Don't Fear the Reaper
April 17, 2023 10:38 AM Subscribe
“You are locked in? This is what you want? Because it sounds like you have a lot going on,” the agent said, according to the affidavit. “You’re in the military. You’ve got college. You’ve got a lot going on, as far as good things in your life to kinda’ get in this world. It is a shady world, and I just don’t want you to have regrets if you come to work for us, because it, I mean it messes with your mind, shooting people.”Applying for a job through rentahitman.com is not recommended. [WaPo/archived; NBCNews]
Note: this is not the first time that this has happened.
1. This ought to count as entrapment. You shouldn't offer fake illegal employment to people who are, frankly, stupid and naive, and then ruin their lives when they take you up on it.
2. It is not that unrealistic for an extremely naive and ill-informed person to believe that hey, it was okay to work for the US military being trained to murder people with a rifle, so it's probably fine to seek private employment doing the same thing. Many people don't really grasp that whole "the state has the monopoly on violence, which is why the cops can murder helpless, innocent people and get raises and lavish pensions but you're going to jail if you spit on a policeman".
posted by Frowner at 10:52 AM on April 17, 2023 [33 favorites]
2. It is not that unrealistic for an extremely naive and ill-informed person to believe that hey, it was okay to work for the US military being trained to murder people with a rifle, so it's probably fine to seek private employment doing the same thing. Many people don't really grasp that whole "the state has the monopoly on violence, which is why the cops can murder helpless, innocent people and get raises and lavish pensions but you're going to jail if you spit on a policeman".
posted by Frowner at 10:52 AM on April 17, 2023 [33 favorites]
Even though he’d taken the cash, Garcia allegedly told the FBI that he was meeting up with the agent to tell him that he’d changed his mind. According to the affidavit, he said that, before his arrest, he planned to call the undercover agent when he got to his car, tell him the job was off and leave the cash on the curb for him to pick up.That's quite a story, son.
(But based on the charge, it may have sort of worked? At least I would imagine there are more substantial federal charges possible on these facts than just 18 USC 1958. Was that story enough to trigger the DOJ's legendary caution?)
posted by Not A Thing at 10:56 AM on April 17, 2023
The more I think about this, the madder I get. Civilian racists can just shoot black teens out of hand in cold blood and get away with it. Cops can murder peaceful protesters and lie about it. Soldiers can rape and murder civilians and we just don't talk about it. We live in a hit-man society, but there's no doubt all kinds of smuggery about the stupid people who fall for this kind of web stuff. Why wouldn't this guy think he could get paid to kill people? Kyle Rittenhouse basically is getting paid a ton for murdering people. If this guy showed up at a protest with an AK-47 and murdered a bunch of hippies, he'd be set for life on the grifter circuit, but he's poor and stupid so he didn't think of that.
posted by Frowner at 10:58 AM on April 17, 2023 [31 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 10:58 AM on April 17, 2023 [31 favorites]
Smuggery is definitely a hot take that people are going to have, but as I read excerpts from court documents, it's scary how willing he was to do the job despite all the attempts by agents to dissuade him. How much of that willingness can be attributed to desperation remains to be determined, but the guy doesn't seem to display any reluctance even when asked to contemplate how many people he might have to kill. "That’s rookie numbers for the Reaper,” indeed. He only backed out and started claiming he had second thoughts after he got caught.
And even if there was some way to determine that he wouldn't have done this if he wasn't so desperate, the fact that desperation drove him to put aside any qualms about murdering-for-hire is still rather sobering.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:18 AM on April 17, 2023 [12 favorites]
And even if there was some way to determine that he wouldn't have done this if he wasn't so desperate, the fact that desperation drove him to put aside any qualms about murdering-for-hire is still rather sobering.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:18 AM on April 17, 2023 [12 favorites]
This guy is another gun nut/owner. The only saving grace maybe is that he got locked up before he annihilated a bunch of children at one or another school, except that there are thousands of gun owners just like him across the country.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:20 AM on April 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:20 AM on April 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
Air National Guard? Sorry, there's bullshitters in every branch, but I wouldn't trust an NG to run over a chihuahua, no matter how good he says his aim was in target practice.
posted by jy4m at 11:20 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jy4m at 11:20 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
That reminds me that the new season of Barry just started. Thanks!
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:22 AM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:22 AM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
It is not that unrealistic for an extremely naive and ill-informed person to believe that hey, it was okay to work for the US military being trained to murder people with a rifle, so it's probably fine to seek private employment doing the same thing.
