The goal of the Wild Hunt is to hunt wrongdoers until they can run no longer.
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| The Wild Hunt by Johann Wilhem Cordes (1824-1869) image changed by request |
Jeff Mach, of Jeff Mach Events, is being called out.
He is associated with and/or runs the following events (SEE PAGE).
Background information and older comments (pre-2018):
- Anon medical team comment, 2015, 3 screencaps
- SPWF panel, How to Get Geeks Laid, 1 screencap
- Wicked Fair 2018 Volunteer Application, 3 screencaps
- Performer Contract from 2013
My posts and information:
- My personal tales and other information I am aware of can be found here
- My personal FB post, 1/23/2018, screencaps
Facebook comments, Jan 2018:
- Tom L, Facebook comments, Jan 2018 in which JM propositions him
- Assorted FB comments, Jan 2018.
- Interesting Selections of Jeff's own words and a post from Jan 2
Violations, Bad Business, and more:
- Consent Violations by JM:
- The East Coast Predator, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author
- Sexual Currency, (Anon story #3), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author. UPDATED with second posting, 1/26.
- Flash, (Anon #7), Jan 2018, via email from author.
- Under 18 Sexual Currency, Teen Black Widow, Jan 2018, from FB with permission of author
- Anon #9, or "If we don't push limits, how can we measure growth?", Jan 2018, via PM, posted with permission of author,
- Anon #9 part two
- Anon #10, TW: Underage, posted with permission of author, via PM, 1/26/18
- "Who is this guy?", posted with permission of author, via FB, 1/27/18
- Pressure and JM, posted with permission of author, Jan 28
- The Time I Was Approached by JM, copied with permission
- "I should have known," link to FL per request
- Seventeen (under 18, anon), via email Feb 18
- April (under 18, anon), via FB April 9
- Bad business, general feelings and other problems:
- GKE take from IPCookieMonster, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Former vendor, (Anon story #4), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Anon #6, or "No, I won't tell you why I banned you" emails, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- P.E. via email, published with permission, 1/27/18
- Money owed and bad practices, Mayfaire Moon, Jan 2018, copied with Nikki's permission.
- David E. Christman (DJ Dave Ghoul), posted with permission
- Accusations against JME staff and attendees:
- The "Blast Radius" or "People other than JM" (more)
- Snakeeyes (S. Jordan)
- D. Kane
- Wes, the lawyer
- Arez
- Cosplay Chronicle - Warning
- Voltaire
- Wyck
- Threat from staff, (Anon story #2), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Volunteers and how JM handles consent, (Anon story #5), Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- GKE violation, "My Experience" note from Fet, Jan 2018, copied with permission of author.
- Bad business AND consent problems, (Anon #8), Jan 2018, PM with permission of author
- GKE Serenity Space, Broken Safe Space, Jan 2018, note from Fet with permission of OP
- "Early Days of WF," Anon, via FB, Feb 28
- The Great Con Scandal: /http://www.charmedfinishingschool.com/the-great-con-scandal-of-new-jersey/
Hello, I would like to note that Crucible is run by me, Arthur, not Jeff Mach. While he helped scout out a hotel in 2003 (and one or two others over the years since), he has not been involved in running the convention since 2003. I'm not involved with your complaints and not judging, just correcting facts. Please see http://www.crucibleconvention.com for proof of what I say. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for clarifying. I am glad to hear that Jeff is no longer connected to your convention, and hasn't been in many years.
DeleteI would also like to go on record that while SalonCon is defunct, Jeff never had anything to do with SalonCon. I was the con head for SalonCon.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI miss SalonCon. Could we bring that back as an alternative to the May JME event? A lot of vendors and performers want to leave JME but are out deposits and inventory if they can't get another show. :(
DeleteIt's a possibility currently.
