Facebook nails a man for getting married…too many times

I will always be puzzled by how reliant so many people are upon Facebook − presumably to advertise themselves, to brag, to show how good-looking they are, how happy they are, how happy their families are …

Especially those wedding photos. Used to be, people put their wedding photos into an album which resided for a short time on the living room coffee table and then got moved to wherever old photo albums hang out gathering dust.

Then came those fat envelopes full of wedding photo copies which we, the recipients, were presumably supposed to put into our photo albums, which resided…blah blah blah.

Now we see all those wedding photos we never wanted to look through in the first place on Facebook.

But a man who’s been married, oh, say, a number of times, without ever getting divorced, oh, say, a number of times, really shouldn’t be publicizing himself on Facebook. Because quadrigamy is a crime.

From Lowering the Bar: Quadrigamist Tripped Up by Facebook Photos of Fourth Wedding – Lowering the Bar, which begins (really lovely, if damning, wedding photo included in package):

While the main purpose of this thing is entertainment, it is actually quite possible to learn useful information from reading it.

Especially if you are an aspiring bigamist.

The latest non-reader to pay the price is a 49-year-old South Carolina man (let’s call him “Darnell,” because that’s his name) who has been accused of having four wives at the same time. (He has actually had five wives, but he did divorce one of them.) Under South Carolina law, “[a]ny person who is married who shall marry another person” is guilty of bigamy. Any person who is married who shall marry four other people should clearly be guilty of quadrigamy, but South Carolina has not provided for this situation so I guess it’ll be three charges of bigamy in his case.

Also, any person who is married who shall marry another person and then shall post the new wedding pictures on Facebook is guilty of stupidity.

Darnell

Relationship status: busted

If Darnell had been a reader of Lowering the Bar, he might have avoided this, because it is by no means the first time that making additional-wedding photos public has caused a serious problem. See Facebook: Bad News for Bigamists” (Mar. 29, 2011) (reporting a similar case in Michigan); see also “Wedding Photo Tips for Bigamists” (May 4, 2010) (same concept but involving the local newspaper).

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