Tickled Page #8

gonna be in a us court

and a New Zealand court,

and I really just wanted to

sort this out face-to-face.

D'amato:

And I just want to sort of...

I mean,

I'm not here to antagonize.

I just genuinely want

to be able to help out.

D'amato:

Well, you did say you were

gonna sue me.

And I just wanna sort this

issue out.

D'amato:

Could you contact me

if possible?

David:
I went away feeling numb.

D'amato was calm, going

instantly to legal threats,

which is what he's always done,

I suppose, as Terri,

as Jane,

as himself.

But after all this, I still

couldn't help but wonder

were we totally certain that

d'amato

really was Jane and Debbie?

Could we be wrong?

So we went back to

where it all started,

those 300 domain names

connected to

the nederdietsen group.

And that's when things

went a little crazy.

On one of those

domain names

there was

just a directory listing,

including a folder called

"my documents".

It looks like d'amato

has accidently

made hundreds of his

private files public

on the Internet.

There's d'amato's signature

on a nederdietsen

registration form.

There's also a contract with

the investigation company

he hired to look into us.

The address is exactly the same

as the address used by

Jane o'brien media

when booking rooms at the

Hilton in New Zealand.

Then there are documents

and signatures

for Debbie kuhn

and Jane o'brien...

Who's also got her

own credit card.

And it turns out that d'amato

did finally

get that law degree,

from hofstra university

in 2011.

He's also been telling the boys

to enter the United States

on a tourist visa,

even though they're working.

And it's finally clear to me

how he funds

his tickling empire.

As of late 2012,

he had almost six million

in his checking account.

And his living expenses were

being paid by a trust

established by his father.

He also inherited millions from

his mother's estate

when she died in 2014.

It's all family money.

There are also lots of emails

sent from Jane o'brien's

legal department.

With this in mind, we call

in to see Romeo salta,

the lawyer hired

by Jane o'brien media

who's been sending us all

the legal threats.

We want to ask him about

the correspondence

his office has sent us.

David:
But I just thought

you'd be curious to see...

Things been issued

in la county court,

that's signed off here

with your name.

There's another example of that

with that email address.

Romeo:
Yeah.

To that, as opposed to you.

I mean, we got the one

from you originally,

which we... it's fine. We don't

need to talk about that.

It's very simple.

I only sent one.

Dylan:
Yeah.

David:
Yeah.

- There's your answer.

- Yeah.

Romeo:
I'll see what I can do to

make those stop.

Have they stopped?

Dylan:
Uh, we haven't heard

anything for a little while.

They're listing your address

as their corporate headquarters,

though.

- My address?

- Yeah, if you look at...

David:
Your office.

Dylan:
Janeobrienmedia.Com,

your address is listed as their

corporate headquarters.

Yeah, but it's not my--

Dylan:
No, no.

On their website at the bottom.

Romeo:
But it's not, um...

Dylan:
I don't know if it's...

It says

"office of corporate counsel

and New York headquarters."

Romeo:
Well, that's my address.

David:
Yeah.

- But it's not their...

- It's crazy. But it's...

Um, I mean,

is this weird to you?

That this person

has taken on--

it is. Of course, it's weird.

David:
Almost every legal letter

we'd received from

from salta was fake.

Like so many things

connected to d'amato,

they were all just lies,

lies to support his addiction

to tickling videos.

I started this journey curious

about a bizarre sport

called competitive

endurance tickling,

but I now think this was

never even about tickling.

This is about power,

control and harassment.

It's about one person's

twistedness

and how far that can go.

One person who's managed to

shelter himself with money

to keep his obsession going.

But now it's his life exposed.

For once, it's him on camera.

Before we leave America,

there's one last phone call

I want to make.

It's a name we found

in the documents,

one of David d'amato's last

surviving family members.

Dorothy:
Hello?

- Oh, hi. Is that Dorothy?

- Yes.

Oh, hi. My name's David farrier,

I'm a journalist from

New Zealand. How are you?

- Okay.

- Yeah, good.

Hey, sorry, it's probably a bit

of a strange call

to receive out of the blue,

but I'm doing a story about,

uh, David d'amato.

- Oh, in what way?

- Um...

He's been... it's the...

He's sort of back to the

tickling stuff again.

Oh, he is?

- Yeah, he is.

- Oh, god!

Well, I will tell you that,

um, I have no contact

with him at all.

I mean, did you think all this

had sort of come to an end?

I did think, of course,

it came to an end,

because he served time,

which I'm sure you know.

Mm.

But I don't understand, um...

I don't understand why he

went back to doing this.

I'm, like, in shock. How long

has he been doing this?

It's never stopped.

I think he has a

split personality.

He's like that fine line

between genius and insanity.

I don't know if he's gay

or he's asexual,

but he's never had a girlfriend

that I ever knew of.

I asked my husband once, um,

if he would be upset if

he found out he was gay.

And he said that he would be

upset but he would get over it.

But he was an only child,

and, you know, he wanted

grandchildren.

He had a very,

very strange childhood.

The kids used to make

fun of him all the time.

And she used to...

She... his mother.

He was very close

to his mother.

And his mother was very

protective of him.

She never let him ride a bike

or go skiing or do anything

because she was always afraid

that he would get hurt.

And from what I understand,

the kids used to come around

the house,

and they used to

make fun of him.

And once they locked him

in a locker in school.

And, you know,

he was a teacher...

And they threw him

out of school.

You know, I was afraid of him,

because I'm alone and, um...

Yeah, I was afraid of him.

So, you know,

I'm afraid of him.

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