Buzz Blog
Bond has been charged with burning a sheep skin store in Colorado, as well as the Tandy Leather store in Salt Lake City and Tiburon Fine Dining. All were done on behalf of animal rights, according to someone taking the nom de guerre of "ALF Lone Wolf" who took credit for the fires anonymously. Prosecutors now believe Bond is "Lone Wolf." He's only been charged with the arson in Colorado, however the criminal complaint claims Bond admitted to the Utah fires while talking with a confidential informant, who was an old friend he hadn't spoken to in 12 years. For more background on Bond, read CW editor Jerre Wroble's commentary here and Salt Lake City animal rights big-wig Peter Young's reporting here.
It seems Bond himself made this claim several times in various Internet message boards this year.
In March 2010, it seems that Bond started posting links to a new blog, veganhardline.blogspot.com (now defunct). For example, this is likely him, this seems to have his finger prints on it, and here also. According to what I read on these various boards, "Hardline" is a subset of the Straight Edge movement that arose out of the 90s and was known for militancy, but its detractors focused more on its homophobia and opposition to a woman's right to choose abortion. A message poster that I believe to be Bond says the new incarnation of Hardline, which he calls "Vegan Hardline" to emphasize the distinction, has renounced homophobia, but his posts on this straightedge forum maintain opposition to abortion. (specifically in this post).
User "Vegan Hardline" (presumed to be Bond) later claims on that same message board that he is the inspiration for the Earth Crisis song.
I am 33 years old and have been around since the original hardline days. It is true that I do believe in a slight variation of the original as I am not a homophobe and am agnostic. that is why I always say vegan hardline instead of just plain old hardline. However I am not a single person with a blog I am part of a crew called vfl that shares my views. I also am the subject of the new earth crisis video 'to ashes' which is about the 4 years i did in prison between 97 and 01 for burning down a meth lab that was in a drug dealers home.
By April, the Vegan Hardline blog had been removed (by Bond?) and old message-board posts that promoted the blog were edited so that the link to it no longer appeared (that's why all you see is "xxx" in his original post on the straightedge forum, but notice that it was "last editted" in April, a month after the original posting date in March). The Colorado fire was set April 30.
Here's where I begin to wonder whether Bond's comic-book-like back story is fact or myth. On that same message board, the Vegan Hardline commenter--presumed to be Bond--claims the meth dealer's name was "Steve Gomez," that Gomez was "under federal investigation," that Gomez flipped and testified against other drug dealers and that he's now serving 65 years in federal prison. I searched federal court records in both districts of Iowa and Iowa state court records and can't find a Steve, Steven, Stephen, or Esteban Gomez or Gomes with drug convictions. I searched the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator and can not find a Steve Gomez that is still in custody. I'm not concluding that Bond is making all this up, but it makes me wonder.
There's no doubt, remember, that Bond has been convicted of arson before; federal prosecutors make mention of that in the complaint (pleaded guilty 12/27/1997 in Iowa). But all the best lies contain elements of the truth. So, two questions remain: Was Bond the inspiration for the Earth Crisis song "To Ashes"? And even if he was, is the story really true? Anyone who can provide links or other information to verify this "Lone Wolf" suspect's backstory will get a halo in information heaven.
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Jesse Fruhwirth: |
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