Escaped Spammer Found Dead In Murder/Suicide

from the wow dept

Thu, Jul 24th 2008 11:50pm — Mike Masnick

Earlier this week, we had mentioned that convicted spammer Edward Davidson had escaped from a minimum security prison, where he was serving 21 months. Now the news is coming out that apparently he has apparently killed his wife and toddler before killing himself. Yikes.

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Filed Under: edward davidson, murder, spam, spammer, suicide

49 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 12:16am

Awful
Just terrible.

/sarcasm on/

Perhaps some good can come out of this by convincing Congress to pass the death penalty for spammers so as to “protect the children”.

/sarcasm off/

God I'm troll. :-/
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Charming Charlie, 25 Jul 2008 @ 12:19am

Not his wife
His wife is rather specifically refered to in the beggining of the article as someone who helped him, then last saw him driving away. The victim near the passenger seat is a "woman," most definitely not the wife.
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Charming Charlie, 25 Jul 2008 @ 12:43am

It was his wife
Although according to another source it was his wife.
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Peet McKimmie (profile), 25 Jul 2008 @ 1:59am

More than one wife, perhaps?
SPAMmer and bigamist?

I feel sorry for his family, but not for him. I'm sure many people would have offered to wield the gun in his case.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 2:55am

freaking coward
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anne, 25 Jul 2008 @ 3:26am

I am sorry for the death of his wife and baby. What a loser! 21 months in minimum-security Club Fed, okay it's no country club, but real men have endured far worse. I can only hope that he had the joy of being a play toy for the big guys during the short time he was behind bars, and I hope it hurt like hell, too.
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sendeth, 25 Jul 2008 @ 3:30am

dangerous
sooooo, spam.......kills??
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Mike, 25 Jul 2008 @ 3:55am

Get our heads out of our butts...
... we focus on things that do not matter - like making celebrities out of Spammers or Hackers - and we think that is the ultimate claim to fame. But yesterday a little girl, a woman, and a deranged man all left this earth. As I read some of the comments, people are arguing about "what is it his wife or ..." - c'mon, do you think that matters? What matters is the total destruction of a man's life and the dreadful sin tat was done to innocent victims. We live in a society that intellectualizes depravity, feels entitled to everything, has no conception of consequences, and clearly makes this material world their god. I for one am deeply saddened at the loss of these lives. I can only pray that they are in the hands of God - I am not sure whose hands he is in (or was)...
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 4:24am

"I for one am deeply saddened at the loss of these lives."

If I were "deeply saddened" every time an innocent lost their life I wouldn't have time to feel much else. Yes we intellectualize depravity, But we live in a depraved world and giving full emotional attention to the tragedies of strangers is not going to help us deal with that any better. In fact it would probably make things worse. Why do we care if its his wife? Well we don't really but his wife helped him escape. She risked a jail sentence to help someone that she obviously cared about, temporarily avoid a mild punishment and she was repaid with her death and the death of presumably her daughter. Instant Karma with a moral lesson.

Now climb down off your soap box please. No one is happy about the way this ended.
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Richard Ahlquist (profile), 25 Jul 2008 @ 4:31am

I am sure the people
...so willing to blame Lori Drew will be happy to point out its all the courts fault and they should be held liable for this heinous act! ../sarcasm

Is it just me or dont you love the spin the media is putting on this in some spaces "he forced his wife" yeah because a wife never does anything wrong for the man she married. Sick bastard, too bad he was given the opportunity by bleeding heart justice to be allowed to do this.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 4:53am

So he took the Darwin award by removing his material from the gene pool. Some people will do anything to win.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 4:56am

How exactly did he 'force' his wife to help him escape? That isn't made clear at all. Wasn't the guy in prison? They make it sound like he put a shank to her throat and said 'drive me out of here' but that doesn't sound like it fits the facts.
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An ISP, 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:15am

Old West
Lets put em in a pine box with a sign on his neck ... "Spammer" ... and lean him against the front of the Saloon door jam.
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An ISP, 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:18am

Re: No one is happy???
I am, lets kill him again.
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Devil's Advocate, 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:24am

Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
Sure, that's all well and good, but fact being that this "man" took his own life and decided to do so only after killing a child and a woman.

He lived life as a coward and human garbage.

