I have seen the comments here that Gene is OCD. Do we know this, has he said it?
It caught my eye because in more than one of the long discussions online about his begging emails, the behavior has been described as seeming to be compulsive. I don't think any mental health professionals have offered an opinion but, if he does indeed really have OCD, I wonder if the begging emails are some compulsive behavior on his part.
That said it certainly seems like he does need whatever money he can get. Which is sad, the guy is 73 years old, but I think a lot of people are in the same or similar situations.
I really am not a fan of people picking on him and getting him to drive around Mesa chasing a handout or the like. But I do think it's entirely legitimate and understandable for people to call attention to and discuss his overall weird behavior of begging for years and years, all the while framing it as some temporary critical emergency. Gene acts like any questioning or discussion of his crazy ways is a hate crime against him, which only makes him seem shadier, in my opinion.
Even worse I feel sure some of his claims are lies or exaggerations. I do not believe anyone hacked his Twitter account for example, and it seems incredible to think his bank accounts have been hacked or exploited multiple times. So for me this calls into question a lot of what he says, although, again, I can believe that he does need money. The evictions would seem to prove that. Although it was curious how recently he needed almost $700 for car insurance right away, and came up with the money somehow. Hard for me to believe anyone donated enough to him that same day to bail him out, makes me wonder if he didn't actually have the cash, or if he now doesn't have car insurance. Hopefully he has car insurance if he's going to continue to drive.
Who knows.
Gene is a mystery, and one I will not be assisting in any way.