Pervert Dave

About

Pervert Dave is the nickname of the deceased Florida resident David W. Cummings, whose obituary circulated online following his death due to complications with liver cancer in April 2014.

Origin

On April 16th, 2014, the Tampa Bay Times newspaper published an obituary for David W. Cummings, which included his nickname “Pervert Dave.” The following day, a photo of the obituary was tweeted by the @SlowSlownes Twitter feed, receiving over 140 retweets and 90 favorites in the first week.

Let's see who's in the obituaries today. pic.twitter.com/mMjADPtmWQ

— Slow News Day (@SlowSlownews) April 17, 2014

Spread

The same day, the men’s interest blog Bro Bible^[3] highlighted the obituary photograph. On April 18th, 2014, Democrat & Chronicle^[2] published an interview with Cummings’ longtime friend Karen Baker, who claimed the origin of the nickname “Pervert Dave” was a mystery.

“He was always, ‘Pervert.’ He’s had the nickname for 40 years or better. I’ve known him for over 40 years myself and he’s always been my big brother and everybody just knew him as ‘Pervert.’”

In the coming days, several news site published articles about the obituary, including The Daily Dot,^[4] Guyism,^[5] Death and Taxes,^[6] UpRoxx^[7] and Gawker.^[8]

Extended Obituary

On April 21st, the Tampa Bay Times^[1] published an article outlining Cummings’ life history. The article revealed that he had been an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force, was honorably discharged in 1970 for a character disorder and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. During the 1980s, Cummings shot and killed his roommate Wheelchair Skip over an argument about money and crashed a car while driving under the influence resulting in the death of a woman riding with him. After being prosecuted, Cummings served two years for the murder of his roommate and one year for DUI manslaughter.

Search Interest

External References