging through local dumpsters.

    The affidavit said Fechteler’s parents, William and Soon Doek Fechteler, met with the principal and school resource officer and agreed to let the Newington Police Department search and seize any firearms at their Stoddard Avenue residence.
    During the investigation, detectives uncovered three long guns which included a Mossberg 500 12 gauge pump shotgun, a Moisin Nagant 7.62 mm bolt action rifle and a Russian American Armory Company Saiga semi-auto .223 caliber rifle, all which were registered to his father William Fechteler.

    Police reports submitted in the affidavit stated the search also revealed Fechteler to be in possession of numerous empty shell casings, loose bullet heads and primers, bird shot, pieces of gray, used duct tape similar to that recovered from the blast site and materials to make a “drano bomb.”

    His room also held hand-written instructions on how to create the “drano bomb,” as well as a variety of computer printouts with directions for the construction of a generic bomb, mailbox bomb, Soliodox bomb and unstable explosives. The printouts also contained an ingredient list for 19 different types of dynamite and chemical equivalency list.

    Dumbass is lucky he didn’t blow himself up. And I wonder if dear old Dad knew that Junior was taking his guns out to the woods with his dumbass teenage buddies.

    Let’s not forget motive. I previously stated that the plot might have been racially motivated because he wrote each proposed victim’s race next to their name on his hit list. It seems that Fechteler is just another clone.

    In a written statement to school resources officers, Fechteler admitted that he had made a plan to shoot and kill certain people at Newington High School. He said he wasn’t going to kill strangers, but only those who had been picking on him for a long time.

    The affidavit also said Fechteler told officers in the written statement he would end the April 10th plot “the only way a person could end it, by shooting myself in the head.”

    So he planned on taking the coward’s way out it looks like. Since he was planning his attack in April I believe he is just another clone who bought into the myth that the Columbine shooters were bullied. It must really suck to build your whole life around a lie. I also wonder what happened first, the pyromania or the “bullying”.

  • The Blogger, The Senator, and The Pedophile

    Recently there was some mention in the news about how Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama had his attorneys contact an admitted pedophile to have pictures of Sen. Obama’s children removed from the pedophile’s website. What most of the media failed to mention is that this was all started by one woman. A blogger to be specific. I interviewed the blogmistress of Lost in Lima Ohio about it. We here in the crime-blogging community call her Lilo.

    Trench: First would you mind explaining who Lindsay Ashford is.

    Lilo: Lindsay Ashford is a self-admitted pedophile, with a strong internet presence, maintaining roughly half a dozen website devoted to promoting pedophilia and actively participating in a message board devoted pedophiles who consider themselves “girl lovers”.

    While he claims to reside somewhere in South America, his exact location isn’t known. He is often overzealous in his criticism of American laws pertaining to age of consent and is known to frequently follow stories of missing children from the US, which has drawn questions relating to where he might actually be located. Among the pedophile related sites that he runs, he also maintains a site “dedicated” to missing children within the US and has in the past drawn criticism from parents of some of the children featured there.

    T: So how did you first hear about him?

    L: Back in December of 2005, I happened to notice a search referral to my site that perked my interest. The search mentioned something about Elizabeth Smart, and her father being angered over photos of her on a website run by a pedophile. Out of curiosity, and because so much of what I write about deals with sexual predators- I decided it was something I needed to look into. When I tracked down the pedophile, and the site Mr. Smart was so upset by, I “discovered” Ashford and his sickening world of pro-pedophilia beliefs.

    T: What was your reaction upon first seeing his site?

    L: I was completely shocked. It wasn’t just the girllove forums or his blatant agenda, but he also had a site that was geared towards attracting young girls to it. All pink, and harmless looking at a glance, once I began reading it, it was clear that the entire mini-site was designed to lure young girls into a false pretense, grooming them into believing that sexual relationships between adults and young girls weren’t just proper- they were beneficial and special.

    The more I looked into who this man really was, the more clear it became that he was an absolute danger to children, it wasn’t a question of whether he would act out his desires- but when.

    T: So what actions have you taken in the past about Ashford?

    L: One of the main problems with dealing with Ashford, is that he’s not just a lonely one person team out on the internet- he has a following that includes hundreds of pedophiles worldwide. At first, I tried to tackle the problem by posting about him, and just him. But, every time I did- I would suddenly be victim to having dozens of his fellow pedophile swamping the site, and I realized that I would have to shift my focus onto generalized actions of all of them. I found blogs connected to him via the “pedophile movement”, and reported them.

