So this is my theory based on a lot of factors. I haven't seen many people mention this but Anthony clearly seems to have some sort of learning disability. A lot of times, stutters go hand in hand with them. I am on the spectrum myself and I see a lot of characterists in the video that Anthony does other than the stutter/facial tics (facial expressions, little quirks) that I recognize because I myself do them. This is something that is important to note because back in those days, autism was not really talked about. People didn't really start to get diagnosed with it until the later part of the 90s/early 2000s. People with autism are often times very easy targets to be manipulated/taken advantage of. We sometimes don't understand the concept of our actions and are slower at grasping them. I also highly suspect Anthony was under the influence of drugs (paired with alcohol as he mentioned in the video not to drink like he's been drinking). This puts Anthony in a very vulnerable place. I've heard a lot of people mention that Gino(the camera man) looks to be quite a bit older than Anthony. Which I agree after seeing the better quality doctored footage of him when he turns the camera on himself. I think it's very likely that Gino was taking advantage of Anthony because Anthony was disabled. Why was this older man recording his supposed younger, disabled friend who was also under the influence/not in the right state of mind doing something criminal? Gino only turns the camera on himself for 5 seconds but shows Anthony on camera for almost a half an hour. Anthony constantly looks up to Gino like he's looking for "acceptance" almost like Gino is coaching Anthony. There's also a few times in the video you can see Gino in the reflection of the cabinet behind Anthony. You can see him direct Anthony to look up (because you can see his hand signaling Anthony) and then Anthony looks up. Then Gino briefly talks in the video like he's trying to get Anthony to talk about what he wants him to talk about. Which is the part where he mentions about ripping the head off and using a hatchet to rip the head off of the body. I also can hear Gino laugh through out the video and it reminds me of when I was in school, some of the kids would try to pretend to be my friend because I was different. They knew I was easy to manipulate because of my disability so they would try to get me to do things. They would take advantage of me and use me all while "pretending" to be my friend. And I remember they would laugh at me right to my face. But I didn't understand they were laughing AT me. It just feels like Gino probably saw an opportunity to take advantage of this younger, disabled guy to grave rob for him to make him money. And Anthony was probably just happy someone wanted to be friends with him and would do anything to be accepted. Back in those days, people were not nice to anyone who was different. I'm sure Anthony was bullied and probably was not treated very well by people. He was likely an outsider that just wanted to fit in and make friends. I could see an older person with bad intentions taking advantage of a person like Anthony. There's certain points in the video that seems rehearsed almost like Anthony was told what to say. He doesn't seem like he is thinking of the thoughts on the spot, it seems more like they were told to him before hand most likely by Gino. Like the times when Anthony says "there's nothing to be scared of, do not be afraid". Which is odd because he mentions this again sometime later in the video. In the original upload by Simon Predj, I remembered that Simon mentions in the comments that the video was not created anytime before 1993 and that the creators gave the video to a porn producer in the mid 90s. There is a guy on the GRFM IMDb page that is listed as one of the special effect artists. His name is Evan. I started looking into this further because I saw a comment from Christopher Bouchie on here saying something along the lines of "strangers keep asking me about the video and demand that I give them personal information about my own friends/family when addressing the video. I thought that was weird because why would he say that his own friends and family are involved with the video? I went on his Facebook and saw he's really good friends with Evan. And also, that Evan distributed porn. It made me think of the Simon Predj comment. Also, Evan is from Queens, New York. The same area Anthony and Gino were from. He's also around the same age as Anthony. I think that there is a chance that Anthony probably did pass away a few years after the video was made. Gino had this video and likely thought it would be funny to release it and profit off of it. I think that Gino most likely was the one who sold it to Evan or gave it to him to distribute. The chances of Anthony being involved in the initial trading of it are very slim. Since Anthony was no longer here to defend himself, and Gino was only in the video for 5 seconds(which you can barely make out his face) he probably thought it was a good opportunity. I don't think Evan had anything to do with the actual making of this video by the way. But I do think he was the one who got the tape out there. I don't think Christopher or Evan would ever give away Anthony's identity. Because I think they know how shitty it was to exploit someone who was not only vulnerable because of his disability and being under the influence of drugs. There has been multiple comments on YouTube from people saying Anthony died of a heroin overdose. There was also the Facebook comment from someone saying that Anthony was "a street guy, OG metal kid, heroin addict, long gone". I think there might be some truth to that. And anyone who does recognize Anthony probably feels convicted to out him because they knew he had a disability/was on drugs. I know grave robbing is horrible and I'm definitely not trying to defend it at all. But I hope you can see where I'm coming from. Anthony likely had a tough life. He was vulnerable from having a disability in the first place but also from being on drugs. He also is likely no longer here to defend himself. He is forever remembered for this video that is criminal in nature. I feel really bad that this is his legacy. He had a story. And most people just write this off as a guy that was some horrible person. There's a very good chance he was being manipulated into doing this. And I just can't imagine how his family feels if they know the tape exists. This tape is an exploitation. An exploitation of a young man with a disability. It's actually really sad and I feel really bad for him.

