Earl Curley - Just *one* of Usenet's most infamous clown acts
Earl Curley had been around for ages. He was a denizen of BBS sites back when the WWW was just a dream. Even back then, Earl showed signs of the wonderful personality which landed him in so much trouble.
Earl claimed psychic powers, power and wealth.
Sadly, this was all imagination. If you challenged him, you were vilified. Earl had no problems passing accusations, claiming all sorts of wrongdoing on the part of his accusers.
Most notoriously, he got into troble with James Randi, accusing him of all sorts of stuff.
Randi Sued.
Earl hid in a cupboard for days while Randi was in Toronto.
From 1996 to 1998,I somehow came under particular fire from Earl.
Well, I challenged and exposed him at every possible opportunity, whenever he claimed anything outlandish.
Flame Wars on Usenet are not uncommon. However, even there, there are often rules.
What stays in Usenet, typically stays in Usenet.
Earl wasn't like that.
Earl was an alcoholic, so he couldn't help himself. In that, I guess I pity him.
That's not an excuse for his behaviour in public life, nor as a company executive.
Earl emailed my employer at the time with the most outrageous accusations that could be made.
Naturally, My employer realised that Earl was a kook and a liar, but they were a little concerned that someone was making accusations against a reasonably high profiled employee. They weren't going to fix it, but they enabled me to do so. So I went to Toronto in June 1998, in a very public fashion, to instigate legal action. Search in Google for "I'll See you in Toronto in June", and you will see what transpired.
Earl naturally hid once again.
The next few pages show some of the emails that went around over the time, including emails he sent as an executive of an internet company to one of the other usenet denizens, John Atkinson. We had to change the name, because one of the directors of that company wanted it so, and we complied. I'm keeping the pages, because it's just a little bit of history, and they reveal something of the personality We were dealing with
Other Links about Earl