He went out the same way. Cosmic Balance is funny that way.

To actually be genuinely surprised this happened would be naive. I was kind of expecting he'd hang himself in "prison" but it seems that I was half wrong.
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Alexio, 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:31am

Misearble life, miserable death.

I only wish the rest of the spammers would self-eliminate like this.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:45am

Because death is such a fitting punishment for spam. That is like an ingrown hair for a testicle type justice.
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Your Gawd and Master, 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:58am

Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
Screw that. Fuck that guy and his crotch fruit. Less of that shit in the gene pool. It's women who can be "forced" to help someone escape that enable these asshats to do this type of shit. He obviously wasn't a decent human being or else he wouldn't have been a spammer, or a murderer so fuck him.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:03am

Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
And comments like that put you on the same level as him. Congratulations.
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Your Gawd and Master, 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:22am

Re: Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
Really? I don't recall spamming millions of people OR killing my family and myself because I'm a coward so I'm guessing you're full of shit.
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Your Gawd and Master, 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:24am

Re: Re: No one is happy???
That's what I say. Deliver fingers to his other spammer buddies to let them know what's next for them. You know Godfather style.
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PaulT (profile), 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:40am

Sad...
This is very sad but, this is one of those things that annoys me about the media in some ways. The guy committed some crimes, escaped prison then killed his family. But, everyone seems to be emphasising the "spam king" angle. This is irrelevant, of course. The crime he was incarcerated for is nothing to do with his actions afterwards.

I fear this will be yet another case where the real problems (investigation of how he escaped, why he took such drastic action and what measures can be taken to stop a future occurrence) will be swept under the carpet in favour of a fad issue. My thoughts are with the innocents who lost their lives here, not the fact that I had to delete a few unwanted emails this morning.
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Fungo Knubb, 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:41am

Huh?
Let me see if I got this straight.

1. A convicted SPAMMER commits suicide.

2. He makes sure none of his family will become SPAMMERS and follow in his footsteps.

Is there a down side to this?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:55am

Obituary
I am not emptying my spam folder today in his memory!

fukking coward!
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PaulT (profile), 25 Jul 2008 @ 7:00am

Re: Huh?
You're probably trolling, but yeah I consider the life of an innocent child to be more important to me than the 5 minutes a day I spend clearing out my spam folder.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 7:06am

Did he send a suicide note via e-mail???????
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John, 25 Jul 2008 @ 7:42am

Re: Sad...
It has everything to do with what he was convicted of... He had no respect for others rights or privacy, as long as he profited from it as the spam king... He had no respect for his family's right to live, their right to exist without him, so he killed them... A normal reaction in a world where enforcing morality is frowned on...

:(
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James, 25 Jul 2008 @ 7:42am

Hmm...
Well all spammers deserve to die so he had it coming.. why couldn't he just shoot himself instead of others?

Guess he couldn't get anyone to OPT-IN. :=P
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Paul`, 25 Jul 2008 @ 7:54am

Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
I'm sure religious people have committed murder too.

And making this material world a God is about as sensical as making an immaterial superhero one.

Anyway, sad news. Coward should have shot himself first.
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The disapointed porkchop, 25 Jul 2008 @ 7:59am

Unreal
I can not believe that he would choose to kill himself, wife and child.

21 month Camp snoopy trip was too much? What a loser. Prayers for the wife and child. Hope he rots in hell.
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Paul`, 25 Jul 2008 @ 8:00am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
You my friend, have the moral fortitude of a grapefruit.
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Anonymous Cowherd, 25 Jul 2008 @ 8:05am

News site wonkiness
I don't suppose you could use a better news site as a source in the future? This one has some ... issues.

Most notably, the article is polluted with irrelevant links. The description of the vehicle was made a link to the manufacturer's web site, and the manufacturer's stock symbol is linked, both of which seem gratuitous, and may not provide the manufacturer with the kind of publicity they'd want, either.

News content is supposed to be focused on the actual news story. The make and model of a vehicle used in connection with a crime is a matter of legitimate interest, but a link like that one does not add anything to the story and looks suspiciously (whether or not it *is*) like paid advertising or "product placement" in a very inappropriate place (a news story!)...(it would be different if it was, say, the getaway vehicle of suspects still at large and they embedded an image of the make and model of vehicle, perhaps from the manufacturer's web site; that would add to the story and serve the public interest by helping people possibly spot the getaway car and phone in tips to the police.)

