Monday, November 13, 2006

Update on the terrorist at the next desk

Judging from the lack of commentary, I guess I buried the lede in my previous story on Chad Castagana. He's the Freeper-turned-terrorist who seems to have operated out of the same Woodland Hills library used by yours truly when this blog got a-going. The guy's pathetic -- and yet (I'm probably revealing too much here), he makes me feel as though I've just met my evil twin. Like me, he's a politically-charged middle-aged West Valley guy of Italian heritage -- and "on fortune's cap, we are not the very button."

Remember that line from Capote? "It's like we grew up in the same house, only I went out the front door and he went out the back."

At any rate, Radar has published the most complete details yet available on this guy, including FBI agent Mary Hogan's affadavit requesting a search warrant. The information on that site confirms what my own preliminary digging had suggested: Chad, 39, is an unmarried, unemployed electrician who lives with his parents in a house on Baza Avenue owned by the 106 year old Geneva Castagana, probably Chad's paternal grandmother. A typical Freeper...?

At least I have a girlfriend, a dog, and what I laughingly refer to as a career.

A science fiction nerd, Chad also sent a threatening pseudo-anthrax letter to...

...dramatic pause...

...William Shatner! Or, as we call him in this household: William!! ......Shat!!!.......NER!!!! Can't you just visualize Chad dishing out grandma's spumoni while silently trying to decide whether Shatner or Keith Olbermann poses a greater threat to society?

Chad, it seems, has an affection for using memorable old stamps. That fondness led to his undoing, since it fixed him in the memory of a post office employee. He doesn't seem to have been the brightest guy ever to attempt this sort of thing.

Update to the update: Okay, so I mis-read the affidavit. It seems William Shatner was not on the hit parade. Chad simply wanted to frame Shatner.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"an affection for using memorable old stamps"? That brings to mind the recent story of the upside down Jenny airplane stamp afixed to an absentee ballot sent into a Florida election commission, but uncountable. A very strange story, indeed. Do you thnk there could be any relation? Is someone covertly putting him up to these things?

Prof. Hex said...

Actually Joe, my reading of the affadavit indicates that Geneva Castagana is 78 years old and that Castagana only used the fake return address of Shatner, not that he sent him fake anthax (Fakethrax? Fanthrax?). He also used Barry White!

And nice catch, Ewastud. I wonder if there are reproductions of the Flying Jenny stamp that Castagana might have used.

Joseph Cannon said...

You're right about Shatner. Chad also used Jay Leno as a return address. I'm still tickled by the image of an inept terrorist trying to decide whether to terrorize Shatner or Olbermann. What can I say? Strange things amuse me...

As for Geneva's age -- well, I suppose I could check it out personally. But for now, go to www.whowhere.com, type in "Castagana" and give the state as CA. You'll see what I mean.

Anonymous said...

I'm taking a sick pleasure in the fact that his first name is Chad. My psychotic, misogynist ex-boyfriend is named Chad, and is also of Italian descent. This guy sounds a lot like my ex, actually, except for his age.

com23 said...

It seems Karl Rove shares Chad's affection for old stamps. Coincidence? (See the latest issue of Vanity Fair for more on this topic.)

Anonymous said...

It's been one of the oddest things that many of these criminal "freepers" are from California. Reminds me of that creepy CPS/San Diego Union Tribune's dispicable sting of truthteller Diana Napolis.