Good news for the entire internet: Dave Mabus, probably the atheo-sphere’s most prolific spammer, has been arrested in Montreal. Mabus is believed to be a pseudonym of Dennis Markuze, and for 15 years or more he’s been making a frightening pest of himself. We’ve dealt with his spam here numerous times, and anybody who has seen it will recognize the incoherent arguments, Nostradamus references and Depeche Mode links.

The blog Skeptical Software Tools has an extensive story on the matter, tracing the case back to its roots. The mainstream media has even picked up on it – here’s CTV Montreal.

There’s just a couple of things I’d like to add. First off, Mabus/Markuze has not just been targeting atheist sites as has sometimes been reported. He’s also been seen at liberal Christian sites like Slacktivist and A Feather Adrift. He once nearly shut down Exploring Our Matrix.

Also, a number of people have noted that Mabus has been getting less coherent and more violent as time went on. You could actually see the downward spiral. Last year, PZ Myers commented:

Get on the google usenet archive — you’ll discover Markuze was actually a student at Concordia University in the early to mid 90s, so he’s almost certainly in his 30s to early 40s. It’s kind of sad, though: you can actually trace his descent into madness. His early posts are all normal inquiries and comments, largely on the comp.sys.* hierarchy, and he gradually becomes more ranty and unresponsive.

Someone could do an interesting psychiatric study on this guy just from the usenet archives.

As this progressed, I became more worried that Markuze would become a danger, perhaps to others but most likely to himself. There’s only one way for a downward spiral to end. Hopefully, Markuze will now be in a position to get the help he needs.