Sorry, a 21-year-old ought to at least grasp that murder for hire is illegal. Ideally, there might be some spark of soul or conscience or something in there that might also tell him it's wrong, but, in the absence of his having achieved even embryonic decency, I'll settle for him grasping that the cold-blooded murder of strangers for money is illegal. Whatever you may think about the morality of serving in the military, our culture does not confound the two in a way that would lead a person of ordinary intelligence to think they are the same thing.
posted by praemunire at 11:24 AM on April 17, 2023 [40 favorites]
Sorry, a 21-year-old ought to at least grasp that murder for hire is illegal. Ideally, there might be some spark of soul or conscience or something in there that might also tell him it's wrong, but, in the absence of his having achieved even embryonic decency, I'll settle for him grasping that the cold-blooded murder of strangers for money is illegal. Whatever you may think about the morality of serving in the military, our culture does not confound the two in a way that would lead a person of ordinary intelligence to think they are the same thing.
posted by praemunire at 11:24 AM on April 17, 2023 [40 favorites]
Air National Guard? Sorry, there's bullshitters in every branch, but I wouldn't trust an NG to run over a chihuahua, no matter how good he says his aim was in target practice.
Good thing we don't give them information unrelated to national guarding or anything
posted by StarkRoads at 11:33 AM on April 17, 2023 [8 favorites]
Good thing we don't give them information unrelated to national guarding or anything
posted by StarkRoads at 11:33 AM on April 17, 2023 [8 favorites]
I mean,
When the agent asked about taking “fingers or ears as trophies” or torturing a target, Garcia said that “if it’s possible and in my means to do so, I’m more than capable,” the affidavit says.
Do most 21-year-olds understand the full gravity of such behavior? Of course not. Should they get that it's quite illegal? I should hope so!!!
posted by praemunire at 11:35 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
When the agent asked about taking “fingers or ears as trophies” or torturing a target, Garcia said that “if it’s possible and in my means to do so, I’m more than capable,” the affidavit says.
Do most 21-year-olds understand the full gravity of such behavior? Of course not. Should they get that it's quite illegal? I should hope so!!!
posted by praemunire at 11:35 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
So there are a lot of people who are arguing for entrapment, or expressing sympathy, here is my response:
In Russia, this guy would probably be committing or abetting war crimes. In Mexico or El Salvador, a comparable person probably is a sicario.
It's better that this outcome occurred than he become some bumbling heavy from the film Fargo, stuffing the remains of an accomplice into a woodchipper.
This individual was offered multiple outs by the FBI. That he persisted so diffidently is a testament to his sociopathy.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 11:40 AM on April 17, 2023 [19 favorites]
In Russia, this guy would probably be committing or abetting war crimes. In Mexico or El Salvador, a comparable person probably is a sicario.
It's better that this outcome occurred than he become some bumbling heavy from the film Fargo, stuffing the remains of an accomplice into a woodchipper.
This individual was offered multiple outs by the FBI. That he persisted so diffidently is a testament to his sociopathy.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 11:40 AM on April 17, 2023 [19 favorites]
As someone who served in the shooting part of the military, no one is nicknamed "the reaper" unironically.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:43 AM on April 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:43 AM on April 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
Yeah, I'm on team "that sociopathic moron got what he deserved." One look at the website and it screams "fake."
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:48 AM on April 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:48 AM on April 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
I, for one, do not fear this "Reaper."
posted by kirkaracha at 11:49 AM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 11:49 AM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
If only someone had introduced him to the term private military contractor before he stumbled across this website.
posted by axiom at 11:54 AM on April 17, 2023 [11 favorites]
posted by axiom at 11:54 AM on April 17, 2023 [11 favorites]
Come on, baby...
posted by Windopaene at 11:55 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 11:55 AM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
One look at the website and it screams "fake."
I mean, they claim to have almost 18,000 field operatives and the contact person is named Guido.
"...ensuring [our clients'] privacy is protected under HIPAA, the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964."
"Rent-A-Hitman is no longer affiliated with Diners Club, the Detroit Lions, the Illuminati, Donald Trump, Kyle Rittenhouse, Carole Baskin, or Vladimir Putin due to contractual restrictions."
Group & senior discounts available! Including Air National Guardsmen.
Capisce!
posted by kirkaracha at 11:57 AM on April 17, 2023 [10 favorites]
I mean, they claim to have almost 18,000 field operatives and the contact person is named Guido.
