Where did he go?

He's not at the Porter County Jail.

Do a google search, you won't find a shred of evidence that he was even arrested; google appears to have been wiped clean in the 'news' section.

the AMAZING Joe Cafasso

The Amazing Joe Cafasso: FBI Agent; CIA Operative; Delta Force Colonel; White House Staff; Secret Service Agent; Nuclear Weapons Inspector; Navy SEAL; Special Forces Lt Colonel; Navy Lt Commander; and NOW--FINALLY-- STORM CHASER for the US Government and NTSB Advisor….!!!

Joe Cafasso: “At Fox News the Colonel Who Wasn’t” - the story continues…

Joe Cafasso REALLY IS the Carteret Con Artist. His latest adventures include the arrest in Indiana on January 22, 2009 which was preceded by a typical Cafasso-esque scene: his forcing himself into a search and rescue operation at the Indiana Dunes; bragging that helicopters would appear which never did, and elbowing his way into the rescue tent and barking orders at everyone. Out of all the rescue personnel at the scene, it was Cafasso, AKA Robert Stormer, who was quoted by the press~! It was his strange behavior and injecting himself into the life of a widow that drew the attention of local authorities. A man who appears from nowhere with no past or friends and relatives should not be trusted. After his traffic stop where he had no valid identification, he was eventually arrested for ‘failure to appear’ in court. It was only then that he admitted that he was Joe Cafasso, but claimed he was going by an alias because spooks were after him.The charges, which interestingly enough, are not mentioned when you call the jail-are “providing false information” to law enforcement (he at first tried to tell him he was Robert Stormer before eventually admitting he is actually Joe Cafasso), “driving on a suspended license”, “speeding”, and using the name and social security number of a 13-year-old girl in Rhode Island whose name is Robin Storm (identity theft).

We always thought that Cafasso was just a blowhard con-man who used (among other things) fake military credentials to gain fame and fortune, mostly to stroke his ego and make a few easy bucks off the unsuspecting "mark". The true purpose of Cafasso’s lifelong con game only recently came to to light: Cafasso has been running a lonely heart's scam all this time. The list of the women left in his wake has grown considerably. And sadly, the most recent was a woman in Indiana: used, abused, and skipped out on.

A Mensa Girl- First, there was the "mark" in Washington DC, who Cafasso spun his CIA tales to. He got a job with FOX News as a Delta Force Colonel and served as their Military Analyst for the 2001-2002 Afghan war. He was exposed by Jack Idema and a bevy of real Special Forces officers in early 2002, and was then fired from FOX (NY Times- The Colonel Who Wasn’t). The woman brilliant: well educated, and well off, with her own townhouse in DC, but lonely. After six months with Cafasso she was broke, left alone standing at the altar, and in fear for her life. Cafasso told her that he was deep undercover with the CIA and if she ever complained about him she would die. She so believed this that she moved to a remote area of West Virginia, used a PO Box in another town, and went into hiding. It took 6 months for Special Forces soldiers to find her so Jack Idema could interview her. When they first showed up at her house, the woman said “please don’t kill me.” The response from Jack was, “What? What are you talking about? Are you crazy?” And then it all came out. Cafasso had led her to believe that there was already a CIA hit team looking for her. The interview was frightening; Cafasso had turned the woman’s life into a living hell, driving her from family and friends into a life of solitude and fear.

A Boston Girl- Then, there was a lady in Boston. Divorced, lonely, with a beautiful condo. Cafasso spun his web around her next. Five months later, after being outed in a bar by a Massachusetts police officer, Cafasso attacked Robin Moore, beating the old man for telling him he would not be part of Moore’s new Special Forces book. Moore was left with extensive bruises from the beating. Cafasso high-tailed it out of there. He left behind his new love and took her money. But, as fate would have it, in his haste to leave town, Cafasso also left behind two cartons of papers. Those papers later ended up in Jack Idema’s hands and painted a picture of extensive fraud by Cafasso, who was working with Ed Artis at Knightsbridge to fraudulently obtain USAID grants of millions of dollars posing as phony Knights and Colonels with phony PhDs.

A Columbia Girl- Mariah Blake. Then

A New York Girl- Stacy Sullivan. Then

A CNN Girl- Christine Dolan. Then

A Skinny Little Tramp Girl- Kathryn Kramer

A Classic Lonely Hearts Girl – Andrea Ello

And who else...??? The tale continues...

Stormer aka Cafasso; his subterfuge capsizes!

Storm, Stormer, Cafasso—A Subterfuge Capsizes - from the North Country Gazette.

Nice article, but I'm not quoting from it after having received a good scolding via email for having done so previously....despite my request INSIDE THE POST because I couldn't find contact information at the NCG!

Expert in many fields only an expert in cons

Joe Cafasso aka Robert Stormer in his Porter County Indiana Mug Shot

From that brilliant Andy Grimm at the Post-Tribune who has come the closest of all journalists to the real story:

Robert Stormer was making quite a name for himself in Porter County.

In the few months he lived here, he settled in with a Chesterton widow and bragged of his 18 years' experience as a storm chaser, his decorated career in the military, his successful business in Chicago, his passion for volunteer work, and his connections in New York and Washington.

That's typical of his profile; he is not satisfied being who he is; he needs to be someone else!

He gave well-attended seminars on severe weather at Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton, seeking publicity from local newspapers for his speech. He maintained a blog. He planned to host a talk show on a Michigan City radio station.

He gave well-attended seminars on severe weather at Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton, seeking publicity from local newspapers for his speech. He maintained a blog. He planned to host a talk show on a Michigan City radio station.

And to those he knew better, he hinted at a darker side to his life of adventure, of the scrutiny from Washington insiders, the FBI and the CIA.

And when a conservation officer stopped him on his way out of the state park Oct. 2, Bob Stormer was the name he gave.

And it turned out Robert Stormer wasn't his name at all.

It's a good thing they found out who he was at this point; and it's a good thing Tony kept searching for his name.

Under his given name of Joseph A. Cafasso Jr., "Rob Stormer" was charged with giving a false name to police, speeding and driving with a suspended license. He didn't show up for his November court date, and was arrested in January at the Jasper County Library in Wheatfield, where he had been scheduled to give a presentation on storm chasing.

Did you get that, "fly"? GIVING A FALSE NAME TO POLICE, along with the traffic violations which Cramer said wouldn't "stick"!

So far, he has not been able to pay the $500 bond, and remains in jail awaiting trial on the false informing and traffic charges.

I'm amazed that no one has bailed him out yet! Cramer, where are you? Or what about the Johnson fellow? There are some people who--no matter what he does--they have a tremendous amount of sympathy and excuses to offer for his behavior!

Conservation officers and the Chesterton Police said they have passed their investigation of Cafasso, ostensibly a traffic stop, to the FBI.

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it; nothing has happened in the past when people have reported about Cafasso to the FBI.  Cafasso as Lt. Col. Gerry Blackwood was passing his own information to the FBI...he was used as a source by the FBI!

The FBI would not comment on whether an investigation of Cafasso is in the works. Other than the traffic offenses, what crimes Cafasso might have committed in Northwest Indiana aren't clear.

That's the way it seems to be with him, although isn't embezzlement a crime--isn't embezzling money under a false name STILL FRAUD?

But it seems a bizarre reckoning for Cafasso, who in 2002 convinced Fox News executives that he was a retired lieutenant colonel and became a paid consultant on intelligence and military affairs for the network.

How did he do it? People who know him say it's a combination of sheer charisma -- and not just a little b.s.

You said it, ANDY!

After several months, the New York Times reported, it was revealed Cafasso's military experience amounted to 44 days in the Army in 1976. Fox fired him, and Cafasso later appeared in a documentary on the network, still claiming to be a decorated veteran and griping about Fox producers.

Of course, when he's not in control (or he is found out), he gets irritated and angry. That is when he is dangerous.

Cafasso was well on his way to winning over Department of Natural Resources staff at Dunes State Park, convincing them he was an expert on storms and marine salvage.

During his first presentation, Cafasso patched in calls with the mayor of Greensburg, Kan., whose town had been flattened by tornadoes in 2007, and a French yacht owner who had nearly died in a shipwreck in Tropical Storm Andrea, said Brad Baumgartner, a park worker who booked Cafasso for two speaking engagements.

"He was pretty good. There was nothing that he was saying that sounded like an inaccuracy," Baumgartner said. "To that time, we didn't know anything to say that he wasn't who he said he was."

Well, as discussed earlier, when questioned about his credentials he gets angry and considers it harassment. That might be a telling sign...

And who was he?

Fox officials believed Cafasso was indeed a former Special Forces officer who seemed to have connections throughout the Pentagon and on military bases across the country.

