Fake Shaman

Coming soon: the true crime podcast about a sexually-inappropriate con witch who charged big bucks for psychedelic trips and led one group into creepy chaos.

I enjoyed a Solstice fire. photo by Sweetgrass

Happy New Year and thanks for reading The Crash Report.

For paid subscribers: Your financial support of independent investigative journalism in Maine helps me pursue in-depth stories the mainstream press refuses to cover. I appreciate your cash, comments and DMs.

If you haven’t yet become part of the paid subscriber gang, I encourage you to do so. For $7 monthly or $75 annually, you’ll be supporting indie journalism AND get early, ad-free access to my new true crime podcast Fake Shaman, coming soon to pod players everywhere.

(Also, at the end of this Crash Report, all subscribers can watch a pair of exclusive January 6 videos on this 5th anniversary of the chud insurrection in DC.)

While I loathe self-promotion, I took an end-of-year look-see through The Crash Report archives and was reminded how I always go for the jugular of the elected bigots, Christo-Fascists, neo-Nazis, bad priests and other scumbuckets trying to mess up Maine and America.

Consider, for instance, my late October campaign finance exposé re: state Rep. Laurel Libby and the other Maine GOPers who kept over $100k in contributions from Brant Frost IV, a 67-year-old Christian-Nationalist shyster from Georgia, whose political donations came from the millions he bilked from MAGA investors. Not surprisingly, none of the Maine entities (including Rep. Reagan Paul, former state senator Eric Brakey, CD2 candidate Austin Theriault, plus ex-State House candidates Elizabeth Jorden and Amy Bell, and the Dinner Table Action, Fight For Freedom PACs and the Maine Republican Party) have returned the illicit monies.

Oddly, the rest of the Maine media remains quiet about this GOP scam. Perhaps the silence is because campaign finance reporting requires more time and energy than local news orgs can afford. Took me almost a month of research, number crunching and donor searching to collect the facts connected to Laurel Libby keeping about $57,000 in stolen cash for her and her bigot PACs. And that time spent doesn’t include exploring all the rabbit holes, sidequests and scuttlebutt connected to the caper.

Thing is, real journalism take time. Here’s another example: I spent 20 months reporting on (and was the lone journalist actively covering) the “theft from volunteer fire department” tale from the Oxford County town of Sumner. While it may seem like a localized story, due to my relentless reporting — and pestering of state officials — former Select Board member Kelly Stewart was forced out of her top job at DHHS’ Riverview Psychiatric Hospital after she and her husband pleaded guilty to stealing from the Sumner Volunteer Fire Department.

To me, this story is another example of local journalism failing miserably. As I reported — at length from Aug. 2023 to March of 2025 — there was a ton of evidence dooming these corrupt town officials, especially thanks to an internal investigation report. However, despite multiple court appearances and readily available public sentencing info, crickets from Maine media after their initial arrest. Except from me. And I’ll be back in the Oxford County courthouse in mid-February to witness the final action in the case.

The Crash Report, unfortunately, is the only media outlet in Maine that bluntly reports on the actions of local hate-filled fascist meat puppets like Corn Pop (aka Nick Blanchard), the Augusta School Board candidate loudly pestering school board members, students and teachers across Maine. When this MAGA clown makes it into the mainstream news, he’s referred to as “activist.” Uhhh, that’s not accurate, considering he’s actually a J-6 insurrectionist and Q-Anon adherent who was busted last February for drunk driving and investigated by DHHS for child neglect. Plus, he acts like he’s sticking up for kids or protecting free speech. When in reality, he’s harassing his enemies and acting like a knucklehead.

In the same vein are my multiple reports on state Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham and brand new candidate for Maine Senate, representing Washington County and parts of Hancock County. The Crash Report has been the only coverage of the giant fraud committed by the Maine GOP leader, who also happens to be a serial fabulist, homophobe and a member of an End Times death cult. While other media outlets swallowed (hook, line and sinker) Faulkingam’s rogue-wave-and-angel tall tale, I was able to prove, SCIENTIFICALLY, that Billy Bob was NOT rescued by the angelic form of a young lobsterman who drowned in the summer of 2023.

