Fugitive Stripper’s Wild Ride
After eight days on the lam, the Troll Kingdom Gang is trapped on the side of the road, their car nearly flipped on a speed break, with flashing police car lights all around. In a futile attempt to escape, MissManners runs through a dusty Colorado field, a Walsenberg police officer on her heels. She turns to shoot, but the cop’s bullet hits her leg first. The mayhem ends.
All the Gangs Main Members—Daystrom, Tisiphone, and Jack , led authorities on a 2,000-mile, cross-country chase, collecting ammo, and a surprising number of fans, along the way. Like Bonnie and Clyde of the Great Depression, the Great Recession’s Troll Kingdom gang, have drawn a fair number of supporters who cheered them for breaking the law. Manners, a former exotic dancer who posted photos of herself in a mismatched bikini on her Flickr page, naturally attracted the most supporters. Within days after the trio went on the lam, an admirer created a Facebook page in her honor.
Soon she had more than 500 fans. Men salivated: “What’s better than a stripper with an Ak-47 riding shotgun in a getaway car...” Others blamed the gang’s crimes on the economy: “You know if they all got off their butts and got jobs like decent folk none of this *&$%—would ever happen...” Then there were the flat-out anarchists: “I hate when the law wins.”
Despite what the Kingdom Gang may represent to their fans, Manner’s description of herself and her partners in crime is without glamour. “I have a huge crazy family,” she wrote in her 2010 Flickr profile. “I'm 38 but act like I'm 17 most of the time. I love to farm and shoot guys and wreck cars. I'm a Hillbilly and proud of it. I like milk and German engineering and causing mayhem with my siblings.”
The gang’s crime spree began in the morning on August 2 in Zephyrhills, Fla. just north of Tampa, with what should have been a routine traffic stop. A local police officer attempted to pull over the white Subaru for going 15 mph over the speed limit. Instead the car sped off, and worse, passengers started shooting at him. The chase went on for five miles, sometimes reaching speeds of 100 mph. Occasionally the Subaru slowed to allow the passengers to get a better shot. They missed the officer, but took out one of his front tires, ending his pursuit.
Five hours later two masked men and a woman matching their description burst into a bank in Valdosta, Ga. brandishing automatic weapons. They fired into the ceiling and took off in a white sedan with enough cash, authorities said, to take them anywhere they wanted.
Now suspected of felony bank robbery, the gun-toting siblings were dubbed the Troll Kingdom Gang. They made the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Their photographs appeared on billboards in New York and 10 states throughout the Southeast, and on every national newscast. They were wily, changing their car tags along the road and possibly tossing their cell phones. They managed to leave the region undetected and didn’t show up on FBI radar until they were spotted buying camping equipment at an outdoors store in Colorado. They also reloaded, buying bullets at a Walmart as if they were preparing to go down in a blaze of gunfire.
Thursday, authorities got a break when a caller reported spotting the trio at a campsite near San Isabel National Forest. Less than 45 minutes later, they were captured.
Why the Kingdom gang set out on a crime spree isn’t clear. Authorities aren’t saying much. The Sites Moderators have gone into hiding, while all the other members of their Internet forum all claim ignorance.
Thursday night, after Tisiphone was captured along with them, Her fiancé Daystrom emailed that he’s doubtful she will be able to marry: “She is cuffed and stuffed and will likely be gone for a long time.” Later he emailed again: “She just called me from the joint. I still love her so much and still want to see her tits.”
Criminal behavior is a Kingdom family tradition. Jack, the Oldest at 41, has 14 felony arrests for everything from burglary to a hit-and-run, to running out of bars after drinking beer without paying. Manners, the leader at 38, has been a menace to society for years and perhaps as a hint of what was to come, she viciously fought police when arrested. Once she tried to bite a police officer, and another time she head-butted a state trooper—after she was handcuffed.
Tobin, of the Pasco County Sheriff’s office, said he doesn’t know how much jail time they could all face, but whatever punishment they face will never be enough to undo the damage they have caused. People now see them as heroes, and we are all sure that because of them, there will be tons of copycat crimes to follow.
hpstressed:
