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.

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

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?

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.

Cramer's fingerprints

Kathryn Cramer's fingerprints are all over this brief article.

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.

Here she is congratulating herself on the work she has done on Cafasso's wikipedia page, since she as "Pleasantville" spends an inordinate amount of time editing on wikipedia and propping her own work. She created her own bio, and continues to break the rules of editing at Wikipedia, yet somehow they give her a pass. Kathryn Cramer's intense involvement at Wikipedia is one of the reasons Wikipedia should not be relied upon as a source for information. You can verify it yourself by checking the editing page for Jack Idema, also - she is very busy editing and updating that page, as well.

(It is interesting that now that page is "protected" and can be edited only by administrators. Is Cramer now considered an administrator? Or is she merely protecting the anonymity of her involvement on that 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.

It is common knowledge that Cafasso's been working on Kathryn Cramer's mac laptop. Cramer is able to trace Cafasso's whereabouts because apple computers have a feature that allow the owner to remote into it to review, retrieve files move files and edit contents. 

(That is not to say that it has a homing device, fly!! 

A few definitions of "follow" that apply in this case:

a: to watch steadily <followed the flight of the ball> b: to keep the mind on <follow a speech> c: to attend closely to: keep abreast of <followed his career with interest> d: to understand the sense or logic of (as a line of thought)

some definitions of "trace" that apply here:

2.  To ascertain the successive stages in the development or progress of: tracing the life cycle of an insect, trace the history of a family; or--as in this case-

3.  To locate or discover by searchig or researching evidence: trace the cause of a disease

Trace what Cafasso's been doing and trace or follow his whereabouts through what it is he's been doing on the laptop.  

That's simple enough, isn't it?  That line of thinking is not SIMPLE for some people, I guess.

That means that she knows what files he's creating, what he's writing, etc.-and can even copy these files and/or emails over to her own computer. If Andrea is posting from his laptop and talking incessantly about Indiana, as an example, Cramer can trace or follow it [not literally] and put 2+2 together.  If this doesn't make sense to you, I can only conclude that you do not understand that technology to which I'm referring, or are taking me quite literally-but that doesn't make ME the idiot!)  

I am certain there is a treasure trove of evidence that Cafasso has left in that computer regarding Robert Stormer, and it is my hope that they are examining what is on that computer regarding identity theft and the forging of government documents.

Kathryn Cramer's connection to Cafasso through his theft of her laptop and the fact that she tried to get her laptop back through Andrea Ello's sons and then freaked out that Jack Idema was interested in the laptop is another point of interest.

There would be no harm done if Idema was aware of Cafasso's forging of documents, proof of aggravated criminal identity theft and any number of other crimes. Idema is brash, rude, and uses crude language, but he's a rather formidable presence in the courtroom, and could make sure that Cafasso is put away and stays put away for a very long time.

Cramer's fingerprints are all over that article and it's rather humorous that she would demonstrate such hubris and bias in such a blatant fashion. Cramer is involved in this feud between Idema and Cafasso, and it appears that she is attempting to portray anyone who wants to see Cafasso pay a price for what he's done as an Idema supporter.

As far as I can tell, however, credit card scams, embezzlement, identity theft and other crimes are exclusively Cafasso's ballywick and Cramer is defending not only a con artist and womanizer, but a criminal of epic proportions.

There really should be - at the very least a book written about what Cafasso has accomplished as a con man; he has made a career out of it.

I am also noticing how she re-named pictures of Cafasso pretending to be Lt. Col. Gerry Blackwood and said he was "Jay Mosca". Let there be no mistake; Joseph Anthony Cafasso loves to pretend he's former military, and did the same thing with his Robert Stormer persona.

At "Common Dreams", where Robert Stormer's article was published entitled Nuke Transportation Story Has Explosive Implications you can see how similar his bio is to that of Gerry Blackwood:

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

Cramer's revisions give one cause for concern regarding Joe Cafasso's producing fraudulent military identification, as he did when Chesterton Police asked him as Robert Stormer for ID.