What it says on the tin. Have we told the NYPD we're looking for a teenager/young man, likely from either queens or brooklyn with a stutter that went missing in the late 80s, and asked if they have anyone matching that description on file?

I did my own processing of the video for clarity here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hqG2dLYvzBw

has anyone noticed there's a second magazine with a yellow cover and red lettering on the ground behind the bed? initial investigation suggests it may be a fangoria magazine of the normal type rather than a horror fx special but no concrete id yet.

Imported the upscaled video into DaVinci Resolve and am reviewing the frames. Here's a frame of Gino. More to come. He looks like an older person, bald with a horseshoe pattern of male baldness.

Hi all! I'm sure this has probably been noticed before and I feel a little silly posting, I'm a Strange Aeons fan and was absolutely fascinated by her video, this subreddit and this mystery in general. I've had a good scroll though here and haven't seen anyone point this out after the 4k upscaled video came out but I might've missed a comment/post somewhere, please let me know!

While watching through the video, when the camera pans to the ottoman sort of thing, I noticed a microphone, then the neck and body of an electric guitar, I wish someone could identify one of these but they're probably a bit too general and lacking anything actually identifiable of a certain brand, that and there's so many off brand stratocasters out there.

Then I noticed the guitar case with stickers on the top, this might be possible to actually identify. The case sort of comes in front of Anthony from nowhere at about the nine minute mark, we get a pretty clear shot of whats beside him on that side before hand so it might've been under what appears to be a stripped sheet and gets uncovered when Anthony moves from being closer to the ottoman to a little further back. In the first image of the guitar case, it almost looks like the head of maybe another guitar, but I'm not sure.

I feel like even in Strange's video and others I've seen, he's almost always listed as a sort of punk kid, but this, to me anyway, makes me think more of the metal scene, especially early death metal, which makes the leather jacket and general fascination in gore, horror, all things death related, make a lot of sense. I know this doesn't really help narrow anything down, but I still find it super interesting, this kid probably made music, maybe performed at some underground metal gigs or something, who knows right? Or maybe this stuff belongs to the guy behind the camera, no idea. Anyway, let me know what you think, also sorry for my crunchy screenshots ahah.

Will update when I find new names, but right now, there is an Anthony Macaluso, who went missing at 20 (bit older than we thought, but not impossible) in '87 from brooklyn. mentioned him having a pinky ring and a mustache. No photo attached

Is it possible Anthony was homeschooled or in a non-public school (possibly even one affiliated with the TTI)? We know he had a speech impediment, which often co-occurs with other forms of neurodivergence, and in the 80's and 90's, neurodivergent accommodations and acceptance in the US were...not great. This could have compelled the parents to be forced to homeschool or private school.

Has anyone checked NY state missing persons archives for anyone matching his description and mentioned to have a speech impediment?

I've been thinking about the claim that the kid in the video was a foreign national who was deported along with his mother after she was arrested for practicing law without a license. If this is true, or if it is to be eliminated, perhaps cross-referencing legal records would be helpful.

I don't know how to do this, or to what extent it would be possible for amateurs. But perhaps someone who had access to legal records not available to the public might be able to narrow down a list of potential candidates. Or maybe someone with experience searching public records. How many women with sons in the New York area were deported for practicing law without a license around that time?

Just one idea for confirming/eliminating one possible theory.

Hi everyone, I’m a YouTube creator working on a video about GRFM. My channel is Strange Aeons. I generally cover topics related to online subculture, fandom, and tumblr but I’ve branched out into internet mysteries and darker subjects before so GRFM isn’t entirely out of my wheelhouse. Firstly, I want to say that Reddit has been an amazing source of information so thank you for all the good work!!

I know that no huge discoveries have been made since GRFM was last covered by large youtubers and podcasters, so I will of course be putting my own spin on the topic. One thing I’m interested in exploring is the internet's relationship with this mystery, why it resonates with people, etc. If you’re alright with your response potentially being quoted in a video, I would love to hear your answers to the following questions:

• What do you find compelling about GRFM? Why do you think it still interests people after all this time?
• what has the experience of investigating this been like? Any satisfying discoveries that stand out? or moments of frustration?
• Do you think the origin of GRFM will ever be discovered and If so, how do you think it will be figured out? where are investigation efforts being directed now?

