NFL Player's Death Eerily Predicted Hours Before By Fake Twitter Account
According to Valleywag, a person posing as Dallas Morning News columnist Gerry Fraley reported the death of NFL wide receiver Chris Henry on Wednesday via a series of tweets about 12-hours prior to Henry's actual death. We can't imagine the heartache this caused family and friends. At the time, Henry was in the hospital after he fell from the bed of a moving pickup Tuesday. With his family by his bed, Henry died Thursday around 6:30 a.m. EST.
While the real Gerry Fraley confirmed the other account was a fraud, it's still active on Twitter (although the fakester claims he'll quit tweeting [Update: He lied, and is calling the real Gerry a fraud.]). With a constant stream of anonymous information, fake deaths are bound to get reported. However, these actions, despite being tragically prophetic, were flat-out reckless and tasteless. Twitter should be a communication tool, not a gossip-mill spitting out harmful rumors. [From: Valleywag]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Johnny K said 7:38PM on 12-18-2009
I seem to recall something simiar with Wikipedia and wrestler Chris Benoit a while back (here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2007-07-02/Wrestler_death). I imagine this will become more common as the stream of info online increases. Scary stuff.
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chok said 12:03AM on 12-20-2009
I now wonder if it was all planned (his death). Or did they post that right after he was injured?
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