And if you look at that IP addresses's OTHER edits, it's pretty obvious that it was just a garden variety vandal who's hoaxish entry sadly proved true.

absent further information, like the fact that Benoit was in Fayetteville, GA, not Stamford, CT?

Didn't I basically say that? You may wish to work on your reading comprehension. Are you an administrator at Wikipedia, by any chance?

Yes, something I've never hidden btw.

heh. My rehetoric scanner didn't budge, guess it needs recalibrating.

Just a bit frustrated. You can call it one of WP's LAndmines, that vandals can cause them this kind of situation. The amount of times someone inserts "XX is dead" for shits and giggles into articles.. sooner or later, yeah, XX is going to actually be dead.

At that point, if I'm remembering the timeline correctly, it was known that Benoit missed the PPV due to "family problems", so some vandal decided to sneak info into the article, and see if anyone bit on it.

(remember, this is the IP who had put into a Ron Artest article about him appearing (Clothed) on the cover of penthouse with three bikini-clad models..

''Shortly after this, Artest was accused of raping one of the bikini-clad models, which he was found guilty of, but was released on bail. He was accused of raping another one of the models after this but he was found not guilty."

You get a bit frustrated when you spend all your time stamping down conspiracy theories only to see them pop up time and time again. I start to understand why the 9/11 TROOTHBRIGADE are so annoying.

Sounds like a case for Nancy Grace.

Um-mm, well, they are just articles about professional wrestling on Wikipedia. One option is to...you know...not deal with them.

Sounds like a case for...Looch.

The problem is, who on earth could have known that Benoit killed his wife before the police did?

The logical response is that Benoit himself made the post.

The problem is that this violates the Original Research Policy.....

(Why are they denying this? What's the hidden agenda here? That's the real question.)

So you're saying that Chris Benoit used an open proxy (or at least a possible open proxy (http://www.robtex.com/rbls/69.120.111.23.html for the output) in Stamford Connecticut from Fayetteville, GA, rather than using his home internet connection to tell the world via Wikipedia that his wife had died, before killing himself hours later. I think you're ascribing too much importance to WP there

I find your logic.. puzzling.

So you're saying that Chris Benoit used an open proxy (or at least a possible open proxy (http://www.robtex.com/rbls/69.120.111.23.html for the output) in Stamford Connecticut from Fayetteville, GA, rather than using his home internet connection to tell the world via Wikipedia that his wife had died, before killing himself hours later. I think you're ascribing too much importance to WP there

I smell an ArbCom case coming.

Not only that, the whole idea is completely implausible on its face. Chris Benoit was no fool - he would have known that using an open proxy was clearly against WP policy.

Porque?




(Daffy Duck style)

You're Dithpicable.

An anonymous user operating a computer traced to Stamford, Conn. — home to World Wrestling Entertainment — posted an entry to pro wrestler Chris Benoit's biography on Wikipedia.org

Maybe wmf should start a "report a crime" wiki.

It's been reported that he text messaged some people after he killed his wife, but I'm lead to believe that this is just a coincidence.

Death really brings out the most ghoulish necrophilic Wiki-addicts (now referred to as Wiki-dicks)

Just like with the VT School Shooting, and the death of Anna Nicole, there are now numerous deranged depraved Wiki-Dicks, who likely had never even heard of this man until his obscene death, obsessively editing the article - surely with one browser window open to the the article - another to Google News - hitting reload every 15 seconds (worse than porn) in a virtual competition to see who can enter the latest minutia surrounding this man's and his family's tragic deaths first!

First Wiki-Dick who enters a section on, and a link to the official police report earns a coveted Wiki Barn DEATH Star!

The IP address from which the 12:01 a.m. addition was made has been flagged for "vandalizing" other Wikipedia entries in the past, including one about troubled NBA star Ron Artest. The IP user also edited a post earlier this month about WWE wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr., a close friend of Benoit's and reportedly one of the two recipients of text messages sent by Benoit over the weekend before the bodies were discovered.

In that entry, the IP user stripped an explicit and damaging description from the Guerrero post.

And to think, you conned folks to support you on WP for HOW Long?

...every tragic death draws these sick necrophiliacs out of the woodwork and displays Wiki's (and society's) dark side.

To be fair, it isn't just Wikipedia - there's a whole net-based subculture of celebrity death-watchers. There are so many of them, in fact, it must be nearly impossible to effectively stop them on WP without complete article lock-downs.

