Craigslist Ad Seeks Hitman to “Eradicate” Poster’s Lover’s Wife   2/1/2008 - 648 views,

Melanie McGuire had, after all, ‘only’ used the Internet to Google for ways to kill her husband (which she eventually did). On its own, the search would not have been illegal - rather it was used to help unravel the case and indict her.

But oh, Ann Marie Linscott, how stupid do you have to be to post on a public forum an ad which in itself is illegal (soliciting a murder is illegal), looking for help committing an act that is illegal?

Pretty stupid, we say.

Linscott, a native of Michigan, posted the Craigslist ad, looking for a “freelancer”, in November. When someone answered, thinking that it was for a freelance writing job, Linscott, signing her name a “Marie”, told him that she had a job for some “silent assassins”, and that job was “to eradicate a targeted victim,” and that “he would receive $5,000 upon completion of the eradication task.”

“Marie”’s response included the address of the “targeted victim”, who, when police followed up, turned out to be the wife of a man whom Linscott had met online, and with whom she had subsequently had an affair.

When the FBI showed up at Linscott’s home in Michigan last week, she admitted to authoring the Craiglist posting and subsequent emails.

And, according to reports, when the FBI asked her what she meant when she had written “eradicate” the targeted victim, Linscott replied “Duh, well, have her killed.”

Perhaps we should amend that to “Very stupid.”