A campaign of harassment against scientists that lasted decades came to an end last year. Dennis Markuze, who went by the nickname Mabus, had issues with atheism, and he targeted its proponents with unbalanced rants and a variety of threats. Over the years, however, he gradually lost focus and decided that anyone promoting science was worthy of harassment. That led him to target a variety of science writers and expand his campaign to blog comments and social media.

That lack of focus proved to be his undoing, as a writer from Markuze's home town of Montreal managed to get him to target his invective at the local police. Markuze was brought in for a psychiatric evaluation and was eventually given a suspended sentence. Part of the conditions of his parole were that he stay off social networks.

Within the last few weeks, several science writers (including Scott Johnson of Ars) started receiving disturbingly familiar messages via Twitter. Oddly, a tweet of mine about NASA's Space Station alert system prompted a response that mentioned both socialism and atheism. It seemed clear that Mabus was back; members of the atheist community had already come to the same conclusion.

Fortunately, the Montreal Police also reached that conclusion. Markuze appeared just as bad at covering his tracks as he had been earlier, so the police were able to announce that Markuze has been taken into custody for parole violations.