Who wrote Delia Day?
The debate is over.
This might be the only thing in this book that everyone agrees on.
If you’ve read anything about Delia Day you’ve likely heard that people think Travis was writing the website, or that they aren’t completely sure… we can clear this up completely now.
Travis was Susan’s ghost writer. He authored the websites and Delia Day’s Live Journal. Susan was aware of the site and its purpose despite her reticence to admit this outright.
Firstly, Travis admits to it, Susan admits to it; Susan told Elayne Angel that Travis was doing the writing, she told Law Enforcement the same thing, and she wrote an email to an internet blogger back in 2005 confirming the rumors.
Both Travis’ brother and their friend Kevin agree that Travis was the author of deliaday.com… This might be the only thing in this book that everyone agrees on.
However, it’s a little murkier if you’re someone who talked to her on instant messenger or by email. Both Susan and Travis talked to people as Delia Day via AOL chat.
In the years following Susan’s arrest, many have speculated about who was doing the writing. It is now clear that Travis was doing all of the writing. People close to him definitely believe so, and this is one of the rare instances where both Travis and Susan, under their own names, not behind the Delia alias, admit to it.
Earliest Example (Travis writing as Susan)
Travis himself admits to writing on behalf of Susan in a Usenet newsgroup post, and ironically, outs himself on a number of occasions with the earliest instance going back to the late 90s.
“BoxTop Software = Assholes (1997)” is the title of a computer graphics Usenet newsgroup post made by a prospective customer named Mike who had emailed BoxTop to criticize the pricing of their products. The opening line of his email said, “You guys are greedy bastards…”
When Mike received an email back, he decided to post it online:
“… I got a response from a woman with a ‘lovely’ attitude by the name of ‘Susan’. Even if their software was half-way decent, I wouldn't buy any of it because of this. Way to go, Susan!”
Travis did not take kindly to any of this. The thing is… Mike’s email was addressed to Susan, not Travis. So when Travis responded to Mike’s newsgroup post, he made it clear who Mike was really talking to.
Here is the section of Travis’ response where he admits to it:
“Since, we're being honest, it wasn't Susan who said it. It was me.(i.e. you can't complain to the boss about me, because I am the boss - that 'me') Susan is my wife, and it isn't that infreguent [sic] I answer email from home using her account.”
This conversation took place in August of 1997, at which time Travis and Susan had been together for four years. It is the earliest evidence - a timestamped admission from Travis himself - that he would write as Susan.
Trail (Travis writing as Delia)
There is one incredible example of Travis writing as Delia Day that was hiding in plain sight at the height of Delia’s rise to fame. It is a poem called ‘Trail’, which first appeared on Delia’s art website, idealdelia.com, in 2002.
The poem was later featured on Delia Day’s LiveJournal account and then in June of 2003, Travis posted it verbatim to his own LiveJournal account (‘bedlamsfolly’) with an admission that he wrote it.
‘Trail’ is brief, and reads as follows:
On its own, it is curious and somewhat chilling. This feeling is magnified in Travis’ personal LiveJournal post in which he follows the poem up by saying, “I said that once, but I said it before I dug a shallow grave this morning and washed the red from my own guilty hands.”
Susan told a friend that Travis was writing for her (Travis writing as Delia)
In the spring of 2003, Elayne Angel said that she and Susan had a conversation on AOL explicitly about the writing. “When we were online,” Elayne began, “the one thing that I clearly remember was kind of, connecting with her over the fact that she didn’t write her own blog and my ex didn’t write his own. He was in the adult industry and I wrote the content for him and her partner was writing the content for her and they both had pay websites.”
Elayne and her then boyfriend (now ex-husband), adult star Buck Angel, had recently registered the domain for his website, transsexual-man.com. He was the performer, and Elayne was his ghost writer.
Ghost writing is a common practice. Often, a performer, celebrity, or politician will not write their own book or script. They’re simply too busy, and the roles need to be delegated. The given impression is that the words on the page or the text on the screen comes straight from the featured talent themselves. Delia Day, like most performers (adult or otherwise) have to sell their authenticity.
Elayne added that she is certain she was conversing with Susan online, not Travis.
“I do think I was communicating with her rather than him because I don’t think that he would have admitted that she wasn’t doing the writing.”
It was the first thing Susan addressed following the shooting
Following the Grand Jury decision to not indict Susan, she began searching online to see what people were saying about her. Susan discovered a blog run by a woman named Noelle, who had been fascinated by Delia Day and her story. Noelle had been keeping up with every detail and had written a few articles about it on her website (egeltje.org)
On August 18, 2005, almost two years after the shooting, Susan sent an email to Noelle, confirming one particular theory: that Travis was the author of the website. Noelle posted it to her blog the very next day (April 19th).
As part of her email, Susan wrote:
“I've kept wondering if anyone would ever notice that Delia's writing was not mine, as sofar [sic] only the Choctaw county officers in possession of all evidence, including computers, seemed to realize this.”
Their friends agree (Travis authored the websites)
After reviewing the website Kevin Etheridge, a friend of the Anton brothers from the early day of BoxTop Software, said:
“It sounded like something Travis would write and you know the story, he wrote all the time. He was on blogs, he was on the computer typing sometimes from the moment he woke up to when he was too tired to go anymore. And you never saw Susan typing. If I saw her on the computer she was doing artwork. So it’s almost certain, I mean I would say it’s almost certain Travis wrote all of it.”
What do you think?
Great job uncovering evidence to support that Travis did all of Susan’s writing! Didn’t realize that & now glad to know. Helps put things in perspective to know the source of who’s writing. Keep up the great investigative journalism! Be safe out there!