Date |
Incident |
| Friday, May 2, 1997 | The Unsolved Mysteries episode aired. They did not go into as much detail on this particular story as they originally intended, as the producer didn't do all the background work in time and did not get copies of Hillyard's criminal records. Without verifying the convictions themselves, they couldn't mention them on the air. They did not interview Hillyard or any other stalker/harasser on the show. They did use a photograph that Hillyard had posted on one of his own web sites, and identified Hillyard as the person who had been arrested for harassing me (they blocked the faces of Hillyard's wife and children). |
| Sunday, May 4, 1997 | Someone went on several IRC channels impersonating me, asking for "sexy email" and promising "hot chat." I got several sexually explicit emails from men strange men, and one of them was able to give me a small piece of a chat log from the channel #cybersex showing that the impersonator claimed to be (~technomom@user-37kb5t3.dialup.mindspring.com.
From Sun May 04 05:00:55 1997 (give or take an hour or so):
**Joins: lusty_meg (~technomom@user-37kb5t3.dialup.mindspring.com) <lusty_meg> I want some sexy email. technomom@mindspring.com <lusty_meg> The best email I get in the next 5 minutes, I will chat private! technomom@mindspring.com <lusty_meg> ooohhh, technomom is oozing and dripping. technomom@mindspring.comUnfortunately, MindSpring doesn't keep IRC logs around long, and by the time I was able to get that the records were gone. I doubt the impersonator was really using a MindSpring account, anyway, as it is, apparently, possible to make it look as though you're coming from a server to which you do not have access. I've never been into IRC, so I know far less about it than email and newsgroups. |
| Monday, May 5, 1997 | On May 5 someone claiming to be Kay Ball Hillyard, Richard Hillyard's wife, called the production offices of Unsolved Mysteries and threatened to sue them for not giving the Hillyards "equal time." |
| Tuesday, May6, 1997 | Hillyard spammed more newsgroups using doha.net. |
| Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10, 1997 | Dick Cowared made three newsgroup posts to alt.sex using basement.replay.com. They said that I was looking for a sex partner. Of course I got more emails, but as many times as I'd been through this by then I had the form letter responses out pretty quickly. |
| Wednesday, May 14 and Thursday, May 15, 1997 | Dick Coward posted seven more sexually explicit ads using basement.replay.com. Three were posted to alt.sex seeking "juicy email" or telling "free spirits" to contact me. Four were posted to alt.sex.prostitution and promised "Pay for 1/2 hour, get 1/2 hour free." Dick must spend an awful lot of time in alt.sex and alt.sex.prostitution! |
| Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31, 1997 | Dick Coward started reposting a message originally posted to mindspring.local.atlanta advertising a local MindSpring users gathering. He used the replay.com anonymous posting service and changed the subject line to " Official 'Crash The Mindspring Party' Party." He added the following text to some of his posts in an attempt to scare off potential attendees.
The local Mindspring users are hosting a gathering at Cyberstache on Saturday. Following is the official announcement. So far 14 of us non-mindspringers are going to show up to see the "fat lady sing". You know, "it's not over until it's over". It's a long story but worth showing up for.Someone else was cancelling the posts as they appeared. |
| Saturday, June 7, 1997 | Dick Coward slunk over to basement.replay.com's web site to post four more prostitution ads to alt.sex, alt.sex.brothels, alt.sex.prostitution and alt.sex.services. This time they referred to me as "Mistress Cynthia" and directed those interested to email me or to see my picture on the web on another MindSpring member's page (that person runs an unofficial MindSpring user's photo gallery, and is in no way associated with Hillyard or this harassment--he has, in fact, been more than helpful). Hillyard posted another ad for his web site in atl.general using ibm.net. |
| Monday, June 9, 1997 | Hillyard posted another ad for his web site in atl.general using ibm.net. |
| Thursday, June 12, 1997 | Hillyard spammed many more newsgroups, using applied.net. |
| Thursday - Saturday, June 19-21, 1997 | Hillyard posted more ads for his web site in atl.general, using zippo.com - one each on the 19th and 20th and two on the 21st (the second one was a new angle, advertising Atlanta Movie Guides--just links to other sites, certainly, since he's never actually been able to create any content for his site). |
| Monday, June 23, 1997 | Hillyard posted more ads to atl.general using zippo.com and ibm.net. |
| Tuesday, June 24, 1997 | Hillyard spammed an incredible number newsgroups, using a usa.net return address. I'm not sure which news server he was using, as I don't have the full headers for this post. |
| Saturday, June 28, 1997 | Hillyard posted an ad in soc.religion.christian.bible-study using a new account at mcs.net. He posted two more ads to atl.general using his ibm.net account. |
| Sunday, June 29, 1997 | This time Hillyard hit soc.religion.christian posting thru rutgers.edu. |
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