Over the weekend, John talked about the disappointing news that the entire Johnny Bobbitt story was a hoax and a fraud from the very beginning. The people involved have already been arrested, charged and released while awaiting trial. But now, as so often happens when multiple people are caught being up to no good, it looks as if the perpetrators are turning on each other. The attorney for the woman at the center of the scam, Kate McClure, claims that she was actually a victim too. According to this new version of the story, McClure was legitimately trying to help Bobbitt all along but was “under the influence” of her boyfriend. She further insists that she even tried to stop the GoFundMe donations from coming in, but was unable to. Both aspects of her story, however, appear to have serious flaws. (ABC News)

The attorney for the female member of a New Jersey trio charged with launching a GoFundMe campaign that warmed the hearts of millions and generated more than $400,000 in donations for a seemingly selfless homeless military vet claimed in a new interview with ABC News that she herself was victimized by the other two men.

Attorney James Gerrow acknowledged that his client, Kate McClure, was in on the initial plan to concoct a story about allegedly homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt using his last $20 to help her out of a roadside jam when she ran out of gas but said she was only interested in creating the ruse for a brief time to help Bobbitt.

“The story about the gas was what I refer to — and this is where the prosecutors and I have a disagreement — on Kate’s part. It was puffing, it was exaggeration trying to help this veteran.”

If there were no further facts from this story on display, you might almost believe McClure. Making up the story about him giving her gas money was dishonest, but it was a lie that didn’t directly harm anyone… at least initially. If she honestly just wanted to raise some money for Bobbitt and give it to him and it was a reasonable sum, she might be forgiven. But even if that were the case, why make up the story? Why not just put up a GoFundMe talking about a homeless veteran she found living under a bridge overpass who was in need of help? I bet a lot of people would have donated anyway.

But now we’re expected to believe that it was all her boyfriend’s fault. There were hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring in and only a tiny chunk of the initial cash went to Bobbitt. Her own statements to the press as the story unfolded prove that she was fully aware of how much money he was supposedly given and why. But what became of the rest of it? Is she claiming that she didn’t notice the new car they were riding around in and the expensive vacation she suddenly was able to afford?

Then there’s her claim that she “tried to cut it off with GoFundMe, but they told her that couldn’t be done.” A representative from GoFundMe already chimed in and said that was nonsense. The person who sets up the page can shut it down at any time they like. And, in fact, McClure is on record saying that she did shut it down briefly at one point, but started it back up again almost immediately because more people wanted to donate.

Nothing about this story adds up. It sounds like McClure realizes she’s facing five to ten years in prison and now she’s trying to play the victim card and push it all off on her boyfriend. The courts shouldn’t fall for it.

If it sounds like I’m a bit upset over this story and resentful toward these three it’s because I am. I was suckered into this fantasy like everyone else and wrote multiple articles on the subject. That’s because I wanted it to be true so I was more than ready to believe it. I wanted to believe that there was a homeless veteran out there who was down on his luck and the country came together and scraped up enough cash for him to turn his life around. And if the people who claimed to want to help him had ripped him off, I wanted them punished for that and the money returned to him. But it turns out they were a pack of liars and thieves who fooled all of us. At this point, they all deserve whatever is coming to them from the courts.