Murder suspects outed on web

January 16, 2006 2:52 PM

So the Florida kids who beat up three homeless men (killing one of them) were apparently outed to the police on a website discussion forum about street racing. Anyone know (or able to google) the site? I'm always interested when real-live criminal suspects have some connection to an on-line community. It would be interesting (maybe even worthy of the Blue) to see the web discussion forum that led to murder charges.

I'm sorry I don't know how to make a link in AskMe (without the buttons), but you can read about the website outing here: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sfl-chomeless16jan16,0,7763510.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

I haven't been able to find anything on google using combinations of the suspects' names and "racing," "Florida," "tuner," etc.

posted by Mid to technology (12 comments total)

it doesn't say car racing anywhere. is that obvious from the context?
posted by andrew cooke at 3:52 PM on January 16, 2006

linky for clicky
posted by twiggy at 3:57 PM on January 16, 2006

I spent about 20 min trying all sorts of searches but came up with nothing. Now I'm intrigued how a forum could avoid being in google.
posted by mathowie at 4:13 PM on January 16, 2006

robots.txt?
posted by stet at 4:19 PM on January 16, 2006

just answering my own point, this from miami herald

A website for people who like to soup up their cars and race them was abuzz with messages on Sunday from teenagers who claimed to know both the boys. Most of the messages expressed disgust for the beatings.

Several messages said the homeless beatings were similar to the scene in the movie A Clockwork Orange in which a band of merciless thugs bludgeon a homeless man for kicks.

("clockwork orange" seems like a nice phrase to search for)
posted by andrew cooke at 4:23 PM on January 16, 2006

I knew I couldn't be the only one who thought the video was reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange.
posted by saraswati at 5:48 PM on January 16, 2006

not sure, but was it this you're looking for?
posted by MetaMonkey at 5:48 PM on January 16, 2006

That looks like it! How did you find it?
posted by Mid at 5:54 PM on January 16, 2006

I googled:

[ lauderdale +"fl racing" +forum ]

Took about 5 permutations of the above words (I started with +racing and +lauderdale) and then with that combo it pops out as 11th link. The trick is to identify the causes of mis-hits, and try to think of likely unique phrases.
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:01 PM on January 16, 2006

So, the comment identifying Tom Daugherty was made by "notchcrazy" at 10:59 pm on 1/12, which was less than a day after the beatings. Not clear if it was that comment or a telephone tip that actually alerted the police. But, it sure looks like it was that comment that gave the press the name.

Looks the like suspects were not participants in the forum, which sort of diminishes the interest (don't think I'll do an FPP).

Still, interesting. Thanks, MetaMonkey!
posted by Mid at 6:44 PM on January 16, 2006

For the record, if you're interested in criminal activity that has a huge online community, the @$$holes who run dogfighting rings are aparently rather internet-savvy. They managed to post quite a bit of stupid and hateful things about LA/SPCA executive director Laura Maloney when she helped shut down a huge dog fighting "kennel" this past summer.
posted by radioamy at 10:32 PM on January 16, 2006

thanks!
posted by andrew cooke at 4:10 AM on January 17, 2006