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ReplyDeleteHi Brenna,
ReplyDeleteI saw your post on Facebook (shared by another friend of mine) and came here to let you know that I've always had a bad vibe feeling around Jeff Mach since the first day I met him. I vended at his very first event (which seems like a billion years ago at this point) and I could tell back then that he couldn't give 2 shits about his vendors (my wares were not a good fit for that event and I made ZERO sales, and oh well, it's just "part of doing business" to not even make the table fee), and based on losing money at the first event and his less than truthfulness about that event in the first place caused me to avoid with prejudice anything he was associated with. Reading what happened to you really validated my feelings about him. I am sorry that you (and others) have had to go through all this crap.
Thank you for adding your voice!
Delete#metoo on the terrible JM experience. 2002 - the first event: the Cult Movie Overnight. I was his assistant/submissive, and he offered my services (that whole "she will do anything you want to make you happy') to others like it was nothing - and without prior discussion. He pushes stated boundaries on purpose. Not edges, but hard limits. Malignant narcissist and possible sociopath who presents as a Protector and advertises safety to pull in the most vulnerable and earm their trust before seeing how far he can push it - just because he can.
ReplyDeleteI severed ties years ago and do not often look back, but I had to add my story. This is not new. Rather, it has been happening for a long time, and these kinds of things continue until the floodgates open and all of the former targets and survivors come forward.
To all who have shared their experiences I believe you.
Thank you!
DeleteI am so glad everyone is coming out with these stories. Now everyone with evidence, texr or emails or anything that shows any legitimate cases of anything please go to the police. If we do not he will continue to do these actions to others. He will still be out there free to do what he has done to everyone again. So please support each other and do not let anyone bully you or try to force you to not come forward. Be safe, be strong, and help each other.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI can, if folks would like to email me.
DeleteFYI, just because some people can say - oh I've never had a problem he's a good guy - or whatever, does not discredit or invalidate the stories of everyone coming forward. I don't live anywhere near where this is happening, but you can be sure that folks in communities here in ABQ will be warned to avoid events involved with this person and people who defend him when they're travelling.
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DeleteReading your comments about the hotel situation and they just sound SO familiar. How hard is it to tell people the FULL terms of reserving a room at the event hotel?
ReplyDeleteThere was always some issue in communication with the hotel and JME.
DeleteI'm not sure where to put this...
ReplyDelete"If JM feels threatened by someone, or an ex-girlfriend hurts his feelings, or someone has dirt on him, there's suddenly a mysterious anonymous assault or threat complaint that forces that person to be banned."
I've witnessed this second-hand (i.e., I know someone this happened to).
Which means that JME has *actual predators* they don't remove from events, but they will remove people based on false allegations.
ALL OF THIS.
DeleteALL OF THIS.
DeleteIt was common, and guilt by association is why I stopped being a part of these events. The "guilty party" was only guilty of standing up to jm. So, he was suddenly accused of harassing a young girl (who never materialized, nor was he present when it supposedly happened, and the girl was supposed to have been only 15, at an 18+only event) Security team found him, and banned him from all future events. I defended him, knowing he was not present at the time of the alleged offense-and after that my vendor app for the following year was lost, then i was asked not to return at all. All because my friend stood up for himself to jm.
I'm glad people are now coming forward.
The age of consent in NJ is 16, not 17 as your note reads.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thedailyjournal.com/story/news/crime/2017/02/22/state-police-issue-reminder-age-consent-laws/98250434/
Your information is only partially accurate. The age of consent is 16 years, but only when the sexual partner is within 4 years of the same age, or not in a position of authority. JM was several decades older, so she was legally underage.
DeleteEthical BDSM practitioners also do not play with anyone under the age of 18, so she was underage in that context as well.
Since lewd photos and videos were taken of a person under the age of 18, that brings federal child pornography laws into play regardless of whether the person was old enough to consent to sex in a particular state. In other words, it may be legal to engage in sexual acts with someone but illegal to film those acts, same as it may be legal to talk to someone on the telephone but illegal to record the conversation.
