There are some people so 'wrapped up' in the Internet that they create amazing fantasies whereby they see themselves as something that they're not. What continues to amaze most rational people, however, is that a grown adult can spend SO much time online simply for the purpose of disrupting others' lives.
Such is the story of Chris Stevens from England....
When he first came to our attention, Mr. Stevens had been posting under various aliases in a bizarre mixture of UK local newsgroups (including, in particular, uk.local.isle-of-wight). At some point, he apparently decided that the Freemasons would be fun to harass as well.
Seemingly obsessed with US politics, his rants used dozens of different online pseudonyms although why he vented his spleen on newsgroups is still a mystery. Most Masons ignore these puerile rants and often filth-filled screeds as it became clear that what he expected was agreement with his often bizarre political opinions. Angered in the extreme that Masons wouldn't engage in such discussions with him, he continued his rants and harassment for months on end. As often happens online, though, he has since vanished from the scene. It would be good to think that such persons might have matured and/or realized that the source of their problems is not Freemasons but, rather, themselves. Sadly, though, troubled minds are not easily fixed.
Through some tracking of his online posting history via the Google search engine, it was revealed that Mr. Stevens wasn't simply a teen-ager with raging testosterone. Rather, he was 50+ year old trans-gendered male who was simultaneously using newsgroup postings to solicit women and couples to pose for his supposedly new digi-cam. In addition, while in alt.freemasonry, he went to great length to create the fantasy of his being a wheel-chair bound cripple to explain why the only thing he'd ever done to support his anti-US /anti-war rhetoric was to WATCH a protest march in London. In fact, he belligerently castigated those who questioned his 'sincerity' in using such a ruse. His facade was debunked when it was observed that he had also been posting in auto groups about various sports cars....
Why is Mr. Stevens' personal life relevant to this exposé? Because, simply, it exhibits a pattern of lies and obfuscation that should cause anyone to realize why his or similar ranting condemnation of Masons or Masonry is preposterous. Both online and off, these folks seem to exhibit a pattern of disruptive and (it could be argued by reasonable people) inappropriate behavior designed to deliberately cause conflict and garner attention. A few might contend that reference to Mr. Stevens' personal life is nothing more than an 'ad hominem' attack ostensibly because his lifestyle is so vastly different than most - and causes a judgment of this individual as reprehensible. We believe that any such 'concerns' ignore reality. Many seem to think that online activities come with a license to aggrieve others: it's clear that such behavior, in this case in particular, is not limited to Chris' online 'life' only!
Some of the 'identities' used by Mr. Stevens (who revealed his real name in a direct e-mail to this site's author at the outset of his ranting) include the following (from about October, 2002 through the Spring of 2003):
"Don
få Rune Våge Jokkmokker" <DoD@darkangellcd.org>
"Officer" <wrote>
"Lord Councellor Arch Druid" <neo_nero_zero@yahoo.com>
"Draco The Elder" <webZweSpin@ya.net>
"¤ Om-Âí-JuJuDÖ ¤" <wrearh@wrearh-borg.org>
"Fr:.O:.M:." <j_gm_rubino@yahoo.com>
"J_GM_Rubino" <J_GM_Rubino@msn.com>
"Jason Michael Rubino" <j_gm_rubino@yahoo.com>
"William" <aegis_123@hotmail.com>
seeds@dark.light(The Seed Sower)
ways_4@hotmail.com (The Seed Sower)
"Jean-François D." <io_star@hotmail.com>
In the Fall of 2004, Mr. Stevens adopted the nom du jour of "Norwood Holden" and, after allowing him to continue his charade for several weeks, we confronted him with his 'real' identity. Thereafter he became much more acerbic, obviously upset that his little charade was exposed. Entering 2005, the parade of false identities continued without ceasing. Whether it was pretending to be an Indian immigrant to England (including a pitiful mocking caricature of spoken language) or ranting about how the United States caused the tsunami which wreaked death and destruction in the Indian Ocean region, this individual is not dissimilar to many who rant and rave against Masons and Masonry.
It should also be noted that in March, 2003, Mr. Stevens threatened the life of both a Mason in San Diego and our family. His internet accounts were immediately shut down in light of this egregious behavior but, sadly, such threats are never punished to the extent appropriate and Mr. Stevens continued to bait, demean and threaten Freemasonry and Freemasons.
It seems to go without saying that pretending to be a cripple in order to get someone to debate politics is obviously the behavior of someone with a VERY twisted mind - yet another addition to the ranks of anti-Masons!
"Norwood's" friend 'Marta'
There are LOTS of gullible people in this world but none more so, it seems, than the internet identity who claims her real name is 'Marta'.
Talk about fantasies: 'Marta' claimed to have been following the alt.freemasonry newsgroup for years and in the Fall of 2004 made this absurd statement:
"My God, it is horrifying! What I remember from reading this ng and Sep 11 is there was ominous silence here, not even one post came into this ng where I was several hours prior to Sep 11. It was like someone was holding his breath. There was one coded message one or two days before. Then silence...terrible silence....and 'booom' Sept 11..next day..."
