A hacker called Bitcoin Baron wreaked havoc on Columbia, Missouri, websites this weekend

In 2010, a Columbia, Missouri, SWAT team burst into the home of Jonathan Whitworth. They shot and killed his pit bull. They wounded his corgi-pit bull mix. Then they held Whitworth’s wife and 7-year-old son at gunpoint as they handcuffed and arrested Whitworth. The reason for the raid was that Whitworth was suspected of being a “major marijuana distributor.” But the cops found only a tiny amount of weed, a pipe and a grinder. For this, they unloaded seven shots inside the man’s home and killed his dog. 

Whitworth subsequently sued the city of Columbia, plus 12 of its police officers, alleging a violation of his family’s constitutional rights. But a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2011, at which point the story more or less dropped out of the news.

Apparently, though, a hacker that goes by the name Bitcoin Baron just heard about the Whitworth bust last week. The information about the dog’s killing did not sit well with Bitcoin Baron, and so Bitcoin Baron crashed Columbia’s municipal website. 

The hack occurred sometime on Christmas Day. Bitcoin Baron then sent a link to the downed site to Counter Current News (“Your one stop for all the news the mainstream media can’t get away with”), which published a story about the hack that initially credited it to the hacktivist group Anonymous. In speaking to Columbia media outlets, including the Columbia Daily Tribune and KOMU, Columbia deputy city manager Tony St. Romaine also attributed the hack to Anonymous. 

But it turned out that there had been some misinformation in Counter Current News’ original story, and Bitcoin Baron was no longer affiliated with Anonymous. Bitcoin Baron e-mailed KOMU demanding that the NBC affiliate retract the story in which the credit for the hack was given to Anonymous. After that didn’t happen as quickly as Bitcoin Baron liked, KOMU’s site crashed.  

By yesterday, order had been restored at both gocolumbiamo.com and KOMU. Bitcoin Baron has since answered some questions on Twitter from a Tribune reporter. 

If you haven’t seen the video that inspired all this, watch below. It’s pretty horrible.