Dangerous shoals ahead, mate?

If you had told us a year ago the History Hunters International (HHI) website would implode, disappearing altogether and stranding scores of dedicated members while wiping out years of content, we would have said: "highly unlikely." The site had too many members with numerous legitimate projects and ongoing and often interesting discussions about history and archaeology (excepting the Odyssey blather, obviously).

Yet, that is precisely what happened, resulting in some highly entertaining punches being thrown between the uber-egocentric Doc (McManus) and Solomon (Bartram). There is clearly a full-on war being waged regarding the rights to HHI. It's so sublimely ridiculous that Doc recently posted what looked like a third-grade clubhouse application allegedly signed by Bartram to "prove" HHI was McManus's. Hilariously, Doc even claimed this "formality" (as opposed to an actual legal document) was witnessed by a "Miss Money Penny," the well-known character from the fictional James Bond series. It has since been removed along with a forum devoted to Doc's haughty posts about his new HHI and it's mission and philosophy. (To date, there are still only 13 members of his faction.)

On the other hand, if you had predicted a year ago that Doc would file for bankruptcy to the tune of $238,000 that would later result in a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for possibly misleading the court about the truthfulness of his filing, which he swore to be true so help him God, we would have said: "Yeah, that doesn't surprise us so much."

Sure enough, a new January, 20, 2009 court document clearly shows that McManus's bankruptcy petition is being investigated by the DOJ trustee (as we had earlier suggested based on the public record). The Trustee now wants more time to conduct "a thorough investigation into the financial condition, expenses, income, and assets" of Doc. Further, the Trustee adds:

The United States Trustee is in the process of reviewing this case to determine whether to file a motion to dismiss under section 707 or a complaint objecting to discharge under section 727 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Section 727 you say? Whatever does that mean? Let's take a look:

Bankruptcy Code Section 727 lists grounds under which a Court may deny a discharge to an individual debtor in a Chapter 7 case. Grounds include that the debtor transferred, removed, destroyed, or concealed property of the debtor or estate, failed to keep or produce adequate books or records, failed to satisfactorily explain an asset loss, committed a bankruptcy crime or failed to obey a lawful order. (Source)

That doesn't sound good at all, does it? Especially since Doc recently amended his Chapter 7 filing to list that infamous sailboat as part of his assets.

Do these dark clouds perhaps explain Doc's quick removal of his new HHI forum claiming ownership of the former website's rights and content over Bartram? Or, why he suddenly became so hushed about Odyssey (after years of vicious attacks)? Tellingly, there is not one peep about Odyssey on his new site. It appears his plate is too full to engage in battles unrelated to keeping himself out of immediate trouble, doesn't it? As cliches go, "the chickens coming home to roost," is an overused oldie, but in this case, is a definite and applicable goody.

Doc is innocent until proven guilty and based on the public record we should know more on or after February 20, 2009, assuming the Trustee's court request for an extended deadline for the continued investigation is granted. As always, we will keep you posted.

Hero Zero

“We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.” ~ Will Rogers

We're sure you won't be surprised that of the handful of members on Doc's new History Hunter's website, only one is listed as a "Hero Member." Can you guess whom?

Yep. You got it.

We don't doubt that when you've lost everything, and see yourself as the victim of your own crimes, you immediately set yourself up as a "hero" when the forum is under your supreme command. No debate, no questions asked.

Is there any doubt "God" pronouncements can be far behind?

Philosophical Question: Can "God" wink away $238,000 in debt, or a DOJ investigation?

P.S. No, we're not making this up

The HHI Merry-go-round

The more things change, the more they remain the same. We all know that shortly after Doc was unceremoniously dropped from the club he co-founded, the HHI website mysteriously disappeared. Doc then tried launching an extremely amateurish site that, days later, suddenly disappeared. That was replaced with an archived version of the HHI site going back to 2007.

Now, a mere week since launching, that is now gone and has been replaced with a basic Simple Machines template for a discussion group where the only member appears to be Doc.

One wonders if Doc was read the riot act about using content that wasn't exclusively his. One has to believe Solomon was involved in both kicking Doc out of the club and refusing him rights to old HHI content.

Meanwhile, the old HHI site continues to post a questionable claim about being the victim of DOS attacks (though it appears more likely that someone with administrative rights deleted the site's index files), and provides a link to a site they claim will not be publicly accessible (interestingly, it's also now signed by "John Bartram, admin," which is new). So much for HHI's commitment to educate the public about all things history and archaeology.

We know some of our readers are former HHI-ers and if you have any details of what actually took place, we'd like to hear from you. You can email us anonymously or we promise to protect your identity. Considering the founders' arrogance and sense of self-importance they obviously felt about their place in the world, we'd love to get to the bottom of what caused HHI to implode.

Another DOLT bites the dust....

A couple of readers sent us some comments about our website made by an "andysally" over on the OMEX discussion group. Apparently he thinks we're bullies. Gosh did that hurt our feelings.

Not really.

If we were afraid of being called schoolyard names, we never would have gone after HHI, its founders and members, all of whom were involved in the ultimate bullying campaign to destroy a company, its employees and stock. We think it's safe to say we prevailed while they did not.

The world is full of unoriginal dolts who never recovered from their momma removing their tit from their eager little mouths too early, and frankly, we already have our hands full dealing with enough of them. Plus, we like to actually be interested in the topics we write about.

So, sorry "andysally," the only attention you're going to get is whatever you receive from working so hard on the discussion board. We're sure you'll be popular and well-liked some where in cyberspace.

Um, not really.

UPDATE: Well, the Dipshit OMEX-followers Love to Tease (DOLT) has already lost his ability to post messages over on the private Odyssey discussion board. That took all of 48 hours. Not surprisingly, the DOLT skulked right back to the utterly worthless Yahoo board to...guess what? You got it: blame it all on one person. (Pardon us for suppressing a chuckle.) Oh, and check out the comments section. Guess he figures he might as well try to get some attention here as well...how predictably funny is that? CSI, here we come baby!