    One of the biggest things I do is monitor Ashford’s websites, and keep updated on what activities he and his group are doing online. Almost a year ago, I read about how they had raised donations in honor of Alice Day (which is simply a made-up holiday they use to celebrate their perversions). They had sent the funds to a children’s charity and then used the thank you letter to attempt to bring a sort of legitimacy to their group of pedophiles. They had even released a press statement, saying that the charity accepted them, and recognized their desires were upstanding. I contacted the charity, informing them of the situation and they were very thankful for it. They quickly responded, sending the funds back and demanding that Ashford remove any reference of the charity “accepting” them as a group.

    T: And when was it that he started his “Presidential Endorsements” and could you explain that a little bit?

    L: In April of 2006, Ashford published a post on his personal blog, in which he gave a rundown of possible 2008 Presidential Candidates. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal- but being faithful to his style of deviant behaviors and actions, Ashford decided to use his own method of picking the “winner” from his group of hopefuls. Along with listing the politicians, he listed the daughters or granddaughters that they have. Each child was described by her looks and his thoughts on her possible demeanor, and of course, he added photos of the children. He then went about using his attraction to each child to rate them on whether the parent or grandparent should be elected, until he picked his winner, and endorsed Senator Obama as the man whose daughters he was most attracted to and would most enjoy watching grow up in the White House.

    T: I understand you contacted all of the candidates mentioned on Ashford’s site. How did they react?

    L: First, making the calls wasn’t the easiest task in the world. Because I wasn’t sure exactly who to contact, or how to begin the conversations once I did manage to get someone on the phone, I held off on calling anyone. I really believed that because of Ashford’s status, because he’s been caught doing these sorts of things with missing children’s photos- that someone else was likely already on top of this. But, by June I realized that no one was taking any steps to stop him, so I set about making a list of phone numbers.

    When I actually sat down to make the phone calls, I had no idea how hard it would actually turn out to be. I spent about 12 hours on the phone that day, being transferred from person to person in various offices. Most of the first conversations with the respective Senate and Congressional offices left me feeling as if the people weren’t really sure what to do with me. But, I managed to speak to most of the Chiefs of Staff’s in the offices, or otherwise someone else on the high end of the office pole.

    I would have to say that almost every response was filled with disgust, and concern- after the first moments of uncertainty. I had retold the story to one office more than a couple times and provided the URL to the site when it was requested that I inform Capital Police of the site. I did. In one of the last offices that I called, I was informed that the “rumor” had already been spreading and that they’d heard they were likely to receive my call. Almost everyone I talked with was thankful that I’d taken the time, and I was assured that someone would be diligently working on this problem.

    T: How many of the candidates took action that you know of?

    L: Not one. Well, up until last week.

    T: Which candidate was that and what action was taken?

    L: It actually came from the one candidate that I had completely given up on doing anything about it, after the conversations that I had had with a member of his office back in June. But, recently I had decided to remind my readers of the post Ashford did on the topic, and as a result, another blogger took it a step further and decided to mention the situation on Obama’s campaign blog- stating that she had made it to the campaign’s website via a link on Ashford’s site. Although her comments were quickly met with anger and deleted- within days the ball started rolling and Ashford posted a new entry mentioning my prior attempts to inform people. He also stated that this time around, someone had decided to listen, because he had received a cease and desist letter from the Senator’s lawyer. The letter was very detailed, demanding that all photos, references, and links to Obama, Obama’s family, and Obama’s website be promptly removed.

    T: Now this situation has received some media attention but as far as I know you were never given credit. Does this bother you?

    Actually, what bothers me most is that while Obama’s response is making the news- no one is looking at the fact that more than a dozen little girls are still being put up for display on a site that caters to pedophiles.

    As for getting credit- well knowing how the MSM likes to work with (or should I say completely ignore) crime bloggers- I was well aware that as long as I was the one putting the “scope” out there, it wasn’t going to get the attention that it deserved. So, I made clear efforts to pass it over to people who, just because of who they are and the connections they have, would easily be a great starting point in spreading this story. Sometimes, we have to be willing to put the story out there at whatever cost, even if it means that we lose the scope.

    Don’t get me wrong, the grape vines in the crime blogging world might have to hear a bit of my ranting about being cut out of a story I was interviewed for, or being downplayed to just “an opponent” of Ashford’s by a major news station- but in the end, I’m just hoping that the silence of the other politicians will make as much news as the response of Obama did.

    Thank you for your time Lilo.