When Bullying Goes too Far - Seph Lawless

When bullying goes too far
Calling out photojournalist Seph Lawless and the mainstream media for peddling manure
By Neveah Dubrielle
April 26, 2019
It’s with mixed emotions that I write this article. There’s a saying that goes: negative publicity is still
publicity. In this case I’m optimistic that people will consider all the facts when considering to purchase
Seph Lawless authored books.
I’m speaking about the “rogue” photographer known as Seph Lawless of course. For the uninformed,
here’s an introduction to Seph’s background: His real name is Joseph Melendez (age 41) from Cleveland,
Ohio. Melendez rose to fame when in 2012 he decided to jump onto the bandwagon known as ‘urban
exploration’. He published a series of books on abandoned malls which the mainstream media
swallowed up whole, many of them failing to fact check the details. Melendez has become a globally
recognized name for publishing photos of places most of us will never dare travel.
In my opinion there’s nothing particularly unique about Melendez’ photography. I’ve been actively
photographing forgotten places for several decades and have the photographs to prove it. These
shopping malls, while proving an interesting read on America’s economy as a whole, have been
photographed many times by people long before Seph Lawless ever set foot into them. Photographers
such as Matthew Christopher Murray who publishes under the name, “Abandoned America”. Murray
has been enjoying the same hobby since 2001, roughly the same time as Mr. Melendez. There are
several other publishers including Henk van Rensbergen, Roman Robroek, and Sylvain Margaine to name
just a few.
Both Lawless and Murray offer a series of published books on America’s abandoned buildings. While
researching Seph Lawless’ books, I was overwhelmed by the poor grammar and couldn’t help but notice
that some of the paragraphs were in fact plagiarized from other sources. For example in “Abandoned
America: Death of a Nation”, several paragraphs were copied in whole from a blog published by Jason
Kottge (1).
Personal critique aside, what prompted my interest in Lawless was that I couldn’t help but notice that
social media was being used as a weapon to target authors and photographers who disagreed with Mr.
Lawless. When I say weapon, I mean just that: social media pages created to attack the character,
physical appearance, and sexual orientation of people who took issue with Mr. Lawless. There’s no
concrete indication as to the author of these malicious blogs.
I encountered several reviews left by consumers who indicated that 20 blank pages had been inserted
into one of Lawless’ books.

The more I researched, the more I found attack after attack levelled at anyone who called into question
Lawless’ facts or even questioned the quality of his books. The author(s) of the above conversations
cannot be established with certainty.
Lesia Miller Schnur
Lesia Miller Schnur operates a paranormal based website known as “The Haunted Librarian”. Lesia
voiced her concerns over some lack of facts in Lawless’ book, “13: An American Horror Story”(2).
The publication, “An American Horror Story” is listed on Lawless’ website as being, “based on actual
events of Seph Lawless’ journey”. Yet many of the details surrounding the horrific backgrounds of these
locations could not be corroborated by research. As a paranormal researcher, Schnur would have an
interest in establishing if these details were factual.
Shortly after Schnur made her concerns public, a fake blog was created under the domain name of
http://thehauntedlibrariandotco.wordpress.com.
Schnur’s real website is http://www.thehauntedlibrarian.com.

In the aforementioned blog, an apology was publically issued to Seph Lawless allegedly from The
Haunted Librarian claiming that Mr. Murray (Abandoned America) had provided the false information.
Suffice to say that none of this had anything to do with trying to ascertain the facts behind Lawless’
claims made in his book. Mr. Murray had nothing to do with the unsubstantiated claims made in
Lawless’ book by the way.
The website was designed to look exactly like The Haunted Librarians. A secondary blog was created
under the domain name of thehauntedlibrarian.co (.com being the real website, .co being the forgery)
(3).
A third website was created under the name of Blog Bully Busters (www.blogbullybusters.com).
Blogbullybusters serves as an echo chamber for pro-Lawless opinion. One post went so far as to state
that Lawless’ real name is not Joseph Melendez and that someone simply “incorrectly read” the
copyright name provided for the book, “Black Friday”. That copyright by the way read, “Seph Lawless,
pseud. of Joseph Melendez”(4).
“Blogbullybusters” published a lengthy rant which attempted to portray The Haunted Librarian (Schnur)
as a “bully” for daring to question the validity of “13: An American Horror Story”. Schnur was hardly
alone, as several other members of the online community expressed their inability to find any published
corroboration in their local archives. Some people went so far as to attending their local library or city
records, to no avail.

