Assumption A or B? No, assumption C
I stumbled on a story and didn't know it.
A little over a week ago, I reproduced part of a MySpace profile that I found:
John Mark Karr II
"Bay Area Metal"
Male
15 years old
PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA
United States
Last Login: 8/16/2006
At the time, I figured that the name of this MySpace profile resulted from one of two things:
- "An unfortunate coincidence." In this case, I assumed that some poor unfortunate guy just happened to have the same name as an alleged killer.
- "A purposeful choice." In this case, I assumed that some sicko death metal dude decided to adopt the name of an alleged killer for his MySpace profile.
Afterwards, I noticed that Blogpatrol was recording a number of search hits on my blog for the search term "John Mark Karr II," but thought nothing of it.
In addition, I noticed that the profile had been deleted. My internal reaction at the time? "Serves the metal dude right for adopting the name of an alleged killer." (Well, perhaps "alleged" might not have entered my thought processes.)
Boy, was I wrong.
I finally did my own Google search for John Mark Karr II. My blog entry was number 19 on the list, but the ones in front of it were very interesting.
Here's part of a cached version (as of August 22) of a Wikipedia article:
He married Lara Knutson in Alabama on May 19, 1989, when he was 24 and when she was 16 and pregnant. She was carrying twin daughters which were delivered via a home birth on September 1, 1989. The girls, named Angel and Innocence, died later that day. The couple went on to have three boys in close succession: John Mark Karr II was born in 1990....They divorced in 2001 following his arrest for five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography in Petaluma, California.
Bad Politics, in a post dated August 17 (GMT), includes this information:
This MySpace profile is of a person 18 who lives in the same city that John did. The profile name is "Stop Sceaming I'm Only Killing You." This profile had a friend named John Mark Karr II, who's profile was here, but is gone. Some of this information disappeared just today.
The John Mark Karr II on MySpace was a member of Sonoma Country Metal group. He left a comment on this profile; "It just kind of depends on my work schedual and other things. Good luck regardless! ^_^ John Mark Karr II". He also left a comment this profile; "hey dude do u wanna chill tonight John Mark Karr II".
More comments here with a pic.
5/28/2006 8:21 PM
guess what you guys need to do.....
Go the Phoenix thats what!!!!
Get your metal ass's over hear!
2/8/2006 6:59 AM
I know about that show. My friend told me about you , (you commented on one of his pictures, we were the ones playing the master of puppets solo) and really want to see you guys! You should playat the pheonix tho, you would love playing there!
More comments here.
7/24/2006 4:20 PM
Kel Mitchel isnt dead, it is an internet hoax
Assuming this John Mark Karr II is about 25 years younger than the one charge, it is highly likely that this is his son.
A commenter at historymike offers the following:
...John Mark II's myspace alias is (or rather, was) "johnthereaper616."
Within minutes of Karr's name being announced on TV, I too located that myspace page with a photo of "John Mark Karr II," then clicked over to John Mark II's page. It pays to move fast; within a couple of hours, that page was taken down. Also, John Mark II's friend photo was removed from the "Stop Sceaming" page.
John Mark II, who described himself as a 15-year-old (making him, chillingly, roughly the same age as JonBenet), featured a picture of himself with an electric guitar. The words "Bay Area Metal" were featured on his page, but any further content was restricted to registered "friends."
If this is indeed the accused murderer's son, imagine the hell that he's in for now, carrying what may become one of the most notorious names in the annals of American crime.
And if indeed he is the accused murderer's son, you'll soon be hearing about him in the mainstream media, as tabloid and non-tabloid reporters alike swarm all over this story.
Ignore all of the pedophila for a moment. This is someone who went through a divorce at about age 11, then ended up living with his mom in suburban northern California. Going to high school in the Sonoma/Marin area, no dad, hanging out, listening to metal. Not seeing dad, who's off traveling somewhere. Divorce can be tough (and if you don't believe it, I can show you the MySpace profile of one teen who's going through a pretty tough time).
Now add some of the circumstances behind the divorce - dad losing his job, accusations that even an 11 year old probably heard about.
Now, to top it all off, dad makes the international news for claiming to commit a horrific crime. And since he shares your name, your MySpace is getting umpteen million hits, including hits from people like me who assume that the name is just a joke.
I jumped to unwarranted conclusions, for which I should apologize.
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