The stock symbol is even more pointless. The stock symbol for a given company only belongs linked in news stories where that company plays a significant role in the story as an active participant in the events discussed. In this instance, Toyota merely manufactured a car that later was connected with a criminal activity. This is not active participation. Toyota's stock symbol belongs in news stories where Toyota actually did something, such as laid off 4000 workers or announced a merger or whatever. Toyota is peripheral to this particular set of events, however. Even whatever spamming company the spammer worked for is peripheral in this case.

That news site is, at best, guilty of poor focus and irrelevant meanderings in mid-stream, and at worst of actually adulterating the content a news story in return for money.

Find a better one to use for future citations, please.
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Paul`, 25 Jul 2008 @ 8:08am

Re: Re: No one is happy???
No one who matters.
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PRMan, 25 Jul 2008 @ 8:08am

Any thought to the idea that it may be a murder?
With the others killed to cover it up?

He was pretty unpopular, and several people were commenting that they were going to hunt him down and kill him when he escaped (most were probably joking)...
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Andy man, 25 Jul 2008 @ 9:27am

Suicide note
His suicide letter must have read something like this:
"Goodbye cruel world! Increase the size of your penis!"
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Your Gawd and Master, 25 Jul 2008 @ 9:41am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
Funny you used the word moral which involves a judgement by a single, external entity as opposed to ethics which are agreed upon by all involved.

I don't care about morals or any of your judgements that go with them because morals don't achieve anything but hypocrisy. I'll happily admit the deepest darkest secrets of my life because I'm not afraid of being judged. You seem to think that hiding those evil thoughts makes them go away. It doesn't and you'll be tortured with yours till the day you die but mine are here for everyone to see.

The guy was a scumbag through and through and I'm glad he's dead, if he took some people with him, so be it. In terms of costs vs. benefits, we won.
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Your Gawd and Master, 25 Jul 2008 @ 9:44am

Re: Re: Re: No one is happy???
You're right, Paul, you do not matter.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 11:53am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
Cost of a human life? Also you sound like a scumbag.
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Nobody, 25 Jul 2008 @ 2:21pm

Re:
He sent it to the entire Eastern Seaboard. Check your Spam folder.
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PaulT (profile), 25 Jul 2008 @ 5:01pm

Re: Re: Sad...
Sorry, but that is incredible amounts of bullshit. You're equating people's privacy and right not to read Viagra adverts with the murder of a small child. Your moral compass might need a little adjustment if you honestly think those things are equal. The child is in no way responsible for the sins of the father.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 6:57pm

Re: Old West
Can we put quarters down his throat? cuz if we can then I definately in!!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2008 @ 10:42pm

thank you edward davidson...
for doing mankind a favor by cleansing the gene pool.
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Moral?, 26 Jul 2008 @ 7:02am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
What does moral have to do with it? Unless I missed something of the story - was no morals being displayed. You need to get your head out of your butt
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YIKES!, 26 Jul 2008 @ 7:04am

Re:
What was the moral lesson in this? Take a life because your life is miserable - great lesson...
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Scumbag too, 26 Jul 2008 @ 7:06am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Get our heads out of our butts...
Hey scumbag - one to another. You see the real scumbags are the ones that don't know they are - look in the mirror ass wipe...
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Old West, 27 Jul 2008 @ 8:37am

Re: Re: Old West
Yes you can... quarters, viagra pills and a bigger penis... it can all go down his throat... still interested?
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Rose M. Welch, 27 Jul 2008 @ 2:30pm

Murder Charge
We need to charge everyone who said bad things about him on the Internet with harrassment, and murder, also, if the wonderful Lori Drew-inspired bills go through.

The Internet harrassment drove him to murder others and then kill himself, just like that poor girl, Megan Meyers...

/sarcasm
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jairo, 30 Sep 2008 @ 10:08pm

what about the jail staff
Why the Jail left a person like him to scape so easily? are nto we paying taxes fro them to work as they should...
I think the jail administrator should resing for inneficiency
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دردشه, 5 Jul 2009 @ 3:19pm

tankyo..
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