🪦 Deceased Kit n' Kay Boodle and the late Albert Temple / Gene Catlow / Richard Katellis

[eternal dog mongler]

I don’t know if you can or want to ask your friend who has Lexis, But I’d be curious to hear if Ol’ Albert had a will.

Unfortunately he got fired (for something unrelated to looking up dead furries) so that's closed to me.

If he did have a will it probably would have popped up at the time, though, so I imagine he died intestate.

 

[Tennis-Ball-Tony]

I’m still really surprised at the idea that the DeWalts were just able to roll up and start carting computer equipment out of the recently deceased home. I don’t know how all of that works, but some recent experiences in some of my friends lives showed that the idea of the next-door neighbor walking in and trying to take the dead guy’s property on the basis of “were practically family!“ is generally frowned upon if the will and probate haven’t been addressed.

I know Kage and older furs have halfway joked that they have friends that will come to their houses and take their hard drives if something bad happens to them, so there's probably a lot of truth to similar kinds of arrangements. Though with Albert, it's a groovy mystery because it's difficult to tell who close to him were real or who were fake.
The faking his death theory has a percentage of being true, a fur I knew "tripped in his shower and died", but the only problem is, there was no mention of the accident, his obituary, or any final services. He used his real name on old artwork, so either he used a fake name for years, or else he decided he wanted to sever all contacts with the fandom.

 

[Solid Snek]

I know Kage and older furs have halfway joked that they have friends that will come to their houses and take their hard drives if something bad happens to them, so there's probably a lot of truth to similar kinds of arrangements. Though with Albert, it's a groovy mystery because it's difficult to tell who close to him were real or who were fake.
The faking his death theory has a percentage of being true, a fur I knew "tripped in his shower, cut himself and bled out and died", but the only problem is, there was no mention of the accident, his obituary, or any final services. He used his real name on old artwork, so either he used a fake name for years, or else he decided he wanted to sever all contacts with the fandom.

"Joked".

The only thing certain in life is death, taxes, and oldschool furs like Kage and Albert having harddrives stuffed with incriminating material. Kage's no idiot. He's got a mafia cleaner system in place, for sure.

I kind of like the idea that Albert might have faked his death, though, and I hope it becomes part of furry lore. It'd be like Elvis sightings, if instead of singing, Elvis had spent his life drawing cum geysers.

 

[billydero]

Though with Albert, it's a groovy mystery because it's difficult to tell who close to him were real or who were fake.

See, that’s my point - I don’t mean to hammer the doubt key so hard or throw so much shade on the DeWalts but the fact is, Albert had a very elaborate web of deceptions in place. If he was faking friends and a girlfriend in such a detailed way, what else is fake; if his circle of actual people he knew in the fandom were keeping and abetting him with those secrets, what other secrets are there?

.... and to think the second episode of Hellava Boss gives Loona a little speech on ‘you don’t know what these ‘wholesome’ people do when you aren’t looking!’

"Joked".

The only thing certain in life is death, taxes, and oldschool furs like Kage and Albert having harddrives stuffed with incriminating material. Kage's no idiot. He's got a mafia cleaner system in place, for sure.

I laughed hard at that but we all know it’s the truth. Kage and the other old furries probably have a shitload of sketchy stuff on their hard drives that back in 2002 or whatever they figured ‘ah, nobody knows what a furry is and we’ll never be under any scrutiny’ when they saved it.

 

[FrickleMyPickle]

See, that’s my point - I don’t mean to hammer the doubt key so hard or throw so much shade on the DeWalts but the fact is, Albert had a very elaborate web of deceptions in place. If he was faking friends and a girlfriend in such a detailed way, what else is fake; if his circle of actual people he knew in the fandom were keeping and abetting him with those secrets, what other secrets are there?

The DeWalts, by all indications, weren't in on his secret. They did suspect something was up (namely that witness protection doesn't work like that, and that if Catswhisker was in Jamaica, why the hell wasn't Temple with her?), but just kind of gave him the benefit of the doubt and let it slide in that way that people often do when someone they trust does something sketchy.

