He ain’t write
Bomb-threat susp went after ex-News reporter
THE FAKE newsman went real hard after his perceived enemies.
Failed journalist Juan Thompson, accused of painting his ex-girlfriend as an anti-Semitic terrorist responsible for eight bomb threats, also cyber-attacked a St. Louis reporter over a negative story.
Doyle Murphy found himself labeled a rapist by a bogus Twitter account that was also used to message his boss, his wife and fellow Missouri journalists last year.
“To see it all laid out, and connected to a national story, it was kind of insane,” the former Daily News staffer said Saturday. “And to hear that he was actually calling in the bomb threats.”
The irrational Thompson allegedly targeted a third victim: An old roommate who spoke with Murphy for his story last year — and was labeled as a racist in an anonymous email campaign.
Murphy, now with The Riverfront Times, recounted how a furious Thompson tried first to get him fired and then moved to ruin his reputation over a story detailing the reporter’s use of bogus quotes.
“It’s kind of crazy,” he said of Thompson’s bizarre behavior. “You fall into this weird gap of he’s not threatening to kill you or stand outside my door, but it’s a pretty terrible thing to go through.”
Murphy wrote a detailed column Friday shortly after the 31-year-old suspect was arrested at his grandmother’s house by the FBI in St. Louis.
Thompson is accused of cyberstalking a Brooklyn woman after a messy breakup last July.
In a previous piece last year, Murphy detailed Thompson’s firing from The Intercept news site after he was exposed for making up interview subjects and quotes.
The bogus reports came while Thompson covered the Dylann Roof massacre at a black South Carolina church.
Thompson, who remained jailed in St. Louis without bail Saturday, was not amused by the piece.
“You are a white piece of s--who lies and distorts to fit a narrative,” read an October letter from Thompson to Murphy. “Thankfully no one reads you.”
Murphy believes Thompson subsequently escalated his assault using the anonymity of the internet. A series of fake Twitter profiles attacking Murphy kept appearing last year.
And bogus Facebook pages accusing Murphy of rape were also created in a cycle of character assassination that continued for weeks.
The internet assault also included a mention of his mother and posting a photo of his wife.
When he contacted the St. Louis police cyber crimes unit, the detective asked one question without prompting: “Does this have anything to do with Juan Thompson?”
The jilted Thompson, accused of trying to destroy his girlfriend’s reputation by linking her to the anti-Semitic bomb threats, had apparently decided to trash Murphy as well.
Murphy believes Thompson also trolled the former roommate, sending anonymous messages to his boss and graduate school.
“It seemed like everybody was getting a cyberattack tailored specifically for them,” said Murphy.