A commenter has alerted me to an interesting question of fact, the answer to which I do not know, as (despite my usual flippant attitude) I lack details.

Is this man -- one Michael Crook -- really dead as this website claims?

The Democratic Underground says he is, but according to the United States Marine Corps, the police say he isn't [at least, there's apparently no body]:

A controversial Web site that has called wounded soldiers “leeches” and celebrates when U.S. servicemen are killed in action, is claiming its Web master was beaten to death yesterday.

But local police say no murder has occurred.

The site, www.foresakethetroops.info, posted a claim Tuesday morning that Michael Crook was physically attacked by two men and later died in a hospital from his injuries. The statement speculated that the attackers are “thought to be members of the military, in response to their opinions about this Web site.”

Crook is the registered owner of the Web site, though the Web site has never revealed his name or location. The domain registry puts Crook’s address as Syracuse, N.Y., and a phone number on the site is a Syracuse area code and exchange.

The site also says the two attackers were “taken into police custody.”

But officials with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office in Syracuse told Army Times Tuesday that they have no record or knowledge of any such attack in the region.

A message left at the phone number listed on the Web site was not immediately returned.

I guess we'll have to stay tuned.

UPDATE (9:07 pm):

No sooner did I get back from dinner than I got an email from Dennis (with whom I just ate dinner!) directing me to Michael Crook's website. He's alive, of course:

Mike is revived!
Submitted by mike on Tue, 2005-05-17 20:32.

Well, I suppose the cat's out of the bag, so....I'm not dead.

To those that sent heartfelt messages, and felt that this was a true story, I truly apologize. This situation quickly got out of hand, when national media outlets called looking for clarification.

I honestly thought people would shrug it off, and go on their merry way. I even got a kick out of the numerous hate messages from people, including an e-mail message from this numbnuts:

MORE: This same Michael Crook (or are there multiple versions?) has a long history of hoaxes, and while it's tough to tell precisely what sort of agent provocateur he is, he doesn't appear to like Philadelphians!