Cypherpunks and Irish Travellers

[Anonymous]

Terrific article below about the "Irish Travellers", an inbred gypsy-like
society which has decades of practice in anonymity, multiple identities,
secret languages, fake IDs, and other cypherpunk-like practices.  They
live in trailer parks and make their living with home improvement scams
and various frauds, just like many cypherpunks.  They even reside in towns
with names like White Settlement.  I thought that was Tim May's house!

Read on for a glimpse of the future of cypherpunk culture...



Woman videotaped hitting child has local ties
By MELODY McDONALD
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - The woman captured on videotape beating a child in an Indiana
department store parking lot last week is believed to be an Irish Traveller
with ties to the Fort Worth area.

Madelyne Gorman, 25, also known as Madelyn Toogood, has been the subject of
a nationwide search since Indiana law enforcement authorities distributed
copies of the videotape to the media earlier this week.

Gorman, who is believed to be affiliated with a Traveller group in White
Settlement and Fort Worth known as the Greenhorn Carrolls, is also wanted on
unrelated warrants in White Settlement and Fort Worth, authorities said.

Irish Travellers are descendants of a nomadic ethinic group that came to the
U.S. in the 1800s to escape the potato famine, roaming the country by horse
and wagon in search of itinerant work. Shiny trucks and travel-trailers now
carry them to the nation's distant corners and unassuming places like White
Settlement.

They are devout Roman Catholics who share biblical names, marry within the
group and speak their own dialect. Most of the men make their living in
home-improvement and business-repair work, such as paving, painting and
roofing.

Law enforcement authorities said some scam their clients in the process.

Joe Livingston, a senior agent with the South Carolina Law Enformcemnt
Division who has investigated Travellers for 18 years, said there are
various subclans of Irish Travellers around the cournty.

"In Texas, they are the Greenhorn Carrolls. The South Carolina Travellers
are known as the Georgia Boys. In Memphis, they are known as the Mississippi
travellers. This girl appears to be a branch of Texas."

"How many are there?" he asked. "Who knows."

The Greenhorn Travellers -- the Carrolls, Gormans, McDonalds, Daleys and
Jennings -- found themselves in the spotlight in January 2000 when five of
their young members were killed in a wreck on Interstate 30 in Fort Worth.

The accident -- one of the worst in city history -- shocked the public.
Questions arose when authorities learned that none of the boys was older
than 14 and four of them were carrying false driver's licenses
misrepresenting their ages.

After the accident, some Traveller families withdrew their children from
area schools. Victims' families met with investigators only once.

Livingston, who is researching the Madelyne Gorman case, said he has
discovered that Gorman has driver's licenses in Indiana, Missiouri, Texas
and New Jersey. Computer searches reveal she has listed addresses in Mission
and Fort Worth; Elkhart, Ind.; and Independence, Mo., among others.

"This again, shows the transiency of these people," said Livingston, who
said he received a call from an informant Friday morning about the case. "My
guy says they've gone underground. They're not going to find this girl." In
addition to the arrest warrant out of Indiana, Gorman is wanted in White
Settlement and Fort Worth for unrelated crimes.

In White Settlement, a warrant was issued for Gorman's arrest on April 9
after she failed to pay a $202 traffic ticket. According to the city's
municipal court clerk, Gorman received a citation for no driver's license on
Dec. 12, 2001, in the 1400 block of south Cherry Lane.

The following month, Fort Worth police issued a warrant for Gorman's arrest
after she failed to appear in court to face theft charges, said Lt. Mack
West, of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.

According to a computer records and a Fort Worth police report, Gorman and
another woman, Rose Ann Carroll, were arrested March 27 at a Kohls
department store in Fort Worth on charges of theft $50 to $500.