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Simon and Sharon Ng
“He is already in the house. He is still here right now, smoking, walking all around the house.”
When Sek Man Ng moved from Hong Kong to New York City, he Americanized his name. Thus it was Simon Ng who lived in a Queens, New York apartment with his older sister, Sharon Ng, originally Cho Man Ng.
Simon began blogging on Xanga on October 3, 2002. He hated talking about himself, he wrote, but wanted to try to keep a diary. He described doing programming homework and playing Warcraft 3, not unlike many other 16 year old high school students in 2002. After four quick posts, he stopped blogging for three years.
Simon’s life changed drastically during those three years. His parents moved back to Hong Kong in 2004, leaving Simon, 18 at the time, and his sister together in the Queens apartment. Because the siblings rarely saw each other before 10 p.m. each night, Simon was often left to his own devices.
Simon continued blogging on April 22, 2005:
Imagine a guy who doesn’t know how to take care of himself and had been relying on others for like 18 years. All of a sudden have to take care of themselves. So its been hell, two meals rarely and one meal a day most likely -_-. Overcooking and messed up cooking all the time. If it was before I would just say fuck it, lets wait for my dad to cook me some food ( Proceed to throw them all into the bin). Now I have to eat whatever crap I cook out, which is pretty bad believe me. Anyway I am starting to get used to this life style and am improving day by day doing all these small stuff that everyone probably knows how to do.
Now convinced that he had wasted his youth, Simon swore to improve himself. After barely ever stepping foot in a library, he began spending 4-8 hours per day studying at his college’s library. He earned two A- grades, one A and one B+ during his first semester in college.
It is regretable that I screwed up on the finals, because my laziness kicked in. I really wanted to get 2 A- and 2 A+ and I know I could… Yeah I know I should be happy bout it but I am a greedy person. The reason I have regret is probably because it wasn’t all As. I would have really surprised my parents and makes them happy ;) (Not that it hasn’t ;P).
Simon signed up for a $600 summer science course and was hoping to land a job soon. He began blogging regularly, hoping to keep a record that he could look back on in four years when he graduated from college.
The last May of Simon’s life was chronicled closely on his blog.
Continue reading ‘A blogger’s final post solves his own murder — Weirder Web #5’
Filed under: Blogs | Leave a Comment
Tags: 2005, Homicide, New York City, Xanga
A politician attempts to disconnect from his online life of white supremacy — Weirder Web #4
“They can have my guns, bullets first.”
We’re coming into a generation of leaders who will have grown up on the internet and know no world without it.
What will happen to our online pasts when we all have a lifetime of potentially shameful Facebook pictures, forum posts and tweets to hide? In 2030, how much will a politician have to pay to have his extensive online past scrubbed? Will it even be possible to clean your past completely? Will a future candidate for President live in fear of old blogs and ancient forum posts coming back to haunt him or her?
At least the old IRC chat logs are gone forever, right? Right?
In 2005, Doug Hanks ran as a Republican for a seat on the City Council of Charlotte, North Carolina. Doug was 36, a relatively young age in the traditionally wrinkled world of politics. He had been using the internet for years. In fact, he made thousands of posts on major forums where he was comfortable enough to have his username listed simply as Doug.
Doug joined Stormfront on May 2, 2002. Stormfront is one of the first and most successful white supremacist forums on the internet. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls it “the most influential hate site on the net.” The site was born into politics in 1990 as an organizing point for former Grand Wizard David Duke’s failed U.S. Senate campaign in Louisiana. Stormfront’s popularity rose in the mid-90s when it opened to the public. It came to national attention when it was featured in Hate.com, a 2000 CBS documentary about the online white supremacy movement.
When Doug joined the site in 2002, there were around 5,000 members. It was an impressive forum population at the time. Today, Stormfront boasts 194,936 members.
Filed under: Politics | Leave a Comment
Tags: Charlotte, Doug Hanks, North Carolina, Stormfront
“It’s almost bed time.”
Those are the first words Joseph Edward Duncan III wrote in his blog on Sunday, January 4, 2004.
Joe was 43 years old when he started the blog he called The Fifth Nail. By 2004, he had already served 17 years in prison for stealing cars and raping at least two young boys at gunpoint. Duncan himself told his therapist that he’d raped over a dozen younger boys by the time he was 16 years old. In his own words, Joe grew up in prison.
He was in and out of jail in 90s, living all over the west coast before starting the blog. By the time he was let out of prison in 2000, he moved to Fargo, North Dakota in apparent attempt to begin a new life.
Almost bed time, I hope I can get some sleep after sleeping in to noon today.
In his first post, Joe wrote about wasting time playing video games, feeding his cat and the self-delusion he noticed suffered by millions about the supposed heights human intelligence. It was an unremarkable start. No one was reading what he wrote.
Joe slept in the next day, missing his alarm. He worked late to make up time lost. When he got home, he wrote a 1400 word essay on why sex offenders do what they do. Offenders are victims of their badly distorted view of reality, he wrote, and of a justice system ill equipped to handle anyone from sex offenders to drug addicts. The offenders don’t believe they’re hurting the children, he blogged, and the system doesn’t know how to react to that. He insists that “the system” — that is, the justice system, the mental health system and society at large — has to tell the offenders the truth, though it becomes clear that the truth is a moving target for Joe.
The most poignant passage in the blog is this:
I am not a pedophile nor have I ever been accused of being one. Also, I was a child (age 16) when I committed my crime. And possibly most significant; because of my appearance and family circumstances I was molested so often and by so many different people that, up until the time of my offense, I actually thought it was normal and that everybody did it.