But Fox officials learned the truth-he spent only 44 days in the Army before someone figured something out-he was released as "unsuitable for service" from the Army-and for that reason and others (including his pompous attitude)- they fired him.

He met Andrea Ello, a Chesterton widow who responded to his profile on an on-line dating site. His username was "shipdude," and he posted a picture of himself wearing deep sea diving gear that obscured his face, and two photos of shipwrecks.

There are too many pictures of him out on the internet now; and there are too many people who are interested in his being caught and prosecuted. If only more of these women would come forward to declare what it is he did to them!

In his profile, he claimed to be 58-year-old "senior master salvor" from Chicago, who supervised the recovery of ships worldwide, a man with "twin engineering degrees" and an "associates in the culinary arts."

"Most importantly, and the love that I am married to is international humanitarian relief operations," the profile reads. "Yep got under my skin. Yes I like to travel maybe even with a new found love."

It makes no mention of his military experience or his work for Fox.

Well of course not! This man is not stupid! He is a consummate liar and his dating profile was a LURE!

Cafasso's passion for storm chasing also goes unmentioned, but he clearly knew a great deal about severe weather and sailing, said Jean Pierre de Lutz, the French expatriate whom Cafasso included in the conference call for his Dunes weather talk.

De Lutz and his two-man crew survived a harrowing shipwreck in the North Atlantic in 2007 aboard his boat, the Sean Seymour II, a story that was widely publicized in the sailing community both for its drama and because of equipment malfunctions that made the adventure all the more dangerous.

Unfortunately, he jumped right in to save the day - but things unraveled afterward and although he did a lot of things that were helpful, what he did afterward was completely despicable.

Reached at his home in France, de Lutz said Cafasso contacted him later in 2007, using the name Robert Stormer, and began what would become 18 months of intensive research into the wreck, which included complex forecasting simulations, flurries of correspondence with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, and de Lutz's team of three Orlando-based attorneys.

Yes, he has the ability to go that far with things undetected under the guise of being a do-gooder! And actually accomplishing some good things!

Cafasso's work, initially, led to changes in NOAA forecasting reports and reforms, de Lutz said. The Post-Tribune was unable to reach anyone from NOAA to confirm they had contact with Stormer or Cafasso.

It's unfortunate.  The NOAA would be somewhat embarrassed - just as it is with the FBI and other agencies he's dealt with in the past.

At any rate, Cafasso's findings took a turn to the fantastic, de Lutz said. Cafasso provided a series of e-mails that seemed to implicate senior NOAA officials and congressional leaders in a cover-up of sorts, de Lutz said. Cafasso and Ello stayed for three weeks in Orlando, hosted at the home of one of de Lutz's lawyers, as they prepared a lawsuit.

De Lutz's legal team was waiting for a key document to be released following a congressional hearing when Cafasso announced he had been called to aid a salvage crew dealing with a shipwreck off the coast of Newfoundland.

Kind of like his story about "I was in the North Sea when I got the call about Hurricane Katrina".  That was when he was using the name "Jay Cafasso" in Louisiana, if I recall.  He got caught up in the big tales he was telling to JP and had no way out except to 'disappear'.  This is his PATTERN.

Cafasso left, and soon after stopped answering calls from de Lutz and his lawyers. De Lutz believes a laptop computer belonging to Cafasso that Ello turned over to Chesterton Police will have dozens of e-mails, many of them likely faked, between Cafasso and officials with NOAA, the Coast Guard and congressional aides.

Oopsie, a little detail you left out there, Andy - that's not Cafasso's computer - that's Cramer's apple laptop which she GAVE Cafasso when he was posing as Lt. Col. Gerry Blackwood. He couldn't be pursued for theft of the laptop or the charges on her American Express card because she willingly gave them to him - but she gave him the card, thinking it was to HOLD the room-not to pay for his staying there for a month- he did all of this to Kathryn Cramer pretending to be someone that doesn't exist - and that is STILL FRAUD.  And what he did to Tony Ello's mother is fraud, too.

De Lutz admits he paid for a hotel room for Cafasso, who claimed to have lost his wallet, and that he believes Cafasso somehow got the card number and used it to make a purchase in Indiana. He also wired money to Ello on Cafasso's behalf, $1,000 Cafasso said he would use to buy a piece of meteorological equipment.

"So he got maybe $2,500 from me," de Lutz said. "And this, for 18 months of work? It doesn't make sense."

No, it doesn't! And he has repeated this act a number of times under numerous aliases!

Cafasso, Stormer and more

Cafasso has declined requests for an interview by the Post-Tribune, but he reportedly has talked to Ello, and to John Johnson, a Tucson, Ariz., minister who said he met Cafasso in the early 1990s when Jones was selling marine equipment and Cafasso was working for a marine salvage company in New York.

There is something very odd about this John Johnson in Tuscon Arizona....if it's the minister I'm thinking of, he's not out of Arizona; he's out of Lombard, Illinois...someone who acted as a surrogate mother for Cafasso and paid for his train tickets.

The two stayed in touch over the years, with Johnson gathering that Cafasso had an engineering degree and may have been in the Delta Force, an elite military unit. Johnson said he never thought to question Cafasso, who attended Johnson's wife's funeral in 1999 and has remained in occasional contact. That year, Johnson had dinner at a Washington, D.C., restaurant, with Cafasso and a man who was a retired CIA officer.

"I don't know anything about his military experience, I don't know how you confirm that," Johnson said. "But it's pretty hard to fool the CIA."

But Cafasso is not a stupid man; he has just channeled his intelligence in a very unique way.

In 2006, Jones said Cafasso was using the name "Jay" and occasionally a last name of "Black or Black-something," to avoid followers of Jonathan Idema. Idema was accused of operating an illegal prison in Afghanistan who also had apparently wildly overstated his military experience, and reportedly believes he was wronged by Cafasso.

Not according to this!  Idema had not "wildly overstated his military experience" - there is no proof of that. There IS, however, proof that Cafasso is not what he claimed to be, let's stay on the subject of Cafasso here!

In the blogosphere, where there are several sites maintained by disgruntled acquaintances devoted to tracking Cafasso's movements, he is believed to have used the aliases Jay Mosca and Gerry Blackwood, the latter a decorated military officer in the mold of Cafasso's Fox News persona.

And that's because he couldn't use his given name any longer; particularly since the New York Times article by Jim Rutenberg "At Fox News the Colonel Who Wasn't" was published.

Johnson put Cafasso in touch with a church in Mendenhall, Miss., where Cafasso would spend several weeks working with the congregation and even helping the church secure a $250,000 grant.

And Johnson also paid for his train tickets and who knows what else?

"He didn't make a dime," said Johnson. "He got roof over his head and what passed for food. And he worked incredibly hard."

For some odd reason, like Andrea Ello, Johnson is enable to see Cafasso for the fraud he is - even NOW.

But Cafasso clashed with church leaders, who eventually found the Times article and the many anti-Cafasso sites on the Internet. Cafasso left town soon after. Church leaders and Mendenhall Police Chief Bruce Barlow did not return calls from the Post-Tribune.

Now why wouldn't they be interested in information on Cafasso at this point? Are they merely relieved he has left and have closed the book? Wouldn't they want to compare notes with other agencies such as the FBI on what it is he accomplished while gallavanting across the country under numerous aliases?

Johnson said he would not hesitate to recommend Cafasso to another church, and he worries about why DNR officers seemed intent on investigating Cafasso. "Knowing the guy, I just don't want to see him get the shaft," Johnson said.

You should want to see him face justice for what he's done, though, Mr. Johnson.

Cafasso and Ello had become daily visitors to Indiana Dunes State Park, and were among the first people to the beach during an Aug. 2 drowning at Kemil Beach. Post-Tribune photographers shot pictures of Cafasso, identified as Robert Stormer, scanning the waves with others two days later.

It would be interesting to lay hands on those photographs.

Cafasso told Johnson he began barking orders to rescue crews at the beach, calling on his lengthy experience in maritime rescue opearations. Others with knowledge of the incident said Cafasso did indeed critique the rescue attempt while at the beach, and may have tried to drive off on a DNR officer's ATV.

He may have tried to drive off on a DNR officer's ATV but Johnson wouldn't like to see Cafasso get the shaft? Something is odd about this.

Cafasso didn't show up for his second scheduled storm chasing presentation in June, and was stopped for speeding on his way out of the park in August.

After giving his real name to police, Cafasso said he was using the alias to avoid the CIA and FBI.

He's afraid of something else; just as Cramer is. Don't worry Kathryn, Idema won't lay his hands on your computer now that it's in the hands of the FBI, but it's rather interesting that the real reason they're both afraid hasn't been identified by the press.

