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Edward
DAVIDSON
A.K.A.: "The Spam King"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Parricide -
Murder-suicide
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: July 24, 2008
Date of birth: July 29, 1972
Victims profile:
His wife, Amy
Hill, 29, and daughter Bailey McDaniel, 3
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Bennett,
Arapahoe County, Colorado,
USA
Status:
Committed suicide by shooting himself the same day
Edward "Eddie" Davidson
(July 29, 1972 – July 24, 2008), also known as "Fast Eddie" and "the
Spam King," was an American spammer who from July 5, 2002 through
April 15, 2007 conducted a Colorado business using the name Power
Promoters.
The primary nature of Davidson's business consisted
of providing promotional services for companies by sending large
volumes of unsolicited commercial electronic messages ("spamming").
The spamming was designed to promote the visibility and sale of
products offered by various companies. Davidson utilized the services
and assistance of other individuals whom he hired as "sub-contractors"
to provide spamming at his direction on behalf of his client
companies.
Spamming operations
During 2002 through the middle of 2005, Davidson's
spamming activities were provided on behalf of companies to promote
watches, perfume, and other items. Beginning in the middle of 2005
through 2006, Davidson sent spam on behalf of a Texas company for
purposes of promoting the sale of the company's stock. The company
generated its income through selling low-value stock (commonly
referred to as "penny stock") on behalf of small companies on the
public market.
Davidson, aided by several sub-spammers, sent
hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to potential
purchasers throughout the United States and the world, which messages
touted the penny stock as an excellent investment. Davidson possessed
hundreds of thousands of e-mail addresses, which he and his
sub-spammers would use to send e-mail messages. Such e-mail messages
contained false header information, which concealed the actual sender
from the recipient of the e-mail. Davidson provided spammed messages
for approximately 19 companies. Davidson operated his spamming
activities from his personal residence in Bennett, Colorado, where he
had a large network of computers and servers, which facilitated his
business.
Court proceedings
Davidson was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 5, 2007 for
violating the CAN SPAM Act. He pled guilty in U.S. District Court
before Judge Marcia S. Krieger on December 3, 2007. On April 28, 2008,
Davidson was sentenced by Krieger to serve 21 months in federal
prison. Judge Krieger also ordered him to pay $714,139 in restitution
to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As part of the restitution,
Davis agreed to forfeit property, including gold coins, which he
purchased with the proceeds of his activities. At the time of
sentencing Judge Krieger ordered Davidson to report to a facility
designated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons on May 27, 2008.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) Denver field office, and the IRS Criminal Investigation
Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff prosecuted the case.
Incarceration
Davidson was assigned Inmate Number 35082-013 and housed in a minimum
security part of the Florence Federal Correctional Complex in
Florence, Colorado.
Escape and death
Davidson walked away from a federal prison camp in Florence on July
20, 2008. He was subsequently found dead in Arapahoe County, Colorado
on the morning of July 24, 2008, after reportedly killing his wife and
three-year-old daughter who was strapped to a car seat, in an apparent
murder-suicide. His 16-year-old daughter was also shot, but has
survived, while his 7 month old son remained unharmed.
Wikipedia.org
Escaped 'Spam King' murders
family
TheAge.com.au
July 28, 2008
A 16-year-old US girl, who survived when her father
shot and killed his wife and a younger daughter, says the man lured
the family into a sport utility vehicle with promises of a gift and a
final goodbye.
Eddie Davidson, 35, a convicted spammer who escaped
from a minimum-security US jail, committed suicide on Thursday after
killing his wife, Amy Hill, 29, and daughter Bailey McDaniel, 3.
Davidson was convicted of falsifying email header
information for a Texas company, earning $US3.5 million between 2003
and 2006.
He was also convicted of failing to report
$US714,000 in taxable income.
He was jailed in May after being sentenced on April
28 to 21 months in prison. He had been ordered to forfeit any weapons
in his possession.
At the sentencing, US District Court Judge Marcia Krieger said
Davidson was not considered a flight risk nor a danger to anyone.
After his conviction, Davidson became known as the
"Spam King".
Davidson's teenage daughter, from a previous
marriage, told investigators that her father fired a shot that grazed
her neck but that she escaped by zigzagging as she ran away.
A boy, about seven months old, also survived the
attack. He was found strapped in the back seat of the car. The
identities of the surviving children were not released.
