Saturday, January 07, 2006

Goddamn Mick Jagger

Bayshore Loop 20.5mi
On weekend mornings as I drive home from the station, sometimes I feel like it’s just me and the street corner paper sellers. I’ve usually been up for a few hours already and I’ve had two or three cups of coffee. At least. Being a habitual late sleeper myself, on these days I feel like I’ve been given a glimpse into the secret world of weekend mornings. Today in the center of my driveway I see the telltale accordion fold photocopy that could only have come from an individual that I have come to know as The Evie Man.
I’ve been receiving dispatches from The Evie Man since we moved into Seminole Heights eight years ago. The first things that we received were hand written notes stuffed into our mailbox without envelopes or postage. As a young interracial couple in a new neighborhood, the often blatantly racist tone of the letters was especially disturbing to us, and without any evidence to the contrary we assumed that they were directed solely at us. I didn’t save any of these early letters because I didn’t see any connection for awhile, but eventually I began collecting the strange communiqués. Soon the letters began appearing in a standard format; a strange, obsessive accordion fold photocopy distributed throughout the neighborhood in a seemingly random fashion. After realizing that I was not the only one receiving the letters, whenever I found one in my yard or driveway I would set out to canvas the neighborhood in search of others. Sometimes they were all the same, but usually there were several different versions distributed at one time, or the same basic letter would have subtle changes made to it in the other versions that I found.
Eventually, what may have begun in the mind of the Evie Man as a simple neurosis and a bit of paranoia about the changing demographic of the neighborhood had slowly morphed into a full blown psychosis. “There’s a giant spider in my mind,” began one of his more ominous messages. These delusions finally gave way to the classic paranoid schizophrenic notion of persecution at the hands of Hollywood celebrities. The Evie Man felt especially oppressed by the Rolling Stones and a Norwegian gospel singer named Evie Tornquist.
One morning several years ago I found an unmarked cassette tape lying in my yard carefully packaged in Saran Wrap. I popped the cassette into my truck’s tape deck and immediately I knew where it had come from. “An eye doctor put drops in my eyes that blinded me, however, I went on a twenty-five day water fast and I can read the bible again…this is a song by Evie.” I sat transfixed and listened to the tape in its entirety. The depth of psychosis and the rhythmic repetition of delusions was dizzying. This man was the John Coltrane of paranoia. A few months later, when I had a copy of the tape burned to CD, I took Mike L. out to my van to listen to it after we’d had a few beers at New World. We sat in the parking lot listening to a twenty minute tirade about “Hollywood Queers” and The Evie Man’s twisted logic spiraled in on itself faster and faster until Mike opened his door and vomited on the asphalt (Listen To The Evie Man's Audio).
I have never seen The Evie Man. His deliveries always come in the middle of the night, and they are spaced far enough apart that I have usually forgotten to be on the lookout before the next one arrives. I had always assumed that he lived somewhere in the area until I mentioned him one evening during an appearance on WMNF. A listener called in to say that they had received dispatches from The Evie Man as far away as Valrico.
There must be some kind of a pattern here.
A comprehensive GIS study of The Evie Man’s movements could provide a valuable insight into the cartography of psychosis. The Evie Man exists somewhere in the nexus of points occupied by The Rolling Stones (Audio), Evie Tornquist (Audio), and an Australian surfer named George Greenough.
For the first five miles of today’s run I’m consumed with the details of the Evie Map. I find a few more of the papers as I run west on Fern Street, and I stuff them into the pocket of my Camelback. I’m keeping close tabs on my pace and forcing myself to slow down until I finally lock into an 11:30 pace. I know the mile markers for about the first ten miles and I’m able to stay right where I want to be. After running this pace for the next two hours I’m locked in the groove and I can tell where the mile markers are by looking at my watch. But I’m not there yet.
At mile six I round the corner onto Hillsborough and I notice something strange about the house to my right. The palm reader’s house has a gaping hole in its side as if someone has driven their car through it, providing me with a clear view of the kitchen and living room. I don’t see any tire tracks or other evidence of an accident, just this huge hole in the concrete block wall. I snap a few pictures with my camera phone and I am putting it away when I see a skull capped biker eyeing me suspiciously from around the corner of the house. He glares at me, glares at the hole in the house, and glares back at me again. I give him the perfunctory runner’s nod and quickly run across the street. From the median I hear someone yelling from behind me and I turn around to see another mustachioed ne’er-do-well standing on the sidewalk and screaming in my general direction. The confidence that I have in my ability to outrun most construction workers over long distances does me little good when I have anything less than a three mile head start. Plus, you never know, this guy could be pretty swift. That mullet does make him look like a horse. I decide to try my luck and the mullethead stays where he is, pawing the dirt at the edge of the street.
The next fourteen-and-a-half miles flow by with comparative ease. My strict attention to pace has paid off.
People must be making up for the time lost to the holidays as everyone seems to be working today. The UT campus is bustling with construction workers, the bleachers are being set up along Bayshore for the Gasparilla parade, and downtown is gridlocked with minivans full of circus goers.
Gradually the crowds thin out and it’s just me again, putting things in perspective and ticking off the miles twelve minutes at a time. “It’s sort of like being on a mountain and looking down at a farm, and then you see what others don’t see, a giant spider.”