"...ensuring [our clients'] privacy is protected under HIPAA, the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964."
"Rent-A-Hitman is no longer affiliated with Diners Club, the Detroit Lions, the Illuminati, Donald Trump, Kyle Rittenhouse, Carole Baskin, or Vladimir Putin due to contractual restrictions."
Group & senior discounts available! Including Air National Guardsmen.
Capisce!
posted by kirkaracha at 11:57 AM on April 17, 2023 [10 favorites]
This appears to be a 'Soldier of Fortune' want ad type guy in the digital era. Given the opportunity to "solve" someone's divorce problems for 10k, he would do it. I do not feel sorry for him.
posted by Selena777 at 12:05 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 12:05 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
The point isn't "oh this poor guy he did nothing wrong" - it's that he did exactly what society allows many people to do every day. A different person with more connections or capacity would become a cop or a far right grifter because that's where you can make money hurting people.
The website is very much along the lines of "a Nigerian prince needs your help smuggling a fortune out of Nigeria" - it's a filter for people who are traumatized, naive, ill-informed, cognitively impaired or just not that good at reasoning. Those are the very people who are not going to process what respectable people like mefites already know - that you have to have a badge or a lot of money to make a career doing violence to people, just as you have to be very wealthy indeed to get in on embezzling money from the global south. This dude was not in fact going to be a hit man if left to his own devices; absent the website, he'd have tried various terrible and precarious schemes until he and his family lost their home or went bankrupt.
We who like to comment on metafilter tend to believe that everyone is out there distinguishing truth from propaganda, dissecting the contradictions between the law and the fact, developing a moral system which says, "just because the rich/powerful can do something cruel and immoral does not mean that I should", looking at an endless array of video games and movies that fully enter into the spirit of being an assassin or a violent cop and ending up totally unaffected, etc. And yet people don't. We think we're largely immune to the propaganda of everyday life ourselves, but we're not. And there are a lot of people out there who have a lot to worry about and a lack of information and they believe incorrect, immoral things because that is how the society that they witness works.
Like, almost nothing that I believe is reflected in society. I believe that people should be treated equally and that this should generate roughly equal outcomes. I believe that prisons and cops make things worse. I believe that we need to decarbonize immediately. I believe that unhoused people need unconditional help, even the ones who commit crimes. Everything I believe is anti-. Nothing I believe is real. Who is the dope here? Maybe it's me - maybe I ought to be in on the grift, especially since I know that "hitman" isn't a viable career.
So what I'm saying is that if people want to get violence out of society, setting up a filter to incite the most naive and least capable of scam detection into committing a crime is really...it's not even emptying the ocean with an eyedropper. Maybe it's spitting in the ocean, actually.
posted by Frowner at 12:26 PM on April 17, 2023 [26 favorites]
The website is very much along the lines of "a Nigerian prince needs your help smuggling a fortune out of Nigeria" - it's a filter for people who are traumatized, naive, ill-informed, cognitively impaired or just not that good at reasoning. Those are the very people who are not going to process what respectable people like mefites already know - that you have to have a badge or a lot of money to make a career doing violence to people, just as you have to be very wealthy indeed to get in on embezzling money from the global south. This dude was not in fact going to be a hit man if left to his own devices; absent the website, he'd have tried various terrible and precarious schemes until he and his family lost their home or went bankrupt.
We who like to comment on metafilter tend to believe that everyone is out there distinguishing truth from propaganda, dissecting the contradictions between the law and the fact, developing a moral system which says, "just because the rich/powerful can do something cruel and immoral does not mean that I should", looking at an endless array of video games and movies that fully enter into the spirit of being an assassin or a violent cop and ending up totally unaffected, etc. And yet people don't. We think we're largely immune to the propaganda of everyday life ourselves, but we're not. And there are a lot of people out there who have a lot to worry about and a lack of information and they believe incorrect, immoral things because that is how the society that they witness works.
Like, almost nothing that I believe is reflected in society. I believe that people should be treated equally and that this should generate roughly equal outcomes. I believe that prisons and cops make things worse. I believe that we need to decarbonize immediately. I believe that unhoused people need unconditional help, even the ones who commit crimes. Everything I believe is anti-. Nothing I believe is real. Who is the dope here? Maybe it's me - maybe I ought to be in on the grift, especially since I know that "hitman" isn't a viable career.
