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.