Associations
This is in response to the personal attack made by Donald Collins on his blog. It may take several blogs to get to the bottom of the venom and personal attacks spewing into the blogs of Jack Goins and Don Collins and being spread by Janet Crain, but once I put it all out there, I will be done with them and will say no more. (Unless they publish another paper like the last.)
I will explain the situation between Jack Goins, Penny Ferguson, and Janet Crain eventually but first I must deal with Collins.
Anyone who has been following the Melungeon discussions on Yahoo, Rootsweb, Genforum, etc., for the last 10 or so years will probably recognize this as just another of Collins' many personal attacks over the years. My advice to you is do not associate with Donald Collins..... I learned the hard way.
One of his favorite people to attack was Brent Kennedy and indirectly the Melungeon Historical Society. On many occasions I myself had attacked Brent Kennedy's work, Kennedy always responded with a friendly reply, no matter how tough the questions were and some of them were just plain mean. One poster in particular, going by the name 'Frank' and 'Jon', at different times was particularly cruel.[more about that later]
Don Collins was on several of the discussion lists that I was on and I may have replied to some of his messages or he may have replied to mine, we discussed genealogy and that was as far as it went.
His attacks on Brent Kennedy were rather brutal, personal attacks, also on the MHA, it reached a level that I finally had to unsub him from my Yahoo group. Things quieted down .... for awhile. Very few people know of the situation I am going to present next, I have not spoke of this publicly but I think it needs to be said to put things in perspective.
In the summer of 2010 I received legal papers from the family of Brent Kennedy that a lawsuit had been initiated -- against myself, Donald Collins, and Jan Lala. This lawsuit cost me hundreds of dollars to defend and took up most of my time until April of 2011 when it was finally resolved.
Sent: Thu, Feb 24, 2011 1:35 pm
Subject: Kennedy
Dear Joanne:
I have just heard again from Richie Kennedy. I have talked with him and Ron Elkins, the Wise County Commonwealth Attorney, regarding the controversies which have been raised, primarily dealing with the posts made by Collins and "Jan Lala."
I believe that I have been successful in convincing them that you have no affection for Collins and are innocent of any wrongdoing, if wrongdoing did occur.
Ron Elkins still is interested in investigating Collins. He has expressed an interest in interviewing you, but because of the difficulty involved with that for all parties, he has,in lieu of an interview, provided me with a list of nine questions he would like for you to answer. I have pasted the questions below.
The questions are:
1. Advise of your association with and everything you know about Donald "Don" Collins, present address, telephone numbers; emails, age; history; etc...
2. Donald "Don Collins posted an online poem attributed to "anonymous" that utilized numerous references to Brent Kennedy; "bin Laden"; "terrorists"; "Talibans"; etc... Advise of any knowledge you have regarding this post and Donald "Don" Collins' involvement with this post, and his intent if known.
3. Donald "Don" Collins claims to "have had 2 different meeting with the FBI concerning this matter." Advise as to any knowledge you have of Mr. Collins' claim which has not been substantiated by Federal authorities.
4. Donald "Don" Collins posted online that "all the world know [sic] Turks is thieves, rapers, uncivilized barbarians, primitive and perverts" Advise as to any knowledge you have of his accusations of criminal and immoral conduct by others contained in this post, and his intent if known.
5. Donald "Don" Don Collins posted reference to Attorney Richard Kennedy (who resides and practices in my jurisdiction and further made references to "the devil, a lawyer's wife's soul; children's souls; and that "their children's souls rot in hell for eternity." Advise as to any knowledge you have of this post by Donald "Don" Collins and his intent if known.
6.Do you know the true identity of the alias ''Jan Lala" who posted frequently with you and Donald "Don" Collins? If so, please provide as much information as possible regarding this individual.