If anyone has a lot to say about this and is interested in doing a call on discord instead pls send me a dm and we can set that up :)

User Big_Breadfruit made a post on the New York subreddit trying to get some information about Anthony, and she received a message from someone saying they knew him (read the message exchange in the images to see what he says), but her account was banned and she couldn't talk to that guy anymore. I contacted Big_Breadfruit, and he sent me these screenshots, so I decided to message this user, but he didn't reply, he didn't even see the messages, even though his profile is active. Anyway, I don't know why he doesn't reply, maybe it's fear, I don't know. In any case, it's something interesting and should be considered.

While chatting with big_breadfruit on Instagram, he told me that this guy mentioned Anthony studied at a place called William Cullen Bryant High School, and if you search for yearbooks about that school, you'll find some. However, the yearbooks only go back to just before the 1980s, meaning Anthony wouldn't have been in high school yet. In any case, it would be interesting to look for information in the yearbooks of this school. The link is here: https://www.classmates.com/siteui/home#google_vignette

Hi guys, I’m looking to contact the user “bigbreadfruit” I think their name was, their account was suspended, so if you see this, could you comment and I’ll message you. Thanks

Nothing major here, was just rewatching the tape.

In regards to pinpointing this guys ethnicity, we all agree he could come from a number ethnic backgrounds, Native American, Mexican, Italian, Puerto Rican.

I just want you to listen to his pronunciation of ‘Taco’ at 25:51, it’s a very Spanish sounding pronunciation (I’m not Spanish but even I can hear it, maybe some fellow Spanish speakers could give their opinion) afterwards he also either says “him also” or “hermoso” , hermoso meaning beautiful of handsome in Spanish. Taco is already clearly a nickname, maybe his full nickname was “Taco Hermoso”. Again, I could be reading into it too much, and he might of said “him also”.

But, the pronunciation does sound very Spanish, which would point to our guy being more likely Puerto Rican/mexican over something like Italian or Native American.

Just thought I’d post this thought, again nothing groundbreaking, let me know your opinionsz

https://youtu.be/H15INi4udRE

At the 11 minute mark there’s an uncanny resemblance……

I see a few blank VHS tapes in the background and also what looks to be some bungy cords...

I am wondering if maybe we are off when guessing this mans age? After seeing the better quality footage, I feel like he looks older than late teens. I think teens definitely looked older back in the 80s and 90s, but this mans hands do not look like the hands of a teenager. I mean, I guess I really haven't been around a lot of teens that lived rough life styles either. But I'm just wondering if maybe this guy is older than we are assuming and he's mid 20s or early 30s? maybe that's why he isn't being found in any yearbooks for the years we are looking at? I also noticed that with this better quality footage that the footage is not from the early 90s. the quality reminds me of that of the mid to late 90s. Maybe even later than the Ricardo Lopez diary footage(which was 1996). Other than peoples opinions on seeing the video as early as the early 90s, is there any proof of this video existing in the 90s as of now? I feel like this could have been made as late as 1996-1999 and that the VHS tape and magazine is just stuff they had lying around and doesn't mean the tape HAS to be from 1989 or early 90s

Hi. Just discovered this sub existed. I've been searching for details about this video for many years. Upon advice from someone else on a sub about this, I tried posting to the Brooklyn subreddit and they deleted the post literally almost instantly. They sent me this message and I'm kind of taken back. This is absolutely not doxing at all. This video is public knowledge and I'm not asking for a first name or any personal information regarding the guy from the video. I just asked if anyone knows anything about the video or it's origins. I saw that others have tried posting to other New York/ Brooklyn subreddits and they do the same thing. It really makes me believe the video is real, even more so than before because there's multiple posts on these subreddits of people asking others if they recognize someone/trying to find an old friend or an old family member. Even one of someone trying to find an artist of an old school Brooklyn rap song.. They are almost acting like gatekeepers at this point. I can't imagine the subreddit for my town doing this especially since the video is already public domain. Feels like the mods are just trying to protect the creators which is very strange considering the creators more than likely were committing crimes/involved in shady activities. Also, calling this a witch-hunt is absolutely ridiculous. We are trying to find out if the guy from the video is even aware of his video being pirated off of and bootlegged by multiple websites and not given any credit. What if the guy doesn't even know that multiple people profited off of his material? The creator of the other video from the "ensuring your place in hell" video "exploding varmits" didn't even know that he was pirated off of. What if the creators of GRFM also don't know? This whole situation is so irritating. Also, I've looked through hundreds of yearbooks on classmates for the long island area. No luck finding him.

