Today went from weird to something out of an episode of the Twilight Zone. This morning the Cleveland Plain Dealer got a call from Ellie Light. Then this afternoon they got a call from a second person claiming to be Ellie Light. Will the the real Ellie Light PLEASE Stand Up ?The real Ellie Light was really #1 the "woman with the deep voice" she contacted the paper again tonight. And "her" name is Winston Steward.
Actually Steward revealed himself on the radio early this morning on the Michael Smerconish show, a national talker based in Philadelphia (audio at end of the post).
A man who identified himself as Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., says he made up the name "Ellie Light" to protect himself from criticism and possible physical attacks, and used fake addresses across the country to get local newspapers to publish his letters.
"I am Winston Steward and have been sending the letters from Ellie Light," he told The Plain Dealer in an e-mail late Tuesday, following a phone interview in which he said the same. "I hope this ends any confusion and sets the record straight."
His e-mail address matched the address of the Ellie Light missives that were sent to newspapers to praise Obama and urged second-guessers to be patient as the president advances the Democratic agenda. The person identified as Ellie Light had been corresponding from that e-mail address to The Plain Dealer since last week, when the newspaper's Web site, cleveland.com, disclosed that someone using the name Ellie Light was duping newspapers nationwide.
....The story took several twists this week, as The Plain Dealer and "Ellie Light" spoke first through e-mail and later via phone. At one point Tuesday, the person who had been using the name acknowledged it was fake -- but then said her real name was Barbara Brooks. The person spoke in a husky voice that could pass for either gender.So the story is over....Maybe. Now we just have to find out who is Mark Spivey?
But public records, including those of marriages, property and professional licenses in California and Texas, and phone interviews eventually led to the identity of Steward. Those interviews included several with a woman in Texas who said she is the real Barbara Brooks -- records appear to confirm this -- and that she is married to Steward, who for now lives in their other home in California but plans to join her in their home near San Antonio.
The woman said her husband was using her name because he was afraid he might be attacked by "right-wing crazies up in Bakersfield," about 40 miles from their home in a mountain community.
Late Tuesday, after several denials, the person who had been e-mailing under the name "Ellie Light" said he'd finally set the record straight. He said he was, in fact, Winston Steward. He repeated that in an e-mail, using the same account as he had when using the name "Ellie Light."
He said, however, that he and Brooks are no longer married, a point Brooks disputed.
"He's making up all kinds of garbage," she said. "We're not divorced. We're not separated. He just doesn't want anybody to trace him because he's afraid of the right-wing crazies up in Bakersfield."
She said she does not condone his use of a fake name.
The name "Ellie Light" appeared with letters that ran in newspapers in multiple states, including California -- where state law makes it a misdemeanor to sign and send "any letter addressed to a newspaper with the name of a person other than himself."
If you would like to read today's previous weird Ellie Light goings on CLICK HERE!
<
Link:
No comments:
Post a Comment