Cafasso apparently has not earned a profit much from his schemes. A few weeks in Florida here, a few months with Ello in Chesterton, highlighted by trips to the beach and a few thousand dollars from de Lutz -- and all of it earned not just on strength of his resume, but with spurts of dogged, hard work.

It's pathetic, isn't it.?

A possible explanation

If Cafasso is not, in fact, a veteran special forces officer and wealthy marine salvage expert who chases storms and aids international relief organizations as a hobby, he likely suffers from one or more personality disorders, said Valparaiso University psychology professor Jim Nelson.

"There are several different psychological paths to this sort of thing," Nelson said. "He has an anti-social personality disorder -- basically, he's a person who doesn't have a conscience, who doesn't see that what he does is hurting people, or doesn't care, rather.

"Then there is more of a delusional, psychotic disorder, if he actually believes these things he says."

He deserves to get some mental help, and I hope they have a psychiatrist examine him because he is a unique specimen, to be sure.

Indeed, most of Cafasso's cons seem to fall apart not because he gets greedy, but because can't stop pushing the lies, and struggling to dominate the people he is conning.

At Fox, he clashed with producers, in Mendenhall he crossed church leaders, at Dunes State Park, he tried to show up staffers.

Each time, his attempts to take control prompted the people he was conning to look more closely at his credentials, to question his expertise -- and of course, the personality clashes gave him an explanation for why he had to leave and why his detractors would want to expose him as a liar.

"From what I've seen of him, he's a two-bit con man, but he's capable of pulling much bigger scams.

Most certainly, which is why he deserves jail time and mental help! Hopefully he won't see the light of day as a free man until some of this is unraveled!

"There's this delirium that takes over him, but there is some intelligence behind it," said de Lutz, summarizing his experience with Cafasso.

"He did things that were incredibly good, and all of a sudden, he went off on a tangent and he's writing a novel. My guess is he lives in fantasy land."

Yes he is...but it's a fantasy land that poses severe danger to those who get close to him.

But he is not harmless, Nelson said.

"Many people aren't truthful on occasion ... but it's far different to say that someone only tells the truth occasionally, and when they do, it's probably by mistake," Nelson said. "These people are out there, and the average person is not aware of them, that there are people out there with no sense of obligation to others."

Contact Andy Grimm at 648-3073 or agrimm@post-trib.com. Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com

Overall, very nice job with this story, Andy, although I would recommend not smearing the name of Idema as a fraud until you can provide proof for what it is you're putting in print.  You might end up like Mariah Blake and Columbia University did...on the receiving end of a subpoena. Nothing has been mentioned here about Jack Idema's litigiousness. It is something people should take note of when they are using hearsay and word-of-mouth about people and then turning around and putting it into print as though it were fact.

Son says con man bilked his mother of savings

Gary Post-Tribune

Tony Ello's life reads like a detective novel since he met a man named Robert Stormer a little more than a year ago.

It's a story about Ello, a regular guy who owns a bowling alley, meeting up with a shady character dating his mother. He and his wife spend a year tracking down the tall tales of Robert Stormer, who's salvaged boats, chased storms, served as a Navy officer and owns never-seen vehicles and aircraft.

But Ello's story is real. The name -- Robert Stormer -- is not. He's Joseph Cafasso, who now sits in the Porter County Jail, as Ello from Chesterton recounts his tale of how he and his wife detected a fraud.

They hope their story cautions others down the road from getting ensnared by Cafasso, a man who exudes immense confidence and intelligence.

Thank you, Tony. That is what this blog is all about...to caution people down the road that this could very well happen to someone they love.

First meeting

Cafasso stopped by Ello's bowling alley with Ello's mother, whom he was dating after meeting through an online dating site.

He introduced himself as "Robert Stormer," the same name Andrea Ello, Tony's mother, knew him as.

And he was a storm chaser.

"I thought 'bullsh--'," Tony said. "Stormer? Being a storm chaser? He talks a good game."

He certainly does! He has scammed so many people it's ridiculous! The tragedy is how long this has been going on and it's a shame that Kathryn Cramer hasn't come clean as to the depth and breadth of her relationship with him.

Then, he shared other details. He told Ello he was a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy's "Salvage Department" and is consulted regularly as an expert in salvaging nuclear weapons in oceans.

All within that first meeting, "Stormer" mentioned he and his family of lawyers and engineers runs a company. He claimed he had signatory rights of up to $300,000.

And on the spot, he expressed his interest to partner up with the bowling business.

Well of course, he smelled a chance to make off with some cash.

Tony, 43, brushed it off and told him he'd look into it. His reservations grew when he couldn't find any information about "Stormer" on the Internet.

"I'm a nobody and my name shows up on the Internet," he said. "I couldn't verify anything he said."

After a few months, he stopped giving "Stormer" the benefit of the doubt.

He and Evelyn, his wife, took a time-consuming interest in pursuing "Stormer's" identity.

Until earlier this year, the couple tried to nudge Andrea away from the man, but to no avail.

Andrea declined to be interviewed for this story.

That is where a lot of women left in his path of destruction wind up; embarrassed and broken-hearted; not willing to file charges, even.

Strange stories

Tony and Evelyn picked up on some odd patterns that included "Stormer" often talking on the phone in the spur of the moment -- even though no one heard the phone ring.

It didn't ring, and he didn't dial!

He would also make grandiose plans, including private helicopter rides to Chicago to see a musical theater performance or a trip to Rhode Island to visit his hospitalized nephew.

How dramatic - I have tickets to go see "Wicked"...and then when the helicopter shows up, he said "we can use the tickets later".  Anyone who's been to the theatre knows it doesn't quite work that way.

And every time, those plans never panned out. An emergency came up and he had to stay put to consult clients over the phone, Cafasso would explain to the family.

When Cafasso claimed that his nephew in Rhode Island was in a coma, Evelyn, a Porter hospital nurse, checked every hospital in the state. Nothing turned up.

"If you've been around a habitual liar, you can spot traits," said Evelyn, 40.

Cafasso lived in Andrea's house in Tefft and essentially lived off her savings. Her home served as a "glorified homeless shelter," Evelyn said.

Unfortunately it was a widow's life's savings that went down the tubes; and not the funds from a Christian ministry or the government. Cafasso doesn't care about anyone but himself - but even then you have to wonder just what exactly he thinks he's accomplishing with all of this; because the pattern repeats itself; time and again!

Big discovery

Within a couple of months Ello and his wife began a series of attempts to uncover "Stormer."

With help from friends, Evelyn concocted a secret identity on a dating site to try to trap Cafasso. She printed out the e-mail correspondence, which included him offering his phone number. They showed the e-mails to Andrea.

But in the end, Evelyn's plan fizzled, only leaving Andrea angry at her.

Now that is odd; you'd think his pursuits of other women would cause Andrea to confront him.

Then in August, the couple began to unravel the web of "Stormer's" calculated lies.

Tony had been typing "Robert Stormer" in a Google search nearly every other day.

On that August day, his search brought out a comment from a blog that exposed Stormer as Joseph Cafasso, "the infamous con artist," it read.

From then on, the Ellos had no trouble searching Cafasso's background.

They stumbled across an April 2002 New York Times profile on him that exposed him as a fraud as well as an extensive Wikipedia page about him.

Despite the overwhelming case against him, Andrea couldn't let go of Cafasso.

"I don't know what goes on in the mind of a lonely widow," Tony said. "She was hanging on to tiny, itty, bitty possible truths instead of the big picture."

It's sad and little consolation to realize that Andrea is not alone in how she's responded to this.; there have been many others before her.

The jig is up

Last October, an officer from the state Department of Natural Resources pulled Cafasso over at Indiana Dunes State Park for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Authorities discovered that "Robert Stormer" was an alias and also charged him with lying to an officer.

They finally arrested Cafasso last month after he failed to show up at court on those charges.

While in jail, his personal laptop was with Andrea. When Tony found out, he and his mother turned it over to the Chesterton police and it's now held as evidence.

Since Cafasso came into their lives, Tony and Evelyn's relationship with Andrea had deteriorated.

Sometime in early January, Andrea began to distance herself from him, Tony said. She is facing possible bankruptcy because of unpaid bills. She had trusted Cafasso's claim that he had a hefty paycheck on the way for them.

But now the family is back on speaking terms.

"I hope she's learned her lesson," Tony said. "But she's an adult and she'll make up her own mind."

VeriSeal and Cafasso exchange

Please notice that this is an exchange between Cafasso and the fellows who ran the VeriSeal site.

It is Cafasso's vendetta against Idema that shows at his blog,"Stuporpatriots" .

The blog posts at Stuporpatriots are old. He disappeared once he realized Idema was leaving Afghanistan. Cafasso quickly moved on to the Lt. Col. Jay Mosca persona, the Robert Stormer persona, the Jay Cafasso persona, and whatever else he could manage to fly under the radar.

Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003
To: VeriSEAL Group
From: JACafasso [at] aol.com (Joseph Cafasso)
Subject: Idema v. Fox News, et al.

Gentlemen:

My name is Joseph Cafasso and I have been directed to your site. I have noted that you have posted the NY Times, March 29, 2002 article "At Fox News, the Colonel Who Wasn't" by Jim Rutenberg.

I have been silent way to (sic) long with regard to this story and that is about to change. There is much that this article did not print nor (sic) even know about. I muse with people who will post trash as gospel without even making contact to find out what the details really were. But that is not why I write now.

Your site is linked to the Hunt For Bin Laden Site owned and operated by J. Keith Idema. If you do not know who Mr. Idema is I recommend that you contact Mr. Jimmy Dean of the Special Forces Association. Mr. Idema is a convicted felon and served four years for 56 counts of wire fraud. The Robin Moore Book is highly controversial due to Mr. Idema's involvement. Currently I am not only involved in a civil litigation with Mr. Idema but I have a criminal complaint with the US Attorney's Office against Mr. Idema for impersonating a DOD Contracting Officer while he was a mercenary in Afghanistan and this investigation is pending. I might be called many things. But I have never been arrested for anything criminal nor did I work at Fox for any notoriety or monetary achievements. While at Fox I had a purpose of which (sic) is about to come out. Everything I did at Fox was with Honor one that was stolen due to politics and if you don't believe it you may contact Mr. Brit Hume wh (sic)

I am not asking for the removal of the article. You have a Second Amendment Right even if it is blind. Though the real story is about to come out. However, I am asking that the link to Mr. Idema's website be terminated until all legal proceedings are completed. It is violating the LA County Court Rules and potentially. I have already made this demand to Mr. Idema's attorney as well.

I do not think your organization wants to lend any creditability (sic) to Mr. Idema at this time. While I have no intentions of enjoining your organization in this matter.

Again, contact the Special Forces Association if you have any questions.

Thank You
Joseph Cafasso

I am preserving this here because the VeriSeal site appears to be down.

From: VeriSEAL Group
To: JACafasso [at] aol.com (Joseph Cafasso)
Subject: Re: Idema v. Fox News, et al.
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 18:14:57 (GMT)

Dear PFC Cafasso,

Thank you for your letter and your reminder of our Constitutional right to keep and bear free speech. Your abstruse
knowledge of this nation's founding precepts is most impressive.

In light of the fact that the link in question is to our site, and not from our site as you indicated, there is very little we can
do apart from sending them a "thank you" note.

We look forward to the earth-shattering revelations of your actual mission at Fox News. Such disclosures by you will
almost certainly serve to relieve us of our burdensome ignorance. We can only surmise that you were on a highly
classified operation to infiltrate Fox News and thereby effect monitoring and manipulation of their information so as to
disinform the Iraqi military. No doubt you are/were in the employ of a highly classified DoD unit tasked with unspeakably
sensitive operations, the existence of which is known only to POTUS and the makers of Reynold's Wrap.

As for your merciful offer to pardon us from litigation, thank you, although there remains some question as to whether
we could in fact be sued for fair-use reprinting of a news item even if the future of all mankind hung in the balance. But
we defer to your legal expertise.

With all due respect, we will forego your recommendation of contact to Mr. Jimmy Dean and simply copy this
correspondence to a member of the Special Forces Association Board of Directors as well as numerous other
interested parties.


Regards

VeriSEAL Group

joe cafasso

Cafasso is listed at Nationmaster.com as a military impostor

Nationmaster.com - Encyclopedia - "Impostor"

Military Impostors
Joseph A. Cafasso, former Fox News military analyst who claimed to have been a highly-decorated Special Forces soldier and Vietnam War veteran.

---

Oh, if they only knew the half of it.

joe cafasso

Vote for Cafasso

Screenshot of the poll results from "Florida Conmen" - Abagnale and Cafasso running neck and neck

Cafasso is mentioned along with other infamous con artists at the "Florida Conmen" website.  The poll asks which is the top con artist of all time? Here are the choices:

• Therese Humbert, of France in the 1880s took millions on the back of an "Inheritance" kept locked in a sealed trunk. Victims parted with funds in the belief that they would have a share of the inheritance. Many varying excuses were found to keep the trunk un-opened.


• Frank Abagnale, masqueraded as a pilot, doctor and professor. Highly successful at check forging schemes. Subject of the movie Catch Me If You Can.


• Joseph A. Cafasso, military phony and grifter. Poses as not only serving in three military theatres of Vietnam, Granada, and Gulf 1, CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI Agent. Outed by Veriseal in 2002. Infiltrates think tanks, universities and ngos.


• Eduardo de Valfierno, an Argentine con man who masterminded the theft of the Mona Lisa. The deal made the equivalent of $67 million today for him.


• Victor Lustig, is held to have been one of the most talented confidence tricksters who ever lived. He is best known as "the man who sold the Eiffel Tower". He also scammed the famous gangster Al Capone.


• Tino De Angelis, who sold rights to $175 million in soybean oil stored in tanks, which was actually a thin layer of oil floating on water.

Cafasso has hit the big time as a member of this infamous list!

joe cafasso

Robert Stormer - 1949-2005

Robert "Stormer" Storm 1949-2005

Could this be where Cafasso got the idea for "Rob Storm" alias? 

joe cafasso

FBI now investigating 'spy' arrested at Dunes

FBI now investigating 'spy' arrested at Dunes - Gary Post-Tribune

February 20, 2009
By Andy Grimm
Post-Tribune staff writer

An alleged con man who reportedly duped high-profile military and political figures claiming to be a counterintelligence expert and Special Forces officer now is being investigated by the FBI, local officials said Thursday.

It's relatively common knowledge that Cafasso is indeed a con artist. The long history of frauds he has pulled under numerous aliases some of which are listed in the header on this blog- rivals that of the relatively short career of Abagnale of "Catch Me If You Can" fame.

Joseph Cafasso, 52, has been in the Porter County Jail since Jan. 22, awaiting trial for failing to appear in court on charges of speeding and giving a false name to police investigators after he was pulled over in the Indiana Dunes State Park in October.

Conservation officers declined to comment Thursday on Cafasso, stating his case had been referred to the FBI for further investigation. FBI officials declined to say if they are investigating Cafasso.

And I doubt if they will ever make a statement regarding their "friend" and "stool pigeon".

According to an April 29, 2002, report in the New York Times, Cafasso claimed to be a well-connected spy who had a high-rank career in the Special Forces. Alleged victims included the Fox News network, Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign and "several representatives, military officials and activists to whom he had sold himself for years," the Times reported.

Cafasso also appeared as a military and counterterrorism expert during Fox's coverage of the invasion of Afghanistan, even though military records show that his total military experience was 44 days of boot camp at Fort Dix, N.J., in 1976.

Cafasso reportedly had been living for several months with a Chesterton woman whom he met on an Internet dating Web site, where he posted his identity as "Robert Stormer." That also was the name Cafasso initially gave to Conservation Officer Robert Kauffmann, as well as a false Social Security number, before admitting his real name.

The woman turned over to Chesterton police a laptop computer that belonged to Cafasso and investigators there said they might seek a warrant to search the computer's memory for evidence in an investigation of Cafasso.

That laptop is Kathryn Cramer's apple laptop, and I'm certain she would like to get it back.

All that stands between Cafasso and freedom, pending trial, is $500 bond, the Porter County Sheriff's department said.

That's sad and appalling, considering what they should be investigating regarding his escapades in Indiana and Florida.

Cafasso's alleged exploits have garnered him a Wikipedia page, and several other Web sites and blogs devoted to tracking his movements and activities.

Contact Andy Grimm at 648-3073 or agrimm@post-trib.com

That is an understatement, Andy! Cafasso's exploits should garner him a film and a book deal! Perhaps one day he will be in a position to capitalize on what he has done to defraud widows and spinsters out of cash--maybe he could advise people like Abagnale has done - should he ever decide to "come clean" and avoid prosecution for criminal identity theft and embezzlement.

joe cafasso

Joe Cafasso, aka Bob Stormer, in custody on FTA charge

From the Chesterton Tribune:

A man who had been residing in Chesterton under the name of Robert Stormer and was charged with false informing in October 2008 when a DNR Conservation Officer said that he identified himself with the Social Security number of a Rhode Island girl is being held at the Porter County Jail on a charge of failure to appear.

Joseph Cafasso, 52, was taken into custody on Jan. 22 on a warrant charging him with failure to appear, court documents show. According to the Inmate Information System at the Porter County Jail, he is being held on a $500 cash-only bond, with no release date presently scheduled.

