“True Lovefraud Stories” on Lovefraud.com is a collection of case studies about people who lied their way into the lives of others, leaving a wake of destruction. Some committed fraud. Some committed bigamy. Some committed murder.
Five of the perpetrators in the True Lovefraud Stories received jail terms for their actions. Of the five, three are out of prison and two, claiming innocence, are appealing their convictions.
Ed Hicks
Ed Hicks was convicted of bigamy in Virginia on March 6, 2006. He was sentenced to a year in prison. With credit for the time already served, he was expected to remain incarcerated until the end of 2006. Due to his good behavior in prison, he was released on probation on October 18, 2006.
“I have no idea where he is, nor do I care, just as long as he doesn’t come near me or my family,” said Sandra Phipps, his ex-wife who initially filed the bigamy charge. “I know he wants me dead or harmed since I ripped his mask off. I will forever watch my back.
“I am sure if he has access to a computer he is already preying on his next victim,” Phipps continued. “Hopefully, not being allowed access to a computer would be one of his conditions of probation; however, I don’t know how you would enforce that. Fortunately there is a plethora of information out there about him if a woman does meet him via the Internet and just Googles his name—that is if he gives his real name!”
Michele Drake
Michele Drake pleaded guilty of fraud, theft and credit card theft in a Nova Scotia court on March 9, 2006. At the time of the trial, she was already incarcerated, having been convicted of stealing her brother’s identity in October, 2005.
With the two trials, Drake was sentenced to a total of four years, four months and 20 days. As a non-violent offender, she was locked up for less than a year, receiving day parole in July, 2006.
Drake was a legend in her hometown of Mulgrave, Nova Scotia. Jack Ronalds was her wedding photographer and had to resort to withholding her proof book to get paid. Ronalds said Drake stiffed the ladies’ auxiliary of the local fire department for the cost of her reception in the fire hall.
Sherie Nash of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, had befriended Drake—and became one of her victims. “She is out of jail and living in a halfway house in Sydney, Nova Scotia until February 7, 2007,” Nash says. “Then she is free to go ”¦ and destroy more trust and faith.”
Rabbi Fred Neulander
After two trials, Rabbi Fred Neulander of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, was convicted of hiring a hit man to murder his wife. On January 16, 2003, he was sentenced to life in prison, although he could have received the death penalty. He is the only rabbi in America ever convicted of murder.
Neulander continues to proclaim his innocence. On October 23, 2006, Neulander sought to reopen his case, claiming that the jury should have been allowed to hear testimony about another unsolved murder in the Cherry Hill area to which the confessed hit man was allegedly linked. A pubic defender represented Neulander before the three-judge appeals panel. They have not yet announced a decision.
Anthony Owens
Anthony Owens was allegedly married to eight women at the same time. He pleaded guilty of one count of bigamy in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on March 17, 2004. He received a six-year sentence—two years in a state prison and four years of probation. Owens was released from prison on November 5, 2005.
Scott Peterson
In a sensational case, Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in November, 2004. The jury sentenced him to death. Peterson is now on death row in San Quentin Prison in California.
Peterson is appealing his conviction. Messages from Scott Peterson are posted on a website hosted by the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The Peterson family maintains a website called ScottPetersonAppeal.org. Lovefraud has received e-mail from people insisting that Peterson is innocent.
Violence vs. non-violence
There are two basic groups of sociopaths—those who are violent, and those who are not.
The violent sociopaths do not show remorse. They either claim they are innocent, or admit their guilt and still show no remorse.
The non-violent group is far larger. No matter how much damage these people cause, no matter how many lives they ruin, sooner or later they are back on the street. The only thing the rest of us can do is know the symptoms of a sociopath, and if we see them, run.
Unreal that Scott Peterson is still appealing. But after reading Keith Ablow’s book on him – the whole family seems to be deeply disordered.
Ed Hicks should be under the jail not out of it. And you just know he’s at the local library – typing his heart out for his next vulnerable source on some dating site. UGH!
Remember that most sociopaths sucessfully avoid overtly breaking the laws in obvious fashions and that, with one out of every 25 of us being a sociopath!, there are far more sociopaths running freely amoung us than are inside our prisons!
Also note that males are more readily identified and prosecuted at least in the US. There is a gender bias and females are held to different standards. Had the woman who pretended to be my wife gotten busted for drugs, Arizona would have put me in prison while she walked on probation!
Moreover, had Maria cooked methamphetamines in my house, because we were married the house would have been considered “community property” and under RICO, the act designed to combat organized crime, the law would have taken my house. I’d be stuck paying the mortage and on the streets, literally, while the sociopath would walk free and find a new host without even batting an eye.
I ripped the mask off my ‘perfect’ paramedic boyfriend. Although he seems like he would be non-violent. I know he has a deep hatred for me for exposing him on all those cheater ‘outing’ websites. I am terrified that he will come after one of my kid’s in the future, years from now, when I’d least expect it (Because he knows that would hurt me the most). My son, who is a 1st year psych major, thinks I’m being paranoid and watch too many crime shows on court T.V., I hope and pray that he’s right. But I am afraid.