So they probably weren't helping him out in that regard, and it would be very weird of them to help him fake his own death (like I said, they're too intimately familiar with grief). I don't...think they'd protect his legacy if he had a secret stash of actual kiddie porn, because they've got four little kids they're incredibly protective of.

So what are they hiding? If I had to bet money on it, everything but real child porn.

It's all but a guarantee he was into cub stuff. The Stefanescu account that got banned was devoted to it, and even if by some incredible stretch that wasn't him, he spent the last months and weeks of his life on wolfdad account, interacting with his "new son" (an adult with a hamster character) and indulging in "Me and my dad relaxing with our wieners out" art.

Spoiler: That.

My theory: His hard drives were loaded with Pedo Lite material, reams and reams of cub porn, maybe even some stories and art featuring human kids. However, he was one of those pedophiles who tries their hardest not to victimize real kids, so he didn't have any pictures of them and if he ever faltered, he didn't keep evidence of it. That being the case, the DeWalts and his brothers decided to let him have his legacy.

 

[Solid Snek]

The DeWalts, by all indications, weren't in on his secret. They did suspect something was up (namely that witness protection doesn't work like that, and that if Catswhisker was in Jamaica, why the hell wasn't Temple with her?), but just kind of gave him the benefit of the doubt and let it slide in that way that people often do when someone they trust does something sketchy.

So they probably weren't helping him out in that regard, and it would be very weird of them to help him fake his own death (like I said, they're too intimately familiar with grief). I don't...think they'd protect his legacy if he had a secret stash of actual kiddie porn, because they've got four little kids they're incredibly protective of.

So what are they hiding? If I had to bet money on it, everything but real child porn.

It's all but a guarantee he was into cub stuff. The Stefanescu account that got banned was devoted to it, and even if by some incredible stretch that wasn't him, he spend the last months and weeks of his life on wolfdad account, interacting with his "new son" (an adult with a hamster character) and indulging in "Me and my dad relaxing with our wieners out" art.

Spoiler: That.

View attachment 2139406

My theory: His hard drives were loaded with Pedo Lite material, reams and reams of cub porn, maybe even some stories and art featuring human kids. However, he was one of those pedophiles who tries their hardest not to victimize real kids, so he didn't have any pictures of them and if he ever faltered, he didn't keep evidence of it. That being the case, the DeWalts and his brothers decide to let him have his legacy.

He was absolutely into cub art; I'm not familiar with all of his alts, but Kit n' Kay Boodle featured it numerous times. Same with the incest. He did have a strangely... wholesome (?) vibe in many of his comics, and I guess I can understand why people want to remember him fondly and give him the benefit of the doubt. He was a sympathetic pervert, like Edarem or Robert Crumb.

But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Albert was a MAP. Certainly not an exclusive MAP, probably not even a predominant MAP, but I would be shocked if he hadn't spent good chunks of the 90s trading pizza on Usenet.

 

[Sharklaser]

Welp, on second thought, the 'feels' for this guy are starting to go away. Maybe (thunkful!) rotting for days on his couch while nobody noticed was exactly the end this dude needed.

 

[Trombonista]

This art from Jan 2001 is very iconic. Since the man is dead, his ghost probably wouldn't object to someone putting it on a shirt.

Spoiler: spoooge!

Kit n Kay Boodle - Wednesday , January 24 , 2001

View attachment 2133851

So this is the Furry Semen Jetpack. Not gonna lie, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 

[Bubble Ba'ath]

Welp, on second thought, the 'feels' for this guy are starting to go away. Maybe (thunkful!) rotting for days on his couch while nobody noticed was exactly the end this dude needed.

Fictional cartoons most likely so I couldnt care less personally, but it certainly would explain a lot about how this all was handled.

 

[XYZpdq]

So this is the Furry Semen Jetpack. Not gonna lie, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

in the grand scheme of the onlines some of this is downright tame

 

[eternal dog mongler]

He was absolutely into cub art; I'm not familiar with all of his alts, but Kit n' Kay Boodle featured it numerous times. Same with the incest. He did have a strangely... wholesome (?) vibe in many of his comics, and I guess I can understand why people want to remember him fondly and give him the benefit of the doubt. He was a sympathetic pervert, like Edarem or Robert Crumb.