The following day, Joe made it into work on time. He found time in the evening to berate the existence of the Prison Industrial Complex after setting up motion-detecting security cameras in his home because he felt paranoid about going back to prison. Every time he heard about a child being hurt on the news, he’d check his alibi. He thought the cameras documenting his life might help if another case came up.
Filed under: Blogs | Leave a Comment
Tags: Blogging, Homicide, Idaho, Joseph Edward Duncan III, Minnesota
The Ballad of Tony76.
On January 10, 2012 at 7:08 a.m., Tony76 registered an account at Silk Road.
Silk Road is an anonymous marketplace famous for its brazen selling of drugs. Ever since Adrian Chen wrote about the site in 2011, it’s been famously considered a successful cross between Amazon and eBay in the online drug world. Anonymous buyers and sellers depend on Bitcoins to anonymously transfer wealth and user reviews to establish trust.
There are currently over 6,000 drugs being sold at Silk Road including “10 gr high grade MDMA 80% +” for about $170, “Cocaine good quality 1.0g” for about $40 and “Extreme quality Black Tar” for about $270.
By January 18, 2012, Tony76 was already selling drugs on Silk Road. At 1:31 a.m., he established his personal and official feedback thread in the site’s forums, soliciting reviews from customers to establish trust and offering updates and news on new products.
Within a couple of days of Tony shipping his product from Canada, the positive reviews started rolling in.
“got my H today from Tony76,” wrote user toelessJoe. “Just had a small taste and I say way to go, Tony. Very good gear! Feeling double plus good right now… I truly hope that you stick around, you’re off to a great start as a new Vendor – and that potential buyers gives you a try.”
The reviews were good enough to provoke excitement from users and even a bit of hopeful skepticism from potential buyers. When more and more positive feedback came in, user oldschoolclubkid said some of the reviews looked strange, wished Tony luck and said he’d have to wait and see. He eventually became a buyer.
Several customers wrote that they’d spent the best $20 of their lives on Tony’s products. Tony offered a wide selection of drugs including heroin and MDMA, his most popular products.
Users continued to post detailed reviews of their experiences.
“So i had just under half a cc of the rig filled,” wrote MacMan after receiving Tony’s vacuum-sealed heroin in the mail. “Plunged that bitch down about halfway, felt a little burn, stopped there, pulled it out, because i started to feel the rush and didnt wanna overdue it. Got a wicked awesome rush, I would say the 1st or 2nd best H i have ever done. Also it is really hard for me to feel opiates when i have been taking methadone. And this dope of tonys, i didnt even feel like i had any methadone in my system!!! It was awesome. Still havent gotten Nuc’s, but best i have tried here on SR. Fuck, if i didnt have that methadone in my system, i probably would have fucking came everywhere.”
By February, over 100 customers had posted positive feedback. In early March, Tony publicly cancelled an order from an underage customer and received congratulations for his discretion.
“Wow, I guess this is what happens when you take the criminal element out of the equation,” wrote northsidepk. “Good job Nixon Era drug war on doing just the opposite.”
For his part, Tony was enjoying the adulation that came with running a highly successful and visible new business.
“Thanks guys! Love you all!”
Tony’s customers loved him back.
Continue reading ‘The top seller on the web’s biggest drug marketplace is gone — Weirder Web #2’
Filed under: Marketplaces | 1 Comment
Tags: Adrian Chen, Drugs, Gawker, Silk Road, Tony76
“Don’t lecture me about being new to contract killing.”
If there is a supply, is there necessarily a demand?
On a simple, anonymous and hidden forum called Underground Market Board 2.0 (UMB), a poster named Shadow wrote yesterday that he is a very experienced marksman looking for serious people to sell him weapons near New York City. That’s not a combination that usually ends happily for everyone involved.
“I sold almost all of my Rifles i used when i shot competitively,” wrote Shadow. “I’m planning doing Contracts so obviously I am need of new ones. Don’t lecture me about Being new to contract killing. I am fully aware of the consequences if i get caught.”
Shadow posted his advertisement on October 27, 2012 on the somewhat strange and hidden UMB in which anonymous users seek to buy and sell guns, stolen information, drugs and other illegal goods and services.
“Cash for kills” reads another post by BlueGuru. ”You want someone taken care of? Im your man. 10,000 within US. 20,000 international. No questions asked (besides all basic vital info for the job). prefer bitcoins for anonymity.”
Blue then provided his TorMail address, the anonymous email service of choice for the buyers and sellers on Underground Market Board.
Maybe UMB isn’t too strange. After all, the Tor-powered deep web bazaar seems common enough. The Silk Road is famous and the Hidden Wiki serves as a deep web travel guide by cataloging a dynamic set of forums and markets that speak about and sell contraband anonymously. Drugs especially are easy to buy online even if a little expensive compared to your local neighborhood hook up.
UMB is listed near the top of the popular Hidden Wiki, requires no registration (like, say, Silk Road does) and offers little in the way of conversation. Most posts are requests or offers for illegal goods plus an anonymous email to contact if one is interested.
Internet shopping is convenient, sure, but is a professional hit man really just a couple of clicks away?
Continue reading ‘A hit man advertises his services – Weirder Web #1’
Filed under: Marketplaces | Leave a Comment
Tags: Deep web, Hidden Wiki, New York City, Silk Road, Underground Market Board