Colorado's Spam King Murders Family, Self

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Fri Jul 25, 5:02 PM ET

His name was Edward Davidson, but the world will remember him as the notorious "Spam King" who was convicted and sent to prison, only to escape, kill his wife and child, and then turn a gun on himself.

Colorado's "Spam King" drama came to its conclusion on Thursday when the bodies of Davidson, his wife and three-year-old daughter were discovered in an SUV parked in a farmhouse driveway in a rural area east of Denver.

"What a nightmare, and such a coward," said U.S. Attorney Troy Eid. "Davidson imposed the 'death penalty' on family members for his own crime."

Retracing Davidson's Footsteps

On July 20, Davidson walked away from a federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado -- a minimum-security facility that features dorm-style housing, a low staff-to-inmate ratio and a program-oriented work environment.

Davidson, who was sentenced to serve 21 months in federal prison for illegally sending spam e-mail messages, left the Florence prison complex in a car with his wife, who probably never suspected his escape would lead to her death.

Davidson drove the car to Lakewood, a Denver suburb, where he got a change of clothes and cash. He then left. Davidson was next seen with a fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound. In addition to shooting his wife and child, Davidson shot a fourth person in the neck. A one-year-old boy was found unharmed.

History of the Spam King

On April 28, 2008, Davidson was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Marcia S. Krieger to serve just under two years in federal prison. Judge Krieger also ordered him to pay $714,139 in restitution to the IRS. Davidson seemed amenable, having pled guilty before Judge Krieger on December 3, 2007.

As part of the restitution, Davidson had agreed to forfeit property he purchased, including gold coins, which were the ill-gotten proceeds of his offense. At the time of sentencing, Judge Krieger ordered Davidson to report to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons on May 27, 2008.

According to the facts contained in a plea agreement, from July 5, 2002, through April 15, 2007, Davidson conducted a business in Colorado using the name Power Promoters. The primary nature of Davidson's business was to offer promotional vehicles in the form of large volumes of unsolicited commercial electronic messages, or spam.

A Spamming Empire Crumbles

Davidson first provided services to companies that promoted watches, perfume and other items. However, beginning in the middle of 2005 through 2006, he sent spam on behalf of a Texas company to promote its stock. The company generated its income through selling stock (commonly referred to as "penny stock") on behalf of small companies on the public market.

Aided by several sub-spammers, Davidson sent hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to potential purchasers throughout the United States and the world, touting the penny stock as an excellent investment.

Davidson possessed hundreds of thousands of e-mail addresses, to which he and his sub-spammers would send the e-mail messages. The messages contained false header information, which concealed the actual sender from the recipient of the e-mail.

Davidson provided spammed messages for approximately 19 companies and operated his spamming activities from his personal residence in Bennett, Colorado, where he had a large network of computers and servers that facilitated his business.