DeleteAs defined by federal law 18 U.S. Code, Part 1, Chapter 110, §2256: "For the purposes of this chapter, the term—
(1) “minor” means any person under the age of eighteen years".
Code §2251 of Chapter 110 states: "(a) Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in, or who has a minor assist any other person to engage in, ... any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct or for the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction of such conduct, shall be punished as provided under subsection (e) ...
(e) Any individual who violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, this section shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 15 years nor more than 30 years, ... "
Read your fill about federal laws prohibiting "Sexual Exploitation and Other Abuse of Children" here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-110
https://www.facebook.com/shapeshifters.binders/posts/801164906751331
ReplyDeletePlease feel free to link our statement. Thank you for all your work.
-Shapeshifters
If there are vendors that are pulling out of this event that aren't being refunded, The Robin Hood's Faire in MA would like to help! If you can get juried in (and we'll be as loose as possible to try to get you in), we would like to offer you FREE vending space for our 3 weekend run in May (12-28). We feel terribly about this and want to help even in some small way. Please reach out to me personally (I am the GM) and I will get you the info you need (brian@ctfaire.com)
ReplyDeleteJust a point of clarity; in NJ the age on consent is 16, not 17, so your message next to the child abuse hotline number is a bit inaccurate. It is raised to 18 under certain special circumstances, but none that would apply here. Here is a good explanation: https://www.ageofconsent.net/states/new-jersey
ReplyDeleteBy the same token, the girl you marked in bold as underage was, legally, actually not underage. 16 is young, but the word "underage" has legal meaning.
Have a great day!
"The Age of consent is raised to 18 if the older partner is a parent, guardian, sibling, a relative closer than a 4th cousin, **or an individual with some authority over the younger party**"
DeleteBy all means, let's be perfectly clear: At least one person described having lewd photos and videos taken of her while she was under the age of 18 which would violate federal child pornography laws regardless of the state's age of consent laws. A parallel analogy would be that it may be legal for one person to speak to another person on the telephone but it may be illegal to record that telephone conversation.
Delete18 U.S. Code (aka Title 18), Chapter 110 sets out the federal prohibitions against Sexual Exploitation and Other Abuse of Children.
§2256 of Chapter 110 states: For the purposes of this chapter, the term —
(1) “minor” means any person under the age of eighteen years".
§2251 states: "(a) Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in, or who has a minor assist any other person to engage in, ... any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct or for the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction of such conduct, shall be punished as provided under subsection (e) ...
(e) Any individual who violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, this section shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 15 years nor more than 30 years". Read the relevant statutes for yourself here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-110
I don't know how to make this any clearer.
I've been sharing this page with my friends. I've been posting it in several threads on JM's FB page.
ReplyDeleteI believe you
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ReplyDeleteSince a friend shared this page with me, I've shared it with all my friends and posted it several times in threads on JM's Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI believe you.
Bah
ReplyDeleteI (in my secret identity as mild-mannered nerd Spencer Blum) was having a chat with Deborah Thompson on JM's FB page. She didn't believe any of the accusations, called the whole thing a witch hunt, called me sad and hate-filled, and then deleted all her posts.
When my response to her last post got "this content has been removed" I saved the page as html as soon as I could. Partly because I felt she might make later false claims about what was said, and partly because I really liked the way I stuck to polite debating tactics and still won.
First of all, thank you for all of the hard work you're doing collecting these posts.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I keep seeing a handful of people all but writing everything being said off just because they never witnessed any of this behavior personally. So I want to add my voice as someone who never witnessed the disturbing behavior here, but who has witnessed some concerning behavior that tracks with some of the accounts. Apologies for how long this is.
I am a newcomer to JME and am not really involved in the community outside of the event. I table-vended the past three years at GKE and twice at GKE New England. My impression of Mach from what little I interacted with him (my partner was the main contact for our table, so I only ever spoke to any staff-members at the event) was that he was generally friendly, maybe a little introverted, and very busy. I never received any inappropriate attention from him or the rest of the staff, nor did I witness it, so I had no reason to think that there was anything Off going on.