But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Albert was a MAP. Certainly not an exclusive MAP, probably not even a predominant MAP, but I would be shocked if he hadn't spent good chunks of the 90s trading pizza on Usenet.

Kit n Kay gave me some cub porn vibes, but it was more in the very French "there's nothing wrong with adults being nude or having sex around children" way.

He may have indeed been attracted to kids, but unlike modern furries who put it all out there he hid it under layers of sexual repression.

 

[Bubble Ba'ath]

Finally occurred to me to check the worlds douchiest website, LinkedIn.

Well, the hoard of computers has a plausible explanation at least and may be at least partially professional in nature.

 

[FrickleMyPickle]

Finally occurred to me to check the worlds douchiest website, LinkedIn.


View attachment 2197609
View attachment 2197612

Well, the hoard of computers has a plausible explanation at least and may be at least partially professional in nature.

It also confirms that Albert Temple was his real name. Not surprising that he worked in computers -- a lot of old furries do -- but it's weird to see him in pictures outside of the one posted on his webcomic. He just looks like a normal, nice old guy in a nice suit.

 

[Tennis-Ball-Tony]

Finally occurred to me to check the worlds douchiest website, LinkedIn.


View attachment 2197609
View attachment 2197612

Well, the hoard of computers has a plausible explanation at least and may be at least partially professional in nature.

Oh now this is interesting. Plugging in "Signature Technology Group, Inc." into the Wayback Machine shows some usage, but only around June 2004 does it show anything of substance. The rest come up with errors or no information.

This is probably one of those old-furry things of making a webpage for a "company" you "work for" in order to boost your standing.

ETA: Seems like the last job listed with an appliance tech from Sears in 2003 after being a "Customer Engineer" at IBM for 23 years. After he lost his job at IBM, he just sort of checked out. Inheritance? Or some sort of payoff from IBM?

 

[Bubble Ba'ath]

Oh now this is interesting. Plugging in "Signature Technology Group, Inc." into the Wayback Machine shows some usage, but only around June 2004 does it show anything of substance. The rest come up with errors or no information.

This is probably one of those old-furry things of making a webpage for a "company" you "work for" in order to boost your standing.

ETA: Seems like the last job listed with an appliance tech from Sears in 2003 after being a "Customer Engineer" at IBM for 23 years. After he lost his job at IBM, he just sort of checked out. Inheritance? Or some sort of payoff from IBM?

Yiffburg ambassadorial stipend.

For what its worth, a lot of jobs, if one started before the Reagan Era, often offer really good benefits and early retirement. Alternatively (or concurrently) some industries like tech used to give older people a sweet deal to retire early to make room for younger people if they were willing to train them. This can mean getting a lifelong pension way before you would think most could get such a thing. I know someone's parent who had this happen to them.

Contemporary searches imply it might be this though:

Or, less likely, a Malaysian company with some international branches.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

Yiffburg ambassadorial stipend.

For what its worth, a lot of jobs, if one started before the Reagan Era, often offer really good benefits and early retirement. Alternatively (or concurrently) some industries like tech used to give older people a sweet deal to retire early to make room for younger people if they were willing to train them. This can mean getting a lifelong pension way before you would think most could get such a thing. I know someone's parent who had this happen to them.

If that were the case, I doubt he'd decide to repair dishwashers for Sears.

It's sad, actually. It looks like he got booted out of a career that he enjoyed and spent the last two or three years of his life drawing horrifying slugmonsters to an increasingly uninterested audience.

 

[L50LasPak]

Or some sort of payoff from IBM?

If that were the case, I doubt he'd decide to repair dishwashers for Sears.

My hometown is one of the last remaining oldstyle IBM Towns and I can tell you guys that those old fuckers get some serious benefit packages. After 20 years of service he at least got a nice big fat severance check and depending on the era they might have paid him for unused vacation days too.

That said, you know what they say about how retirement money doesn't last forever if you plan on living longer than the next 15 years. Either that or he became one of those people who picks up a job after retirement just to do something with themselves.

