The Truth About Ruth - Part 2 - Merge

[Palimpsest]

The last comment on Ruth's June 30th Plea post is from "World is Roses". Click on that user name and you can go to the person's SAHM blog which is rather new and awesomely over the top fundie-bad. So much so it seems pretty fake. Woman's name is supposedly Ashleigh with children's names all ending in "leigh" as well.

Many thanks. :D

[NurseNell]

The last comment on Ruth's June 30th Plea post is from "World is Roses". Click on that user name and you can go to the person's SAHM blog which is rather new and awesomely over the top fundie-bad. So much so it seems pretty fake. Woman's name is supposedly Ashleigh with children's names all ending in "leigh" as well.

Satire. :cracking-up:

[RealityTVRN]

I feel like I have seen something very similar to "Ashleigh's"(world of roses/My Life as a SAHM) post about "I won't see a doctor" (June 25, 2013). I just can't place it.

[Palimpsest]

Satire. :cracking-up:

Agreed! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[ILpecanthief]

I feel like I have seen something very similar to "Ashleigh's"(world of roses/My Life as a SAHM) post about "I won't see a doctor" (June 25, 2013). I just can't place it.

It looks like it's inspired by from the Raggedy Cottage blog which has recently been discussed here on FJ.

raggedycottagegarden.blogspot.com/search/label/home%20birth%20and%20baby

[RealityTVRN]

I've changed my mind. It isn't satire. Someone posted a comment on her latest blog entry and asked her if she could verify Ruth and her story were real. She replied that she didn't know her and thought she needed to make peace with her family. Looks like "Ruth" is now "Ashleigh" too. :(

[gypsygirl22]

I've changed my mind. It isn't satire. Someone posted a comment on her latest blog entry and asked her if she could verify Ruth and her story were real. She replied that she didn't know her and thought she needed to make peace with her family. Looks like "Ruth" is now "Ashleigh" too. :(

Ruth...Mary...maybe Ashleigh...I wonder how many different sad stories have been told by whoever-it-really-is?

[lilith]

Agreed! :lol: :lol: :lol:

It reminds me of HoneyDawns Polygamy Blog, another fundie satire that was round a few years ago.

The thrush thing is a satire of a recent post on a blog we snark on here, I just can't remember which.

[RealityTVRN]

Ruth...Mary...maybe Ashleigh...I wonder how many different sad stories have been told by whoever-it-really-is?

Nevermind...just figured out it was satire. :) I caught the reference to the no doctor thing, but didn't catch the yeast infection one. Great satire, not more RuthMaryPossumPennMommy.

[darkplumaged]

I know nothing about Possummomma. Does anyone know if she is "real," or is she, too, a fake persona?

[RealityTVRN]

I know nothing about Possummomma. Does anyone know if she is "real," or is she, too, a fake persona?

I think she is the closest to being "real" of all her characters. She claimed to have lupus and conned someone into fundraising for UV window film for her. I'm pretty sure that was a hoax too. That's just my opinion based on what I've read, I don't have any hard facts or personal experience.

[carebear]

I'm so sorry about your daughter. Has to be really stressful. :( I hope she is doing much better now.

A member here found a post where "Ruth" posted on another site (TWOP) as "ofDuggar" about having had a baby. Of course, this is not in her story she posts on her blog. Lots and lots of inconsistencies, all carefully laid out (but buried somewhere in this thread). Once everyone knew she was fake, other members connected her to "PossumMomma" who was a prolific Atheist blogger who had several sock puppets (one was PennMommy on a Gosselin forum; She's also Jayhawk, who posts on hysterectomy forums). It appears they are all the same person. Huge scam artist.

Crazy huh?

Check out OddEverything's post here...it details a lot of the inconsistencies:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=17372&p=583153#p583153

Thank you for the recap RealityTVRN :)

[ProfessorAndMaryAnn]

I think I've figured it out, guys.

Ruth is actually Michelle Duggar. She was bored.

[nelliebelle1197]

How do you know about the legal aid thing and that particular agency's priorities and screening policies? Are you in the same area as Ruth supposedly was? I work at one of the most prominent legal aid organizations in the country and have for over a decade. How could he check case management? I am sorry, but you are not ringing true at all. I know how legal services work and how they don't. What you are saying about your husband checking up on Ruth makes no sense.

