One of Reddit’s first mysteries, circa 2009.
A story potentially linking a mysterious secret messaging board to the murder of an affluential weapon's dealer.
This story starts with a reddit user named u/Religionofpeace. For future reference, Religion of Peace is the same person as ROP or Milo, names that will be mentioned later in this story. ROP was known in the old days of reddit as a 79 year old WWII vet who had enlisted before the age of 18, whom spent his days in 2009 moderating r/Jailbait and making raunchy comments online. One of his top comments recounted that he had served on D Day in 1944, although he later mentioned that he served in the military until 1987, unable to retire until he found a technical job that was easier on his aging body. (Contrary to this, generally speaking, it only takes 20-30 years in the military to gain retirement benefits). Although the dates of service are questionable, much of his post history revolves around knowledge of military service, and it is widely believed he did indeed serve for a period.
u/Religionofpeace was also known for frequently advertising his image hosting website to be used for uploading porn. Although the website was nicknamed That Old Guy’s Image Host, it was found under the domain Lakecityquietpills.com.
In July of 2009 a new account by the name of u/2-6 posted to r/all the following:
u/2-6 said:The end of ReligionOfPeace. He died today.I'm the person who provided ReligionOfPeace the space for "That Old Guy's Image Host."
Milo died today. He was 79 years old. He died at his desk lookin at your site. Milo was a mean old fucker. Mean and onery. He hooked me up with my first gig when I got out of the Army. I did'nt like findin him like that. Milo don't have any living relatives and no real friends, and other than his landlady and a few people where he worked, he did'nt talk to anyone about much of anything. Me he just tallerated. As I said, he was mean. I think he used that as a shield to keep people away from him.
Milo thought god was some kinda con game thought up by some lazy sons-a-bitches who didn't want to work everyday. So he's going in to the fire on monday without a service just like he wanted. I'm planning to dump his ashes in the woods in PA near where he was born. Can't put them right there cause theirs a mall there now.
I gave the girl next door his raggedy old cat and most of his books. His computers and tronic shit he tagged for the disabled vets and VVA. All the rest of the stuff is for the salvation army. All those years and everything he owned fits in the trunk of my car.
I don't know what else to say. I'll miss him. Miserable bastard.
u/2-6's last comment on reddit 10 years ago was giving coordinates to the place he would be dumping Milo's ashes.
The post of Milo's death garnered a lot of attention , over 600 upvotes (Which was a lot back then). As more people were drawn to the story of Milo's death, more started looking into his background. Some people noticed the inconsistencies in ROP's timeline with the military, and questioned if the whole event had been a hoax to drive traffic to the image hosting platform or lakecityquietpills.com. This enticed people to dig deeper. During the digging redditors made a connection between the new account u/2-6 that had announced Milo's death, and an old account on a website called FARK. An account created in 2001 went by the name of AngelTwo-Six, the biographry read, "Dispensing Lake City Quiet Pills to lazy bastards in need of permanent rest since 1968."
AngelTwo-Six's post history consisted of detailing their favorite guns and ammunition, and they appeared to also have a history of military service. Notably AngelTwo-Six had the email account [email protected].
Consistencies in writing style and a pattern of he same words being misspelled lead redditors investigating to believe the person behind the AngelTwo-Six account was the same person as u/Religionofpeace.
What was the significance of lakecityquietpills.com however? Why would a website for hosting adult content want such a name over a name that could indicate them as a porn site?
Looking at the source code for lakecityquietpills, redditors found a hidden message board on the site. The posts on this message board consisted almost entirely of job postings. These posts appeared to be in search of military contracting, body guards, or mercenary type jobs. These job postings were dated, and interestingly on the same day u/2-6 had posted to reddit (Dated July 17, 2009) about the passing of Milo, an anonymous user posted to lakecityquietpills.com's hidden message board the following:
July 17, 2009I am sorry to tell you that old Milo died yesterday. He went quietly and calm, not like we all figured. I gave that fat mangy cat of his to the little girl next door. No service or nothing, you know Milo. I'm taking his ashes back to where his farm was. Close to it anyway. Theirs a mall where his place was.So hoist a few for the old man. Remember what he said, keep the faith with the man who's got your back.
u/2-6, whom was later connected to be AngelTwo-Six, had stated in his reddit post that he was the one who provided hosting to the website so it is reasonable this was clearly AngelTwo-Six who posted this. Below the death announcement are a number of job postings. Some of these postings include acronyms, the most controversial being W/W. It is speculated that this may stand for Wet Work (meaning murder) or Wants/ Warrants (Meaning the applicant could not possess warrants in the region listed).
It took some time for people to realize these messages were on the website and for the knowledge to become more wide spread. 2 months after Milo's death on September 30, 2009 the following was posted to the hidden message board:
September 30,For those who have asked, I bricked Milo's Iron Key the same day. All is well.
For those who don't know and Iron key is an encrypted flash drive. To brick the device means you are rendering the data lost making the Key unusable. This hints that members of the board were involved in business much shadier than typical military contracting or body-guarding.
On November 14, 2009 the following was posted:
November 14, 2009milos will clered probait. sirprize! milo was loded. email shade if we sent you out in 2005-2009. shade will have cheks cut for you. amont is by how many times, not by pay total. small share is 3-4k.
This post is the first reference of a third person in our story- Shade.
On January 12, 2010 and January 18, 2010 the following were posted:
January 12, 2010hapy new year, everyone.
were having a birthday party for the old man on the 19th. party starts at 1500 at the usual. send your rsvp to shade. fyi, were booking a room for 3 days for anyone coming from out of area, and overnight for locals.
come hoist one for dutch milo!
18 Jan 2010
we got 38 rooms in the marriot on 46. shade has the key cards for locals (pick up at the party). give your travel name to the desk and that's it. no id needed since were covering the bill. keep the room service under 500, okay? the phones there are not secure.
bus from the hotel leafs at 1330. car service vowchers for return trip when your ready to crash. DONT DUI!!!!
If they were traveling to attend a party, why would this group need travel names and need to be reminded phone lines were not secure? These messages imply the group would be gathering for much more than a goodbye party to a fallen friend on his birthday.
By chance, at 3:00 pm local time on January 19, 2010- The same time listed on he party invitation-, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades co-founder, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered in his hotel room. al-Mabhouh was a weapon dealer for Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist militant organization. He was wanted by the Israeli government for the kidnapping and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 as well as purchasing arms from Iran for use in Gaza. al-Mabhouh's arrival at the hotel was preceded by 33 men and women who had made their way to Dubai by use of fake passports.