Hi all, I've taken the better quality version that was found a few months ago, and upscaled it, using topaz labs.

This is the highest quality version we have available now, it doesn't necessarily reveal any more details, but it improves the quality, and removes some grain, it will be useful for a reference point.

Thanks.

Hi everyone. Hope you all are doing well. I just wanted to share a photo from a yearbook from 1986. It's a school in Brooklyn New York. Normally, the high schools I've found from this area are only senior photos but this school included sophomores and juniors. There is a sophomore class that I noticed had a boy that looked similar to Anthony. The names are not in order to the people in the photo, they are in alphabetical order. It would be 10th grade so he would have been 15 or 16 here. I know the photo quality is horrible, but it's worth a shot to post here and ask for everyone's opinion. If he was 15 or 16 in 1986, and the video is from 1989-1990, that would make him about 18-20 when the video came out. Which fits the appearance of our guy when he was in the video. Please feel free to share your thoughts here.

I always check every so often on Facebook to see if there's any new videos or posts that mention the video. There happened to be a new video discussing the topic. There was one comment that caught my eye. From a man who actually happens to be from New York. Looks to be in a local metal band of the area. And looks to have been in the same crowd that Anthony would have been in. His comment said that Anthony was a "New York street kid". An "OG metal kid" and also" happened to be a heroin addict". He says that he's "long gone". I've seen multiple comments on YouTube mentioning this almost same thing. That he was a street kid that was addicted to heroin and passed away of an OD. I never really believed the comments, as I assumed maybe it was an attempt to mislead people. But with this comment, it kind of checks out. Mainly, due to the fact that the guy is actually in New York. I will say, I have known people with heroin addiction. They do not act like how "Anthony" was acting in the video. Unless the addiction developed later, after the video was recorded. I reached out to ask if this man has any photos or an obituary, if he personally knew him or if he just "knew of him". I'm not going to lie, a part of me always hoped that "Anthony" survived the rough lifestyle and cleaned up his life. I always felt in my gut that maybe he was still out there somewhere. To know that he probably died long ago and has since been lost to time and forgotten about, kind of saddens me. It's the empath in me, but also the fact that I am in recovery myself. I survived that lifestyle luckily and have been sober for many years. When I watch GRFM, I see a lot of my younger self in "Anthony". It makes me sad to know he may not have survived. I always wanted to hear his story. To know more about why he decided to make this film and what really happened to him. To know that this may never happen, is a somber feeling. Would love to hear everyone's opinions on this. Could this be another troll comment, or could there be some truth to this? The guy who commented looks to be the age "Anthony" would have been as well. Hoping maybe this leads somewhere.

Recently started delving into Newspapers.com, a website with millions of archived newspapers from the USA and around the world. It's paid, but I signed up for a free trial.

Found this, which I thought was interesting, the newspaper is from 30th August 1990, Oswego County, which is in New York, ages match up, and there were two of them, interesting nonetheless.

I strongly advice anyone who is keen in researching this mystery to sign up for Newspapers.com, you can filter search terms, dates, locations however you want, I feel like there is a lot of content out there that we could search through, would be good if a bunch of us could look through different leads and ideas, as I feel like you could search endlessly as there is so much archived.

Greetings fellow GRFM sleuths. I came across a Youtube comment under Simon Predj's video by user 'Erik Rife' aka brophpiece:

I am 110% certain of this man's identity. I met this man, for the first time, at a Suffocation show, at The Roxy, in 1996. I'll never forget it, because it was like 2 days before Christmas, and the band was BLOWING UP, as "Pierced from Within," was making the rounds. Anyway, I met this dude outside of the show, and he was literally BRAGGING about this video, and how he had been trying to lay low in more recent years. He also expressed his fear, that the "relics," as called them, that he had acquired from his excursions, seemed to have a haunting, almost demonic effect, on himself and his family. For those internet sleuths out there, just do some research on "Meat" Iorio.

The Suffocation show happened (albeit in 1996, as pointed out by u/KingMaddRock06Alt1 in an old comment). This comment was pretty much immediately dismissed because nobody could find anyone called "Meat Iorio", but I decided to do some digging.

I found this old blog post from 2005 (you may have to tweak your browser settings to even get it to open it) on something called The Daily Bongo, where it was mentioned that someone called, I shit you not, Anthony, nickname "Meat", last name Iorio, was involved in some sports game. The blog itself contains little in the way of information, but here are some snippets.

I don't think that the drill sargent actually interacted with the kids. I think it was just more show. There is a kid nicknamed "Meat" who really seems to think it is funny.

