Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it again! (1 Viewer)

[piratio]

[SIZE=-2] A dead lover walking: US woman conned by 'Irish Army Ranger' [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]RALPH RIEGEL
in Cork, and
JEROME REILLY [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]AMERICAN woman Pamela Olson was so devastated when told that her Irish lover had been killed while saving a child during a gun battle in Iraq that she set up a web page to honour her fallen hero. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Friends from all over the world were heartbroken at her news. They wrote messages of support and pledged to help Ms Olson through her loss. Some reminded her of his sacrifice for Iraqi freedom. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]But now she has been told her dead hero is not only actually alive and well, but apparently married and living happily in Cork. He is also not in fact an elite soldier, but a humble Irish sailor serving aboard a navy ship. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]And in revenge at his apparent Walter Mitty stories, the pretty but credulous 24-year-old Oklahoma student has told the whole story on the internet, accusing her former beau of being a fantasist. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]She says she was furious when she learned that the 25-year-old Corkman was not an Army Ranger, didn't play rugby for Munster, never drove a Harley Davidson across Russia, nor served with gallantry in war-torn East Timor and the Lebanon. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]In fact the man, from East Cork - and whose identity is known to the Sunday Independent - was an ordinary sailor with the Irish navy who allegedly created a heroic and often hilarious Action Man persona, nicknamed "Neo" after the character played by Keanu Reeves in the action blockbuster The Matrix. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]He may have meant no harm, but Ms Olson is now full of bitterness and scorn for her former lover - whom she has lashed on the website that once honoured him. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]She told the Sunday Independent: "I felt I was in love with him and was devastated when I heard by email that he had been killed. I was furious when I realised it was all one great big lie." She added, "I was hurt when I found out the truth." [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]The Corkman's (Neo's) tales of derring-do had impressed the naive Ms Olson, whom he met while on holiday in Croatia in 2002. At the time he was a single man. [Actually, he was engaged to another girl and seeing a third girl at the time.] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Now, according to Ms Olson, he's "a lying douche bag", but the story of "Neo's" heroic life and faked death has attracted a cult readership to Ms Olson's web page, www.pamolson.org. The Irish sailor also told Ms Olson that he was a "quarter Cherokee", and created another alter ego called "Scott" to break the sad news that her lover had been killed in Iraq. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]He appears to have done so after Ms Olson indicated she wanted to come and visit him there. The account which "Scott" posted via electronic mail from the man's own email account reads like a Mills & Boon novel. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Scott wrote that Ms Olson's boyfriend was killed on May 1 while his unit was doing a "recon" patrol in southeastern Iraq, not far from the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]He allegedly wrote: "Out of nowhere a sniper fired on their unit. A radio operator from South Africa was hit in the chest and went down screaming. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"The foreign aid workers nearby dove for cover, as did X's men, but a small Iraqi girl, maybe eight years old, was left crying in the middle of the road. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"The UN soldiers returned fire but had no idea where the sniper was. X knew that the sniper would take a shot at the girl, the wounded radio operator, or the aid workers to draw them out of cover. He couldn't leave them there helpless. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"X leapt to his feet, grabbed the girl, and pushed her through an open door. It drew the sniper's fire long enough to let the medic get the radio man to cover." [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]But, in Scott's words, "the most unstoppable guy I ever met got stopped". [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"X was hit by four bullets, one to the left shoulder, two to the chest, and one to the left hip. His last words were, "Did I do OK, are they safe?" [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Ms Olson says she fell for this outrageous tale, which was designed to end their relationship for good. But, bereft and heartbroken at this tragic news, Ms Olson created a website honouring the Irishman she knew, the dashing inside centre who played rugby for Munster, had an honours degree in physics and maths and who saw the first plane crash into the World Trade Centre while on holiday in New York on 9/11. She only learned of the apparent deception when she contacted his mother to offer condolences. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"She told me in no uncertain terms that he was alive, well and recently married. It was quite a shock, but I was so glad he was alive I wasn't even angry. Just extremely perplexed," she explained. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Then, after publishing the details on her website, Ms Olson was contacted by several people in Cork as to the true details of her former lover's life. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"He led me quite a merry dance," Ms Olson has said. [This is how rumors get started...] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]"I've got over it now, but at the time I was very upset. When I set up the website, it was heartfelt and coming from true emotions at the time, but it turned out he was a big-time liar and charlatan who made up almost everything he told me - including his own death." [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]On the the other side of the Atlantic, the Corkman is clearly embarrassed that what may have started out as the harmless creation of an overactive imagination to spice up a friendship has escalated out of control. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Before packing up and getting out of his home town yesterday morning, he told the Irish Daily Star: "She has ruined my life." [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]The man was uncontactable for comment yesterday, either at his home or by telephone. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]However, locals admitted that the 25-year-old was "deeply shocked" by the allegations - and was maintaining that some photographs included on the US website of him with Ms Olson were digitally fabricated. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Locals admitted that his parents were deeply upset over the affair. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]It's understood the sailor has vehemently denied any suggestion that he claimed to have served in Iraq. "He seemed to be under enormous pressure over the last couple of weeks - he just wasn't his normal cheerful self," one neighbour declared. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]The Irish sailor told one person that the Oklahoma girl was determined to destroy his life and his career. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Last night, the Naval Service stressed that it couldn't possibly comment on the matter. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]However, it's understood the Defence Forces are set to regard the embarrassing claims as a strictly private matter - and the man is unlikely to face any form of military inquiry. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]When it emerged that the story was going to be leaked to the Irish media, the man contacted Haulbowline Naval Base to alert them to the allegations and Iraq claims. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]Senior politicians and Defence Force chiefs also expressed "grave concern" at the potential implications for Irish nationals in Iraq or the Middle East of any belief, however erroneous, that Ireland maintains elite military forces in the war-torn Middle Eastern country. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2]No member of the Irish defence forces is serving in Iraq.[/SIZE]