More From The Evie Man

24 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello,

I to am a victim of the unknown writer.

I found a series of these notes in my drive way last week. In the beginning of the week it appeared to be a paper fan in my drive way. As the week progressed the papers came apart and started disbursing themselves in my yard. On Friday, as I was taking out the recycling I decided to clean up the mess. As I picked up the first note it was about a fourth of a page all typed were the words "I love Natalie Wood". Then the next one read "I had a dream I made out with Natalie Wood" and another read "Natalie Wood hates Jesus Christ but I still love Natalie Wood" As I walked around the yard picking up these notes I didn't really think too much about them. We have a lot of diverse people who live in our neighborhood so it wasn't a surprise it was more comical.

So after I deposited all of the notes in the recycling bin, I proceeded to work. On my way to work, I called my husband and told him about the notes and began speculating and trying to profile who the person may be. He being more paranoid than myself felt alarmed by them. However, I tend to be more open minded and my first conclusion wasn't that the person was mentally ill. Unfortunately, I have to say my opinion has changed after the discovery of the next letter.

On Saturday, I was tending my flower bed and found a letter buried under the mulch. And this one was definitely more alarming. This time it wasn’t a note it's a full page letter, typed again and at some point was folded like the others.

The letter reads: "I used to say the persecution began in November of 1982. The whole world has heard me say this. And I have said this for years. However, I now say this persecution began in October of 2004 when some Jews in Tampa persecuted me.
And when I die and go to Heaven, this persecution is going to be taught in American history in Heaven just as much as the American Revolution and the Civil War are, that the husband of St. Mary was persecuted when he was on Earth."

The letter describes a Nazi Anti-Semitic holiday in Heaven where the American Flag and the Nazi swastika are going to fly side by side. Then he proceeds to take about true love and how nutty it is.

I don't really know what to make of this letter. I know it has definitely generated a lot of conversation. For now I am going to file it away in a box and will keep you posted in anything else appears.

10:58 AM  
Blogger Addison said...

Has anyone thought about writing him back and leaving the letter out in the general area where he leaves his? LOL, I'm sorry, but I have the kind of sense of humor where I'd just want to see how far I could push this guy.

11:38 AM  
Blogger Livework Studios LLC said...

Anonymous-
I knew I should have taken this to the internets along time ago. I assume that you live somewhere in Seminole Heights. I think what I am going to do is set up a CommunityWalk map where everyone can post their findings in terms of location, date, etc.
I was a little disturbed at the content of the last letter that I received also (another version of the "Nazi Anit-Semitic heaven"), but I don't think that you have anything to worry about. I don't have any experience in psychology to back me up, but I have come to believe that The Evie Man is harmless.
Thanks for checking in, keep me posted.