I already know, and have been rather riveted to this discussion. (Housework and parenting be damned!) I have debated and debated jumping in with more than a vague comment because I really did not want to be involved in more FJ drama and I thought it would look tacky to stop posting after RR drama and come back during RR drama, but I can fill in some holes (maybe) and add some new info. I haven't before because I am rather nervous about doing so, plus I didn’t want to drag PrincessJo into drama she maybe didn’t want to get into. So my apologies if I do that in any way. Here is the story from my perspective:

Jo and I had some contact off board. We were fb friends with each other and with Vyckie. I had some doubts about RR, mainly that I didn’t see how her father had found her anonymous blog within a month of posting it. (I brought up my concerns on FJ and RR ignored them. I brought them up again in the deleted thread and her explanation of it did not ring true.) I also knew she was exaggerating when she talked about how angry ATI was about it or how threatening her blog was to them. Why would an organization be so threatened by an anonymous blog most people had never heard of?! She also said some things that made me wonder, but I chalked it up to RR’s family being into Gothard much more than mine. We weren’t ATI, but we made it through the advanced seminar and anger seminar. Because of that, when RR would talk about Gothard things, I thought there were some obvious things she DIDN’T talk about, and I found that odd, but since I don’t give out every detail about me, I figured I was overanalyzing. I also found it odd that she was still so helpless when she’d been out, at the time, about 7 or 8 years, when I’d been out for only 2, though again, chalked that up to her being much deeper into it than my family was.

When Jo posted the thread instigated by Vyckie, I first posted something like, well, I had doubts, but I overall believe her because she knows so much about what life is like as a fundie. Then Jo messaged me on fb and told me Vyckie had asked her to post about it. (She did NOT ask me to help her. I want to make that very clear.) We had a conversation about our doubts, and when I found out Vyckie was behind it, I thought, ohhhh, well, if someone like Vyckie is having doubts, then I can feel more free to express mine. So I did. It did not go over well! :lol:

From what I remember in that thread, I was very confused about the way Vyckie came in like she had NO IDEA what was going on and I didn’t understand RR’s martyrdom about the whole thing. But I felt extremely pressured, so I apologized to RR both on and off board. (That bitch now owes ME an apology, haha!) I also gave her a rundown of libel laws because I was a former fundie-light blogger and my husband was then a law student, and at that point, she said she didn’t want to out herself because she was worried about the legal repercussions. But she ignored it and continued saying she was worried about being sued before changing her story awhile later. Or maybe it was one reason she used for awhile. I don't remember exactly. Either way, both left a very bad taste in my mouth and I stopped reading Vyckie and removed the RR link from my blog. Because she claims to be from NW Arkansas where I lived at the time and claims to have a similar background, I did read RR occasionally to see which way it would go. I felt both like she was still exaggerating (I thought at the time that she was both a former fundie AND some kind of compulsive liar) and like a horrible person for maligning a poor abused fundie.

Anyways, right after the major drama thread, I asked Jo if Vyckie was ever able to confirm anything about RR since the thread resolved with RR supposedly going to tell Vyckie her identity. I think there was a phone call where RR didn’t actually tell Vyckie anything, and that Vyckie never was able confirm RR’s identity, but after the major flare up of drama, she certainly wasn’t going to say so! I do not know for a fact what actually happened, though, since Vyckie wasn’t very trustworthy either.

I met Jo in person and she stayed at my house for about a week. (She is absolutely amazing, btw! My daughter still talks about her and begs me to go visit her!) We had a huge discussion about the RR drama and added a few more major holes in RR’s story that had developed since. During that time, RR claimed that Rachel had received help from legal aid. Well my husband had since graduated from law school and was a lawyer at that organization. He couldn’t break confidentiality with names or details we knew, but we asked if he would check to see if anyone matching Rachel’s situation came through at all. No one had. I also read him RR’s description of her encounter with legal aid and he was able to confirm it did not work like that. I showed him her description of her encounter with the legal system in Arkansas after she ran away and he said without a doubt that her blog was full of bullshit because even a small municipality doesn’t work like that. That was the moment I stopped waffling and feeling like a bad person for doubting RR. I did think at the time that she probably had a friend who was ATI, but I don’t think that anymore. I think her “friend†was blogs and message boards. (Remember when RR was suddenly living in a camper right around the time the Shraders were being discussed living in their pop up?)

But I’ve always been curious about when/if she’ll get caught. I thought she had gotten away with it when she first closed her blog down. And even though I thought I had satisfied the sock puppet question on the first drama-filled thread, I did notice that people who were upset about people questioning RR were considerably less vicious about it once the board migrated.

