Dogpatch Press

Statement on Peter’s official Facebook page

Peter S. Beagle created The Last Unicorn, made millions of fans happy, then got dragged through elder abuse and had to go to court to stop it.

In his 70’s, Peter was supposed to be making his magic and enjoying the golden years. Instead he had to spend years of battling his former manager, Connor Cochran, who was found liable for financial elder abuse, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation.

Before his disgrace, Cochran would sue critics for saying what he was doing, and wanted to shut me up that way. He failed when I sued him before Peter did. Peter issued a support statement during my legal battle for vindication, and I prevailed in 2019 with a judgement in my favor for $32,000. Peter sent me a signed Last Unicorn hardcover with a hand-written thank you for helping him.

Now Peter is back in control of his career. His official Beagleverse site has an FAQ about his battle with the court judgement showing the black-and-white truth.

But the Beagleverse site warns: “Unfortunately, there are still several websites controlled by Peter’s former manager. Beagleverse® is the best source for all things Peter S. Beagle.”

Peter doesn’t control a Last Unicorn Facebook page with an official check mark. It was made in 2008 before Peter sued Cochran, and is now being used to manipulate 182,000 followers.

Its anonymous managers are spreading references about Peter with evasive, tryhard, blowhard posts full of ageism. While they hide behind the official check mark from years ago, they’re also blocking the official team of Peter, the actual creator, while pretending to be a “fan” page for fair use of his creation. They’re misleading other fans who don’t know their agenda or what a court already judged.

The gall of these people.

Peter’s official statement about the page is open to comment and has hundreds of shares. Meanwhile, the latest “fan” post aiming at Peter is locked to comments and has some dozens of shares. You should see what some of the sharers are saying:

• “I’m so tired of people talking BS about Peter S. Beagle, like he’s some old man who can’t do anything or doesn’t understand. He doesn’t deserve this treatment or abuse and this isn’t the first time it happened… Stop gaslighting his fans by claiming you’re just a fan page.”
• “You don’t need to read the post below – tl;dr – deny, deflect, defend. It’s telling that this novella is in the same verbose, bloated language as when the former manager was trying to defend their defenseless position throughout the lawsuit. It’s also telling that a) no names are given on page ownership b) there’s hella ageist language being dropped here, and c) no comments are allowed…
  This is not how a fan account run by true fans of the work should behave. It’s embarrassing.”
• “That’s a lot of words for “we’re lying” lmao”

If you’re a fan of Peter and his creations, be kind to other fans and let them know the movie Facebook page is NOT to be trusted.

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