Billy Tourtelot , he lead singer of  the band Hell On Earth told the Associated Press that the concert still went on as planned but he was unsure where the suicide occurred or not. 

Jason Trindade, the operator of the web hosting company that serves Hellonearth.net told the press about the attack early Saturday evening. At that time he said that Tourtelot told him that the events would be postponed because of the inability to broadcast them. 

Tourtelot told an Associated Press reporter that he did not know about the problems with the website until after the band performed. He also said that despite the suicide not being broadcast from the other “secret” location that did not mean that it did not take place. He further said that there are no other performances planned for his group. 

AP further reported that authorities in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County had no reports of a suicide at least four hours after the event was scheduled to take place. 

Concert Suicide Postponed Due to Web Attack

Update 7:03 PM PST 10/04: The planned onstage suicide that has been stirring up controversy has been postponed because of a web attack against the server that was supposed to webcast the event. 

Jason Trindade, who operates the company that hosts Hellonearth.net, told the Associated Press that the server has been flooded with data by computers originating somewhere in Hong Kong. 

"There's been a huge amount of traffic which causes the server to lock up," Trindade  said.

AP also reports that Trindade was told by the group’s leadsinger Billy Tourtelot that because of the attack, the event would be postponed. 

Article published earlier today:

Hell on Earth vocalist Billy Tourtelot said on Saturday that despite legal threats the planned onstage suicide will take place on Saturday. 

antiMUSIC has been following this story for the past couple of weeks, and here are the latest developments for those morbidly curious. 

The associated press reports that Tourtelot said in a phone interview on Saturday that the concert and suicide are still planned for Saturday night. Although it looks like plans have changed slightly. According to Tourtelot the suicide will take place at different location than the concert, but both will occur at undisclosed locations within the St. Petersburg city limits. The band plans to broadcast both events live over their website (hellonearth.net.) 

Tourtelot has said previously that the group planned the onstage suicide to bring attention to right to die issues. The unnamed person who plans to commit the act is reportedly terminally ill. 

The Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist stated a warning that it is a felony to assist a suicide in Florida and anyone who does so may face up to 15 years in prison. Tourtelot insists that the band is not aiding the person in the act; that the terminally ill person will die by their own hand. 

Tourtelot has retained a criminal defense lawyer, Kevin Hayslett, who says he advised his client not to go forward with the staged suicide. But it appears that Tourtelot is hell bent on the event taking place. Perhaps he was acting under advice of council when the decision was made to stage the concert and the suicide at two different locations, thus separating the band physically from the suicide. 

"It appears that everybody I talked to is trying to advise it not to take place," Hayslett said. "I don't think any sane person wants it to go forward."

A court issued an injunction earlier this week baring the event from taking place (see story). 

One avenue explored, at least by the press was to contact the group’s web hosting provider. AP reports that Jason Trindade, the operator of the web hosting company said that unless he receives complaints from law enforcement representatives the company would keep the band’s site online. 

"They haven't broken any law and I can't just turn them off," he said. "Myself, I think it's pretty twisted." 

At 4:30 PST, the group’s website was not accessible. That may be due to server overload issues or Trindade may have pulled the plug. That issue was uncertain at press time. 

Rant or Rave? Your turn, post you comments and thoughts on this news item. But hey keep it clean, we wouldn't want to have to wash your mouth out with Old Spice.

Fan Speak:
Fan Speak:

...end