It has finally been confirmed.
As many have long suspected, the characters behind the blogs Voyeur Nation, Smiley’s Place, Defying Despondency and many, many others, are all the work of one man. His name is not Steve. His name is not Joshua. His real name is Mark Whitecotton. And this is an intervention.
Marc aka “The_gay_Dude,” the character in Voyeur Nation, did not die. He was not battling cancer. He never existed. Nor does Joshua. Or Steve. They are all the sick creation of a troubled man living in the Baltimore area; a man who unflinchingly lies about the murder of a young girl one day, to pretending to be the bass player in the real Seattle band Diamond Fist Werny the next day; a man known for flirting online with others — using other people’s head shots for his profile photo — and then standing each and every guy up when they agree to meet in person; a man who confessed to another blogger back in ’06 that he did make up the Marc character in a moment of weakness and that he was embarrassed, yet still set up a guestbook and multiple tributes to carry out his charade; a man who berates and vilifies actual REAL people who dare question the authenticity of his stories; a man whose true identity was confirmed with a few Google searches, a phone call, a blog post, and with his own voice.
This blog was setup as a resource tool for anyone who stumbles upon his blogs or any other fake blog. To this day, Mark refuses to admit any wrongdoing. When discrepencies are pointed out, he edits his blog and twists the facts around, much like OJ Simpson, some would say. Despite the mountains of evidence, he insists that anyone who doubts him is just trying to bully him. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Clearly there are some mental health issues at work here and that needs to be taken very seriously, but by not calling him out on his lies is only enabling this behavior and preventing him from seeking the necessary medical treatment he desperately needs. In the long run, though, he deliberately deceives and hurts real people.
So sit back, relax, and gain insight into the mind of serial fibber through the Whitecotton Tales.
Several years ago there was a similar hoax in Australia perpetrated by a man who apparently (but who really knows?) is a radio DJ in Darwin. He had several blogs sequentially with different personae and eventually faked a horrid gay bashing that drew considerable sympathy and concern until it was masked as a total fake.
I don’t know what satisfaction it gives the hoaxer.
I suspected this for a long, long time.
I received this e-mail from Mr Pulignani today:
Subject: Head’s Up
Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008
Hey Peeps,
I’ve made it clear that I’m moving on and rising above all this drama which has lingered on for 6 months. The only problem is that those who want this drama are now going full force. I think I counted close to 12 bloggers writing about me today. I’m infamous. I stand by not talking about it on my blog. I’m going to do my best to ignore all of this. But I want to reiterate what I’ve said all along. If anyone has questions of me, ask me. I have nothing to hide. I just refuse to have people attempting to humiliate me. Because that’s what it comes down to. Humiliate and try to run off the net. I value you guys, as you are my regulars. And you are the ones who I have no problem discussing anything with. The rest of the world, I don’t feel I owe anything. Because no one deserves this kind of treatment.
Anyhow, I hope all have a good weekend.
Peace
Steve
Editor: “Because no one deserves this kind of treatment.” Exactly, Marc. You might want to ask Ard Hoyt if he deserved having a mentally unstable, lying individual such as yourself using his pictures fraudulently. I think you do owe it to your readers to explain why you used his pictures as if they were your own.
i found old “joshua” comments on a blog:
http://www.elmada.com/2006/12/ooops_i_did_it.html
http://www.elmada.com/2006/12/thick_and_thin.html