However, there are some things that I had chalked up to innocent mistakes or miscalculations that, after reading these accounts, I look back on these things and can see the ring of truth, though many of them are very mild in comparison to these reports.
For one thing, a major running theme from staffers, vendors, volunteers, and performers is broken promises. Our first GKE:NE was In Exile and, due to a number of factors (not least of which being the NJ location), attendance was low and so were our sales. When we mentioned this to Mach when he was doing his final day rounds asking how the weekend went for everyone, he offered to list us on his marketplace to get us some more exposure. He did, but it was over a year later and the marketplace itself turns out to be a half-built website with no traffic.
One ex-vendor mentioned being basically punished by being put in a bad location. Our next year at GKE:NE, we were stuck down a hallway entirely separate from all of the rest of the vendors and our sales suffered because of it. This was partially due to the unfortunate layout of the hotel, not having rooms on the first floor so all of the room vendors were on the second floor; but the other table vendors were out in the lobby area. The most interaction we got all weekend was from other vendors and some of the (very lovely) hotel staff. We mentioned this to Mach at the end of the weekend, acknowledging that the hotel layout was the major issue. He told us to tell the guy in charge of vendor coordination.
The next GKE Classic, our table was moved from the main hallway where we'd been the previous two years, to the lobby right next to the front door. As we sell clothing and have pieces available for people to try on, this also ended up affecting our sales. Many of our customers liked the convenience of just stripping off their shirts and trying things on; but because we were near the lobby they weren't allowed to disrobe at the table, and because we were so close to the doors constantly opening and it was freezing that weekend, many people didn't want to stop there at all since so many of them were partially dressed anyway. That was really the main thing we talked about all weekend, was how cold it was and how it must have sucked sitting right next to the door all day.
(Part II)
ReplyDeleteAnother account mentioned blatant transphobia from a GKE staff member. I believe that staffer was gone by the time we started vending and I never witnessed any blatant transphobia from the staff members I interacted with. However, all of the GKE's we'd been to had put signs over the bathrooms designating them as gender neutral for the weekend. When we got to GKE:NE at their new hotel last year, those signs weren't up. When my partner asked about it, we were told that it "made the hotel staff uncomfortable" and, since they'd been kicked out of their former hotel and this was a new hotel they'd never worked with before, they didn't want to step on any toes. Before the first day was even half over, someone (we gather an attendee, not someone official) had put handwritten signs up over the bathrooms to designate them as gender neutral. Those signs weren't even touched all weekend (except to make it more clear that they were bathrooms) -- I have to ask: If the hotel staff was really that upset about it that they wouldn't give Mach's staff the okay to tape up some paper signs, why didn't they take down the ones that were put up?
Regarding the messy handling of "banned" people getting into the event, again this is something I never witnessed (I never knew anyone who had been allegedly banned to know if they were allowed in while we attended). However, our first GKE, we had a third friend come in to watch our table for us while we went to a couple of panels. Come to find out after they'd been there for hours already, that they had apparently lost their ID before coming to the event. But they'd been let in despite the fact that staff was supposed to be checking ID's when they checked people in. Now, we consider this person family and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can trust them. But how many other people haven't been getting their ID's checked and just handed a badge and just waved on through into the event? I really regret not following up on that issue at the time.
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ReplyDeleteI get a 404 with the one labeled "Seventeen"
ReplyDeleteFixed. Sorry!
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ReplyDeleteWhat is this? https://www.facebook.com/Jeffmachevents/
ReplyDeleteNo idea. That's certainly interesting. Thanks!
DeleteOver and over I talked to Jeff about my volunteering at his events. Each time he said yes and he would have someone contact me. No one ever did. It left a bad taste in my mouth that if they did not want me they should not lead me on but just say they don't need me.
