Re: Off topic--spam, why does it work?

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

At 05:57 PM 9/4/03 -0800, J. R. Fox wrote:

>Maybe even then. If you have ever been to a major gun show, or any other
>forum that caters to paranoid subcultures or where survivalist merchandise
is sold,
>you will pass by some dealer tables where they are selling certain
underground
>books from little known presses. These books and pamphlets deal with
subjects like
>establishing fake identities, how to disappear or avoid tracking if people
may be
>looking for you, and how to live and function "under the radar" of our
modern
>world. That includes getting money, and being able to move it. Needless
to say,
>such tradecraft would prove quite useful not just to miscellaneous
paranoids and
>Ruby Ridge types, but also to assorted criminals and terrorists. I can't
quote you
>any specific examples of what these books instruct, because I've never had
occasion
>to research this. (Though I do admit some curiosity about the subject,
and could
>hazard a few wild guesses.)

You're thinking of Paladin Press. http://www.paladin-press.com/ They used
to publish books like The Poor Man's Sniper Rifle; 21 Techniques of Silent
Killing; Be Your Own Undertaker: How to Dispose of a Dead Body; 101 Sucker
Punches; Head Butts, Eye Gouging and Hair Pulling: A Scientific Approach to
Dirty Fighting; The Ancient Art of Strangulation; Fun, Games and Big Bangs:
The Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives; and Kill Without Joy: The
Complete How-to-Kill Book.

One of their books was "Hit Man", which purported to be a manual for
setting yourself up as a murder-for-hire contract killer. It was actually
written by a woman who didn't even own a gun, who got most of her
information from newspaper stories and movies. One guy took it seriously
and followed the manual to kill three people, including a child, in a
gruesome murder. The murderer was sentenced to death and the guy who hired
him was sentenced to life. The family of one of the victims sued Paladin
and later settled for about $5 million
http://www.westword.com/issues/1996-03-21/feature2.html/1/index.html One
of the terms of the suit was that Paladin stop selling Hit Man.

So for all their bluster, Paladin Press dropped the how-to-kill books and
now sells more traditional gun and combat books.

But Hit Man was posted on several web sites. It's hard to believe that
anyone could be so stupid as to believe it.

I used to know Lyle Stuart, who ran a publishing house with his own name
that specialized in controversial books, but he had his limits. He
published a karate book, but deleted the chapter on "how to kill", and
published the Anarchist's Cookbook, but then thought better of it and let
it go out of print.

Norman

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Norman Bauman
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