Accused “Craigslist Killer” Phillip Markoff indicted this weekend

Dude’s had a rough couple of months. Markoff, who was arrested in April after allegedly killing an erotic massage therapist he met on Craigslist, has been indicted on seven different charges involving that case and a robbery also involving the online classifieds service. Since we last left Markoff, he’s left grad school, lost his fiance, forced Craigslist to change its policy, indirectly provoked a passionate response out of us and been stuck in jail because he’s been held without bail. Pretty much what you expected. source

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Craigslist is great. Despite the creative destruction it’s creating for the newspaper industry at the moment, it’s clearly a useful resource that millions of people – thousands in the state of South Carolina, where McMaster is attorney general – find value in. They’re one of the few Web services more concerned about value than profit.
Craigslist isn’t “erotic” We’ve all heard this drama about Craigslist’s “Erotic Services” section, the “Craigslist Killer” and how Craigslist is ruining our society for having the same kind of ads that run in alt-weeklies and Yellow pages. But few people use it for this purpose – mostly, people sell stuff, find apartments and look for jobs. Not massages.
Political grabHenry McMaster’s attempt to file criminal charges against a very popular service in his state over a tiny minority of posts (40 out of 334,180 in S.C.) is clearly just an attempt by McMaster to Spitzer his way into higher office. Because Craigslist means headlines. Craigslist won’t take it. Apologize to them, Henry. source

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It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday’s erotic massages. After much prodding from attorney generals across the country, not to mention the terrible PR of a guy labeled the “Craiglist killer” killing massage therapists all over the Boston metro area, Craigslist is finally getting rid of one of their most, uh, popular sections, the “Erotic Services” section. It’ll be replaced with a moderated adult category which we’re sure is going to put massage therapists working out of sketchy hotel rooms out of work. source

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Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation. Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they’re being pimped on Craigslist.
Cook County, Ill. Sheriff Thomas Dart • On his lawsuit against Craigslist. Dart wants the site to remove the “Erotic Services” section of the site. We want him to post an ad on Craigslist so he can see what it feels like to be rejected. • source

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21 Jun 2009 20:54