ReplyDeleteNow I am glad I was never part of it since I would be stained with part of his rep.
Hi there, so this new C.O.G.S event looks great! But i was talking to the hotel, if people dont switch their block room from spwf to the steampunk event block that the money earned from those room goes to jme. So people need to switch. This new event has alot of the listed safe performers that i see on here
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteMore info here: https://owleyeview.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-event-in-may.html?m=1
Evil Expo 2020
ReplyDeleteSOme folks don't know that this is a Jeff Mach event. A quick Google search of "Jeff Mach" brings up an article in which he denies wrongdoing. I'm trying to warn people and to find a screen cap of his FB post in which he 'apologizes' and admits wrongdoing.
Added EE to the list. Thanks
Delete
ReplyDeleteSOme folks don't know that this is a Jeff Mach event. A quick Google search of "Jeff Mach" brings up an article in which he denies wrongdoing. I'm trying to warn people and to find a screen cap of his FB post in which he 'apologizes' and admits wrongdoing.
For a year I thought Jeff Mach was innocent. I was sorely mistaken. Jeff Mach is an abuser, a user, a rapist, an unprofessional child, a self-serving bragging narcissist, and generally a terrible person. I apologize for anything I've said publicly to support him. I apologize for not believing the survivors. And yet, there are still so many who believe him. We were so close, but he showed his true colors to me eventually. Placed blame, projected, blocked me because I tried to help him and be a friend. He's garbage, and consequently I'm garbage for believing a rapist's lies. I'm so sorry. And I'm sorry to everyone else who was hurt by this monster. No one deserves that. And he didn't deserve to be supported.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know for a fact that this cult of personality that he's running exploits people. If I've earned any trust and respect at all in this community, believe me when I say that you and the people you love need to stay far away from this shit and that guy. Don't go to these events, don't do business with them, don't become involved in personal relationships with them and do your best to guide your children and younger siblings away from them.
ReplyDeleteIf you're offered sex with seemingly willing young women, know that they've possibly been groomed and manipulated. They think that they're in some variety of "Dom/Sub" or "Poly" relationship where as a condition of the relationship they have to have sex with whoever their "Dom" designates.
(I'm using quotes here to highlight the irony of naming this toxic manipulative bullshit after sexy funtimes between consenting adults and healthy group relationships. No similarity to actual, healthy, adult Poly and Kink relationships is intended or should be implied.)
I know that he's involved in that shit because I was involved in that shit with him. I came into his orbit back in 1994 when he was a member of the Rutgers Rocky Horror fan club.
I randomly encountered one of the girls, who was 17 at the time while I was 21 at a concert and we hit it off. She took me home. 21 year old me didn't always make the best choices, and in my defense 25 years ago, I thought that as long as you asked and they said yes and everybody was at most 2 beers in before you initiated anything you could consider yourself a decent person and doing the right thing. Her and I began a relationship, which I told myself at the time was okay because she was over the age of consent. I didn't know about things like grooming or manipulation, and while I don't know if that's what happened with this girl I don't know for sure it isn't.
There was a second woman involved who was a bit older, I'm going to say 19 or so, and was Jeff's "Number one" or "Primary", who generally got to be the one to choose who she hooked up with. This was discussed beforehand with both women where they made more or less clear what the boundaries were and who was in charge. In the second woman's case, it was Jeff who was described to me as being explicitly the person in charge of the sexual availability of "His" girl.
I got invited to a couple of the "parties" where the two women who were involved engaged in various "Bottoms on" sex acts with several men, which I didn't participate in, since I was still pretty inexperienced at this point and a crowd deal wasn't a thing that was going to work for me and there was just too much dick in that crowd for me.
ReplyDeleteEventually I did end up in bed with the other woman, and engaged in some heavy petting, same deal, nobody was more than slightly buzzed and I asked and she said yes.