At 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 2, Conservation Officer Robert Cauffman stopped a male subject on the main road leading into Indiana Dunes State Park after clocking him at 35 miles per hour in a zone posted at 20 mph, Cauffman stated in his incident report.
The subject, who identified himself as Robert Stormer, 58, advised Cauffman that he did not have his Rhode Island-issued driver's license with him. Cauffman stated that when he ran the name Robert Stormer, it “came back not on file” in both Indiana and Rhode Island. Cauffman further stated that when he ran the Social Security number provided by Stormer, it returned to a 13-year-old Rhode Island girl.

Although the subject repeatedly insisted that his name is Robert Stormer and that there must be a problem with the computers, he eventually admitted to being Joseph Cafasso, 52, Cauffman stated. A second computer check listed his driver’s license in Rhode Island as suspended.

“During this conversation he stated he was hiding from members of the CIA and FBI along with several other stories,” Cauffman stated.

bwahahahaha!

In addition to the charge of false informing—a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a term of up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine—citations for speeding and driving while suspended-infraction were issued to Cafasso and an initial hearing was scheduled for Nov. 17.

The CHARGE OF FALSE INFORMATION. Did you get that, FLY?

Court documents show that Cafasso did not appear at the hearing and a bench warrant for his arrest on a charge of failure to appear was issued on Nov. 24. Cafasso was arrested on the FTA charge on Jan. 22, he entered a plea of not guilty on Jan. 23, and a bench trial before Porter Superior Court Judge Julia Jent has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, court documents also show.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 2, a woman who said that she had met a person calling himself Robert Stormer on an on-line dating service, and later lived with him, asked Chesterton Police to take custody of a computer which she said belongs to Cafasso. The woman advised the CPD that her son had recently been contacted by a man whom she believes to be a “Special Forces soldier who went rogue and tortured people in Afghanistan” and was subsequently “jailed in a military prison.” That man, she advised the CPD, “blames Cafasso for his troubles” on the ground that Cafasso “was instrumental in building a case against” him.

The CPD did take custody of the computer at Cauffman's request, police said, after Cauffman indicated that he may apply for a warrant to search the computer as part of an ongoing investigation of Cafasso.

Last week, however, Cauffman told the Chesterton Tribune, through a spokesperson, that he is no longer discussing the Cafasso case and has turned it over to the FBI. Special Agent Wendy Osborne of the FBI's Indianapolis office told the Tribune that, per policy, she can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.

The responding CPD officer appended to his report a Wikipedia entry purportedly on a Joseph A. Cafasso which claims, among other things, that a man under the name of Cafasso had worked for Fox News as a military and counterterrorism analyst until leaving the network when allegations surfaced that he had misrepresented his military record.

Posted 2/18/2009

I haven't checked Cramer's work at Cafasso's wikipedia page yet to see if she has caught up with the update that it ISN'T SOLELY A TRAFFIC VIOLATION that he is charged with.

I'm also glad to see someone in media decided to spell Cauffman's name right.

joe cafasso

An interesting message from a commenter

It appears as though Andrea Ello was shopping for homes in the Florida area when they were there on the shipwreck/hurricane wave chasing mission. Here is a message dropped into comments here:

She was trying to buy a house from me in Sring Hills [florida] where she said she had a brother.
This is an email she wrote to me:

iAndrea (*email address removed by administrator*)
Enviado: domingo, 12 de octubre de 2008 07:15:29 a.m.
To :

*name removed by administrator*, these are beautiful homes you've chosen.. also like my own picks. Have eliminated some homes, but the ones left are very lovely..


what subdivision is this home in?

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12457-Everard-Dr-Spring-Hill-FL-34609/2146120915_zpid Still really love this one.. What an elegant and beautiful place.. Life would be all outdoors with this home (actually, we're outside every second we can be, even here.. In Florida, maybe we'd hibernate in summer..? Am thinking it's everything a Florida home should be.. It's a short sale for $225,000.. and will probably be gone by next weekend, but if it isn't, I'd love to see it!! (Rob will like it, too.. :)

LAKE IN THE WOODS : 3 HOUSES

4468-Lake-In-The-Woods-Dr-Spring-Hill-FL-
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4264-River-Birch-Dr-Spring-Hill-FL-34607/2143896744_zpid I added this one here and removed the other one with the 2nd story..

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4318-River-Birch-Dr-Spring-Hill-FL-34607/44791851_zpid Omg, this one is absolutely beautiful.. Indoor pool.. I LOVE it already! The price has gone down to $399,000 I think.. Can't wait to see it.. but am wondering if I'd like it up here more than I'll like it down there? Will be interesting to check it out to see what the outdoor living area is like.. Gotta have an outdoor living area.. :)

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/499-Cressida-Cir-Spring-Hill-FL-34609/44842731_zpid And as much as I like the one above, I like this one just as much! WOW.. can you pick homes or what?? :) Neither on the lake from how it looks... but we'll see how close they are when we get there.. stairs in the pool area might rule this one out..? not sure.

PLANTATIONS ESTATES 6 HOUSES (I eliminated 3 that you sent)

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13478-Rudi-Loop-Spring-Hill-FL-34609/44801103_zpid beautiful..

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13466-Rudi-Loop-Spring-Hill-FL-34609/2143042056_zpid beautiful..

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/13330-Rudi-Loop-Spring-Hill-FL-34609/44801096_zpid still beautiful..


Besides the ones below, there's one more I'd like to see... 1292 McNeal in Spring Hill...a short sale, maybe?.. not because it's a big, fabulous house, but because it isn't.. But it is right across the lake from where my brother lives. :) I thought there was one more on McNeal that looked nice, but can't find it now..

2088 BREEZY WAY ... also a short sale for $199,900.. but a beautiful lanai.. beautiful heated pool.. :)

12212-Mango-Ct-Spring-Hill-FL-34609 .... yep, still wanna see this... Have loved this home right from the very start of my searching..!! :)

11208-Rainbow-Woods-Loop-Spring-Hill-FL-34609 .... are palm trees hokey? I still like this one and would love to see it!! lol


*another name removed by the administrator*, there are 9 homes listed here.. PLUS the one near my brother.. so 10 homes. That's cause I eliminated quite a few..!! lol

Btw, you asked if we would like a "Gulf View" the other day.. I asked Rob about it and he said he'd LOVE it.. IF he could actually get a nice Gulf view or be ON the Gulf.!! Sooooo.... Are there any REASONABLY (Not a half-million dollars.. yikes!) priced homes in that area that you like? At least 3 beds.. at least 2-1/2 baths.. ranch homes.. pool (preferably heated, but can add that) .. preferably with an outdoor spa.. (preferably with 3 car garage, but not necessarily... depending on the house, 2 might be enough).. nice, but not nuts with the price.. you know.. I think we probably cap out at $400,000.

If you didn't notice, I did remove some homes.. I think the ones listed are the ones worth seeing (plus the one near by brother that I'm not even counting on, but would still like to see).. Thanks for picking so many of them! :) It's so hard to decide when so many homes look nice in photos, but you have no idea what they look like in real life.. how do YOU choose out of so many?

Hope you're having a beautiful Sunday.. ( when do you leave?? )
Andrea



LIFE.. It sure beats the alternative!!
http://bunnyerabbit.blogspot.com

This is completely contrary to the reports from family members and people who know her who say she is not capable of such things.

joe cafasso

Marquette International Ltd. should update their blurb about Cafasso

Marquette International, Ltd. has a web page that mentions Joe Cafasso, here, entitled the "Resume Liars Club". I contacted them with further information about Joe Cafasso since this is what they show on their page about him, along with a number of other con artists who haven't been honest:

In late 2001, Joe Cafasso, aka Jay Cafasso, succeeded in becoming a Fox News military consultant during the Afghanistan campaign. He convinced the cable network that he was a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army, had served in Vietnam and won the Silver Star for bravery and was later part of the failed secret mission to rescue US hostages in Iran in 1980. He had previously put forward the same story to the Patrick Buchanan presidential campaign and WABC radio in New York City, both of which accepted the line. Disgracefully, this story was a fabrication. According to published reports about his military records from Fort Dix in New Jersey, Cafasso's entire military career consisted of only 44 days, between May and June 1976, when he was honorably discharged as a Private First Class. Suspicions were raised about Cafasso at Fox when some of the information he provided was inconsistent and his office style clashed with others. An investigative firm was hired by another analyst to look into his background and determined that his story was a fraud. He was fired by Fox News Washington bureau chief Kim Hume in March 2002 prior to the investigative report being disclosed. Cafasso was considered a "gifted storyteller" by some of the people he encountered in his travels. His current activities are unknown.

His "current activities" certainly are known-and much has happened since March of 2002.  This was acknowledged just recently in February of 2009 (but only the Indiana Chapter), and I sent them a link to the Chicago Tribune article mentioning Cafasso's adventures in Indiana as Robert Stormer to at least bring readers current on what is fast becoming legend: the saga of Joe Cafasso, the casanova; con; fraud; and embezzler.

joe cafasso

Joe Cafasso's case is now in the hands of the FBI

Joe Cafasso's fraud case is now in the hands of the FBI instead of the Indiana state Department of Conservation.

Time will tell if they will do the same thing as they did in White Plains New York - which was keep a file open and pretend they were working on it .

The FBI used Cafasso as a source in the past, my instincts tell me it would be very embarrassing for them to admit what a long time fraud Cafasso is. Cafasso just loves to report people to government agencies to stir the pot when he's getting even or has a vendetta against someone.

Reportedly, Ms. Cramer's laptop is now in the FBI's hands as well.

Traffic offenders are never turned over to the FBI t my knowledge, fly! So what, the Porter County Jail said there were no "charges" when you call the automated number. If there were no charges, he couldn't have had a warrant put out for his arrest, and he wouldn't be sitting in the clink for not showing up in court.

Will the FBI just free him and return the laptop to Ms. Cramer?

joe cafasso

International Check Fraud Busted by Police

Let's hope that police and authorities put some resources behind following what Joe Cafasso has been up to since at least 1998.

He has reportedly been embezzling money and forging government documents; and taking unsuspecting single ladies and paramours for their posessions and money.

In the video they talk about check fraud scam by con artists connected with the Russian mafia and that some were hiding in the Republic of Georgia. In January 2008 these people were nabbed.

I would hope that authorities could put together the tale of Joe Cafasso; because to my knowledge he's a two-bit con artist on a lesser scale-whose career doesn't extend outside the United States, but DOES extend to states all over the country.

Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Florida and more!

Lt. Col. Jay Mosca and Knightsbridge

The video is very telling from the viewpoint that Ed Artis knew who Cafasso was when he was pretending to be a "Knight".

Ed Artis starred in a film called "Beyond the Call" about his humanitarian exploits, and Kathryn Cramer is peripherally involved in that project even though her expertise is science fiction rather than documentaries. Interestingly enough, though, I cannot find any of that evidence on the web anymore. Still, she reviewed the film and gave accolades to Ed Artis for his heroic contributions to mankind.

Cafasso showed up at the Tribeca film festival where the film was screened as the Lt. Col. Gerry Blackwood persona with an eyepatch and a cane.

In October of 2007, some people had already put this together regarding Stormer, Cafasso and his Gerry Blackwood personas, as you can see from this comment at No Quarter:

Comment by Kinda Wonder | 2007-10-15 00:14:00

So your expert Robert Stormer, “retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, serving with the Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage,” blames Doug Brooks for Blackwater’s 9/16 nuclear meltdown and its fallout. Over at Brooks’s place, the Yahoo Private Military Company list, the word is that “Robert Stormer” is the same guy as former PMC list regular “Lt. Col Gerry Blackwood, PhD” who left the list in a huff when someone questioned his military credentials, and who was later claimed to be Joseph A. Cafasso, Jr., the military impostor employed by Fox News in the same era as Larry who left Fox News in a huff when someone questioned his military credentials.

Of course, all of this is ancient history by now, but for those who have just arrived on the scene, Knightsbridge International is a "humanitarian" organization headed by none other than the con named Ed Artis, who also claims to be a "Knight of Malta" and have a Vatican passport. He's also willing to get you one of your very own; for a PRICE. 

These are the kinds of ficitious IDs these fellows are capable of conjuring up in order to elevate what they're doing in the eyes of innocent bystanders and observers. They are meant to impress; and I'm certain that is the type of identification that Joe Cafasso produced in absence of his driver's license in Indiana. To a skilled professional, however, these childish imitations are no replacement for the real thing.

The last I heard, the going price for becoming a member of "Knightsbridge" also cost you - about $5,000.

It is worthy to note that the screen grabs of "Lt. Col. Jay Mosca" that Kathryn Cramer has on her flickr set of Cafasso under different aliases leaves out the "Lt. Col" part of the alias he was using. But it was recorded by the Dursts on their web page.

That's about all I knew about my father's career, until I met Lt. Col. Jay Mosca at a recent party at our office. He is a retired weapons expert from the Army.

Unfortunately, Lt. Col. Jay Mosca is just one of the numerous aliases manufactured by Joe Cafasso. Lt. Col. Jay Mosca does not exist; and neither does Rob Stormer or Robin Storm - the supposed tornado chaser!

See Cafasso as Lt. Col. Jay Mosca here in the first film clip at the top of the post.

Joe Cafasso as Lt. Col. Jay Mosca, himself and Rob Storm

This is from the Durst Family web page, that I referred to here.

When I first published that information, I wasn't even aware that there was a video there - my computer didn't open it.  Now that I have a different system, I found that it was a file that I could convert and view, so that's what I did.  It's a touching story the Durst family has about Lt. Col. Jay Mosca remembering their dad's work, but as you can see in the video, it was a stretch of the imagination to believe what he was saying was true.  But notice how convincing he is.  He is very skilled at getting people to believe what he's saying.

For those people who haven't seen Cafasso in action before, this is probably the lengthiest video I've seen of him. Perhaps, though, Andrea's family has taken family type videos that include him talking; I can't imagine film rolling without him inserting himself - no matter what the format is.

The only other one that I'm aware of is - the one where he is HIMSELF, Joe Cafasso, and appeared in the movie "Outfoxed", below.

He has appeared on the podcast "Messing About In Ships Episode 16" as Rob Storm,so we have an audio for him on that podcast to compare to the others. We also get a special little treat: a press release where Cafasso as Rob Storm was going to speak at the Indiana Dunes, courtesy of the Indiana State Park Nature Center. One has to wonder if he was paid in some way or form for that.

Here is the info they had on the press release from "Rob" aka Cafasso:

Indiana Dunes Hosts Severe Weather Program on April 13

The Indiana Dunes State Park Nature Center is hosting a special weather program, titled “Severe Weather and You” on at 2pm, Sunday April 13. The special speaker, Rob Stormer, holds twin engineering degrees and is a Senior Master Salvor handling ship accidents worldwide. He is also a Skywarn severe weather storm spotter and tornado chaser and has spotted and chased storms both shore-side and at sea.

Rob will emphasize severe weather preparedness, and also discuss local severe weather phenomena that is experienced along the Great Lakes. In addition, a real life disaster tabletop exercise using the audience to role play first responders will be demonstrated to fully grasp severe weather response.

Though the program is free, there is the standard park gate fee of $5 for Indiana vehicles and $10.00 for out of state vehicles. Annual park passes are available. For more information about this program or others at Indiana Dunes State Park contact the Nature Center at (219) 926-1390. Keep an eye on Robin Storm’s Severe Weather Watch for more information.

If you have any further information about Joe Cafasso as any of these aliases, please contact me at causalnexus.george@gmail.com

joe cafasso

Andrea Ello is Bunny E Rabbit

What an odd visual that is, particularly when you know that Andrea was Joe Cafasso's love interest and the widow that he victimized.  In light of that, it is very interesting to see how Andrea Ello was helping Joe Cafasso with her own blog.

Bunny E. Rabbit has a blog at blogspot, and the posts are published by "Andrea".

The last post on this blog is from September of 2008, presumably somewhere around the time that he was arrested in October (or at least stopped) while she was sitting in the car alongside him.  The drowning incident that he injected himself into where he raised the suspicions of rescue workers and authorities occurred in August 2008. 

The question remains: who is updating Robin Storm's blogspot blog while Cafasso sits in an Indiana jail? If you have any information you'd like to share, email me at causalnexus.george@gmail.com.

Kathryn Cramer and Free Republic

How interesting that Ms. Kathryn Cramer is so desperate to spread around her trash that a link to her blog along with the Chicago Tribune Article were posted by someone behind a pseudonym at Free Republic.

And then the usual talk in comments follows, but unusual talk that doesn't really make sense. They are completely missing the point about the connection between Cafasso and Robert Stormer and all that he has accomplished with the new persona.

Chicago Tribune picked up on Cafasso's fraud

Laptop may hold key to high-level scam

February 7, 2009
Post-Tribune staff report

A traffic stop at Indiana Dunes State Park has led to an ongoing investigation involving a man whose past includes swindling Fox News and national political figures, local law enforcement agents say.

Joseph Cafasso, being held at Porter County Jail, was the subject of a 2002 New York Times article and has a Wikipedia page detailing his exploits.

Officials declined to talk about the ongoing case, which involves several federal agencies.

I wonder if this might involve the open FBI investigation in White Plains, New York.

"There are a lot of things involved here that I can't get into at this point," said Officer Bob Kauffmann of the Department of Natural Resources, who initiated the investigation.