I mean, look at this, for example. Who's to say that someone, after hearing a rumor on a site like that, didn't decide to invent a little "evidence" for their rumor-assertion(s) in the form of a few choice edits to Wikipedia? After all, Wikipedia is, like, super-reliable, is it not?

I just saw a professional wrestling spokesperson on MSNBC say that any nut can say anything on WP and that viewer should go to the professional wrestling website for reliable information. The info-babe seemed to see no irony in this as she nodded agreement.

BTW, if you're curious (and you're probably not).. the IP address has popped up on a WikiNews article and apologized, admitted he was adding speculation, etcetera.

I posted the comment we are all talking about and I am here to explain that it was A HUGE COINCIDENCE and nothing more

Hey everyone. I am here to talk about the wikipedia comment that was left by myself. I just want to say that it was an incredible coincidence. Last weekend, I had heard about Chris Benoit no showing Vengeance because of a family emergency, and I had heard rumors about why that was. I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on wikipedia to spite there being no evidence. I posted my speculation on the situation at the time and I am deeply sorry about this, and I was just as shocked as everyone when I heard that this actually would happen in real life. It is one of those things that just turned into a huge coincidence. That night I found out that what I posted, ended up actually happening, a 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, or so I thought. I was beyond wrong for posting wrongful information, and I am sorry to everyone for this. I just want everyone to know it was stupid of me, and I will never do anything like this again. I just posted something that was at that time a piece of wrong unsourced information that is typical on wikipedia, as it is done all the time.

Nonetheless, I feel incredibly bad for all the attention this got because of the fact that what I said turned out to be the truth. Like I said it was just a major coincidence, and I will never vandalize anything on wikipedia or post wrongful information. I've learned from this experience. I just can't believe what I wrote was actually the case, I've remained stunned and saddened over it.

I wish not to reveal my identity so I can keep me and my family out of this since they have nothing to do with anything. I am not connected to WWE or Benoit at all in anyway. I am from Stamford as the IP address shows, and I am just an everyday individual who posted a wrongful remark at the time that received so much attention because it turned out to actually happen. I will say again I didn't know anything about the Benoit tragedy, it was a terrible coincidence that I never saw coming.

I hope this puts an end to this speculation that someone knew about the tragedy before it was discovered. It was just a rumor that I had heard about from other people online who were speculating what the family emergency Chris was attending to. I made a big mistake by posting this comment on his page, since all we had were what we thought was going on and nothing about what actually was going on yet, and sadly what happened turned out to be my speculation at the time. I assumed wiki would edit out my information, which they did, so thats why I didn't go back to edit it out myself.

I know I keep repeating it but I feel terrible about the mainstream coverage this has received, since it was only a huge coincidence and a terrible event that should of never happened. I am not sure how to react, as hearing about my message becoming a huge part of the Benoit slayings made me feel terrible as everyone believes that it is connected to the tragedy, but it was just an awful coincidence. That is all I have to say, I will never post anything here again unless it is pure fact, no spam nothing like that. Thank you, and let this end this chapter of the Benoit story, and hopefully one day we will find out why this tragedy ever actually happened.
[Emphasis supplied]

Interesting to me about the message on wikinews is that the IP is dynamic. It could have been someone dumping their IP until they got the IP and did a marvelous troll. It certainly doesn't seem like the same person that did this or this.

Wonder if Optimum Online has pulled that IP from circulation, for now.

I have a hard time believing it's a coincidence. The odds seem ridiculously low. As an active RC patroller for years, I can tell you that this kind of fake death vandalism is just not as common as some people would have you believe; it's not rare, but I'd classify it as occasional. Most such vandalism, moreover, will consist of someone changing the intro to add a death date, or adding a blatantly absurd cause of death which may or may not involve some sort of sexual misadventure. Someone adding death vandalism that actually fits in the context of the article and makes logical sense is much more unusual.

One thing I'm wondering about: in the history of that article prior to that day, had anyone ever claimed she was dead before? If so, then it would be somewhat more plausible to claim it's a coincidence. More likely, in my view, is that Benoit himself mentioned her death (probably saying it was natural or accidental) in one of those calls he made that weekend, and the news started to spread in some circles. Additionally, note that the vandalism occurred near the end of the timeframe (14 hours left); of course, if the news did get out, then people would be more likely to know about it at a late point in the timeframe. It would be somewhat easier to argue a coincidence if it had happened earlier in the timeframe.

In your favour, there is the fact that the police have seized this person's computer. In the UK, that would usually be a sign that they had a better to reason to suspect that he or she was involved than the facts that we are in posession of.