Schnur’s actions were far removed from being a bully, stalker or even harassment. To read about it on
Blogbullybusters you’d think that Ms. Schnur were parked outside of Lawless’ apartment with a knife.
She merely called into question the details in Lawless’ book.
With tags including “slander”, “stalkers” and “stalking”, Blogbullybusters admitted that “inaccuracies”
existed and that “slightly wrong” information was provided in Lawless’ book. The blog further stated
that Lawless was ‘attacked’. Perhaps the most amusing part of the lengthy rant was the claim that, “The
Haunted Librarian claims that none of the ghost stories in Seph Lawless’ book are true, even though ABC
NEWS and FOX NEWS cite factual evidence linked to actual real-life horror stories described in Seph
Lawless’ book. You can read those stories here with links to factual information. We trust ABC NEWS
and even FOX NEWS to give us accurate, sourced information, not a blog like The Haunted Librarian.”(5)
I clicked on the provided link, in search of the linkage to “factual information”(6). While the article does
state the author has amassed an almost impossible number of approximately “40,000 to 50,000
abandoned home images, the article doesn’t provide a single source of information to substantiate
Lawless’ claims with the exception of a man named Michael Madison who murdered three people in
Ohio.
Schnur’s questions as to the validity of claims made for at least five of the thirteen houses in Lawless’
book remain unanswered.

What were the concerns?
The media ran with the stories including a man named Benjamin Albright from Nova, Ohio who shot and
killed his son by accident and then went on to kill himself. The problem is that no death certificate can
be found under that name, nor any records for Benjamin Albright.
In another of Melendez’ stories, a sheriff named Donald Caters killed himself after his Buffalo, New York
house went into foreclosure in 1968. Buffalo residents were quick to point out they’d never seen this
house. The Huffington Post which ran the story, later clarified the details by reporting that “several of
the houses are not where the caption says they are located, and that he (Lawless) did this to “protect”
the locations.” Unfortunately dozens of news agencies carried the story without any fact checking (7).
Then there was the Oliver Family Mansion located in Chester, PA. The Oliver family went missing in
1898, a mystery that baffled investigators. They were never found but locals say they can sometimes see
the Olivers in the windows of the mansion. This might be frightening were it not for the fact that the
house was actually located at 626 Market Street in McKeesport, PA.
How about the Haught Mansion located in Michigan where dead bodies were found in the cellar of the
mansion? The bodies marked with what appeared to be a circle on their chest area. That mansion was
actually a dilapidated house located at 229 Edmund Place in Detroit.
The Huffington Post article was ammended with the following statement, “The photographs and
Lawless’ captions have been left below for their artistic, rather than their historical, value.”(7)
Based on actual events you said? The media swallowed this book hook, line and sinker.
What’s in a name?
Is misinformation a common part of Mr. Lawless’ social media strategy? The answer may surprise you
when it comes to something as simple as his full name.

(above) Lawless’ official website contains a page titled “Real name of Seph Lawless by Joe Melendez” which is signed by “Joe
Melendez, Manager”. Yet inexplicably in another post on his official website, Joe Melendez meets himself apparently in the
form of a “local resident” with the same name. (below)

In another section of Lawless’ official site, Melendez is referred to by the actor of the same name, who’ll be joining Lawless on a
book tour.

Melendez reemerges as Lawless’ agent (above)
(above) Melendez morphs into Lawless’ curator

(above): Here it appears that the Melendez DNA performed a split and the one became two
In my opinion the most logical explanation for these multiple persons can be found via court records.
Melendez filed for bankruptcy on November 18, 2015. An anonymous tip to the bankruptcy trustee led
to the conclusion that Melendez was in fact Seph Lawless (8). Melendez had not reported any of the
earnings from the sale of his “as many as ten books”. The trustee concluded that this may have been
fraud. By maintaining that Joe Melendez was in fact a manager, curator, actor, etc. and not the real
name of Seph Lawless, income from the sale of Lawless’ books couldn’t be tied to him.
This theory is backed up in a lawsuit filed by Melendez on February 9, 2016 against Mr. Murray.
Melendez listed his address under his attorney’s mailing address. The court document reads, “It is
believed that Melendez’ intent may have been to hide his true address and identity so as not to be
discovered by the United states Bankruptcy Trustee” (9). Melendez would later withdraw the
bankruptcy application.
Throughout the course of the several weeks I spent perusing the online content, I found myself growing
increasingly upset. Several people had now been targeted through malicious blogs and postings for
having committed no crime other than to question Melendez’ authenticity. The nature of the attacks
was quite personal and crude.
The Urbex Memester King of All Urbex
When online opinions of Mr. Lawless began to shift away from his favour, a Facebook group appeared
under the name of “The Urbex Memester King of all Urbex”. Similar to the blogs, people who showed
any contradictory opinions of Mr. Lawless were targeted.