It's believed that Cafasso impersonated rescue personnel in a drowning at Lake Michigan last year.

"Impersonated" is a rather odd description when you consider that he attempted to take over the rescue operations and began barking orders. And what they neglect to mention is - this article at the Tribune which mentions the drowning quotes Robert Stormer - out of all the rescue personnel who were there conducting search and recovery operations. Inadvertently journalists seem to use Cafasso as a source, even when he's using an alias! Moths to a flame!

In October, Kauffmann stopped Cafasso for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Cafasso also provided Kauffmann with false information, including the alias "Robert Stormer."

There it is; Cafasso provided false information - a false ID to authorities.  I am told by a reliable source that he produced a military-type id that looked amateur-ish; with the name "Robert Stormer" on it. I don't know specifically, at this point in time, however, what that ID was supposed to be; but he didn't have a driver's license on him and was driving on a suspended license. It was his real identification he was supposed to show in court, which was why he didn't appear in court - as it says here:

And when Cafasso failed to appear in court last month, Kauffmann obtained a warrant for his arrest.

The curious case of Cafasso came to light Monday when a Chesterton resident turned over Cafasso's Apple laptop to Chesterton police. Kauffmann is waiting for a search warrant to access the laptop.

I hope they are able to get into it and find what's on it; that in itself would implicate him in a number of crimes including forging government documents.

The mother of the Chesterton resident had been in a relationship with "Robert Stormer."

She has been living with him for about a year.

She was also in the car when "Stormer" was stopped for speeding, Kauffmann said.

The woman, who resides in Tefft, in northeastern Jasper County, met "Stormer" about a year ago through an online dating service. They later moved in together. According to the police report, he took control over some of the woman's finances before she learned he was a fraud.

And he embezzled money from her, which is the main reason she's losing both of her homes and reportedly has nowhere to go!

According to the Chesterton police report, the woman and her son believe that Cafasso built a case against a man named Jack Idema, who also has a Wikipedia page.

"Built a case?" That's a rather odd description of his vendetta against Idema for ruining the scam that precipitated the New York Times article "At Fox News, The Colonel Who Wasn't". But Cafasso doesn't realize how many people at Fox unrelated to Idema didn't appreciate his brash manner, his rudeness, and his temper. And bringing up those Wikipedia pages is rather interesting when "Pleasantville" aka Kathryn Cramer is responsible for so many of the edits and updates there.

The police report continues:"Idema is allegedly a Special Forces soldier who went rogue and tortured people in Afghanistan without approval from his superiors. He was jailed in a military prison for this and he blames Cafasso for his troubles.

That is inaccurate. Idema is a Green Beret, and it is Cafasso who blames Idema for outting him as a fraud and blames Idema for losing his job at Fox. For the journalists who want to keep touting that "torturer" mantra about Idema, people might want to check out the story that was never told in the media about Idema at Cao's blog. I don't take a position either way, but I find it interesting that it is Cafasso who is in jail, but they keep repeating that "torturer" business as if it bears some type of merit. You need only look at the release photographs also at Cao's blog to see that there is more on the Idema story than meets the eye....and there is much more there than at Cramer's edited Wikipedia page on Idema, also.

Police say Idema knew about Cafasso's laptop. Idema contacted the Chesterton man through a phone search and told him he wanted the computer.

So he and his mother brought it to Chesterton Police.

Cafasso was successful in duping institutions and high-profile military and political figures as a well-connected counterintelligence expert who had a high-rank career in the Special Forces, according to an April 29, 2002, story in the New York Times.

Alleged victims included the Fox News network, Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign and "several representatives, military officials and activists to whom he had sold himself for years,"?

Cafasso appeared as a military and counterterrorism expert during Fox's coverage of the invasion of Afghanistan.

"But records indicate that his total military experience was 44 days of boot camp at Fort Dix, N.J., in May and June 1976, and his honorable discharge as a private, first class."

The article states Cafasso failed to show up to provide military records and other documents to The New York Times as he had promised.

The article continues: "Mr. Cafasso, it appears, has used his story of battlefield glories to make friends, find work, and perhaps most importantly, find acceptance among people who walk the fringes of Washington's power corridors, networking his way through a community of retired military officers to arrive at Fox News."

Absolutely priceless! What this article is missing is his masquerade before the Rob Stormer persona as LT. Col. Gerry Blackwood. Robert Stormer is not the only alias Cafasso has used over the years.

Still, this is excellent in terms of allowing people in on the magnitude of Cafasso's crimes and particularly his crimes against women.

I took the liberty of inserting some links into the text for the convenience of my interested readers.

Cafasso's desire to kill people

From a commenter on No Quarter about Stormer's plagiarized article:

Comment by Blunt Force Trauma | 2007-10-08 21:44:48

Yes, Robin. We need answers. Where aren’t you getting them? But, instead you re-hashed a story that has been done by many before you, and a month ago to boot, and sounding all sanctimonius about it too. Perhaps you should follow your own advice and write your own letters to your Congressman and Senator before decided to release a vitriolic diatribe about your need for killing people (ie, euthanasia). This is not the first time I’ve cited you for the need to murder people in vengeful manner.

Also, if you or that Forth Worth rag which published your story were serious about the truth, those questions at the end of the article would not have been left to the reader to search out. They would have been answered by both yourself and that newspaper. It’s called fact-checking. If you wanted to play journalist, you should have posed those questions to those responsible since you, ‘like the facts’ and would not have left it to the reader to have dug them up on their own.

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. The basics in journalism. You failed on 2 of them and that’s an incomplete.

If you desire to truly provide us a service, perhaps you can, as suggested; ask all of your questions that were at the end of your “article” to someone who can answer them. Once you have the answers to them all, then that is the time to compile that information in a comprehensive article that is informative, thought-provoking and concise. Otherwise, one is left to wonder where the objectivity, the process of the dissemination of information and the creativity is.

Yours reads like a community newspaper back page puppy trainer.

Also, this one:

Comment by Blunt Force Trauma | 2007-10-09 10:10:12

“I do get a kick out of your moniker. Your such a legend in your own mind.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do appreciate all the all the effort. And I know it take a great deal of effort to charge those neurons of yours, especially the ones that are mis-firing….”

From reading the above that contains improper contractions and terrible sentence structure, I guess you DO know what it takes to get your impulse-conducting cells that constitute the brain, spinal column, and nerves, consisting of a nucleated cell body with one or more dendrites and a single axon. In other words, your Neurons.

Also, I have to ask from reading the above drivel; you didn’t write that op-ed, did you? You may have had the idea, but you didn’t write it.

One signature of Cafasso's writing: YOUR instead of You're. He has a definite problem with contractions.

He is not only the bloviator - he is a plagiarist.

But then what do you expect from someone who would steal and use the social security number of a 13-year-old girl from New Jersey?

Joe Cafasso outted as Rob Stormer or Robert Stormer aka Robin Storm

This is from the North Country Gazette charging Rob Stormer with plagiarism in October of 2007. When you realize the person you're dealing with is in fact Joe Cafasso, this entire article not only makes a lot of sense, it is quite humorous - as he doesn't like it when people question his faux credentials or challenge him in any way.

The North Country Gazette is particularly sensitive about having articles even partially quoted on any other website, as I have been contacted in spite of my notes INSIDE THE POST regarding acknowledgement and not seeing any contact information in order to request permission to use the material. Hence, I am nuking any further references to NCG except for the link.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram published an article written by "Robert Stormer", the "retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, serving with the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, a "specialist" in weapons retrieval, a marine engineer and marine salve specialist.

You can see references to that article here.

[DOC] Nuke transportation story has explosive implications By Robert ...
File Format: Microsoft Word - View as HTML
Nuke transportation story has explosive implications. By Robert Stormer. Special to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Article Last Updated: 10/08/2007 07:26:09 ...
www.newsfollowup.com/docs/iran/stormer_b-52_nucs.doc -

Cafasso seemed to appreciate the Star Telegram's publishing this article, as you can see references to it elsewhere where Robert Stormer wanted to boost his bonafides.

Missing Nukes: Treason of the Highest Order
Oct 23, 2007 ... [6] Robert Stormer, Nuke transportation story has explosive implications, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Octobers 8, 2007. ...
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7158 - 95k

The NCG asked Stormer to provide credentials such as the college where Cafasso received his degree in marine engineering, or where he worked - or the name of his employer, military credentials including date of discharge, and in true Cafasso-eque fashion, he not only refused, but threatened the editor of the NCG that if he/she (I think it's a she) emailed Cafasso any further, Cafasso would consider such action to be harassment.

So another signature of Cafasso's is to respond in a rude manner when asked for proof of the credentials he boasts about; otherwise he turns the tables on the person inquiring and throws accusations of harassment at them.