 

[Bubble Ba'ath]

Sorry to necro the thread that first brought me to the farms but I suppose that is fitting considering the subject died early on in the threads history and all the good stuff came out after that.

@Null I believe this thread should be moved into the lolcows of history subsection.

 

[Bubble Ba'ath]

Just two weeks ago I wrote a message on @FrickleMyPickle 's profile lamenting we never got a wrap up on this fascinating story. I should have done some google fu before posting that though because there is a lengthy post by rdewalt on plebbit basically clearing up and confirming almost everything sussed out on here originally. Its quite long but the text goes as follows:

Hi, I'm the rdewalt referenced heavily in the above article. And the one who did the majority of the investigative work and have been the primary fandom liason with Albert's family. I also started a Telegram channel back when he passed away so people could have one common location to find out information.

Those who know me, know to validate that I am who I say I am. This story is always popping up on my radar every six months to a year since his death.

I knew Albert for 20 years, mid 97 until his death. I thought I knew him. Heck, He was one of the groomsmen in my wedding. He'd crash on my couch in DC when he came through the area for reasons. I knew what I thought was all about him. I had only the surface knowlege he let me know. But I was able to piece together the rest.

> This saga primarily spans from 2000 to 2017 but reaches as far back as the late 1980s. As such, much of the story has been lost to the Graveyard of Early Internet. I've done my best to dig up original sources as much as possible, but some parts have been left to hearsay.

As the original source for the majority of the material presented, I'll fill in where I can. I have items that were never shown publicly. And out of respect for his family's wishes, I will not be revealing -every- tiny detail.

The majority of the post is accurate, the information mostly public anyway.

>Shirley Chessler-Wakefield, who went by Shirleemouse online, was Katellis's wife.

They were not actually married "yet". For the remainder of this document, I'll use "CW" for Catswhisker and KE/S for Katellis and Shirley (They basically were a 'couple') Other minor characters will be named in full.

> To date, the comic hasn't been continued.

And unless his brothers have something planned that they have not brought up in the past six years, it will not. Al kept -no- notes. Nothing was written down. He didn't have to work with a collaborator because he WAS his collaborators. I gained full access to his websites and made a copy of everything, so nothing has been lost. However at his brothers' wishes nothing is posted online. Al also may not have had a fullly detailed ending planned. Al -HATED- endings. I'd be in collaborations with him on various things, and rather than a simple "okay, lets wrap the story up here." he was -always- wanting stories open ended. BUT for Gene Catlow, he was starting what would actually be the Final Chapter.

He had spoken with Cecil, my spouse, and they were scheduled to collaborate on the post-Gene-Catlow stories that would have primarily focused on the side characters. He was planning on wrapping up the final bits of the comic, or at least BEGINNING the wrap up of the final when he passed away. In fact, one of the last pieces of art Gene posted was of Cecil's characters. So... there is that weight with us to have.

>Immediately after Albert's death Catswhisker, KatEllis, and Shirleemouse went silent as well. No comic updates, no art, no comments, not a single word from any of them. This was understandable for a time, as they clearly needed time to grieve the loss of a loved one. But the silence went on, and on, and old suspicions began surfacing again.

This actually happened within hours, not weeks or months. It was in the immediate after-shock of Albert's death that I began hunting down his real life family as well as CW & KE/S. Within the hour even. I'm one of those people online that your mother warned you about. I basically "Doxxed" everyone ever involved with Albert that I did not have definitive phone numbers of or had met in person. From my friendship with Albert, I had the full names, ages and where they all lived of Catswhisker/KE/S (As well as the others not mentioned here). Or where they supposedly lived. I won't go into details of my methodolgy, since the information could potentially point people into methods to "Doxx" someone. But basically given the information I had available as well as the resources and connectons I had built up over the decades of my career, I came to answers.

Albert WAS Catswhisker, Shirley, Katellis, Badgerton, Burlington, Moonlight...

> A number of people expressed concern over Catswhisker, but nobody had her contact information. At this point it seemed that everyone was reaching the same conclusion but nobody wanted to say it aloud.

