Remembering the infamous (unedited)

I was reminded of a college classmate earlier this evening. I hadn't thought about her in a few years.

This classmate was a year ahead of me, as I recall, lived in my co-ed dorm and was studying journalism. We sat next to each other in a writing class and discussed a class project in her dorm room one night. Cute girl, as I recall.

She was from central Wisconsin and, as I'd be reminded over and over, was a dairy princess. I think she won a local pageant and was representing the dairy industry in some way. She didn't seem to talk up her status as a dairy princess, but the media couldn't let go of it.

Her name was Lori Esker, and she was convicted of murder in 1990, less than a year after she killed her ex-boyfriend's girlfriend. The story garnered plenty of attention in parts of Wisconsin, as well as some national attention, including the TV news show A Current Affair.

Lori has long since forgotten the awkward, socially inept boy that she sat next to in journalism class, but I haven't forgotten her.

Michael Faulkner doesn't remember me either, I'm sure. Mike was rather peculiar. I'd heard stories about a traumatic childhood, and if they're true, it might explain his horrible personal hygiene, his lack of social grace and his bizarre behavior. He may have been a bit bizarre, but he had an eye for the ladies, evidently. Allegedly he was reprimanded more than once for creeping out cute girls in the dorms. He didn't do anything criminal, as far as I know, he just didn't know how to keep his distance, and this troubled young, fragrant women.

I am 99 percent sure he was the same guy I read about in 1998. A guy named Michael Faulkner was arrested for violating a restraining order. He had been stalking late 1980s pop sensation Debbie Gibson, and violated a restraining order.

Everything I read about the stalker indicated it was the same guy I knew from college. Eventually I remembered something obscure about my guy that convinces me he was indeed Debbie's stalker. My guy did a weekly shift on the campus radio station, just like me. I remember he used a somewhat obscure Debbie Gibson song as background music for his show one semester. Yep, it was a filler tune off her debut CD, and I knew the tune because I had the CD, as dorky as that makes me. (I probably still own the disc to this day.)

That last nugget of info convinced me that Debbie's stalker was my guy from college.

It makes me wonder what other types of criminals I shared the campus sidewalks with.