At No Quarter, owned by Larry Johnson, a commenter charges Stormer’s article from the Telegram is a product of simple plagiarism. http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/10/08/nuke-transportation-story-has-explosive-implications/

Comment by Blunt Force Trauma | 2007-10-08 20:54:59

Another huge problem with Robin Storm’s story goes like this;

“Yes, we still do fly nuclear warheads over the United States today. We also drive them over land as well. That’s not the point.”

Yes, it is the point when you don’t clarify that point. Nuclear weapons are normally transferred on cargo planes, never on the wings of bombers. Bomber flights with live nuclear weapons ended in the late 1960s after accidents in Spain in 1966 and in Greenland in 1968.

Also, Robin’s story reads remarkably a lot like this one (I smell plagarism) http://freeworldsurvey.blogspot.com/2007/09/6-nukes-fly-over-us-big-problems-with.html

Once again, I’m thinking…..recycling bin”.

Notice to North Country Gazette: You've crossed paths with one of the most infamous frauds of all time. Robert Stormer (aka Robin Storm and numerous other pseudonyms) is in fact the infamous con artist, womanizer and embezzler, Joe Cafasso, the man who is such an epic colossal fraud he was written up in the New York Times by James Rutenberg in an article called "At Fox News, the Colonel Who Wasn't."

And something else for the publisher at North Country Gazette: I would respectfully like to use this snippet (which is almost the entire article) for which I've provided a link back. If you want to be contacted about publishing your material, you might want to have your contact information more readily available, or at least a comments section or perhaps "contact" page- somewhere where people could request it in a civil and polite manner. My contact information will from here forward be somewhere within almost every single post since I am particularly interested at this point in collecting more information on Cafasso and reporting it back to authorities. He is currently being held in Chesterton Indiana and is in JAIL. My email address is causalnexus.george@gmail.com

The most recent article that I could find about his preying on a widow is here.

Woman learns beau is apparent con artist

CHESTERTON | A 63-year-old Tefft, Ind. woman, whose son lives in Chesterton, told Chesterton police on Monday a man she met through an online dating service claimed to be Robert Stormer, but really was Joe Cafasso, a con artist of such renown he is mentioned on a Wikipedia Web page.

Chesterton police are involved in the case because they took possession of a computer the woman and her son wanted to get rid of because one of Cafasso's enemies apparently wants it.

Police reports state Cafasso took over some of the woman's finances. The investigation into Cafasso continues.

A timeline on this would be interesting to put together, I will throw some resources behind that.

This was from October of 2007. The more that comes to the light, the more interesting it gets.

He has apparently been living in Indiana with Andrea Ello for about the past year and has been very busy embezzling money from a number of parties in Indiana but extending elsewhere; even across the ocean. But his trick regarding having someone cover a hotel bill on with their credit card has repeated itself numerous times, so those who were taken on that ride can rest assured they weren't alone in that.

In some ways he is a cross between Catch Me If You Can and a "B" version movie of an aging American Gigolo who is still up to his old tricks.

Search for teen drowned

An article from the Chicago Tribune from August 4, 2008, where the journalists, Erica Slife and Robert Mitchum, use Robert Stormer as a source.

Search goes on for teen presumed drowned
Boy pulled under off Indiana beach

Two days after 13-year-old Raphael Palomar was pulled under the water of Lake Michigan while swimming with his family off an Indiana beach, authorities Monday continued their somber search for the Chicago teen’s body.

Officials from several agencies continued to periodically search the lake and shore near Porter Beach, adjacent to Indiana Dunes State Park, though Indiana Department of Natural Resources Lt. Jerry Shepherd said that the teen is presumed to have drowned.

“All it is, is waiting to see when the body comes up and trying to be there when it does,” Shepherd said.

Despite threatening gray skies and the weekend’s grim accident, dozens of beachgoers still flocked to the shoreline Monday. The only unusual sight was a group of binocular-bearing volunteers from the National Weather Service Skywarn program, who sat at a picnic table, scanningthe water for any sign of the teen.

Robert Stormer, one of the volunteers, said that the drowning of a second Chicago teen along the Indiana lakeshore in the last month underlines the importance of following beach advisories.

“When the beaches are closed and the signs of dangerous riptides are posted, don’t go in the water,” Stormer said.

Raphael was swimming with family members when he was pulled underwater about 1:20 p.m. Saturday. Porter Beach has no lifeguards, and a warning about rip currents had caused officials to close Indiana Dunes Beach when Palomar disappeared.

What a stroke of genius: "When the beaches are closed and the signs of dangerous riptides are posted, don't go in the water". Well...at least Cafasso received some kind of recognition here for the scene he created when he took over and began barking orders into a cell phone that he didn't dial into, albeit an idiotic quote from a bloviating self-important buffoon.

Journalists are always enthralled with him; whatever identity he gives them; they are anxious to run with whatever he gives them.

Mariah Blake knew him as undercover CIA and used him as a source in her "Tin Soldier" article for Columbia Journalism Review..

How can they not fact-check? Well, because journalists no longer know how to BE JOURNALISTS that even remotely bother about facts. THAT is the level of reporting people have come to expect from journalists today. So...it should be no surprise that they rely on sources such as Kathryn Cramer and JJoe Cafasso (formerly Lt. Col. Gerry Blackwood and numerous others including his latest- Robert Stormer-) for their articles.

Cafasso as "Dr." Gerard Pal Blackwood

Let's roll tape on the previous alias of Gerry Blackwood, which Kathryn Cramer seems to want to forget about.

This is the persona that Cramer fell for, and the persona which absconded with her laptop computer. This is the same persona Cafasso used to stroll the grounds at Columbia University and publish posts on his Stuporpatriots blog from Columbia University servers. At some point, she discovered Gerry was in fact Joe Cafasso, but before that, she was supporting the posts from the Stuporpatriots blog, and personally witnessed his publishing posts on that blog from her laptop computer.

Confidential Bio of Gerard Pal Blackwood, PhD:

Dr. Blackwood or Gerry as he likes to be called is a specialist in strategic weapons systems and issues governing nuclear non-proliferation. Gerry is a retired Lt. Colonel serving with the US Army for 26 years.

Highlights: Gerry served with the 179th Military Intelligence Brigade/MACVSOG Command Control South, SVN 1970-1972. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) 1972-1980 at various overseas posts. NATO Nuclear Liaison Officer 1980-1985. After Gerry's assignment with NATO he returned to a special assignment at CIA and Center Lane. During the Gulf War Gerry was assigned as the Commander of the G2 elements for CENTCOM. Gerry completed his military career Gwith the DoD Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) assigned to the inspectorate division and liaison with DOD/DOE NEST. Gerry retired in 1996 and worked under contract with both DOD and DOE until 2001 when he was contracted to IAEA. Gerry holds a special position with [REDACTED]

Gerry is a 1970 Graduate of Brown University receiving his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Gerry attended Cal-Tech for both his Master in Nuclear Engineering and his Doctorate in Theoretical High Particle Physic (1989). Gerry is a licensed fixed and rotary wing pilot and avid sailor. Gerry is fluent in Russian, German, French, Italian and Vietnamese. Gerry is also a specialist in Humanitarian Operations and has been "boots down" in several hotspots providing both medical and humanitarian aid.

Gerry currently holds a DOD Top-Secret-SSBI, Yankee White, DOE Q Clearance and Cosmic Top Secret/ATOMAL (NATO)

Gerry Blackwood, PhD
LTC US Army (Ret)
Managing Director
North American LCC Group, Ltd.
POB 1201
New York, NY 10024
POC: 732-453-4647

If you know of a more detailed bio on the Cafasso Rob Stormer persona than the one published at Common Dreams (below), I would be interested in seeing it. Email me at causalnexus.george@gmail.com if you have any information.

Robert Stormer of Chicago is a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, serving with the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, and was a specialist in weapons retrieval. He is a marine engineer and marine salvage specialist.
© 2007 Star-Telegram

And of course we have the original Cafasso resume which was also quite extensive.

Especially when you consider that Joe Cafasso was thrown out of the Army after only 44 days as unsuitable for military service.

This fraud has literally made a living from embezzling money from paramours and widows and other people, too. He somehow manages to lure people into his web with dramatic tales of heroism and military prowess (such as rescuing people from shipwrecks and in military operations). He gets raised eyebrows when he mentions being chased by 'spooks' or having to go undercover or 'disappear for while'; and no one seems to ask questions about his possessing "secret" military awards, honors and medals. If only they'd attempt to verify his tales of heroic and noble humanitarian operations as a Knight of Malta--he wouldn't succeed in scamming them to the point where their lives are left in shambles.

It is my hope that the Chesterton Police will do their due diligence in investigating the magnitude of Joe Cafasso's crimes.