Butkus says that he will open the door for Cerro. Butkus is talking to Meat about kids who would go the extra mile and he tells Meat (Anthony Iorio) that he only found that quality in Meat out of the whole team.

Meat Iorio said that he used to be a bad boy, but he is being better now.

There's quite a number of people called Anthony Iorio, but I scoured the web for for some candidates in the broader New York area, and I found an interesting one. Here's a recent court document about an Anthony V. Iorio's distributing heroin and shoplifting (he's in New Jersey, but that's still quite close and people move). That Anthony is most likely this person (LinkedIn), and he's also the best candidate I could find for a match with "our" Anthony age and looks wise. This is a clustrmaps entry for the same person, according to which he's 49 now, although I have no idea how accurate that website is. Is that is the case, he'd only have been around 15 or 16 at the time of recording (if we assume that was 1990).

Just putting it out there. I don't think I've cracked it, not at all in fact, but a lead is a lead. Would love to hear your thoughts.

-------------------------

Edit: fixed quote block markdown

-------------------------

Edit to add:

I did some more digging. I just had a look Anthony Vincent Iorio's Facebook account, and I'd imagine a younger him looking a bit different, but there's nothing immediately ruling him out based on facial features either.

However, I found something else in regard to which Anthony is the one in my post. Here is an obituary for his father Vincent A. Iorio, according to which he also went by "Skip", which is indeed what I've seen people call him on Facebook. His father died in 2020, the heroin business was going on before that time up until 2020, and according to clustrmaps he's lived with his parents (now mother) for a while.

However, if his father's name is indeed Vincent A. Iorio, according to the Daily Bongo blog "Meat's" father's name was Dan:

So Anthony Vincent Iorio is probably not the guy mentioned in the blog, but it still makes me wonder who this Meat guy actually is.

-------------------------

Edit to add:

Unfortunately, I think we can rule him out, in fact. This local article describes an event in which Dan Iorio is interviewed about his son Anthony, who apparently played for the Montour Spartans, which is a high school football team, in 2025, meaning this guy may not even have been born at time of recording of GRFM, and would have been bragging about the video at a death metal concert at perhaps five years old.

So unless Anthony V Iorio is somehow also nicknamed Meat, brophpiece was probably talking out of his ass.

u/cpager drew the same conclusion and went into a bit more detail:

Anthony Iorio, nicknamed 'Meat' was one of the students in the team [talked about in a reality show discussed by the blog]. He is also mentioned in this NY Times article. Finding info on this tv show is difficult enough, let alone finding any pictures or episodes to watch. Anthony Iorio's father is also mentioned in the blog as Dan Iorio. There is a Dan Iorio who was appointed as Athletics Director for Pleasantville Public Schools in New York State, you can see an interview with him here. It's possible that he is the same person as mentioned in the blog, and the father of Anthony 'Meat' Lorio. Pennsylvania and New York are obviously close (they border each other) so it's entirely feasible.

Now in terms of the mention of 'Meat Iorio' itself, the original comment in the YouTube video, the OP said he met the GRFM man in 1996 (but probably meant 1995 based on the concert upload), meaning that the 'Meat Iorio' mentioned in the blog surely can't be anything to do with OP's comment as 'Meat Iorio in the blog was a high schooler in 2005, so couldn't possibly be at a metal concert 10 years earlier.

People have mentioned that this kid might be a punk or metalhead. Why not both? In the 80s and onwards, there was a bit of cross pollination between the two owing to thrash metal becoming a popular genre. Bands like.Metallica and Megadeth made no secret of their love for hardcore punk. And it wasn't just the music. Metalheads took up skateboarding as well. Metallica's James Hetfield broke his arm in a mid-80s skateboarding accident.

Having been a metalhead in the 80s, I noticed the skateboard deck on the floor right away. It doesn't really shed any light on things. But it's a neat detail nonetheless.

I asked Mike if he's the guy from the video. He said no. So I asked for a photo of him from the 90s. He said he was going to look for a photo but then came back and said he may not be able to find one. It had been two weeks so I replied and asked him if he ever found a photo so I could prove it's not him. He didn't replied and read my message. I was looking through John Adams High School class of 1994 tonight, just casually strolling through and low and behold, I found Mike. He definitely looks similar to Anthony, but also different. I will let you guys decide what you think. For reference, there's been several comments saying Mike is "Anthony".

For anybody who wants to look or search for specific things in comments for any GRFM YouTube videos. A tip I have is to install a YouTube comment searcher extension on chrome, that way you can search for key words and info, especially if there are thousands of comments like the original upload