Seth Tobias, the hard-partying hedge-funder with a crazy wife, drowned in his Florida swimming pool, maybe by accident. Their marriage was characterized by mainly drinkin', druggin', and fightin'. His death unleashed an outpouring of allegations, most of which revolved around his wife's gay hustler psychic/assistant, Billy Ash. Billy has taken various media outlets on a wild, wild ride in the months since Tobias's death. He's also been taken as a credible source by more than one newspaper, New York mag reports, despite his con-man past and present.

Most reporters covering Ash's stories have included a quick disclaimer saying Ash had been arrested multiple times for prostitution before quoting him extensively. None of them, however, have gone into any detail about Ash's criminal history.

When I Googled "William Ash," the search led me to a 2001 cover story in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, a free weekly. The story documented more than a dozen cons that an overweight man by that name perpetrated on the South Florida gay community. There was a picture: It was the same guy.

The swindles listed in the New Times included stealing the client list of a company that sold goods manufactured by the disabled and setting up a rival company; a stint working at Fort Lauderdale's CenterOne, an AIDS-counseling center, that ended when Ash was fingered for lying to a tabloid and telling them Tina Turner was a patient; and chartering a boat for his 31st birthday and spending thousands of dollars on flowers and balloons by telling vendors he was throwing a party for Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga and that the Miami businessman would be footing the bill. In 1997, Ash spent six months in jail on a combination of those charges and for running a prostitution ring.

And to think, it was only a Google-click away.

On January 9, Billy Ash added yet another wild twist to the story. He told the New York Daily News's "Rush & Molloy" that Phyllis had paid $100,000 to Madam Simbi M'Arue, a voodoo artist who sometimes goes by the name Mama, to place a hex on her husband while he was still alive. Two days later, he told the same column that Tobias liked to have his genitals sheared by another gay porn star named Angel. Ash claimed Phyllis had even FedExed him a lock of Tobias's pubic hair. No Mama or Angel ever came forward. [New York mag]

See? It's just one big circus, starring a gay psychic hustler as the ringmaster.