Such is life : A domain investor with a dark past, will have to live with the consequences of a bad domain registration.
Thomas Man, from Peoria, Illinois, registered the domain name of a serial killer, who had been on the run since 1987.
In doing so, he set up a single page lander with his own mugshot from that time, and the message:
“Living la vida loca under a new identity for 30+ years, come and get me fuckers LOL!”
Federal prosecutors examined data from the WHOIS and matched the digital DNA to Tom Rufus Manjewski, who killed 6 people in Peoria between 1985 to 1987, most of them transients.
By following the money path, the FBI subpoenaed Manjewski’s information from the domain’s Registrar, and arrested “Thomas Man” as he was listing domains for sale, on a popular domain forum.
“This individual is a hardened criminal, but also as dumb as a doorknob,” said FBI agent Sparky Badger.
“We caught him thanks to our research team that scours the deepest dark web and the not so dark web for such posts on committed crimes, bragging about their past,” added Badger, clicking on a NamePros for sale thread.
Manjewski is facing mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Killer’s domain – Photo by Robert Hickerson on Unsplash
