For gay men, Internet allure can be deadly

Growing rapidly in popularity, online chats provide a needed meeting ground, but they can result in violence.

TAMPA - The Internet brought Steven Lorenzo and Scott Schweickert together.

Now authorities are using it to build a potential murder case against them.

With AOL screennames that hinted at violent sexual appetites, the men found each other despite the miles separating them, according to federal investigators.

Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency say they recovered more than 20 online chats between Lorenzo, a longtime Seminole Heights resident, and Schweickert, an Illinois native who moved to Orlando in 2003.

MstrScott: Tell them we are going to a party and invite them along. Tell them we need to stop off at one of our places, drug them there and then that is it for them.

- Oct. 15, 2003, chat between Schweickert (MstrScott) and Lorenzo (DOMDUDEFORSUB), taken from a federalaffidavit.

The Internet's use as a high-speed pickup spot, a virtual nightclub with no geographic boundaries, is nothing new. It's how people of varied backgrounds and interests meet these days, whether on tame sites like match.com or racier ones like AdultFriendFinder.com.

The Internet's popularity among gay men is growing particularly fast.

"We've come a long way, but you can't just go anywhere to meet people," said Eric Bunch, 32, a Bradenton hairstylist. "You have to go to these certain places where gay people go. And the Internet is one of those places."

Its potent allure was examined by Dr. David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut and author of Virtual Addiction , a book about compulsive Internet use. He calls the Internet "a virtual sexual smorgasbord of activity and opportunity."

"The Internet's power is its weakness," Greenfield said. "You have access to all of this instantaneous stuff, with no oversight. It's cheap, it's anonymous and it's fast. It makes the Internet a potent tool, but it also connects people with things that they shouldn't connect to."

Federal agents who seized Lorenzo's home computer last summer say he and Schweickert used their AOL chats to plan a December 2003 weekend in Tampa - the same weekend Tampa residents Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz were killed.

Schweickert told authorities that during separate incidents two days apart, he held Galehouse and Wachholtz down while Lorenzo killed them inside Lorenzo's bungalow. Then, Schweickert said, he helped Lorenzo get rid of the bodies.

"The Internet's power is its weakness. You have access toall of this instantaneous stuff, with no oversight. It'scheap, it's anonymous and it's fast. It makes the Internet a potent tool,

but it also connects people with things that they shouldn't connectto."

-DR. DAVID GREENFIELD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut

Wachholtz was found more than two weeks later, his body left inside a Jeep Cherokee in an apartment complex parking lot off the Courtney Campbell Parkway. Galehouse's body was never found. Schweickert told federal agents he and Lorenzo cut up the body, put the pieces in garbage bags and scattered them in trash bins throughout the city.

Lorenzo has not been charged in the deaths of Galehouse and Wachholtz, who were both 26. But Lorenzo has been in jail since November, charged in federal court with drugging and raping seven men from 2000 to 2003.

Schweickert, 39, also has not been charged with murder. But after telling federal agents gruesome details of the drugging and killing of Galehouse and Wachholtz, he was arrested last month and charged with being an accessory after the fact to a drug-facilitated violent crime.

Further charges could hinge on the results of forensic tests on evidence seized from Lorenzo's W Powhatan Avenue home. Authorities last week got a judge to order Lorenzo, 46, to submit a DNA sample, which will be analyzed at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's lab in Tampa.

The motion filed in federal court states that blood-soaked evidence from Lorenzo's home contained "numerous DNA profiles," meaning the blood came from several sources.

* * *

A Google search of the words "bondage," "gay" and "dominant" yields dozens of R-rated Web sites: Kinkmaster.com, bondage.com, gaybondage.un. There is a link to a site that sells "bondage movies."

AOL's member directory also makes it easy to find people with all manner of esoteric interests , from fossil collecting to yodeling.

A recent AOL member search of the keyword "bondage" yielded 95 matches from across the country, users with screennames like Wildandkinkyboi, Toledomascsub, sickittycat and Wnt2KnockGuysOut.

Schweickert's AOL profile is still online, under the username MstrScott.

"These usernames are like your stage name, as if you were an actor," said Greenfield, the author and professor. "It reflects the persona you are trying to project."

While the names might seem innocent enough, like-minded users know what they mean, he said.

Lorenzo's AOL name, DOMDUDEFORSUB, is likely short for "dominant dude for submissive," Greenfield said. MstrScott could be short for Master, sending the signal that Schweickert considered himself a "dominant" sexual partner. A name like Toledomascsub means a "masculine submissive" from Toledo. A name like Wnt2KnockGuysOut hints at a desire for rough sex.

Bill Nielsen, a Massachusetts native now living in St. Petersburg, said his AOL username caught Lorenzo's eye last summer.

"He found me," said Nielsen, 40, who said he considers himself a "submissive" who likes having someone take care of him. "I had a screen profile "boywithoutahome,' and he got online and approached me about being hired as a slave in his house."

Nielsen said when he read news accounts of Lorenzo's screenname, he realized it was the same person he chatted with online and met in person last summer. He said he recently called Tampa police to tell them about his encounter with Lorenzo. Police have not yet confirmed his account.

"The Internet gives people an outlet to investigate or research a fantasy, and then to decide whether this is a fantasy they want to bring into reality," Nielsen said. "You see what's out there and what's available."

Nielsen said he and Lorenzo met in a gas station parking lot in Town 'N Country, where Lorenzo discussed "a kidnapping and rape scenario."

Nielsen never did go live with Lorenzo.

"I guess I'm lucky he didn't like me," Nielsen said.

* * *

Bunch, the Bradenton hairstylist, was a longtime friend of Galehouse. He said the Internet provides an important forum for gay men to meet - much like gay bars they can patronize without fear of discrimination.

But after learning of the AOL chats between Lorenzo and Schweickert, he said the Internet doesn't seem so welcoming.

"We think of it as safer than meeting people out in the open, but now we know it's not," he said. "I won't even touch the computer because I am that scared after all this.

"You have no idea who you are really talking to."

* * *

MstrScott: I would love to have you help me kidnap a boy and turn him into the perfect little b* sometime. And I would do the same for you.

DOMDUDEFORSUB: I am extreme, calculating and love it!

MstrScott: We really should get together sometime and discuss this in person.

- Online chat, Oct. 15, 2003.

Times staff researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

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