Take some time out of your day to read the whole tribute. It's hilarious!

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Where on her site is this tribute? I can't find it! Dying to know.

And it's funny, that article makes her look a bit like a gullible hick, and then you click on the website and she's anything but. Makes me wonder if maybe it wasn't that the East Cork lad was a particularly clever con artist, but actually that maybe it was a combination of her having seen stranger stuff, and a perfectly valid assumption that what someone tells you about him or herself has not just been pulled out of thin air.

I know the article isn't saying any of this per se, but the way she's described, I dunno, I was a bit surprised when I went to her website to find that she seems like a pretty interesting lady. Then there's the whole issue of him suggesting that this isn't much more serious than an FM 104 wind-up, and sher, it's just her fucking fault for falling for it,and the article kind of not challenging that.

I can't believe he hasn't been dismissed from the navy! Let alone the fact that another human being married someone who would prefer to fake his own death rather than just fucking suck it up and break up with the woman if he's not in love with her.

What a dick. I don't understand why the article doesn't out him.

 

[RSJ]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

I can't believe he hasn't been dismissed from the navy!

For what? Telling a few lies to get a ride in a far away port? If they fired everyone who did that, there'd be nobody on any of those ships.

Heard this story ages ago, though the version i heard he'd got her knocked up. Great stuff all the same.

 

[Unicron]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Where on her site is this tribute? I can't find it! Dying to know.

http://www.pamolson.org/Ronan.htm

 

[RSJ]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

He was wearing a black shirt with white letters that said, �too busy to fcuk�. I didn�t know �fcuk� were the initials of French Connection UK, a clothing brand, so my first impression was that he was obscene, aloof, and a bad speller.

This is amazing!

�Ah, you know. It�s what my grandfather did, and he was my hero. And I just realized I was the type that wouldn�t be happy without his hair on fire and both guns blazing. The navy board kept asking me all these fuck-off questions, and I was like, �Look, I�m three-quarters Celt and one-quarter Cherokee warrior. I can do your fuckin� job, OK?��

Hahahaha

The son of a bitch leveled his gun and shot one of the prisoners in the head. We couldn�t fucking believe it. We radioed to base again and said, �For God�s sake, this guy just executed a prisoner! We have to intervene!� Base said, �No, no, you can�t intervene.� So the guy shoots another prisoner in the head. We radio again, �Base, base, for Christ�s sake, we have to intervene!� He shoots the third prisoner in the head. I grabbed the last one, the little boy, and held him to my chest. With tears in my eyes I said, �Base, I�m bringing this boy in for his protection.� Base radioed back and said, �If you bring that boy back, it�s international kidnapping and your career.� I couldn�t fucking believe it. God knows I should have brought him back anyway, but I�d just disobeyed an order about a week before, I was hanging by a thread anyway, and disobeying the last order had been a mistake on my part. Anyway, I didn�t think anyone�anyone�could shoot an innocent kid in cold blood. I let the kid go, and� he shot him in the head.�

Ronan was silent for a moment. �I held that little boy�� He looked me in the eyes in horrified disbelief. �That�s the death of innocents.�

I had nothing to say. I�d never imagined anything like that.

Ah sweet jesus i can't believe she bought all this shite.

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

I think 'telling a few lies' is putting it mildly.

I don't think convincing someone you're dead is just telling a bit of a lie.

If he can't see what he did wrong, if he would happily show his mates a memorial site to himself on the internet, if he'd go to such lengths to pretend he is dead just because he didn't feel like being truthful, then would you, as a colleague in the military, trust him? It's not like just cheaing on someone or something, it's what it says about him psychologically that he would allow people to believe he was dead rather than own up to having done something much more minor.

 

[RSJ]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

If he can't see what he did wrong, if he would happily show his mates a memorial site to himself on the internet

Did you even read the article above?

[SIZE=-2]Before packing up and getting out of his home town yesterday morning, he told the Irish Daily Star: "She has ruined my life." [/SIZE]

 

[Unicron]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

I wonder if Irish men are routinely shits to American woman over the internet. I've a friend from New York who's big into the Irish American thing and averages one trip a year over here. About 3 years ago she met a guy and they hooked up and wound up staying in contact with him. Last year she came back over and arranged to meet up with him, they were getting on grand, all flirty and whatever and eventually when things got to a point where there was no place else to go he admitted to her that he was seeing someone. She wasn't heartbroken or anything she was just pissed that he'd strung her along, it was never a big thing for her but he was something for her to daydream about during periods when she wasn't seeing anyone at home.

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Did you even read the article above?

But the fact is, she didn't ruin his life, he did. He, posing as his own friend, suggested she set up the site in the first place. Presumably so he could have a laugh at her expense. And she's not an idiot for not being familiar with the FCUK brand. Unless you think that it's some universal duty for people to keep on top of her brands.

And I don't think anything he said would be considered unusual bragadoccio in the context of the way American military types speak. She was likely taken in by the combination of bravado and the mock sensitivity of a psychopath. I dunno. She was led to believe a man she was in love with was dead because he told her he'd been killed rather than admit he was a philanderer, and he blames her for wrecking his marriage. Fucking hell, that's some serious denial, and fairly sick to think that it's all down to her being gullible.

Or would you call anyone gullible and deserving of a fraud like this if they didn't automatically view everything you said with suspicion?

I just think that if he's clearly so psychologically disturbed as to do this and think that the consequences are someone else's fault, he should be considered unfit for military duty. Maybe it wouldn't affect another job in the same way, but military service is different.

 

[RSJ]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Honestly, i think calling him "psychologically disturbed" is more than a little over the top. The guy's obviously a prick for stringing her on, and the "she's ruining my life" thing is bullshit, but saying he's unfit for military duty... Not buying it at all. And i didn't think she was a buffoon for not being familiar with "the fcuk brand", i thought she was a buffoon for thinking he'd made this tshirt himself and was wearing it as an honest expression of his being "obscene, aloof, and a bad speller".

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

I wonder if Irish men are routinely shits to American woman over the internet. I've a friend from New York who's big into the Irish American thing and averages one trip a year over here. About 3 years ago she met a guy and they hooked up and wound up staying in contact with him. Last year she came back over and arranged to meet up with him, they were getting on grand, all flirty and whatever and eventually when things got to a point where there was no place else to go he admitted to her that he was seeing someone. She wasn't heartbroken or anything she was just pissed that he'd strung her along, it was never a big thing for her but he was something for her to daydream about during periods when she wasn't seeing anyone at home.

I don't want to generalise, but I do think that in Ireland, someone who'd be a bit of a sociopath anywhere, does take advantage of a combination of a perception that Americans are gullible (when really, it's probably more just being polite and accepting that people are telling the truth unless they seem obviously suspicious) and a disdain for that same kind of middle-class American optimism (because it's probably not a universal thing).

It's not an 'Irish male' thing, but a kind of way that a particular kind of dude mixed with a particularly kind of chick makes her a perfect target. Mix that with the begrudgery for intelligent women and a general begrudgery towards 'swots', and you've got an otherwise intelligent woman being taken for a ride and then being blamed for being gullible when actually, she just thought the dude was a nice guy, who was a little damaged and needed some extra sensitivity because of it.

I met a dude once, years ago, and he and I hung out a couple of times, nothing ever happened of note, but he was alright. He worked in Dublin during the week and came home to Cork at weekends. He'd given me his number, as you do. We had plans one night, and he stood me up. Fine. BEen there, done that, get the message.

But I'd lent him my favourite book and I just wanted to get it back. I'd already bought the damn thing twice, and he'd sworn that no matter what, he'd return it. So I left a message with his da, and left it at that, and I guess a part of me wanted him to feel bad for standing me up (because duh, it's fucking rude if nothing else).

Next thing, he calls up to my house in the middle of the night about a week later, flipping out that I called his house (Uh, you gave me your number) because girls didn't do that sort of thing, and then saying it was my fault that his da was all angry at him because he had a girlfriend, and bla bla blah. I was actually pretty amused, and the only thing that pissed me off was that he thought what he did to me was minor compared to how he'd treated his girlfriend.

And there was a sense coming from him that because I had a brain I should be put in my place, etc etc etc. I couldn't believe the way he was framing it. I asked him if he thought so little of his girlfriend that he was more concerned about his father being angry at him for chasing another woman, than he was about how that would make her feel if she knew.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily a cultural thing, just a way that a particular set of cultural and psychological and gender traits mix together to form something pretty nasty. But it's the blaming of the woman that is a wee bit perplexing.

EDIT: OH, and by the way, I just thought the guy was an idiot and a dick and genuinely felt bad for his girlfriend, but I fully expect for people to question my integrity for even making note of this incident. After all, it's my own fault for not automatically assuming that a guy who was expressing an interest in me was cheating on someone, my fault for making the assumption that if someone asks me out, it probably means he's single.

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Honestly, i think calling him "psychologically disturbed" is more than a little over the top. The guy's obviously a prick for stringing her on, and the "she's ruining my life" thing is bullshit, but saying he's unfit for military duty... Not buying it at all. And i didn't think she was a buffoon for not being familiar with "the fcuk brand", i thought she was a buffoon for thinking he'd made this tshirt himself and was wearing it as an honest expression of his being "obscene, aloof, and a bad speller".

Uh. I think the comment about the t-shirt was a bit of sarcasm.

And yeah, I think someone who does what he did is psychologically disturbed. It's one thing to concoct and elaborate lie. It makes him a liar and a bastard. But to blame the person who was lied to for his being a liar? That's not the behaviour of a person who should be trusted with a gun.

 

[c0De_n1NjA]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

I love this kind of lark. He's the best thing to come out of cork since the tour the france went up that big hill.

 

[Unicron]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

And there was a sense coming from him that because I had a brain I should be put in my place, etc etc etc.

Funny you should mention the smart woman thing because my friend is a lawyer. In her case I don't think it was a pathological thing from the guy in question where he wanted to put her in her place and more that either he was too spineless to admit to her that he'd started seeing someone or he viewed her as a chance for an easy, no consequences ride if she was ever over and he was single.

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Funny you should mention the smart woman thing because my friend is a lawyer. In her case I don't think it was a pathological thing from the guy in question where he wanted to put her in her place and more that either he was too spineless to admit to her that he'd started seeing someone or he viewed her as a chance for an easy, no consequences ride if she was ever over and he was single.

There's also a huge difference in the way the male-female dating/riding dynamic works in Ireland than in the US. The directors of the study-abroad organisation I used to work for actually have to include it as part of the student orientation. It saves a lot of heartache. There's still heartache, like, but they have it in a bit more perspective than they might have if they hadn't been told that guys don't call you even if they swear on their mother that they will.

