Mark Allen

Out of deepest New Jersey… check out this archived 2002 article from The Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ, “Web of Deceit Unravels,” presenting the diagnostic oddity known as “Nancy Nusbaum,” a malefic force of super-crazy (read: borderline genius) who, from her bedroom in her parent’s home, became a one-woman army of a hundred different personalities, using the internet to deceive, steal, seduce and change the course of people’s lives. The newspaper article was a vindication of sorts for people from all over the U.S., who had banded together to expose her after collectively learning of each other. The case seems to go back to the early 90’s, and her con habits appear to pre-date the internet. Here’s a cached version of above article which includes the photo. Here is the original StopAglaia site (the active forums have been removed). Here is a cached version of one page of the Bravenet forums. Here is another cached forum, this one the main page of the original site’s forum (if you want to read each thread, you have to punch it’s original url into the Wayback Machine). Here is a cached page from Henry Rollins’ own website, warning his fans that Nancy has been impersonating Henry Rollins and to avoid her. Here is a cached MySpace page someone created about her, with more photos. Here is an old Metafilter thread about the phenomenon. I tried to find some of the other newspaper articles and forum links about the woman and her case (on internet archives), but they seem to be permanently gone. Find anything else? Please email it to me.

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Any self-help guru will smile and tell you that life is a game where everybody wins. The game itself is the reward. Some see the game as a board game, like Candyland, Monopoly, Mouse Trap or Hungry Hungry Hippo. The sociopaths amongst us keep playing life’s game, perhaps a game of Snakes ‘n Ladders (lots of snakes, actually), while maneuvering, clawing and scratching for that brass ring. And they’re getting ahead faster. Just look all around you! Tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, entertainers, leaders, school teachers, pastors, television personalities, and self-help gurus …are the sociopaths of today! Many are shunned by our admittedly sociophobic society. I say embrace the sociopath! They’re role models! Let’s place the sociopath on a pedestal and raise our crutches to them, by reviewing several characteristics, and then celebrating two recently documented sociopath cases who’ve made it to the top:

Looking at my original essay “Sociopaths! They’re Gonna Make It After All!” …let’s review, in brief, the six distinguishing characteristics of a sociopath:

1. “What? Me evil?” Sociopaths do not see themselves as evil. They see everyone else around them as evil.

2. Sociopaths expect a payoff due to their complicated sense of entitlement. They aren’t slugs. They have goals.

3. Social graces! Social graces are nothing more than the learned ability to conceal. For a sociopathic “go-getter,” the primitive predatory instinct to stalk, hunt and kill translates into the ability to imitate, infiltrate and annihilate within the civilized social circles that hold things they want.

4. Sociopaths have a predisposition towards “hair-brained schemes.” True sociopaths share as much in common with Genghis Khan as they do with Lucille Ball.

5. For the sociopath: life is a stage!

6. If while reading this list, you’ve thought to yourself “Wow, these characteristics really fit several people I’ve known. I had always suspected those people were crazy,” that means only one thing: YOU’RE THE SOCIOPATH!

Case example: “Andre Roper”
Check out this semi-recent, edge-of-your-seat, oh-my-god-I-don’t-believe-it Village Voice story, written by Felix Gillette, reporting the case of “Andre Roper,” a broke, 300lb, flamboyantly gay, black cell phone salesman who seduced his way into the life of an young Upper East Side woman, and several others’ lives, to the tune of millions of dollars, penthouse views and transatlantic flights – all before he hit the age of 21.

Case example: Rachel Marsden (skip flash ad to view article)
Take a gander at this week’s article in Salon concerning recently ascending FOX-TV talking head, and Ann(Coulter)wannabe, Rachel Marsden, who hails originally from the Great White North and now lives on the airwaves. Salon reporter Rebecca Traister assembles a virtual “red flag” casserole, adumbrating zero about Marsden’s past sociopathic tendencies (although they’re hardly a secret). A fun, (maniacal)-laugh-out-loud read.

Currently, one is in prison and one is on TV.

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