Even more disturbing, I’m the only journalist to report on how the alleged wannabe South Portland High School “shooter” (in reality, an adolescent boy accused of and ultimately found “not-guilty” of attempting to plan a school shooting) was groomed by Chris “Hammer” Pohlhaus, leader of the Blood Tribe cult that was run out of Springfield, Maine in 2023. I don’t know why, but the rest of the Maine media seems intent on ignoring the love-bombing tactics of the fascist thugs intent on creating the next generation of violent racists.

The Crash Report was also the only journalism explaining how privilege and wealth allowed Eliot Cutler — the millionaire pedophile and former Maine gubernatorial candidate — to escape real punishment for downloading and keeping over 80,000 files of child rape on his personal electronics. Plus, the mainstream media continues to use the term “child porn” to explain Cutler’s disgusting collection. For the record, the proper verbiage is “child sex abuse material.”

And the Unholy Fathers podcast is the only long-form journalism to explore and explain the plague from Springfield, Massachusetts, the Catholic diocese’s cover up of serial child rape by clergy, along with the murder of a 13 year-altar-boy, interwoven with the tragedies and horrible crimes committed by alleged men-of-god.

All this to say, “The Crash Report goes places other media won’t” is more than a slogan. It’s my job. For over 30 years, I’ve focused on covering issues and stories too complicated, contentious and controversial for the mainstream media. And in these trying times, in addition to your continued financial support, I’m asking you share The Crash Report with friends, family and on the socials.

Despite the deterioration of the modern media landscape, I’ll continue my independent efforts to expose the chuds, the evildoers and bootlickers and their anti-American goals to disrupt the way life should be in Maine, especially when they try to intimidate our most marginalized communities and/or inflict their religious views on the rest of us.

Also, premiering this winter, is my new true crime podcast Fake Shaman, a 10-part investigation of a never-before-told story about a female con artist preying on vulnerable people in Maine and beyond. Over the last six months, I’ve done a deep dive on this predatory woman selling psilocybin experiences to victims of trauma for thousands of dollars while pretending to be an indigenously-trained shaman. I have access to hours of secret tapes, scores of documents, insider details and interviews, along with a giant trove of supporting evidence gathered from the dustbins and forgotten corners of the internet.

Spoiler alert: she’s not what she claims.

Paid subscribers, btw, will have early access and won’t have to listen to annoying ads. Plus, paid subs can participate in the members-only Fake Shaman chat.

I understand that for many, money is tight in these trying days of higher prices, political uncertainty and kleptocracy. So if you can’t afford a subscription, no biggie. Instead, you can help The Crash Report by telling your fam and pals about my muckraking, especially by sharing links in chats and on the socials. Also, to be an even bigger help, please review, rate and subscribe to The Crash Program on your preferred pod player. It helps new listeners find the show.

Speaking of Unholy Fathers: that sordid saga is winding down, with only five episodes left. In Episode 11 ( to be released Jan 8), I door-knock the murderer, ex-Rev. Richard Lavigne and conduct his only media interview ever. Plus, the murderer shows me his paintings and his chalice. Then, in Episode 12, we hear from the sister of the priest’s murder victim, the beloved Danny Croteau. His sister — my high school classmate — happens to be a perfect example of the enduring power of the human spirit. In Episode 13, we visit the site of Danny’s murder.

Be sure to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts.

For subscribers only:

It’s been five years, to the day, since the “Insurrection of Chuds” in Washington D.C. Below is a short doc I made about Rene Guay, one of the J-6 “protestors” from Maine who claims to have entered the Capitol, but wasn’t arrested, despite carrying a “Commie Killer” baseball bat and a nasty history as an ex-cop that includes his involvement in a notorious police shooting in rural Somerset County. Guay, I’ve since learned, was also involved in a scandal connected to his extremely young second wife, who happens to be his preacher’s daughter.

As an added bonus, I’ve included a clip of Augusta School Board candidate Corn Blanchard, leading a group cheer on the streets of Washington D.C. proclaiming his love of fascism. Blanchard, who was videoed dismantling barricades, wasn’t arrested, after he was interviewed by FBI agents who told me in Jan. 2021 that “he liked to talk.”