One night I ended up explicitly invited by Jeff to a threesome with both women. He claimed that this was an arrangement he preferred, and in retrospect it seemed like he might have been looking for a Cuck scene or something. Not that I had any idea what that was 25+ years ago and it certainly wasn't discussed beforehand that that's what the deal was. A "Scene" in a Kink relationship. He did all the talking though the women seemed to be into it and again, I asked at every step and received consent... But knowing what I know now, I have no idea how much either of them actually wanted to be there or if they were being told to be there.
Eventually the younger woman dropped out of college due to poor grades and we lost touch. The older one called me one time and tried to set up another date but I demurred having decided that this was a too weird scene for me. I guess I was developing some kind of instincts even then.
I used to treasure this memory as a youthful triumph of my own alleged manliness, but now I'm ashamed and chagrined and angry when I think about it.. I don't know if those women really wanted to be with me or were there because Jeff told them to be. I thought I acted honorably at the time, but I was too naive and inexperienced and the culture I was a part of was too backwards for me to now be absolutely sure that I acted honorably. I don't know if I'm part of some poor woman's shitty Jeff Mach story, and I don't know if Jeff made me a part of some woman's shitty Jeff Mach story.
They'd both be in their 40's by now, like me and I just don't know if I'm part of a treasured memory of a time of youthful exuberance and fun or a dreaded memory of exploitation and I don't know if I'll ever know or be able to forgive myself for being even peripherally involved. I try to comfort myself by telling myself that maybe I was one of his victims too, becoming prey to a mind game, but it's cold comfort in the face of the possibility that I helped make somebody else's life shittier.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sharing this to be forgiven or whatever. I was a well known shitty person when I was younger, but I've spent the last 20+ years working to make up for that to try to be the most decent person I can, and I've worked harder at it since finding out about Jeff.
And if either of the women ever read this and you recognize your story here, I'm deeply sorry if I caused you any pain. It wasn't my intention, and I don't expect or request any forgiveness. I'm just...So Sorry and I hope that you've moved on and had wonderful lives full of joy.
The only reason I'm sharing this shameful shit is to highlight for everybody's feed that the things that people say about Jeff are true. This shit did happen, it does happen and it's probably still happening. Believe his victims.
I was sadly too mentally ill to realize I was being exploited and manipulated by this man. I was gaslit into believing he was innocent. In a moment of desperation, I took his money and his shelter and did whatever he needed me to do and it sickened me. I saw a new side of him and our whole history came back to me in a new light and I realized I had been used the entire time...from the very first time we met. We met at a popular dungeon in CT and the first thing he did was place flyers for his new event in my bra and paraded me around to advertise it. Yeah...total exploitation. What did I get out of it? Nothing in the long term except some trauma later on. He was actually very open about exploiting me; saying that he wanted to take me around to visit vendors at his events because I was cute...that way they wouldn't get angry at him in front of me. But it went deeper than that. Uncomfortable hypnosis parties, being put on his "special volunteer list" at his events...I didn't like it. But I was intimidated by him and didn't know how to say no. He offered me up for sex with other men and women I didn't know. He made me wash his underwear. The man made me so uncomfortable that every time I think of our history I cringe so hard I think I'm gonna throw up. Yeah, don't go near this guy. I was brainwashed. Completely and totally brainwashed. I was vulnerable and he saw that. And he wasn't the only one when I entered the kink scene. The scene is full of predators and when I was 22 every 40-something was like "oh yeah, fresh meat!" I had no idea what I was doing. I feel bad for supporting him. I hope the other victims forgive me. I definitely believe you. 100%. It still haunts me. Every single day.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/events/292574686621799/ It's time once again to rally the troops in hopes that good is louder and stronger than evil and that the truth can win over lies
ReplyDeleteWonderplace Alpha in Lake George is one of Jeff's events. Heads up on that. https://wonderplacealpha.com/contact/
ReplyDelete