Albert was "living" as anywhere from eight to ten people in JUST the furry fandom alone. Not just Gene/CW/KE&S but there were many others who, strangely, only interacted through gene, or through e-mail.

>>It was verified to me by Rdewalt after I learned that KatEllis supposedly lived in Eugene, Oregon (Eugene is also Gene and CW’s son) and there is no record of a Richard Katellis living in that town.

Ad revenue checks for Katellis's comic were on Al's desk. One of his Laptops was logged into Shirley's mail, another in various IM clients as various people. Every piece of information pointed to Albert's condo, or to mail boxes he owned "for them"

> I wouldn’t say deceived horribly. I’m not upset by it. This is why Rdewalt asked me to not say anything, because of fear of trolls that might soil Al’s memory.

Al was at the very worst, only lying in the fact that he didn't tell us the whole truth. As everyone says, at the end of the day, it was innocent.

> Kiwifarms

I read the Kiwifarms drama, I refused to participate. I felt unclean even looking at that site. I responded to nobody there. Even the truth, trolls would manipulate in troll ways.

>It bears reiterating that this wasn't as simple as one person with a few sockpuppet accounts. Albert cultivated four different personas,

Closer to a dozen. Gene/CW/Katellis/Shirley were the four Most Commonly Known.

The images about Catswhiskers I have. And two more that Al never posted publicly. Image analysis shows they were all different women. Face features, eye colors, ear/eye/nose/mouth shapes all different. They were scans of film photos (Al was very much a film camera fanatic, even when many of us were using digital.) Every photo I shared with his family, none of them knew who the women were. I met his family in person at Al's wake held after his death. I had met his brothers in passing years before at conventions, but never more than a casual handshake and hello. They told me he -had- no girlfriend, let alone someone as serious as CW. You'd think he'd tell them about her?

Albert compartmentalized his life VERY strongly. Family, fandom, work? Each got a distinct Albert.

I met his boss of 20 years. The man didn't know Al could draw, could play several instruments, knew NOTHING about Al. He was at the wake, hearing stories, and said he had no idea who he was working with all those years.

The REAL proofs to me was in working with his family. His personal cellphone was accessible and contained -no- photos of CW, nor Jamaica. THAT was the biggest key in this. What guy in a long distance relationship has NO photos of his girlfriend on his phone? Nothing in his phone had any indications it had EVER been to Jamaica. Also? Her story didn't make sense. Why was she in Jamaica? "Witness protection program" he told me. That's not possible, the federal witness protection program doesn't relocate you to other countries. ADDITIONALLY, you don't GET to keep your old contacts and interact with everyone from your 'old' life.

Also, if she was forced to live in Jamaica? Why was Al still in the US? Why did he have NO plans to move there? What guy THAT devoted to his love, would have stayed in the US for 15 years, only going once or twice a year to visit? That never set well with me.

>The only halfway convincing explanation I can come up with is that one of Albert's (allegedly numerous) computers was still logged in to Catswhisker's Furaffinity when his brothers were clearing it out, and they left that message as consolation to the fans. But that would ultimately be a cruel joke.

He was an avid technology collector. I've spent my entire career in similar, so we talked a LOT about them. He had easily two or three hundred computers in his condo, of which a dozen were kept in active use AND unlocked. Those were the true proofs since he was logged into multiple e-mail accounts of the people we didn't know he was. I offered my skills to his brothers in digging through any locked computers for archival purposes. He was their family's computer guru. But it was the only skill I had that was beyond his. He was good at ANYTHING he set his mind to. I knew He did not have encrypted drives since he never used an operating system on a computer newer than Windows 98. This was something I had talked to him at length on. So it isn't a surprise to know they were all wide open, not even a password.

> (faked his death mention in a comment)

I would love for this to have been true. I was the one who made the calls to his local police for a wellness check. I was on the phone when he was found. I have seen his autopsy report, I will not detail it here. There was a LOT about him that he hid even from those of us who felt we were Real Close Friends.

