True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

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So let's get comfortable (this is going to be a long one) and get on with the post....

Just before I begin briefly delving into these cases, please be aware that some of the details I will be sharing may be disturbing.

Ricardo Lopez

(Ricardo Lopez, a still from one of his vlogs. Picture credit: Rate Your Music)

At the height of her fame in the 90s, Bjork couldn't move for fans, she was loved and adored which was lovely but there was one fan who's admiration for her went way too far, horrifically too far. I'm aware that if things had turned out differently in this case, I could have been writing about Bjork's death or disfigurement and that is very haunting and disturbing. 

So what happened and who was Ricardo Lopez? I go into more detail in my original post on the case but let me try and break it down briefly here. Ricardo Lopez was a pest control worker in his early 20s who lived in a small, dirty and cramped apartment in Florida. In his spare time he would paint pictures and lived quite an isolated existence partly because of his insecurities about his weight and looks and also because of his depression. He would stay in his apartment naked due to the warm temperature and lack of air conditioning and listen for hours to Bjork's music.

The dishes would pile up in the sink, food wrappers remained on the floor and there would be posters of Bjork everywhere. What started as an admiration for Bjork and her music soon fell into full on obsession and he began vlogging on a video camera his daily life. Ricardo fell into more of a downward spiral when he stopped working and saw an article in a magazine about Bjork's new relationship with a British DJ. The news of the relationship sent Ricardo stir crazy and he expressed on his video blog his racist views when he said horrible remarks about the man being black. 

I go into more of the details in my original post but Ricardo was already upset with Bjork because he had sent her a painting and got no reply. After hearing about her relationship he decided that he wanted to seriously harm her. He planned to send her infected needles so she would get HIV but he realised this would be too hard to arrange so he worked on creating an Acid Bomb which he planned to send to Bjork's home address in London before shooting himself in the head. 

It is a case which has stayed with me and one can only try and imagine the absolute trauma that Bjork went through and I'm sure there must be some psychological scars to this day. Please check out my post on this case for more details on what exactly went on. 

Dante Michael Soiu

You may not have heard of this case but it a very strange one indeed so I wanted to include it here. Dante Michael Soiu had (probably still has) an obsession with the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, so much so that he proceeded to bombard the poor woman with endless packages and letters. He believed it was his goal in life to marry and take care of her. Gwyneth was terrified and feared for the safety of her family.

Amongst the packages of cook books, clothing, jewellery.....and sex toys! Dante had included rambling letters which discussed religion, her death and pornography. 

The whole ordeal got too much for Gwyneth that she took Dante to court and he ended up being found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital for three years, that should have been the end of it, however, Dante had other ideas.

Not long after he was released, Dante decided to contact Gwyneth again, same routine with the letters. He claimed that he wanted to show Gwyneth that he was a changed man and that he was available to get married whenever she was ready.

This whole nightmare went on for 17 years and Gwyneth took him back to court for a second time and she herself stood up and read some of the details that were in the letters which included:

''You are hopelessly lost. Now you must die. Yourself, you must die so that Christ can have preeminence''.

Dante didn't just bombard Gwyneth with letters, he would often write to politicians and even to former President of The United States, Barack Obama, giving him advice on how to handle foreign affairs.

It was clear that Dante had several screws loose but surprisingly despite the length of harassment and the evidence presented he was found not guilty of stalking in February 2016.

Since 2016, I can't find any other information on Dante Michael Soiu. It's a wonder what became of him but I do hope that he is continuing to leave Gwyneth and anyone else alone. 

This is a situation that could have turned very dark as we've seen in previous cases, obsession can soon turn to hate and how long before Dante would switch to something more sinister? I'm glad to hear that Gwyneth and her family are safe at present and I hope it stays that way. 

Robert John Bardo

This is a case that will pop up first in a lot of people's minds when it comes to talking about obsessed stalkers especially celebrity stalkers. In every documentary focusing on the subject, you will always hear Robert John Bardo's name mentioned. This evil lunatic is responsible for the cold blooded murder of one the most beautiful and up and coming young actress's in Hollywood, Rebecca Schaeffer. The boys wanted to date her and the girls wanted to be her, the future looked really bright for the 21 year old.

John had a history of mental illness and had a fixation on young popstars and actresses. Even to this day he likes to draw and paint pictures of today's young starlets in his prison cell.

So what happened with Robert John Bardo? well, he stalked Rebecca for three years after previously stalking a child activist who sadly died in a plane crash. He had previously been fixated on Geena Davis, Madonna and 80s popstars Tiffany (I Think We're Alone Now) and Debbie Gibson (Electric Youth). he'd have a habit of becoming fixated on one person and then get bored and move onto the next but with Rebecca he was totally infatuated. 

Robert went to great lengths to try and track Rebecca down and became enraged when he saw a movie in which she had more of a grown up role and appeared in a sex scene. At this point, Robert was furious and in his mind, Rebecca had lost her innocence and became a ''Hollywood whore''. 

