Case Of Online Attacks Against Shale Supporters Takes Bizarre Twist
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's the latest chapter of the Jesse White saga. He's the local state representative who admitted to using online aliases to bully constituents.
KD Investigator Andy Sheehan broke the story, and now it's taking a bizarre twist.
White concedes he did it; used fake names to attack people on the Internet. But of the half dozen or so aliases used to post his attacks, the most disturbing one is Victoria Adams.
A beautiful young woman whose fake Facebook profile said she resided in Pittsburgh, Pa.
But until recently, there were only three people named Victoria Adams in Pennsylvania.
Two of them are considerably older, and a third was a 19-year-old woman who was murdered in the Poconos three years ago.
Sheehan: "But you believe he actually used this poor murdered girl's name?"
MDS Energy Development's Michael Knapp: "Absolutely."
Knapp, an oil and gas public relations spokesperson who has tracked White's activities on the Internet, says it is a practice called "ghosting," using the name of someone famous or dead to hide your own identity.
"Anybody that's followed some of the things the representative has done, this actually, unfortunately wouldn't even top the list," said Knapp.
But today in an email, White denied he used the dead woman's name:
"As I acknowledged yesterday, I assumed various aliases to post comments online anonymously - actions which I acknowledge were wrong and for which I apologized."
"Among those aliases I used was a fictitious person named 'Victoria Adams,' but I did not assume the identity of any real person named Victoria Adams. Any allegation that I assumed the identity of any real person named 'Victoria Adams' is false."
White goes on to say that the photo he used was not of the woman murdered in the Poconos, but a stock photo he found online. But the representative now finds himself mired deeply in controversy and finding it difficult to get himself out.
RELATED LINKS:
Online Attacks Prompt Calls For Ethics Investigations (5/31/13)
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