Commentary
Woman Travels 200+ Miles to Kill Internet Commenter
- by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 1, 2010
Forget all those pleas for civility based on simple respect for other human beings. There's an even better reason to watch what you say about other people online: one of them might just snap and try to kill you. And don't assume simple things like distance or sanity will protect you.
These are the lessons of the saga of Breana Greathouse, 25, who drove several hundred miles from Kansas City, Missouri to Ottumwa, Iowa, to shoot a certain Forrest Jamison, whom she blamed for posting derogatory comments about her on the Internet. Fortunately her Midwestern odyssey, which the Coen Bros. might want to consider adapting for the screen, ended in failure when she was arrested by Ottumwa police for waving her gun around like the unhinged maniac she is.
Also, they arrested her mom, Susan Greathouse, 50, for threatening Jamison over the phone.
It's not clear just what Jamison said to provoke Greathouse to look up his address, arm herself, get in a car, and drive five hours to kill him, but it must have been pretty bad. I searched for her name on Google and came up with a bunch of links to videos with unflattering titles, like "Breanna Greathouse of Kansas City Gets Dissed UGHH," but the videos themselves had all been taken down.
Then I found what I believe may be the offending document -- a post on an online forum called UndergroundHipHop.com, dated September 23, 2010, insulting "Breanna Greathouse" in terms so vile I can't bring myself to even allude to them in circumlocutory fashion. Needless to say, this is just a hunch. But if you were looking for online comments that could plausibly make someone want to kill someone else, these fit the bill.
I'm not saying the murder attempt was justified, of course, and there's clearly more to the story: Greathouse's brother told one local news station that his sister had endured years of teasing, and one of the links to an insulting video (which had been taken down) alluded to supposed mental illness. Meanwhile the pacifist in me says "living well is the best revenge," but since this didn't seem to be possible in this case, Greathouse opted for the next best thing: shoot the sumbitch.
Erik Sass is editor of Publishers Daily. You can reach Erik at eriksass@gmail.com.
Shocking story, hilarious article. Bravo.
Love the way you write! Very funny.
For what it's worth, it's part of the theatre of hip-hop that people diss one another, conduct long-running feuds, and commit acts of violence in revenge for slights against dignity. That this trope should play out online (and that online should escalate the trope by making disputes more public and documenting them in permanence) is, at a certain level, unsurprising, no?
Sounds like cyberbullying.
It's great inspiration for a novel. At the same time, if what the article says is true, then it's a shame she didn't manage to shoot the jerk before she was caught. It's time people realize that what they post online can do serious damage. Putting crap about someone online shows a serious lack of concern for anyone else. Not only is it cyberbullying, but as far as I'm concerned, if she had succeeded in killing him, she should have a solid case for justifiable homicide.