Side note: I remember an interview with Mark David Chapman, the man shot the legendary John Lennon and he claimed that Robert had sent him letters. It was true that Robert was fixated on Mark as well as another celebrity stalker, Arthur Richard Jackson who stalked and stabbed the actress Theresa Saldana in 1982. Luckily Theresa survived but Robert took notes including the fact that Arthur used a Private Investigator to find Theresa's exact location.

Once Robert had Rebecca's address he set about confronting her over what he saw to be a failure on her part, for daring to grow up and not stay the innocent girl that he imagined her to be. 

Armed with a gun, Robert wandered around Rebecca's neighbourhood for a while to make sure that she did indeed live at the address that he was given.

He walked up to her front door and to his surprise she answered. Rebecca had been waiting for a movie script to arrive so just assumed that was what was waiting for her when she answered. It must have been so confusing and very scary to see oddball Robert stood there holding a picture and a letter in his hand. 

From the exchange of conversation between the pair of them, all we have is Robert's word which you can take that or leave it but the conversation was brief and Rebecca was kind enough to give him an autograph and told him gently not to come back to her house again. Well, to someone as twisted as Robert John Bardo, he would have seen this as rejection, he was a fantasist who would go over and over things in his mind and the line between fantasy and reality was very blurred. 

To anyone else, having the opportunity to meet Rebecca for a brief second and get an autograph, would have been amazing. But those of us with a brain cell and common decency wouldn't just show up out of the blue on someone's doorstep. Rebecca was very polite about the situation but that didn't matter to Robert.

He sulked off to a diner, the fantasy that he played over and over in his head had not become reality. Rebecca didn't jump into his arms as soon as she opened the door, instead she was stood there wondering who this strange guy was and what the hell did he want?.

Robert replayed the moment again and again in his mind and the anger got worse, he saw this as rejection. Just like Mark David Chapman, their idols didn't match up to their fantasies in reality.

Robert returned to the house with one thought in mind, to end her life. A lot of people wonder why Rebecca came to the door a second time but to be honest, in my opinion, the movie script was for Godfather III so you can imagine, Rebecca would have seen this as her big break and such an amazing opportunity. Any minute now that script would be delivered to her house so she would have been anxiously waiting, Robert was not on her high list of priorities nor should he have been.

A lot of celebrities in this day and age live in gated neighbourhoods or have extra security around their homes and it's no wonder why with the risk of stalkers and burglaries. I think that this case also had a huge impact on the way celebrities lived their lives and how they dealt with fans. 

Rebecca heard the knock at the door and when she opened it to find Robert again he claimed that she had a cold look on her face. Within seconds he shot Rebecca in the chest. He was later caught and arrested but just 30 minutes after being rushed to the hospital, Rebecca sadly passed away.

Robert was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. 

The beginning of the 80s started with an obsessed fan killing an idol and ended with an obsessed fan killing an idol. It wouldn't end there unfortunately. The death of Rebecca Schaeffer is one that haunts Hollywood and it's heartbreaking that such a young, beautiful and promising life was taken away for nothing. 

Roger Troy

This is another case that I covered back in 2019, I thought it was important to share Alissa's story because it was so heartbreaking and nobody else except for a few newspapers seemed to have covered it. In this case it feels like another one of those situations where you feel it doesn't matter what you do or where you go. I have been in a situation where a stalker knew where I lived and worked and threatened to not only try and destroy my life but take my life and those close to me.

I had to quit my well paid job and beautiful home in order to 'disappear' and go completely off the grid. That meant I didn't work for a while and wouldn't leave my house for fear that he would find me. Thank God those days are behind me and I live my life as normal but a lot of people are not so lucky and it was reading about Alissa's story that made me feel compelled to share it with you.

In these situations there's no way to avoid what's going to happen, nobody asks to be stalked. It can happen to anyone, male or female. 

Alissa was just a young girl working as a waitress making some extra money whilst studying to be a teacher when a customer became fixated on her. Everybody knows that in every hospitality position you have to be polite, smile and engage with customers. Unfortunately as we've seen with so many of these cases, some people seem to mistake this as some sort of come on and that's what happened with creepy 59 year old Roger Troy.

Alissa was only 21 years old when Roger first set his sights on her and what started as just friendly conversation (the odd compliment about her hair or how she had her makeup) soon turned sinister. Roger would come into the Hooters restaurant where Alissa was working and expect her to serve him. 

Roger just wouldn't take no for an answer and would even wait outside for her after her shift. It got to the point where the manager had to talk to him. Being young and naive, Alissa did give Roger an old email address to shut him up after he kept begging her for her phone number. 

After her manager spoke to Roger and basically told him to back off in a nice way, Roger continued to come to the restaurant but this time he didn't sit in his usual place and proceeded to throw dirty looks in Alissa's direction. In a way, Alissa was glad of the peace from him but at the same time is was a very uncomfortable atmosphere, it was a wonder why he didn't just go to another restaurant but obviously he wanted to punish her somehow and make it known that he wasn't happy with her.

