William Freund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Freund (c. 1986 – October 29, 2005) was a nineteen year old male who donned a cape and paintball mask and went on a shooting rampage in the city of Aliso Viejo, California. He shot and killed two people before going home and killing himself with a shot to the torso. Before going on the rampage, he is said to have posted his plans on the online Asperger's Syndrome message board wrongplanet.net. He also posted on the Something Awful Forums under the alias "forbiddenforum" asking for information on where to buy Hevi-Shot ammunition. Forum members responded with information, then derision as he claimed that he was going to be shooting at people attempting to vandalize his Halloween pumpkins. The thread was closed a few days before his shooting spree. He also posted on AnandTech but never commented on suicide or his plans to kill. He was a computer expert who, according to his employer, kept to himself and severely lacked social skills.
Before his shooting spree he had asked several people for advice on how to avoid being institutionalized as well as offering to pay people for the real names and addresses of channel operators in IRC channels that banned him.[1]
During the famous post on the Something Awful Forums William Freund mistakenly used "puckins" in place of the word "pumpkins" as a typo or misspelling. As is the way of these forums, some of the members who responded in the thread also used the word "puckins" intentionally in an apparently innocent but mocking sense. Because of this repetition and focus on this misspelling, the fame surrounding the events of October 29, 2005, and the numbers of people in the public who read the specific pertinent post on this board because of news broadcasts identifying it, the word "puckins" entered the world of famous Internet lexicon words. It is most often used when a person believes the person they are referencing is mentally ill or mentally unstable to the point of violence, and wishes to signal this to others without letting the identified person directly know.
[edit] External links
- Blottered excerpts of the conversation originally posted on Something Awful]
- WrongPlanet thread: What are the odds of this being another William Freund?
- Report: Orange County Gunman Was Outcast (AP, November 6, 2005)
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Freund, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | forbiddenforum (online alias) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | murderer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | c. 1986 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 29, 2005 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Aliso Viejo, California |