And PS: the directors are Irish, not American. They present it as a sort of, "We don't condone this behaviour, but if you do experience it, do try not to take it personally."

It's the fact that when a spineless jerk is forced to acknowledge what he did, he will do whatever he can to take down the 'bitch' whom he had tried to toss away. It's not that this only happens in one type of situation, I just think that coming from a context that this kind of behaviour DOES happen in the US, and you'll find a lot of heroising of shits like this among the frat boy population. But you would be unlikely to find a generally indie-lefty music message board suggesting that he is some kind of legend.

I should say I also had an American dude do this to me, so like I'm saying, I can't say it's only a cultural thing, it's an intersection between social and gender dynamics of various kinds. This guy was making long distance calls to his real girlfriend from my house, which I only discovered when they showed up on the bill. Which was, incidentally, the dude's name. They play all vulnerable and then blame you for being gullible when you thought you were just being sensitive.

And I learned an important lesson: never trust a guy who cries on the first date. Sounds callous, I know. And perhaps naive of me, but I was 19.

 

[therealjohnny]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

T
never trust a guy who cries on the first date.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAAA




sorry




HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAA

EDIT:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAAA




sorry




HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAA

Given that most of the dudes who did this turned out to be lying shites, I don't know what's funnier: that I didn't learn from it the first time it happened, or that it was a regular enough occurrence that I had to make it a sort of personal rule of thumb.

For real. I always attracted guys like that.

I once had a friend -- I never dated him, I swear, and I was kind of only friends with him because I was a bit scared of him -- who lost the plot and I spent more than a few nights on the phone with him, bawling his eyes out, swearing that if I'd go out with him he'd give up being a coke fiend. Despite his best efforts to woo me in this fashion, I continued to spurn his advances.

It all came to a head when he called me with a gun in his hand and told me he was going to kill his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend, and himself if I didn't come down to his house. I told him that that wasn't going to happen, but ending up spending something like 9 hours on the phone with him trying to talk him down, then he promised everything would be fine. I should have called the cops afterward, but I was scared he'd come after me. The next time I saw the guy, I asked him if he was okay, and he pretended not to know what I was talking about. I didn't speak to him again after that.

I think he ended up going to jail for somehting else.

EDIT: For a while, I also had to have a few other rules of thumb I shouldn't have: Never date a convicted felon. Don't go on a second date with any guy who got in a fight on the first date. Etc etc.

 

[Unicron]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

There's also a huge difference in the way the male-female dating/riding dynamic works in Ireland than in the US.

Howso? Is it just that the Irish don't really seem to go on dates?

The directors of the study-abroad organisation I used to work for actually have to include it as part of the student orientation. It saves a lot of heartache. There's still heartache, like, but they have it in a bit more perspective than they might have if they hadn't been told that guys don't call you even if they swear on their mother that they will.

The J1 handbook has a bit in it basically saying that Americans don't "get" slagging and that if you say stuff to them that you might say here they'll think you're a rude asshole.

 

[RSJ]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

edit: i thought "cries" said "lies".

 

[jane]

Re: Dead Man Walking. This has probably been on here before but I love reading it aga

Howso? Is it just that the Irish don't really seem to go on dates?



The J1 handbook has a bit in it basically saying that Americans don't "get" slagging and that if you say stuff to them that you might say here they'll think you're a rude asshole.

It's a lot more complicated than just not going on dates.

And it's not that Americans can't slag each other, it's just that there's a lot of what's accepted as humour here that I think is just a 'hilarious' form of bullying. Americans do slag each other, it's just that in my experience, I've found that sometimes when I've been 'slagged' it's a way of saying something the slagger really does mean in earnest and using 'I was joking' as a way of avoiding the consequences of making someone feel really bad.

It's not that I do'nt like slagging, it's that where I come from, you have to have a certain type of relationship with someone, as in that there's an understanding that you give as good as you get, for slagging to be part of it. And different parts of the country have different attitudes toward humour. Bostonians and New Yorkers are a bit more direct and mouthy. But I would be less likely to slag someone from say, the rural midwest because I don't think they would do the same.

In Ireland, it seems that if you slag someone and they get upset, it's their fault for not being able to take a joke, when actually, if your joke backfires, it's kind of up to you to apologise, even if you didn't mean any harm.