(Ars Technica) US authorities say a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman applied for hitman work on the satirical RentAHitman.com website and later agreed to kill a fictional person in exchange for $5,000. Tennessee man Josiah Ernesto Garcia was arrested and charged with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, US Attorney Henry Leventis announced Friday.
“Garcia submitted an employment inquiry indicating that he was interested in obtaining employment as a hit man,” the announcement said. “Garcia followed up on this initial request and submitted other identification documents and a resume, indicating he was an expert marksman and employed in the Air National Guard since July 2021.”
Garcia’s resume allegedly said his nickname, “Reaper,” was “Earned from Military experience and Marksmanship.” The resume said he was recognized as an expert marksman “for not missing a single bullseye on all of the targets and for shooting expert with 2 (or more) weapons,” according to the FBI.
The criminal complaint filed Thursday is based on an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Stephen Hunter, who described Garcia making a series of inquiries to the Rent-a-Hitman site, speaking to an undercover agent via phone and in person, and continuing to seek hitman work despite being warned of the risks multiple times.
FBI: Would-be hitman was willing to torture
Garcia allegedly told an undercover agent that he would be comfortable torturing victims and taking trophies such as fingers or ears, that he owned an AR-15 rifle, and that he accepted an envelope with $2,500 in cash as a down payment for killing the fictional client’s abusive husband. “After agreeing to the terms of the murder arrangement, Garcia asked the agent if he needed to provide a photograph of the dead body,” the US Attorney’s office said.
Enlarge / A post on Garcia’s Facebook profile displays this gun with the caption, “She’s beautiful.”
The FBI affidavit says that after Garcia was arrested and waived his Miranda rights, he told agents that he changed his mind and was planning to return the $2,500 down payment. He allegedly told agents that “he was looking for work because he needed money and his family could not afford rent” and that a co-worker at the Air National Guard suggested that he look for “contract mercenary jobs.”
“Garcia searched that term online and came across the rentahitman.com website,” the affidavit said. Garcia was living at his parents’ house and said he was working one weekend per month in the Air National Guard. Authorities say they seized an AR-style rifle from his bedroom.
The criminal charge could put Garcia in prison for up to 10 years if he’s convicted. The case is in US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Fill out a form to hire hitman or seek hitman work
The satirical Rent-a-Hitman site has a long history of catching people with murder on their minds, and it was essentially created by accident. A California man named Bob Innes bought the URL in 2005 for a potential tech company that he never ended up starting. “It was the dotcom era and he was a business school student in North Carolina trying to advertise website traffic analysis services: the ‘hit’ was a nod to clicks coming in on a client’s website,” according to a 2021 Guardian article.
Innes held on to the website despite not really using it, and in 2010 he noticed a message from a woman named Helen who reportedly “wanted three family members in the UK murdered for screwing her out of her father’s inheritance.” He didn’t respond, but she sent a second email that “included names, addresses and other corroborating information,” The Guardian wrote. Innes turned Helen in, leading to her arrest.
Innes turned the website into an elaborate satire with a service request form for those seeking a hitman and a career inquiry page for those seeking work as a Rent-a-Hitman “field operative.” The site is filled with statements that clearly indicate it’s all a joke.
“Due to contractual restrictions, Rent-A-Hitman is no longer affiliated with the National Guard, Diners Club, Kanye West, the Illuminati, Rudolph Giuliani, Alec Baldwin, Kyle Rittenhouse or Carole Baskin,” the career page says.
The website offers “special discount packages” to groups, senior citizens, and Air National Guardsmen. It claims to be 100 percent compliant with “HIPPA,” the “Hitman Information Privacy & Protection Act of 1964.” For those who scroll down far enough, website visitors are informed that any messages they send “are the property of RAH and are subject to print, multimedia, and all other uses, both public and private.”
Despite these red flags, Innes continues to get inquiries disturbing enough that he passes them on to law enforcement. In 2021, he told ABC7 News that his website “has prevented, essentially, 150 murders at this point.” In January 2022, a Michigan woman was sentenced to seven to 24 years in prison after admitting she tried to use the website to get her ex-husband murdered.
“I enjoy doing what I do… put me in coach!”
Garcia submitted his first employment inquiry to Rent-a-Hitman on February 16, stating that he had “military experience” and “rifle expertise,” the FBI affidavit said. He allegedly provided his name, email address, and phone number, while the joke website captured Garcia’s IP address and location information. The data indicated he was using a T-Mobile device and was located in the Nashville area, the affidavit said.
Enlarge / Photo from an August 2021 post on Josiah Garcia’s Facebook profile.
Garcia allegedly reached out again through the hitman website’s form on February 17, providing his home address and date of birth. This time, IP address and location information tied the inquiry to a Comcast Internet account in the area of Mount Juliet, Tennessee, the affidavit said.
“On February 18, 2023, the website owner, under the alias of ‘Guido Fanelli, CEO of Rent-a-Hitman,’ responded to Garcia via email with a request for a resume, headshot, and an image of Garcia’s identification,” the affidavit said. One day later, Garcia allegedly responded with an email providing the requested resume, a photo of his Tennessee driver’s license, and a photo of himself.
On February 20, Garcia allegedly posted a photo of an AR-15 rifle on Facebook with the caption, “She’s beautiful.” On the same day, he sent another email to “Fanelli,” advising “that he was following up because he had not heard back after submitting his resume,” the FBI said.
“Im [sic] looking for a job, that pays well, related to my military experience (Shooting and Killing the marked target) so I can support my kid on the way. What can I say, I enjoy doing what I do, so if I can find a job that is similar to it, (such as this one) put me in coach!” the message from Garcia allegedly said.
Talking torture and taking body parts as trophies
Garcia sent additional follow-up emails asking about hitman employment on February 23 and March 13, the FBI said. By this time, the FBI and website owner were coordinating.