As is typical with 'trolls', it's simple lies and fantasy. Was she lying when she reported in 2003 that she had JUST THEN come to alt.freemasonry to do some "research" or did she simply forget her prior visit during the horrific events of 9/11? And, of course, there's the pesky little fact that 697 messages were recorded by Google between 7 September 2001 and 11 September 2001 as appearing on alt.freemasonry? In fact, for YEARS we have had a comment here on our site about the 46 nearly identical ones written by Mike Restivo during the hours of the attack.
In 2004, this individual admitted using the identities of wyka, beaver folk, Princessa, neutral observer, Andrew, Sinner, lovetohear, curious, and allergic but yet decries Masons for being dishonest. Her list of bizarre claims is now near legendary and range from posts about the domination of her (then) city by Masons because there were delivery trucks that had "Bros." written on them there {yes, you read that correctly: if a truck says "Smith Bros.", they're Masons sending subtle messages to everyone that they control everything!} on through assertions that the Masons had discovered her true identity and caused telemarketers to start calling her on the telephone asking personal questions. Claiming to be a doctor, she was unable to answer basic medical questions propounded to her by another Mason on the newsgroup - things even a high school biology student should have been able to respond to without hesitation. She claimed that she'd need to look it up in her books, then packed for a supposed departure to Europe.
The bizarre behavior continued with "Michel and Sophi" appearing to tell everyone that Marta had to rush off to take care of her hospitalized son and that they were house-sitting and replying to messages on her behalf. Sometimes feigning ignorance of the newsgroup's past history and sometimes only minutes later showing that they had FAR more background information than they revealed, they would do a 'tag-team' performance claiming that it was first one and then the other (both ALSO doctors, they claimed) who were answering. They insulted and berated practically anyone and everyone who dared to suggest that this was just another 'nym' silliness. The thinly-veiled facade was only abandoned several months later in mid-April, 2005. "Marta" as of Fall, 2005 was using - strangely enough - the "Michel & Sophi" e-mail address and the two formerly SO involved personages simply disappeared. How bizarre. Later it appears that she saw this page and simply abandoned the "Michel and Sophi" foolishness altogether to return to her "Beaverfolk" pseudonym.
Why does someone need more than eight different guises? "Marta" had an answer for it: she's afraid of Masons - but, of course, that foolishness was created 'on the fly' as Masons began to easily identify the written affectation she adopted, ostensibly reflecting her 'European' heritage. Because this site's author has been primarily responsible for identifying her foolishness, she attempts to discredit him and makes incorrect and unsubstantiated contentions on a regular basis. Here, admitting her duplicity, is a minor example and, as is SO very typical for alt.freemasonry posters, a promise that they're leaving simply means that they're going to change their identity and come back again - as "Marta" has proven often.
"Marta" feigns being aggrieved by being mentioned here and vows that she will never leave the alt.freemasonry venue as long as this continues. This, of course, ignores the reality that no one would know her anywhere if she bit them on the leg - and that in the United States' 1990 census, there were some 73,944 others with the name "Marta". She'll claim it's irrelevant since she's supposedly in Canada though: Poor 'Marta'....
In addition to her ability to twist anyone's simple statements into a Gordian knot, we'd also note that this individual has had the remarkable ability to totally ignore the egregious behavior of "Norwood Holden" when he engaged in spewing profanity and to further incite, she engaged in ridiculous irrelevant casual personal conversation with him. She has also 'warned' others that alt.freemasonry was "HER" newgroup....
Why would a supposedly retired self-claimed doctor spend her time harassing and haranguing Freemasons, the folks who ostensibly are harassing her and who, she claims, might have been responsible for kidnapping her friend's dog [more on that later]? Aren't there more important things in life? Apparently for 'Marta', Chris, and a handful of others, the answer is "no".
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Oh, wait: it gets even better. Now poor doctor 'Marta' is reported - by the individual who has taken over her internet account - to be dead. Apparently our commentary about a doctor sitting around all day prodding people on Usenet was too much to bear so another identity needed to be created. NENA has appeared telling us that doctors 'Michel and Sophi' have left the house and she has moved in although she's being very careful not to mention her/his occupation. 'Nena' is not all that forthcoming about much of anything, preferring instead to simply try and cast aspersions wherever and whenever s/he can find even the flimsiest of excuses. Needless to say, there have been no obituaries in Canada about a doctor named 'Marta' nor is 'Nena' willing to share any confirming facts. We're just supposed to believe it all. It is to laugh. As 2006 ended, 'Nena; began once more to discuss the validity of the book by Jim Shaw - something previously done by 'Beaverfolk' before he/she moved from the east to the west coast of Canada. 'Nena' divulges that this book was (conveniently) left behind by 'Marta' and wants to convince folks that the Masons have eradicated all of the traces that Shaw actually did receive the 33rd Degree of the Scottish Rite as he claims.
And then, Marta REALLY DID DIE!
Marta Mroz, born in Poland on January 1, 1942, passed away peacefully with her son at her side at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Canada on Thursday, August 2, 2007 due to complications after surgery. Nena disappeared at just that time after writing that Marta was going in the hospital.
It's hard to
believe that an adult - a 65 year old woman (no obituary mention of her being a
doctor) would behave this way but, in the whacky world of
anti-Masonry, it's just another day in the life!
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