It appears the Catsouras family is at it again. You might recall Nikki Catsouras – the girl who stole her Daddy’s car and crashed it into a tollbooth at an extremely high rate of speed, thus rendering her head into a faceless shell? Photographs of her highly public death made it onto the internet, and many of the morbidly curious (present company included) spent time gazing at her hideous corpse and reflecting about how important it is to drive carefully, lest one end up sharing the same fate.
Unfortunately, the family found out about the photos when some cruel asshole sent one of them to Nikki’s father, thereby causing the family to try to eliminate the photos from the web. They contracted with a group called Reputation Defender that located the photos on the internet and sent “cease and desist” letters to try and encourage the webmasters to take the pictures down. I received one of their e-mails myself, and replied that I would not take down the photos because I felt that they were public domain and I also felt that they were important to see. In fact, I’d had several people write to me to say that they showed the photos to their teenage family members as a deterrent to speeding. Nikki was dead – why not use the photos to help other young people avoid her tragic fate?
Last year I was contacted by 20/20 to do an interview about the Catsouras case, but I declined. Good thing too, because the show, like most of them, was severely stacked against the morbidly curious and in favor of the censorship impulses of the family. I figured after that show, they would finally let Nikki rest in peace… but I guess I was wrong because Newsweek had a story about the family’s “legal struggles” recently:
A Tragedy That Won’t Fade Away (Gee, maybe because you, the family, keep talking about it???)
Naturally, I’ve had several people write to ask about whether I have the pictures, which I do, but I don’t need to send you to my version of the images because Encyclopedia Dramatica conveniently has the full story, with all the photos, online. Not for the squeamish, of course.
Thanks to Amos Quito for the links.
My coworker gets Newsweek delivered to my job and I read about them in that issue. I wondered if you knew anything about it. I was going to watch that episode of 20/20 but fell asleep. Oops, I’m glad I missed it though,
The family kind of disgusts me and I really can’t put my finger on what, aside from the obvious censorship issues. I think the police were dicks for releasing those pictures but once they’re out they’re out.
I can’t stop looking at that pic, her head is just like a pumpkin that’s been smashed.
I watched the show and I was very incensed that they showed the Comtesse’s link to the photo’s which caused our dear Comtesse to receive emails from the crazies.
If 20/20 was so concerned about the family, why did they show the link?
@Magnoire La Chouette
Good point, Magnoire. And thank you for your support against the crazies.
ReputationDefender / Reputation Defender CEO Michael Fertik selectively finds these cases he knows he can get face time with and then pushes them hard on the media. For the most part Fertik and Reputation Defender / ReputationDefender are a benign spam company. They should just stick to posting people’s resumes online, rather than pursuing their censorship agenda. BUT, you don’t get venture capital unless you make headlines, right?