Musings on the Art of Deception

The next stunning revelation in the BBTs that really captures my attention comes in Part 22:

JOSEPH KEREKES: We didn't go to the GayVN's I hope you know.




GRANT ROY: Oh, you didn't?




JOSEPH KEREKES: No, that was a bunch of hogwash, did you guys go?



GRANT ROY: People said, I thought they wrote...




JOSEPH KEREKES: ... I thought they, I was like everybody was speaking to Harlow...



GRANT ROY: ... they wrote that y'all were there.




JOSEPH KEREKES: Nobody was... we weren't there.




GRANT ROY: They wrote that y'all were there.




HARLOW CUADRA: We weren't there, they just wrote that we were there, I don't know.

A bit of background on this: Back in February of 2007, when we were all starved for info...ANY info...on the murder, Jody Wheeler published on his blog the semi-interview with Brent, Two Pair. In that semi-interview, Brent made the now famous statement that Harlow and Joe were "on the run."

Now, Two Pair was published by Jody on February 14, 2007...just four days after Harlow and Joe's house was ransacked by a SWAT team. They were, indeed, "on the run," hiding out from the law in south Florida at the time. Brent's statement to Jody was 100% accurate and truthful.

Then, in late February, the 2007 GAYVN Awards in San Francisco were held. And in the aftermath of that, came the Harlow and Joe misinformation campaign. And an incredibly successful campaign it was; we were all pretty much fooled by it. It is a great example of how a well placed strategic lie can totally derail the truth.

It began with small yet well placed anonymous comments on key porn blogs on February 25, the day after the GAYVNs; here is a post (from Jason Curious, IIRC) by "sanfransam" who as I've said before was almost certainly Harlow himself:

sanfransam said...
anyone else see harlow @ the gay awards?

i did :)

He looked cute, and did not look like he was too worried about anything. Harlow did have on a sweet pair of nike dunks with his suit. maybe the sneakers where in case he had to make a run for it?

February 25, 8:37 AM

And then there was this comment the next day, over on Gay Porn Blog:

i saw Harlow at "W" crossing the lobby into the elevator moments later Brent Corrigan and some older man crossed the lobby into the elevator as well...did they fuck (Harlow & Brent) because the older man was carrying what looked to be a black Sony Camera case
hummm
i wonder how this movie turned out?
stay tuned lol

Posted by: dan at February 26, 2007 9:20 AM

And that was all it took, really. That, and a "confirmatory" post by mark @ boisrus:

Anonymous said...
Hi this is Mark again from www.boisrus.com here just confirming I sent a studly entorage to san fran (Harlow and Calvin) for gayvn just to mingle and to set alarms silent.
Harlow isnt on the run and actually has been filming in va beach for my new update to boybatter today with he and mason. :-)
Trent & Harlow have been escorting here ever since that night in question and before.
Im sorry I cant respond to any questions regarding investigations, my long time litigation lawyer says NO
but thanks for your warm welcome to this blog..that was suprising as I DO realize porn & escorting are two very different worlds.
Mark

February 25, 2007 9:00 AM

Like fools, we all bought this crap. Shortly thereafter, the story that Harlow was in attendance at the 2007 GAYVNs was widely accepted as gospel fact throughout the Kocisphere (Jason Curious, Elm, etc...); nary a doubt about the story was ever postulated by anyone, until PC made this section of the BBTs public.

How did this lie manage spread so effectively? Well, one reason is that most of us out there are naturally trusting. When someone tells us something, in the absense of any clear danger signs, our first instinctive reaction is to believe.

Another was, I think, that there was a FEW people out there, who wanted to believe Harlow's lie because they instinctively wanted to DISbelieve Brent, in EVERYTHING he says. Just like fire spreads rapidly when the kindling is dry and crackly, a lie spreads like wildfire when the people you tell it to have a vested interest in believing it. And there were enough Brent haters out there who were dry brush for this lie to get completely out of control.

And Brent indeed did pay a heavy price for generously giving us bloggers one of the few items of accurate and useful information on the case in those early days. Because the Harlow GAYVN lie got so widely accepted, Brent was torn apart mercilessly by many commenteers for making that "on the run" statement.

And we Kocisphere bloggers? We were sidetracked for close to month due to the success of this lie! We did not find out about the SWAT raid until Barry Taylor (Harlow and Joe's old attorney/client...who's on schedule to be the star of my next Musings, heehee!) went into court to petition to get some of their stuff back. And in doing so, the story became news. And when the SWAT story broke on March 14...well, we here in the Kocisphere pretty much went nutzo. It was as if someone had tossed a hand grenade into a baby shower!

And if you notice Grant's reaction above, when he learns of this...he too is stunned at the magnitude of the deception Harlow and Joe were able to get away with: "People said, I thought they wrote...they wrote that y'all were there...They wrote that y'all were there!" Grant is stuttering and speechless at this...and LOL, who can blame him!?

So yeah, we were all badly fooled by yet another Harlowite lie.

But you know, we can use this experience in a positive way and learn from it. And what we need to learn is that the Harlowites are absolute masters of the art of deception. As you can see, not only do they know how to lie, but they know how to do it well. They will look you in the eye, and then tell you:

1) Harlow was at the GAYVNs;
2) Harlow was current on his debts before the arrest;
3) The coat is chinchilla;
4) Harlow and Joe did not murder Bryan Kocis; etc...

...and they WON'T EVEN BLINK.

So naturally, what we have to do in the future is instinctively disbelieve anything a Harlowite has to say about this case. Wait for anything they say to be verified from a reliable source first, and THEN consider believing it. They've shown such a propensity AND talent for lying, that for us to do otherwise would be reckless.

And not only that...I suspect they are now creating fake anti-Harlowite personas as a means of spreading disinformation. I guess since they realize now we are on to them, they are having to resort to this tactic...as I said, they got the art of deception down pat. As such, I'd be wary of johnnie-come-latelies to the Kocisphere right now, regardless of his purported bias.

Update:

Update 2: Off topic, but Brent has a new photo up on his latest blog post that looks strangely familiar...I wonder where he unearthed it from? :-)