I found myself frequently wondering if these attacks were the work of Melendez. He was certainly
aware of many of these postings, his name often appearing in the Likes list for the Facebook posts.
Certainly he wasn’t distancing himself from these comments.

Above : It’s all about Melendez, even in times of tragedy and terror
Which brings me to the story of Pat.

(I’m sorry that I had to add a watermark but this photo would be added to the arsenal against Pat had I not)
Pat lives in the same condo building as Joe Melendez. Pat is 37 years old and has worked in the aviation
industry for the past 15 years. He travels to locations where airplanes are broken down and fixes them.
He has a 15 year-old cat who according to Pat is, “an asshole but can be very sweet”.
In the summer of 2016, Pat was hit by a car. He spent the next 23 days as a patient in the Metro Medical
Health medical system. Pat says, “I have nothing but good things to say about Metro. I had to learn to
walk again, relearn how to use my fine motor skills in order to return to work. My time as an inpatient at
a brain trauma unit will remain as a defining time in my life. The things I saw and the people I met gives
me nothing but respect for the issues that individuals with traumatic brain injuries suffer from. I have
what would be considered a mid-range severity brain injury. I am fully deaf in my right ear as a result of
the accident. The accident also severed my auditory nerve. As a result I also have severe tinnitus.
Additionally I will have balance and concentration issues for the rest of my life.”
When I first corresponded with Pat, I asked him point blank how he felt about being labelled as

“disabled”. Some people consider the term to be offensive, others feel that it doesn’t define them. Pat
responded, “I do not necessarily consider myself as disabled, but I have a disability. That may be strange
to those without a disability. Saying someone is disabled is a tricky thing as it seeks to label or categorize
someone. The hearing in my “good” ear is slightly diminished just due to biology and more than a
decade around airplanes, but I’ve always worn heating protection. “
The rule when speaking about disabilities is to always put the person first, as in, “Pat is a person with a
hearing disability” not “There’s a disabled man named Pat”. I think it’s easy to look at a photo of
someone and mock them. After seeing Pat being targeted online, I reached out to him to hear more of
his story. I felt empathy for this man, and this Instagram image did not sit well with me.
(Above) Pat is targeted on Instagram by “@lawless_victims”. The hash tags include “wrinkles”, “Oldman”, “butthurt”,
“acnescars”, “frownboy”, “introvertproblems”. The context of the photo is showing a document from Melendez’ court hearing.
The assumption is that the document has been Photoshopped due to a spelling error in Joseph’s name. There’s also text
indicating that this is the case where Melendez sued and won over $80,000.
What’s particularly troubling about this post is that Pat’s photo wasn’t obtained through security camera
footage in the building. The footage wasn’t taken from social media. The image of Pat was taken from
Melendez’ handheld camera when he confronted Pat in the condo lobby. I’ll get to that shortly. This
eliminates any doubt as to the origins of this disgusting image.
What event precipitated this you might ask? Pat’s the Treasurer of his condo building. Before being
Treasurer, Pat was the President and prior to that, the Vice President.
Two years ago the committee of five owners decided to repaint the interior hallways. A chalkboard wall
was proposed for the common area in which tenants could write upon the wall. Tenants are encouraged

to use the wall however hostile or vulgar drawings are not appreciated as in Pat’s words, “We all live
here as owner residents, these are our homes.”
Joe took issue with some of the board’s decisions. He went so far as to accuse one of the other board
members of being “racist” as his last name is Melendez. He asked the board to remove that member a
decision which the board voted on per their bylaws. His request was denied.
The condo board is a legal entity which has its own lawyer and management company representative at
each meeting. There’s an annual meeting where owners can bring up any concerns they may have. If a
condo owner has any concerns they may request a special sit down meeting. To date Melendez has not
attended any meeting or requested a sit down.
Following this incident random acts of mischief began to occur including motor oil being poured on
common area steps and honey and eggs being left in the condo’s hallway. It’s unknown who did it.
This seemed to be the catalyst for tensions between Melendez and the condo board. The condo building
has security cameras in place and have captured some most unusual activity in the lobby.
On March 14 th , 2019 Melendez writes on the lobby wall: “Trash overflowing, building is dirty. There’s broken eggs by front door
for months!”. He then sprays over the chalk with what’s believed to be clear coat, using a piece of cardboard to shield his
identity from the camera. A second camera captured the incident.

The next night a masked Melendez climbs up a ladder to spray paint the security camera.
A few penises drawn on the wall for the families to see.

“Pat has a small penis” (Melendez is 41 years old by the way)

On March 15 th , Joe spray paints the hallway camera.
Now that the cameras have been painted, Joe writes on the chaulk board, “Pat, now you’re deaf and blind”.
Having been targeted by Melendez, Pat took to social media which was understandable. Melendez’
response was the same as anybody who opposed him – he threatened to sue.

What’s particularly troubling is that Melendez was caught in the act of writing on the condo wall, “Pat
now you’re deaf and blind.” One would think that a grown man could accept that it’s never appropriate
to poke fun at anyone for having a disability.
In the accompanying video shot by Melendez, Melendez is waiting in the hall for Pat to exit the building
at which point he confronts him:
Melendez: Pat, what’s up buddy?
Melendez: Ohhh. You’re not deaf, come on.
Melendez: (unintelligible) You can’t do that. Don’t pretend you’re deaf. But you’re not deaf.
Melendez: I would never call you deaf, never call you deaf.
Melendez: You’re blind and deaf to what, y.. you’re erasing… the trash.. c’mon
Melendez: That’s what you were doing.

Melendez: I never thought you were deaf. We had conversations, as you said. So you saying that is
apparently going to be a huge liability.
Pat and I spoke about some of the other circumstances behind this story and I appreciate his honesty. I
don’t know what bothers me most: in my opinion Melendez is falsifying details to sell books, creating
blogs to attack his critics and using someone’s disability to mock them and create a social media storm.
A few followers parroted Melendez’ thoughts on Twitter, but a few took a more rational approach:
Melendez remained unapologetic, blaming the victim for not wearing hearing protection at work and
stating this “doesn’t make him disabled.” And for good measure, he threw in, “constantly harasses
under-aged girls and women fans of mine relentlessly”. Even though we’ve never met, I feel as if I’ve
gotten to know Melendez through my online research. I’ve learned that this has become a common
tactic of his to discredit his critics, often referring to his opponents as molesters or harassers. It’s a last
ditch effort.
You can view the video in its entirety here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiAJYZZoSe4

I’d like to leave you with these words, and hope you’ll think consider all of the information provided if
you’re considering purchasing a Seph Lawless book. As for the main stream media, you should be
appalled at promoting this sort of author – in my opinion. I wouldn’t want to be sued now.
Over to you Pat…
“I would also like to note that I consider my accident the best thing that ever happened to me. It made
me the person I am today. I was very negative and suffered from anxiety before it and since my recovery

I feel like I have grown into the person I was meant to be. I am eternally grateful to those who showed
me nothing but love and compassion. If you’d like me to go into more detail on my accident and
recovery I’d love to speak further about it. “
I wish you all the best Pat and to all the condo owners in his building. As for me, I will never purchase a
Seph Lawless book. Ever.
Sources:
1) URL: https://img.frl/w3gyl
source: https://kottke.org/08/12/the-first-mall
2) The Haunted Librarian website
3) Internet Archive 2016
https://web.archive.org/web/20160807041940/https://thehauntedlibrarian.co/
4) United States Copyright Office
https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&Search%5FArg=seph%20lawless&Search
(Perform search using keyword 'seph lawless')
5) Blogbullybusters
6) NY Daily News
https://thehauntedlibrarian.com/2015/05/23/open-letter-to-joseph-melendez-pseudonym-sephlawless/
https://blogbullybustersdotcom.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/this-is-the-real-haunted-librarian-lesiamiller-schnur-exposed/
https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater-arts/haunting-images-vacant-houses-give-chillsarticle-1.2406934
7) Huffington Post
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seph-lawless_n_6063654

8) United States Bankruptcy Court - Case No. 15-16614 (Philip D. Lamos)
Item #2 and 3
9) Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts
https://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/
10) Youtube security footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5-OP_AnVkM