So what I'm saying is that if people want to get violence out of society, setting up a filter to incite the most naive and least capable of scam detection into committing a crime is really...it's not even emptying the ocean with an eyedropper. Maybe it's spitting in the ocean, actually.
posted by Frowner at 12:26 PM on April 17, 2023 [26 favorites]
I'm going to be really naive for a minute, so please be kind. I understand that there is illegal activity on the internet. I understand that you can get illegal things through Facebook and craigslist etc. But are there websites that are like, really prominent and really obvious that broadcast illegal activity? Like murder? I'm just so perplexed why anyone (and apparently many people?) would think this was real. Please educate me in my ignorance (nicely).
posted by Toddles at 12:30 PM on April 17, 2023
posted by Toddles at 12:30 PM on April 17, 2023
1. This ought to count as entrapment. You shouldn't offer fake illegal employment to people who are, frankly, stupid and naive, and then ruin their lives when they take you up on it.
For me, the force of this depends on how likely it is that the person entrapped would otherwise have wound up in a real version of the same illegal employment. If there's no real hitman jobs around, then entrapping people into fake hitman jobs is ruining their lives for no reason. If there are plenty of real hitman jobs around, then entrapping someone with a fake hitman job potentially diverts them from a real one. It might even be better for the victim of the sting to be entrapped in this way instead of going through with killing someone for hire.
posted by grobstein at 12:35 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
For me, the force of this depends on how likely it is that the person entrapped would otherwise have wound up in a real version of the same illegal employment. If there's no real hitman jobs around, then entrapping people into fake hitman jobs is ruining their lives for no reason. If there are plenty of real hitman jobs around, then entrapping someone with a fake hitman job potentially diverts them from a real one. It might even be better for the victim of the sting to be entrapped in this way instead of going through with killing someone for hire.
posted by grobstein at 12:35 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
We who like to comment on metafilter tend to believe that everyone is out there distinguishing truth from propaganda,
I'm not going to talk about whether it was foolish to take the site seriously, because it's at least arguable. But the idea that it's illegal in real life to kill people is the basis for, like, 90% of CBS's programming. Come on. I don't care how cool John Wick looks, no American 21-year-old who is not extremely mentally ill or seriously developmentally disabled doesn't know that murder-for-hire is illegal.
So what I'm saying is that if people want to get violence out of society
It's just barely possible that the site mentioning the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964 was not set up as an elaborate sting by law enforcement.
posted by praemunire at 12:37 PM on April 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I'm not going to talk about whether it was foolish to take the site seriously, because it's at least arguable. But the idea that it's illegal in real life to kill people is the basis for, like, 90% of CBS's programming. Come on. I don't care how cool John Wick looks, no American 21-year-old who is not extremely mentally ill or seriously developmentally disabled doesn't know that murder-for-hire is illegal.
So what I'm saying is that if people want to get violence out of society
It's just barely possible that the site mentioning the Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964 was not set up as an elaborate sting by law enforcement.
posted by praemunire at 12:37 PM on April 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
"I don't believe this! I've got a trig midterm tomorrow, and I'm being chased by Guido the killer pimp."
(Guido has moved up in the crime world...)
posted by Chuffy at 12:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
(Guido has moved up in the crime world...)
posted by Chuffy at 12:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
praemunire: Do most 21-year-olds understand the full gravity of such behavior? Of course not. Should they get that it's quite illegal? I should hope so!!!
Cheers, praemunire, I had a good laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of that, and filed it under "sole country in the world where X happens all the time says there's no way to prevent X."
posted by k3ninho at 12:48 PM on April 17, 2023
Cheers, praemunire, I had a good laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of that, and filed it under "sole country in the world where X happens all the time says there's no way to prevent X."
posted by k3ninho at 12:48 PM on April 17, 2023
He allegedly gave his name, email address and phone number to Innes, or rather, his RentAHitman persona, Guido Fanelli, the fictional company’s CEO.
Guido Fanelli. GUIDO FANELLI.
posted by slogger at 12:52 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Guido Fanelli. GUIDO FANELLI.
posted by slogger at 12:52 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I mean, after all, there's a 50/50 chance the site is run by Eric Prince.
posted by slogger at 12:53 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by slogger at 12:53 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I think this is where it went from hilarious to chilling:
But this kid in Tennessee, this kid's willingness to drop the lampshade, to walk down the street, shoot a neighbor, collect an ear, and then return to his newborn like it's a normal thing? It feels like something new.
posted by mochapickle at 1:00 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Garcia allegedly said he’d considered the psychological effects and made his peace with it, adding that while he preferred to kill people in another state, he was okay with killing some locals. (WaPo)A friend of a friend, a former marine, went over to the Kirkuk front as a soldier for hire many years ago to aid the Kurdish militia. It was dangerous and paid very little. He said there was a particular group of mercenaries there from overseas, the ones who joined up because they wanted to shoot people, to experience that thrill, and they knew doing it overseas and in a war situation made it legal and anonymous. The distance in miles and language and culture and religion, the very change in landscape made it feel like something less than murder to them. And let's be clear: It was murder, it was totally murder all the same.
