Don't Hire Assassins Via The Web
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:42 pm
A killer job
Woman charged with trying to find murderer-for-hire on Internet
by PHILIP JACKMAN
[url=\"http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080129.whitlist29/BNStory/International/?cid=al_gam_nletter_dtechal\"]From Tuesday's Globe and Mail[/url]
If you need a contract killer, it's probably not a very good idea to look for one on the Internet.
That's what Ann Marie Linscott, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., has been charged with doing, police said on Sunday.
She'd been having an affair with a married man and allegedly tried to hire someone to bump off her lover's wife by posting a classified ad on the popular website Craigslist in November, 2007.
According to court documents, the job description was advertised simply as “Freelance” with no further information provided.
Three individuals – a man and two women – responded to Ms. Linscott by e-mail, one of them thinking the ad was for a freelance writing job, and each, according to the documents, was asked by her to “eradicate a female living in Oroville, California” and was given a description of the intended victim, her age and her employment address.
On two separate occasions, the documents say, she said she needed “silent assassins” and offered payment of $5,000 upon completion of “the eradication task.”
“Asked what she meant by ‘eradicate,' Ann Marie said: ‘Duh. Well, to have her killed,'” court documents said.
“It's the first time in my experience that I've seen anything like this,” FBI special agent Steve Dupré said in a telephone interview from Sacramento, Calif., Monday.
“We've seen some of the other traditional types of crime start to migrate to the Internet” such as prostitution and lots of white-collar fraud scams, “but this is certainly unusual. I'm not sure we're going to see a growing trend in this area.”
Ms. Linscott is facing extradition to Northern California where the charges were filed against her. Her hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Grand Rapids.
According to an FBI statement, the potential victim's husband acknowledged meeting Ms. Linscott through an online college course in 2004 or 2005. He and Ms. Linscott “developed a very deep and intimate online relationship.”
The intended victim's husband said he first met Ms. Linscott in person when he went to Reno, Nev., in July, 2005, to attend a conference. Ms. Linscott “spent two days with the husband in Reno and during those two days they had sexual relations,” said the FBI statement.
Ms. Linscott also visited the husband in Butte County, Calif., in May, 2007, and since then they have kept in touch by telephone and e-mail, the FBI said.
“Out of 550 million classified ads posted over 12 years, this is the first such incident that we're aware of,” Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “But again, the ad itself was generic, and we're not a party to subsequent private e-mail communications.”
Woman charged with trying to find murderer-for-hire on Internet
by PHILIP JACKMAN
[url=\"http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080129.whitlist29/BNStory/International/?cid=al_gam_nletter_dtechal\"]From Tuesday's Globe and Mail[/url]
If you need a contract killer, it's probably not a very good idea to look for one on the Internet.
That's what Ann Marie Linscott, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., has been charged with doing, police said on Sunday.
She'd been having an affair with a married man and allegedly tried to hire someone to bump off her lover's wife by posting a classified ad on the popular website Craigslist in November, 2007.
According to court documents, the job description was advertised simply as “Freelance” with no further information provided.
Three individuals – a man and two women – responded to Ms. Linscott by e-mail, one of them thinking the ad was for a freelance writing job, and each, according to the documents, was asked by her to “eradicate a female living in Oroville, California” and was given a description of the intended victim, her age and her employment address.
On two separate occasions, the documents say, she said she needed “silent assassins” and offered payment of $5,000 upon completion of “the eradication task.”
“Asked what she meant by ‘eradicate,' Ann Marie said: ‘Duh. Well, to have her killed,'” court documents said.
“It's the first time in my experience that I've seen anything like this,” FBI special agent Steve Dupré said in a telephone interview from Sacramento, Calif., Monday.
“We've seen some of the other traditional types of crime start to migrate to the Internet” such as prostitution and lots of white-collar fraud scams, “but this is certainly unusual. I'm not sure we're going to see a growing trend in this area.”
Ms. Linscott is facing extradition to Northern California where the charges were filed against her. Her hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in Grand Rapids.
According to an FBI statement, the potential victim's husband acknowledged meeting Ms. Linscott through an online college course in 2004 or 2005. He and Ms. Linscott “developed a very deep and intimate online relationship.”
The intended victim's husband said he first met Ms. Linscott in person when he went to Reno, Nev., in July, 2005, to attend a conference. Ms. Linscott “spent two days with the husband in Reno and during those two days they had sexual relations,” said the FBI statement.
Ms. Linscott also visited the husband in Butte County, Calif., in May, 2007, and since then they have kept in touch by telephone and e-mail, the FBI said.
“Out of 550 million classified ads posted over 12 years, this is the first such incident that we're aware of,” Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “But again, the ad itself was generic, and we're not a party to subsequent private e-mail communications.”