Craigslist Predictions for Peter Braunstein, Part II
On Monday, we pointed out a Craigslist post detailing — at insane lengths — the author's thoughts on the possible location of sexual assault suspect Peter Braunstein. Shortly after we published and linked to the original post, it was removed.
Yesterday, while we were supposed to be picking at some nasty green bean casserole, our attention was brought to yet another Craigslist posting, presumably from the same author as the first. Again, we found the latest to be equally creepy and disturbingly insightful — and, again, the post was eventually removed. We're smart-ish, however, so we remembered to save a copy before it was pulled down:
*********** PETER BRAUNSTEIN II ***************
Reply to: [xxx]
Date: 2005-11-24, 1:54PM EST
He's not eating Thanksgiving dinner in a soup kitchen. The NYPD is not wrong to distribute wanted posters of him in said kitchens - I posted here earlier this week that one his main concerns, wherever he is, is food and shelter, but there's no way on God's green Earth this kid is going walk into a shelter for turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce because he misses this special meal on this special day. Please.
After the jump, the alarmingly detailed analysis.
Can you imagine Braunstein - this ego driven narcissist - sitting next to a bunch of guys with open sores and rotting teeth eating Thanksgiving dinner with plastic utensils? It's almost laughable. And have YOU ever eaten with guys lke this? Or hung out with them on the street? You know what they do? The look at you and wonder, "Why is this seemingly reasonable, sane, somewhat well-dressed, younger person with all their teeth and no track marks or (prison) tattoos or other outward signs of street/prison/drifter life(style) here? Wth me?
They ask questions. They stare. They're curious. They want someone new to listen to them. There's no way in hell PB is with them today.
He's also not in Ohio, where the NYPD sent three officers on a chase to track a lead provided by a tipster. He's not going to make anyone he knows an accessory to his crime or to his flight from justice. To do so would mean that his accomplice would have to willingly cede their freedom to not only Braunstein's twisted life (as it exists now) but also to any future hammer of justice falling down on them after/when he's apprehended. He's NOT with anyone he knows or knew, seeking help. And he won't be. He's alone.
He's either in France or some other locale where the language is French, as he speaks fluent French. He split for the airport or Port Authority for a bus the day he left the Super 8 in midtown and before the papers had his mug plastered on the front pages daily. He cancelled his mail at Kew Gardens where he lived with his mom and picked up his renewed passport days/hours before the 10/31 attack. Fuck all that potassium nitrate shit he bought on E-bay. If he flew - literally - he dumped that in a trash can on some street corner on the way to a cab to JFK and he's gone. How perfect are those cans? Right in plain sight, no? Everyone uses them. No one looks in them except can collectors - maybe - and they're dumped daily to who knows where? (Well, the NYDS knows where, but under how many tons of othewr crap?) He's smart enough to know that revenge is a dish served best when cold, so knows he can always obtain explosive compounds at some later date. I.E:
He can blow up Fairchild some other day. Right now, he's got more pressing matters to worry about - like getting away!
If he's not in France, he could be in Detroit, thinking that the Detroit police badge he bought off E-bay will give him some advantage there; like a key to the city. If I were the NYPD, I would have had some Detroit papers flash the images of TODAY'S DPD badge and the badge Braunstein bought on their front pages side by side w/an accompanying story that said, basically, NYC psycho MAY be in this town, flashing THIS badge....watch out for him. etc...
My bet is Detroit (or some other closer metropolitan area) over France. Also, because by being in Detroit, he can buy, physically (to hold in his hands), NYC newspapers and see and read his coverage. Yes, yes, yes...I know...he can in France too...and online as well...but for him, he wants to keep his pursuers in his sights...he doesn't want to get so far ahead of them that he loses all perspective on what they're doing, and for him, actually handling and feeling the media which covers him keeps him on a more intimate level with his pursuers. Also, time zone issues and pop culture issues and urban lore (of which he is a so-called expert) and is now becoming himself may keep him in this country - moving to a foreign land may be too disorienting for him; could take him down off his ego-driven "high" he's riding now. He wants to still watch his favorite TV shows, buy his favorite magazines, read his favorite papers and have access to his favorite telephone numbers, ex-colleagues, etc....Whether or not he uses these outlets, TV, phone, magazines...they're comfort food for him, as it were. He requires SOME level of comfort and familiarity. He'll not stray too far from what he knows.
Of course, he could be dead, too, but I doubt that.
However, if he is, I'd look for him in VERY out of the way places, like DEEP within subway tunnels, drifting in the harbor somewhere or...I don't know where else...but he wouldn't be the type to blow his brains out in a hotel room. By killing himself, he admits failure and guilt. He'd want to hide the fact that he was dead for as long as he could. I'm not sure how bad a body has to smell for the stench to reach from say, the subway at Lexington/59th to the station at Queensborough Plaza for example (under the river in the tunnel), but if he crawled into that tunnel and swallowed some pills or shot himself (doubtful - too loud!), how long would it take for the smell to reach a station at either end? With all those trains whooshing thru and blowing air at 40mph....I'd imagine we would have smelled him by now. But the point is...if he killed himself, he secluded himself somewhere WAY out of the way to do it. He doesn't want anyone to know he did - for as long as possible. Like an elephant. You know how they say elephants are so much like people? When one's sick, it kind of fades from the group and wanders off to die alone?
So it still comes back to what I wrote here earlier this week. He's concerned with:
1. Shelter
2. Grooming
3. Food
4. Anonymity
5. Releiving Stress
6. Making his case/Defending his actions/Explaining himself/Saving face
(Not in that order, necessarily)
By this time, if still in NYC proper (Manhattan) he could have:
- shaved his head or dramatically altered his hair color/style/length
- grown a beard, Van Dyke or goatee or moustache
- dyed his eyebrows
- gained weight
- lost weight
- bought colored contact lenses
- bought reading glasses
- paid someone to scar/beat him to alter his appearance (don't laugh. it happens)
He's getting harder to find because time is on his side and is working against the NYPD. Or is it?
Where is he BUYING his food?
Where is he MASTURBATING and/or WHO is he having anonymous sex with? He is.
Where is he SLEEPING?
Where is he READING and WRITING? He's doing both, daily, and you don't do either while walking or running or driving a car.
And, lastly, as sick as this sounds, it's true. As each day passes, and another woman is NOT assualted by him, one more day goes by where that one woman, multiplied by 10,000, just sort of forgets about him...and goes on with her life. It's double for men. He's not after men. It's women he has issues with. So each day, in huge sheets of humanity, another layer of focus is peeled back and lifted off this guy as each day turns over to the next...and he's that much freer to live his life as people move on with theirs.
He can be found. If I were a cop, I'd think "sicker." Want to catch flies? Lay out some shit. They'll come. Eventually.
Goodluck.
Oh..and a fake ID? Where does one obtain one? Or a new birth certificate, etc.? After 9/11, it all changed in this country and where it was sort of easy to get a new/fake ID by follwing some easy, but detailed steps: setting up a post box, getting a state ID to get a Driver's lic., to get a birth certificate, then obtaining a laminating machine, etc....or visiting online message boards of persons who refer to themselves as PT's or Permanent Travelers (paranoid freaks who don't trust gov't) and who exist on phony ID's and no SS numbers and don't pay taxes....NOW it's not so easy.
So...where are the EASIEST places for one with no apparent links to pro criminals who can set you up with phony ID to obtain phony ID?
Have the cops looked there yet?