But this kid in Tennessee, this kid's willingness to drop the lampshade, to walk down the street, shoot a neighbor, collect an ear, and then return to his newborn like it's a normal thing? It feels like something new.
posted by mochapickle at 1:00 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
If there's reaping, there has to be sowing.
Are we fearing the Sower?
posted by hippybear at 1:06 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Are we fearing the Sower?
posted by hippybear at 1:06 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
The point isn't "oh this poor guy he did nothing wrong" - it's that he did exactly what society allows many people to do every day. A different person with more connections or capacity would become a cop or a far right grifter because that's where you can make money hurting people.
The website is very much along the lines of "a Nigerian prince needs your help smuggling a fortune out of Nigeria" - it's a filter for people who are traumatized, naive, ill-informed, cognitively impaired or just not that good at reasoning. Those are the very people who are not going to process what respectable people like mefites already know - that you have to have a badge or a lot of money to make a career doing violence to people, just as you have to be very wealthy indeed to get in on embezzling money from the global south.
Where does "it's morally and legally wrong to murder people for hire" fall into this calculus? Because you seem to be cynically suggesting that his only failing was not being intelligent enough to pursue a proper career in hurting people. You don't need to call attention to systemic racism and institutional violence by ironically suggesting that he should have instead become a cop.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:21 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
The website is very much along the lines of "a Nigerian prince needs your help smuggling a fortune out of Nigeria" - it's a filter for people who are traumatized, naive, ill-informed, cognitively impaired or just not that good at reasoning. Those are the very people who are not going to process what respectable people like mefites already know - that you have to have a badge or a lot of money to make a career doing violence to people, just as you have to be very wealthy indeed to get in on embezzling money from the global south.
Where does "it's morally and legally wrong to murder people for hire" fall into this calculus? Because you seem to be cynically suggesting that his only failing was not being intelligent enough to pursue a proper career in hurting people. You don't need to call attention to systemic racism and institutional violence by ironically suggesting that he should have instead become a cop.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:21 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
You're also not giving enough credit to the vast majority of people who wouldn't ever consider a career as a contract killer, even if they thought the website was legit and even if they desperately needed the money.
Keep in mind that when confronted with new and disturbing details about what the job would entail, this guy repeatedly said "nah, I'm cool. When do I sign up?"
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:37 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
Keep in mind that when confronted with new and disturbing details about what the job would entail, this guy repeatedly said "nah, I'm cool. When do I sign up?"
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:37 PM on April 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
This ought to count as entrapment.
It's unlikely that entrapment is a valid defense in this case.
Entrapment doesn't mean "a cop asked me to break the law." It is an affirmative defense that requires that law enforcement induce someone to commit a crime they wouldn't otherwise commit.
Garcia would have to prove both that he had no proclivity to commit this type of crime (kind of difficult when he brags about being "The Reaper" and calls 50 murders a "rookie number") and government inducement (also difficult when the feds give him multiple opportunities to back out before taking the cash).
posted by fogovonslack at 1:41 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
It's unlikely that entrapment is a valid defense in this case.
Entrapment doesn't mean "a cop asked me to break the law." It is an affirmative defense that requires that law enforcement induce someone to commit a crime they wouldn't otherwise commit.
Garcia would have to prove both that he had no proclivity to commit this type of crime (kind of difficult when he brags about being "The Reaper" and calls 50 murders a "rookie number") and government inducement (also difficult when the feds give him multiple opportunities to back out before taking the cash).
posted by fogovonslack at 1:41 PM on April 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Googling for rent a hitman indicates pretty quickly that it's fake.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:20 PM on April 17, 2023
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:20 PM on April 17, 2023
Impressive to lose ten years for the price of three months at a part time normal job.