Alissa decided to check the emails and was horrified to see an endless stream of abusive emails from Roger. I go into all of the details of the case in this post 

Because of the frightening nature of the emails (that she did report to the police and manager but nothing seemed to have been done) and the constant scene that Roger created every time she was on a shift, she decided to quit her job thinking that would be the end of it.

She took up a teaching job that she really enjoyed but to her horror, Roger found out her new place of employment and tried to harass her there.

With the support of her fiance, they thought it would be best to move and start another job elsewhere out of the way of Roger. Things were good for a while, Alissa had moved on and married the love of her life, started a new job, cut and dyed her hair and everything seemed to be going well until Roger appeared on the scene again

He just would not let her live her life and it's really saddening for me to write this again that it all ended so horribly with Roger taking the life of Alissa before he killed himself outside of her work. Alissa was just 23 years old (I go into more detail here).

This situation need never have happened and it's a prime example of how stalking cases need to be taken more seriously. I detailed in my original post about the lengths that Alissa went to, to try and keep this man away from her, the records she kept of everything, the reports that she made to the police. 

Roger, like the other men (wouldn't even call them men, can think of a few choice other names I could call them) mentioned in this post was a selfish monster who decided that if he could not have Alissa then nobody could. 

Richard Farley

Richard Wade Farley is a mass murderer and a stalker. I'm including him in this post because his rampage started because he had become obsessed with a younger female work colleague who wasn't interested in him and so all hell broke loose as it often does with these over obsessed, narcissistic stalkers. 

Before I briefly go into the case I just want to share with you how it came to my attention. I was watching a TV movie years ago based on this case called Stalking Laura and it starred Brooke Shields and Richard Thomas (He played John-Boy in the Waltons). Richard Thomas was completely magnificent in this role, it's become a firm favourite of mine over the years. If you have some time today or tonight, grab yourself a cup of tea or whatever and watch it, you can find the movie free to watch here on Youtube.

So Richard Farley (36) was introduced to Laura Black (22) in 1984 when she started working at the same computing firm as him and from the moment he saw her, he became fixated. Richard constantly asked Laura out for dinner to which she politely refused. She would come into work in the morning to find flowers, gifts and letters from Richard on her desk. When she told him to stop he wouldn't take no for an answer, he even showed up to her gym classes. 

Richard was determined to find out everything he could about Laura and tried to gain access to her confidential employee file. He was reported to have gained access to some of her personal documents, it was from there that he found Laura's home address and phone number.

Richard continued to harass Laura and over the course of four years he had sent her two hundred letters. Laura did what she could to try and keep the situation calm, made reports to authorities and Richard was brought into meetings and agreed to attend counselling. He attended the sessions but still continued to harass Laura and she ended up moving house four times over that four year period with Richard managing to find out where she was at each location. 

On the 2nd of February 1988 Laura filed for a temporary restraining order but had organised an upcoming court appointment for it to be made permanent on the 17th of February, however, things took an even horrific turn as Richard was not exactly happy about this news and on the day before the court date he planned to confront Laura and give her a choice to put a stop to the restraining order or he would commit suicide.

Richard Farley was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death. He is currently on death row in San Quentin Prison.

Laura spent 19 days in hospital recovering from her injuries and after she as well enough, she continued to work for the company.

Richard sent a final letter to Laura from his prison cell claiming she ''had won''. He later stated that he never planned to kill anyone but himself. He wanted to take his own life in front of Laura to punish her for rejecting him. 

There's a chilling line at the end of the movie (Stalking Laura) when Richard says to the negotiator ''Do you think Laura will remember all of this?'' and I think that says a lot.

Richard Farley couldn't get what he wanted so he wanted to destroy everything and kill Laura because he couldn't have her. Being the narcissist that he was he was never going to take his own life. It was almost like he blamed the company for trying to protect Laura so he wanted them to suffer too.

Such a shocking case and so many people lost their lives. It's a miracle that Laura survived and I can't imagine what that whole ordeal must have been like and to live with some of those scars today. 

Further reading & sources: 

- Deadly Obsession: True Crime With Caledonian kitty

- Dante Michael Soiu | Billboard

- Mark David Chapman | Wikipedia 

- Murder of John Lennon 

- Mark David Chapman Interview With Larry King (Video)

- Robert John Bardo | Wikipedia

- Robert John Bardo | Murderpedia 

- Robert John Bardo Interview | Criminal Perspective

- Rebecca Schaeffer | Wikipedia

- Dante Michael Soiu | Daily Mail

- Stalked To Death | True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

- Richard Farley | Wikipedia 

- Richard Farley | Murderpedia 

- Stalking Laura (Full Movie based on the Richard Farley/Laura Black case)