Like I said upthread somewhere, I think RR succeeded because she was so vague on the details. Former Gothard people DID doubt RR, but were immediately shut down. RR also says on her profile that her family may not be like every other family so that disclaimer would make people question their doubts.

So anyways, that’s all I know, or at least all I remember at the moment. I am back to mostly lurking now and really hope this post didn’t come across as me having any kind of vendetta against RR or thriving on drama in any way. I’ve been curious, but that’s about it. I just wanted to help fill in some details, particularly about whether or not Vyckie had confirmed RR’s identity.

Wow, this is a massively long post. Kudos to anyone who read it.

[Kellbells]

I think I've figured it out, guys.

Ruth is actually Michelle Duggar. She was bored.

Dude. If it's Michelle Duggar and my donation went towards attempt #20, I'm gonna be so pissed!!! :)

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Is anyone else wondering why on earth her blog is still up?

As others posted, she might just not know she's been outed yet.

But honestly? If she does know, and she either wants to keep the persona going or just plain doesn't want to admit (or face) the fact that it's a scam, if she thinks she can maybe still pull in people reading the archives, if there's any chance that she can wait for this to "settle down" and then maybe in a few weeks make a final post about how people on the internet have all hounded her and so she has to pause the blog and go underground, then it makes total sense (for the story) to leave the blog up for now.

Just fade away, maybe make one last cryptic post OR NOT, and just leave it abandoned. Can't hurt, and might pull in some people in the future, or at least leave some true believers still guessing. If she shuts the blog down, that's pretty much admitting the jig is up, she probably doesn't want to do that. She can melt away to make another game either way, after all, so might as well just leave this one going, even if tumbleweeds end up blowing through it.

[nerdymama1]

How do you know about the legal aid thing and that particular agency's priorities and screening policies? Are you in the same area as Ruth supposedly was? I work at one of the most prominent legal aid organizations in the country and have for over a decade. How could he check case management? I am sorry, but you are not ringing true at all. I know how legal services work and how they don't. What you are saying about your husband checking up on Ruth makes no sense.

My husband does work at the legal aid organization that services NWA. Both treemom and PrincessJo can vouch for that if they wish as they have met both of us in person.

[gypsygirl22]

Dude. If it's Michelle Duggar and my donation went towards attempt #20, I'm gonna be so pissed!!! :)

You owe me a new keyboard! :lol:

[Lainey]

My husband does work at the legal aid organization that services NWA. Both treemom and PrincessJo can vouch for that if they wish as they have met both of us in person.

Just to be clear, are you the artist formerly known as Red-Headed Skeptic?

[nerdymama1]

Just to be clear, are you the artist formerly known as Red-Headed Skeptic?

On the old board.

[Curious]

I think she is the closest to being "real" of all her characters. She claimed to have lupus and conned someone into fundraising for UV window film for her. I'm pretty sure that was a hoax too. That's just my opinion based on what I've read, I don't have any hard facts or personal experience.

I think that one just didn't go as expected. People were sending in money for her to buy the film and then when the person that was collecting the donations talked to the company, they ended up donating it. After that, the donators decided to go ahead and send her the check anyway, apparently. She says she gave some of it to a family in need, but I'm not sure I would take that with anything more than a grain of salt.

[nelliebelle1197]

My husband does work at the legal aid organization that services NWA. Both treemom and PrincessJo can vouch for that if they wish as they have met both of us in person.

I guess we are all a little paranoid. Did not mean to accuse- sorry! A friend of mine from the tiny legal services tech world is the director of Arkansas Legal Services Partnership, BTW. So we probably have like two degrees of separation! And my mom lives in Bella Vista.

[nelliebelle1197]

On the old board.

That is even funnier. I read the pile on on the old board and was wishing earlier that you knew about these developments! Again, sorry for jumping the gun. No one ever knows anything about legal aid so my antenna went up too far obviously!

[nerdymama1]

I guess we are all a little paranoid. Did not mean to accuse- sorry! A friend of mine from the tiny legal services tech world is the director of Arkansas Legal Services Partnership, BTW. So we probably have like two degrees of separation! And my mom lives in Bella Vista.

Lee? And no worries about any accusations. It's one reason I kept debating about whether or not to post anything.

[nelliebelle1197]

Vince- he is a lawyer and the tech guy and has done some awesome stuff that has brought Arkansas loads of national attention. I think the official title is associate or deputy director. Lee is his boss, I believe.

Yeah! Another person surviving on a legal aid salary!! This is exciting.