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Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 2:45 PM
Subject: RE: Joanne Pezzullo
Thank you - you have done an excellent job for your client in sorting out all the facts. It appears that Jan lala is a ghost and that Don Collins was a risk and problem for everyone, including Joanne herself. We all realize now how one reckless person can implicate all others without their knowledge in these unmonitored Internet postings. I'm sure Ron Elkins will appreciate the information on Don Collins (who was the only one perceived as a threat or an interest to law enforcement). I will request the civil attorneys to enter a non-suit dismissing all civil actions for issuance of subpoenas, etc and I consider the matter closed.
To: joannepezzullo
Sent: Mon, Dec 20, 2010 9:24 pm
Subject: Re: LOL
Don didn't answer you because he was in the hospital and said he had over 2000 emails when he got home. I had searched all over for him, even in Obits, and nobody knew what had happened, since he really has no family out there. He dropped off the old M list and I told him what you posted today. He is going to write a "letter" and get me to post it in his name on the list.I guess when I do, Janet will throw me off, but so be it. He is going to "publicly ridicule" Roberta. She got him to do an Autosomal DNA test, and promised to "read" him his results. He paid a lot for it too. He never heard back and now sees that she has used his results in her "award winning" paper.That email was followed by this one from Don Collins in February 2011-----Original Message-----From: Don CollinsTo: joannepezzulloSent: Mon, Feb 7, 2011 11:13 amSubject: Re: PapersHello Joanne,
Again, DNA without the paper trail is useless, it definitely is NOT the final word. I grew up hearing my Father and all my Uncles saying our Collins' was 'onst' Indians. This is what has been passed on.
Why on Earth would they say this, if not the truth ?
As far as Roberta goes, she took me for a ride on an autosomal DNA test. She was less than honest with this situation.
Interesting? Take note of the dates December 2010 and February 2011.
Fast forward to May 2012 after the paper was published by Estes, Crain, Goins and Ferguson.
I posted to the Melungeon List at Rootsweb regarding the 'speculation' posted six times in the above report that 'Vardy and Valentine were said to be brothers' when all four authors were well aware they didn't even have the same haplogroup. I was curious why they had posted this six times but never mentioned comparing Donald Collins autosomal results [Roberta obviously had them] to one of Vardy Collins so I wrote to the list;
"Seems like someone would have picked up the tab on your Family Finder test just to see if you match Vardy Collins and Henry Bunch family..... put an end to the speculation. JoanneTo which Don Collins responded;
-----Original Message----- From: Don CollinsJoanne,To: melungeon-dna Sent: Wed, May 30, 2012 6:19 pm Subject: Re: [MELUNGEON-DNA] Melungeons, A Multiethnic Population
You said:
"Seems like someone would have picked up the tab on your Family Finder test just to see if you match Vardy Collins and Henry Bunch family..... put an end to the speculation."
Done, an anonymous Bunch cousin stepped to the line and put their 'Dinero where there mouth is' I was notified by ftDNA that the order has been placed.
I will be sure and post any interesting findings when I get the results from ftDNA Don Collins
How very interesting --- Roberta Estes had Don Collins autosomal results as early as December of 2010 -- but never used them in their report to show 'Vardy and Valentine WERE brothers' instead of speculating? In May of 2012 after "he had paid her a lot" she had still never given him his autosomal results? Why would he have to have a second test in 2012? Maybe he will tell us in his next blog.
The next part of this blog is going to go back to 2005 when the Core Melungeon Project first started, and contrary to what has been written I will show I was there when it started and continued doing the genealogy for the project until I quit and Kathy James took over.
I feel kind of sorry for the people who I have to drag into this just because they 'associated with Don Collins' but I simply could not let this personal attack go unchallenged.
Donald Collins wrote; "This woman Joanne Pezzullo, self identifies as the diva of Melungin research , when in reality she is the diva of a small band of cretinites, heaterns, and sodomites that help push her Afro-phobic agenda."
After Janet Crain posted this to Face Book pages I asked her to have him remove this, I really did not want to spend my time rehashing this, I am so sorry they didn't.
I would much rather be posting the information on the Brass Ankles and their DNA connections to the Melungeon Gibsons. Instead I will cover "Afro-phobic vs Indian-Phobic agendas."