I have to think it's about the killing, not the money.
posted by jaduncan at 2:24 PM on April 17, 2023
I have to think it's about the killing, not the money.
posted by jaduncan at 2:24 PM on April 17, 2023
If I understand Frowner’s point, it’s that we’re only hearing about this sociopath because he was dumb and maybe a bit desperate. There are no doubt plenty of guys exactly like him working for Eric Prince, for example, but we don’t hear about them because that is considered legitimate employment, even though it can at times involve very similar actual tasks. Thus the news coverage of this particular sociopath, which lacks the element of also discussing the sociopathy of those who find similar but technically legal employment, has an aspect of pointing and laughing at his dumbness or naïveté, instead of actual concern about his sociopathy.
posted by eviemath at 2:49 PM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by eviemath at 2:49 PM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
Innes says more than 400 people have filled service request forms on the site since it launched, including some who have expressed interest in becoming hit men and pranksters trying to play jokes on friends. Of those, roughly 10% turned into legitimate cases where police became involved, he says.Be careful with your puns.
"I thought nobody can be that stupid, and boy have I been proven wrong," says Innes, 54. "These people ... whoever they are, they see HIPAA, they think privacy. So they feel compelled to leave their real information -- names, address, where the intended target is..."
[...]
Innes says he never intended to trap would-be killers when he launched the website in 2005. He was trying to start an internet security business, focusing on web traffic and risk analysis for small networks.
"'Rent' as in hire us, 'hit man' as in website traffic and analytics," he says.
His internet security business never took off, so he tried to sell the domain name. There wasn't much interest from buyers, so he forgot about it and let it sit dormant for years.
Then, one day in 2008, he checked the site's inbox and was stunned.
"There were emails about 'how much for a hit?' 'are you hiring a hit man?'," Innes says. "I didn't know how to respond, frankly, so I shut the email inbox and walked away for a couple of years."
posted by trig at 4:09 PM on April 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
There could be a pretty good novel about someone who'd been murdering people on his own and decides he wants some instutional support.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 6:34 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 6:34 PM on April 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Lolololol he’s tired of freelancing and wants dental insurance.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 6:47 PM on April 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't care how cool John Wick looks, no American 21-year-old who is not extremely mentally ill or seriously developmentally disabled doesn't know that murder-for-hire is illegal.
Remember that 50% of the population is of below average intelligence.
posted by Soliloquy at 7:15 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Remember that 50% of the population is of below average intelligence.
posted by Soliloquy at 7:15 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
"'Rent' as in hire us, 'hit man' as in website traffic and analytics," he says.
Yeah, he meant "hit' as in "web hit". But when you add "man" to the end of "hit", people usually associate the new word with something other than website traffic....
Also, is anyone else getting flashbacks of a certain Big Audio Dynamite song?
posted by gtrwolf at 8:12 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah, he meant "hit' as in "web hit". But when you add "man" to the end of "hit", people usually associate the new word with something other than website traffic....
Also, is anyone else getting flashbacks of a certain Big Audio Dynamite song?
posted by gtrwolf at 8:12 PM on April 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Now what would have been a good story would be if the dude was an undercover cop investigating websites that offer to hire killers. Then both groups could have kept escalating for the sake of a bust until they actually had to kill someone. Directed by Guy Ritchie of course so we would never really know what happened unless we turned on subtitles.
posted by srboisvert at 2:48 AM on April 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 2:48 AM on April 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
But this kid in Tennessee, this kid's willingness to drop the lampshade, to walk down the street, shoot a neighbor, collect an ear, and then return to his newborn like it's a normal thing? It feels like something new.
Sociopathy isn't new.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:08 AM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sociopathy isn't new.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:08 AM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Couple of comments deleted. Per the Metafilter Guidelines, "Be considerate and respectful", so please refrain from calling other commenters "dumb" or implying they're not thinking much, thank you.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:30 AM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:30 AM on April 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Remember that 50% of the population is of below average intelligence.
Well if there are 3 categories, below average, average, and above average, and it's a normal distribution, and "average" covers +/- 1 standard devation, then 68% would be average and only 16% below average.
On the other hand, 16% in a country this size is an awful lot of people.
posted by ctmf at 2:09 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well if there are 3 categories, below average, average, and above average, and it's a normal distribution, and "average" covers +/- 1 standard devation, then 68% would be average and only 16% below average.
On the other hand, 16% in a country this size is an awful lot of people.
posted by ctmf at 2:09 AM on April 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
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On reading the article, I feel pretty bad for him and his family. "Weird news" stories have their toll.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:47 AM on April 17, 2023 [9 favorites]