Taylor-
You have out-googled me. I thought I had searched all the possible permutations of The Evie Man's phraseology. Aside from general curiosity I wanted to make sure that he wasn't internet savvy before I posted about him and included a map to my house (despite what I just told Anonymous).
I don't think Dieter Fischer has any connection to him, and I base that solely on his use of CAPITALIZATION.
The Evie Man lets his points speak for themselves, he doesn't have to beat you over the head with them.
The fact that there is now more than one person who has established "psychic contact" with Evie leads me to wonder if she may not be persecuting us all.
p.s. I'm taking Einstein MC2 as my new rap name.

10:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Devon,

I do live in Seminole Heights a few blocks south of you on the same side of Florida. I think you should start a map of where these letters appear. We've recieved two and I am anxious to see if any more appear. It's funny since I found your website I find myself anxiously awaiting another one and I am always on the look out as I drive through the neighborhood. I've asked a couple of my neighbors if any other them have seen these notes before. So far I'm the only one. This weekend I'll proceed to ask the ones who have lived here a bit longer. If I find out anything interesting I'll let you know.

6:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I found a folded letter in my driveway with strange references to Natalie Wood. Creepy

As a parent I find these neurotic, possibly psychotic, markers neither funny nor entertaining.

If I see this nutjob leaving another note in my yard I will call the cops. In fact I may call them based on this. And that's only because I think physically knocking him silly will just provoke him.

This isn't funny, this isn't interesting, this isn't some urban anthropology project.

The man is defacing other people's property and forcing his neurotic behavior on others That's bullshit. He needs help. You should stop running for a minute and if you are so interested,offer him help.

He's done.

8:40 PM  
Blogger David Scott Banghart said...

In response to the last comment, I've sent an email to Seminole Heights resident and Assistant Chief of Police, Jane Castor.

9:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dearest "Creeped out" Anonymous, I understand your concern given your children, and you are fully within your rights to contact authorities, but given that these letters have been appearing for nearly 8 years I doubt that the person is a physical threat. If you oppose his ideology, physical conflict on your part is hardly the answer. We are living in a country with protections of free speech and just because the content is objectionable is no reason to resort to violence. I have lived throughout the country in various neighborhoods and it seem that there often the local "kook" in most of them. Your words are quite antagonistic towards Devon and the other contributors and I struggle to understand your blaming us for this situation. No one has seen the person leave the media, and, as far as I have discerned, there is no pattern or predictability to when or where they will appear nor do they seem to be specifically targeted to any individual within the neighborhood. While the message is repulsive and obviously the product of a disturbed mind, your attacking the persons who find it interesting or humorous is completely uncalled for and perhaps you should evaluate from where this desire to lash out stems. Again, I do appreciate your concern regarding children, but the actions you take are up to you. No need to attack other victims of this disturbed individual.

10:40 PM  
Blogger Livework Studios LLC said...

First, if you don't want your name to appear with your post you can select "other" and use an alias. This way everyone knows which "Anonymous" is commenting.
Anonymous #1 - Thanks for the support. It wasn't my intention to turn what I think is basically a neighborhood curiosity into a police matter.
Anonymous #2 – As stated before, if you feel threatened you have every right to contact the police, however in the eight years that I have been receiving these letters I have never read anything from The Evie Man that threatened violence against anyone. Your comment is another story.
Let me also address the notion that the distribution of unsolicited literature somehow amounts to vandalism. This came up earlier in the heated Starbucks debate over at Seminole Heights. I’m no lawyer, but I’ve been following your logic and I think my mailman may be a criminal.
Finally, it’s obvious that this individual needs help. I spend quite a bit of time working with people who often have similar disabilities and I try to be as helpful as I can. I often find their behavior to be interesting, disturbing, and even (gasp) funny, but I don’t refer to them as “nutjobs” or threaten to “knock them silly”.
Relax, the Starbucks is almost finished.

12:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I haven't been a victim of the unknown writer yet, but as a resident of Seminole Heights, I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Since this a public forum, I'm not going to give out too many details as to how entertained I am that this type of wackjob has come to my neighborhood to entertain me personally, but suffice it to say that I may be in a unique position to study this individual should I encounter him. Having listened carefully to the tape, I'm truly looking forward to putting a face to the voice and having a chat with this individual.

I wonder if he'll be as much fun in person as he is from a distance. I certainly hope so. I do so dislike being...disappointed.

8:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I do agree the anonymous identity is a little confusing so let me state to you which blogs I've posted 10:58 a.m., 6:01 p.m. and 10:40 p.m. So from now on I will post my comments under the name intrigued to help clarify things.

8:07 AM  
Blogger Ben said...

I think you should scan these papers and post them. I really like the audiotape. Wow. What a diatribe! I think a neighborhood DJ should set it to some creepy music and host a house party called Celebrate Evie Man. Distribute little flyers around the hood' and honor our poet laurette. Ever listened to Godspeed You Black Emperor? It would do well there.

I'll have to look for these as I make my way through the Heights. By the way, how do you map out your routes? Those are pretty cool. I recently developed a new route, one that takes me by Rivercrest Park by my house and up to Epps Park. Then I head across Sligh and down Central. I kinda wanted to figure out how to get the mileage...

I like running by UT as well, but that is a definite long run from Seminole Heights.

8:00 AM  
Blogger Livework Studios LLC said...

Ben,
I will be scanning some of the letters soon. The easiest way to map your routes is to use the , click here or look in my sidebar under Training Links.

9:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sometime Saturday morning a new batch a letters arrived. This time a couple of my neighbors also received them. I collected all of them except for one; their letter was in their yard.

The letters were very crisp which leads me to believe they were distributed right before I picked them up. If I had to guess I would say they were thrown from a moving vehicle, bike or car, and were thrown between the hours of 6-7 am based on the lack of moisture on them.

I received the same batch as previous. They all pertained to Natalie Wood.

One of my neighbors received an anti-Semitic message. It included sentences from the anti-Semitic letter I found a few weeks ago.

And the other neighbor's letter was about Bob Dylan. Each of my neighbors just received one letter.

If anyone is interested I can scan and post them.

However, I would have to say that these letters are little different than the last ones. They almost seem like they aren't from the same person. They don't seem to have the same verbiage or style of writing.

Devon you have seen a lot of these notes. Have you noticed any variation in the style? Some of the language seems sophisticated and some seems very juvenile. It's puzzling.

8:40 AM  
Blogger Livework Studios LLC said...

Intrigued,
I was working on Saturday when I saw your comment, but I scoured the area for other letters on my Sunday morning run, alas to no avail. The letters that you describe sound like versions of ones that I have found before. The Bob Dylan letter is one of my favorites, ending in the line "I don't know what's wrong with Bob Dylan."
I think the difference in writing styles seen in the newest letters is just another facet of this individual's personality (or personalities). The Evie Man works in both poetry and prose. The title of my original post "Goddamn Mick Jagger" is the entire text of a letter that I found a few months ago.

9:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I live on W Fern- now I know who's stealing my "Evie letters" before I get a chance to read them.:-)

I'd love to hear more of the tapes if you ever get a chance to post more.

Take care-
Chris

6:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

crazy. i had forgotten about this guy. he has been leaving the letters for 10 or more years - i had a friend when i was 14 who lived on W. North St. and she started receiving them in 1994 or so. we followed his rantings (he was into the 700 club, Billy Dee Williams, and the Stones then)until we found a cassette tape - and it was like gold. disturbing, horrible gold. several years later I was at the Alternative Record Store and found an Evie record, which I promptly bought. upon purchase, the owner revealed that he too received letters from "the crazy guy". The ARS actually used one of the letters in an ad! flashforward to 1998 at University of Florida where I meet a girl from Tampa. I told her about him, and she told me that he is her friend's uncle. wow.

9:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Friday, April 14th,


This morning we just received a new message from the ANTI-Evie man:

"By the power of the Holy Spirit I banned the Antichrist criminal Evie from coming to my country America.




Sister Mary Francis
Nun at Academy of the Holy Names Catholic School in Tampa, where I went to school."

We found it on East North Street. It was a folded up piece of cheap printer paper, printed on by an inkjet printer using a font that looks like a typewriter font. The top and bottom margins of the paper were cut with scissors so that it was only 4 inches long, by 8.5 inches wide. :)

This is actually the second time we have found a note like this on East North Street. The other note was almost exactly the same (we still have it). I suspect that this is being re-printed from a file saved on a computer.

We have received other things, by the way, which may or may not be from the same person... Boxes of photographs have been strewn across our lawn twice.. they were thrown out by a speeding car, I don't think we kept any of those and I suspect that was not the same person. We also have had another message from someone who may also be the ANTI-Evie man, but I can't find it at the moment. If I do, I will add to this.

11:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK, random, but I got here by googling content from those old letters to see if the Evie man had ever gotten into blogging (seems like it should have been right up his alley). Anyway, I think I'm the W. North St. friend mentioned above. We started getting the letters at my mom's house when I was like 14 or 15. She still lives there, but hasn't gotten a letter in a few years. I know a lot of people are creeped out by the Evie man, but I find it oddly comforting that he's still out there. Maybe that's just because I've moved far away...

10:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yikes! While walking my dog tonight (in Winter Park, FLA), I came upon a saran-wrapped CD that I perversely decided to snag. Upon returning home, I too was assaulted by this terrifying podcast from hell! A chilling experience, but at least I feel safer after reading your blog. Somehow, it seems all the more frightening if he was just an isolated local incident...

9:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once the raw, numbing terror of my discovery numbed down a little, I posted the details of my Evie Man discovery online, along with the full, unedited audio of the freakin' thing. Lock yer doors, turn on the lights, and creep on over to:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=91935965&blogID=328101208

Not for the squeamish...

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have seen the mysterious EVIE MAN!!!!! I live in the south Seminole Heights region and around 11:10 on Sat morning (yesterday) I spotted an erratic driver speeding down my street. I noticed he tossed something out his window into my neighbors yard. He quickly sped past me and then threw out one more before quickly leaving our block. He drives an old beat up rusted maroon Cutlass (Oldsmobile?). He is in his late 50's-early 60's. He sat tall in his seat and of medium build, and dressed either for a job sitting in a cubicle or he was going to church. My mom was with me at the time and this is her second time spotting him. He drives like he is drunk and he won't stop even if you yell at him.
It sounds to me that he does live in this area, but spreads his "message" to new territories randomly. I hope this helps in the quest for the evie man. I hope I can get a plate number next time. Good luck!
FYI.... The newest message .... "This is to the daughter I had by Natalie Wood. The Antichrist whore Evie had my mother fall and break a bone, and my mother is in the hospital, and my mother can't walk."
Anonymous on South Ave.

9:51 AM  
Blogger Kimmie Allen said...

In 1993 we moved into a house near Waters and North Blvd. We received the notes from 1994 until we sold the house in 2005. My ex husband moved to Seminole Heights and started finding them there too. what a relief it will be for him to know the Evie Man isn't following him!!

8:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just received letter from the evie man. contact me if you have any new info.

11:59 PM  
Anonymous IndieGuy said...

I received letters from 'Evie man' in 2010 when i moved into my new house. I live in the Carrollwood area and my strips of papers were cut and a cd came with it wrapped in what i think was saran wrap. I found it on my front yard which seemed to be tossed there like the daily paper. I thought is was trash at first but it is for the most part. We were creeped out at first when we googled who the hell Natalie Wood is and we listened to the disturbing and non-coherent cd that was included. I've seen a few stories on here that a lot of people are receiving letters that have just moved to the area. Seems silly but does he know or target people in new areas? I'm sure it's just a coincidence and the dispersion of his letters are arbitrary.

2:07 AM  

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