Federal authorities had been searching for Davidson
since he and Hill drove away from the jail in Florence, south of
Denver, last Sunday.
Hill phoned police to report she had been forced by
Davidson to aid in his escape. The teenager also told investigators
that Davidson forced Hill to help him escape.
US Marshals met Hill during the week, said Ken
Deal, chief deputy for the marshals.
The 16-year-old told deputies that Davidson lured
them to a home improvement store east of Denver on Thursday, then
forced his way into the SUV.
He drove them to their former home south-west of
Bennett, about 39 kilometres east of Denver, where authorities said he
operated his spamming business.
Davidson asked his family to talk about good times
as they drove to the house and asked his wife if they would be
together "when everything was over".
"Eddie pulled a gun out and would put it in his
mouth and point it to his head," the teen said.
She and Hill said, "No, Eddie, we love you. Don't
do it."
Once at the house, Davidson got out of the car on
the driver's side, pointed the gun at his wife, who tried to grab it,
then shot her. He then turned and shot the teen in the neck, and
Bailey, who was strapped to a car seat.
Mr Deal said authorities were unable to determine
where Davidson got the gun. He said they were investigating whether
his wife had helped him escape.
Fugitive spammer dies in
murder-suicide
Colorado officials say man, woman, 3-year-old dead;
2 survive ordeal
NBCNews.com
July 24, 2008
BENNETT, Colo. —
A convicted spammer and his wife, who were being sought after
she helped him escape prison, were found slain along with their young
daughter Thursday in an apparent murder-suicide, authorities said.
A teenage girl was shot in the neck and a baby was
found unhurt in a car seat inside the vehicle where the three bodies
were found, Arapahoe County undersheriff Mark Campbell said. The
relationship between the girl, baby and the escaped convict wasn't
immediately clear.
The bodies of "Spam King" Edward "Eddie" Davidson,
his wife, and 3-year-old daughter were found in an SUV parked in a
farmhouse driveway in a rural part of Bennett, about 25 miles east of
Denver. Authorities said Davidson was the apparent gunman.
"What a nightmare, and such a coward," U.S.
Attorney Troy Eid said. "Davidson imposed the 'death penalty' on
family members for his own crime."
Authorities had been searching for them since
Sunday, when the couple drove away from a minimum-security federal
prison in Florence, 90 miles south of Denver.
Eid said that after Davidson escaped, he drove to
the Denver suburb of Lakewood and got a change of clothes and cash.
The house where the shooting occurred was not where the Davidsons
lived, Campbell said.
Davidson, 35, was sentenced in April to 21 months
in prison and ordered to pay $714,139 in restitution to the IRS after
pleading guilty to falsifying header information to send spam e-mail,
tax evasion and criminal forfeiture.
Campbell said deputies rushed to the farmhouse
after receiving reports of shots fired.
They found Davidson on the driver's side of the SUV
and a woman dead on the passenger side. A girl was found dead in the
back of the car, and a 7- or 8-month-old boy was in a car seat
uninjured.
Injured girl ran for help
Campbell said a teenage girl who was shot in the
neck ran to a neighbor's house for help and has been hospitalized. He
said the girl had serious injuries, but was coherent and talking when
taken to the hospital.
Prosecutors said that from 2002 to 2005, Davidson's
business, Power Promoters, and his subcontractors would spam people's
inboxes with e-mails promoting items such as watches and perfume.
From 2005 through part of 2006, he sent thousands
of e-mails from his home in Bennett, sometimes with false information,
on behalf of a Houston company promoting a penny stock as an excellent
investment, according to a plea agreement. His bank account deposits
from 2003 to 2006 totaled $3.5 million, the plea agreement said.
Prosecutors said they also found about $380,000
that he had stashed in his girlfriend's bank account over three years,
and purchases totaling $418,000 from a company that sells gold,
platinum, palladium and silver coins.
Prosecutors did not identify the girlfriend in
court documents.
When Davidson was sentenced, U.S. District Judge
Marcia Krieger noted it was Davidson's first serious conviction, and
that he was supporting three children, which documents did not
identify. She noted Davidson had been diagnosed with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder. A condition of his sentence was that he
undergo mental health counseling.
Michael Arvin, Davidson's attorney during his
criminal trial, did not return a phone message left after business
hours Thursday.