Three weeks before his death, he was at my house, no big deal, we'd get together every other month or so for a day of drawing, comics, geeking out on things, you name it. My last photo of him is him sitting next to my son at lunch the month before that. I had jokingly brought up the "Gene is Katellis" line of thought. His reaction was genuine enough brushing it off, that even after finding the truth, he pulled one over on us all. The subject changed, and I thought nothing else of it. I didn't think at all he was lying.

>This was a monumental undertaking, and the man kept it up for decades.

And not just one person, a dozen. Many felt as real as if I had known them in person. I'd "talked" to most of them in IMs. Not knowing it was Al in every case.

> There was no obituary and, as mentioned earlier, no follow-up on the whole "continuing Gene Catlow once Albert's brothers wade through his notes" thing.

Obituary is by the family. I do not know why they did not run one.

The lack of follow up? I have information (80% confidence) that they found nothing, and what they did find was such that they have chosen to close it as is. Let us remember what we had.

> Anyone who seems to know anything solid fell silent pretty quickly.

He had a heart condition. He collected computers, having an almost literal personal museum of personal computers spanning literally ALL of technology.

> Aside from the Rdewalt journals, all information I gathered about Albert's death and the aftermath was second- or thirdhand sources.

I will answer any questions if anyone still has any. I have significant primary sources I cannot share due to his family's requests, and I am for this post a primary source as well.

>I've wanted to share this story for some time; not to mock the people involved, but to document one of the strangest and most poignant stories I've found on the internet. I don't know if the full truth will ever be known at this point. Maybe it's better that way?

He was multiple people online. His "why?" answer died with him. His family lost a brother. The Fandom lost a van full of people. Gene was so nice and kind, he had enough kindness to be ten earnestly kind people.

It was a bit of a shock to find this old thread. Thank you everyone for being respectful. Al did a lot for us, the death and finding out that he was so many people was traumatic. To this day, we're still in disbelief.

EDIT:: Additional story writeup of the actual "finding his passing"

Everyone knows he did the GeneCatlow comic. He obsessively did it. His comic was seventeen YEARS 3 days a week, never ONCE did he miss an update. He was Obsessively ON TIME with that comic. Like set-your-clock levels of update regularity.

The fact that he missed an update (a monday) was the first hint something was wrong. Al NEVER missed an update. Like, the world could be collapsing, the ground upheaving, aliens vaporizing entire towns, and he'd stop and update his comic.

He missed a second update. (Wednesday) . THAT was what made us start to worry. Even when on travel, he had strips queued up. So something was WRONG. I called his cellphone, his work cellphone. One mutual lived 20 min away (My house was a good two hour drive to his, he lived north of Oakland, I lived south of San Jose.) And found his car in the parking lot, covered in recent tree debris. (That from piecing together neighbor stories meant his cars hadn't moved since Saturday.) His mail box was STUFFED with mail, and none of his neighbors had heard or seen anything of him in days.

Did some digging around, and there was NOTHING indicating he was on travel or had left town.

I called the local police, put in a "Wellness check" and given his age (he was 60 at time of death) and the rest of information I could provide, they sent a patrol to check. The corroborating evidence at the scene and a check of local hospitals, and the decision was made to breach his front door. Friend on scene provided a photo of Al, and the police gave us the news. (We never saw his actual body, the police immediately sealed the scene and checked for foul play, of which there was none.)

From there, I began hunting people. I knew his brother's first name, and went from there to start finding people.

Well we even got a backhanded shout out, huh.

Probably the closest we will ever get to definitive answers. Boy do I ever find this case so fascinating.

 

[Mikoyan]

'rdewalt' is of course Ryan, husband of then-Candy-now-Cecil Dewalt, who's either soft trans or straight poonin' now, and who I suspect did most of the heavy lifting on the HIDE FUCKING EVERYTHING deal.

And you know what? We used to be in the same circles. They're nice people. Their hearts were in the right place. But their decision was to maintain the fiction to save people from the truth. And thus dooming people to always wondering what happened with 'Catswhisker' and 'Katellis' and on and on. The truth, sadly sometimes, sets you free.

There wasn't any 'drama' here, but they're probably still mad the story got broke here. What were the blog posts he referenced? I might've missed that part.