Wheeler Antabanez is the alter-ego and pen name for

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. As ...

-based writer Matt Kent (born January 31, 1977). Antabanez is best known as the author of best selling special issue of ''

Weird NJ ''Weird NJ'' (sometimes abbreviated ''WNJ'') is a semi-annual magazine that chronicles local legends, purported hauntings, ghost stories, folklore, unusual places or events, and other peculiarities in New Jersey. The magazine originated in 1989 as ...

'', ''Nightshade on the Passaic'' and ''gasstationthoughts'' and ''The Daily Journal of Wheeler Antabanez'', published by Barricade Books.

gasstationthoughts and Arrest

Growing up in

West Caldwell, New Jersey West Caldwell is a township located in the West Essex area in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is located approximately west of Manhattan and northwest of Newark. As of the 2010 United States census, the township's pop ...

, Kent discovered the abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium near his parents’ house at a young age. He became obsessed with the decaying and damaged buildings and created a website in honor of the sanatorium. The site, ‘welcometohell.net’, later became the online home of Kent's developing alter ego, Wheeler Antabanez. On April 19, 2000 Kent was arrested in the lead up to the first anniversary of the

Columbine High School massacre On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. ...

for his alter ego's writings about the school shooting on welcometohell. The charges were eventually dropped and Kent took welcometohell offline, transforming Antabanez's daily journal into a book. “gasstationthoughts and the daily journal of wheeler antabanez” was published by

Barricade Books Barricade Books is an independent publishing company specializing in non-fiction titles and featuring biography, memoir, including holocaust memoirs, and true crime and Mafia titles. History The genesis for Barricade Books was Lyle Stuart Inc. ...

, the controversial publisher of

The Anarchist Cookbook ''The Anarchist Cookbook'', first published in 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture o ...

and

The Turner Diaries ''The Turner Diaries'' is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. It depicts a violent revolution in the United States which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, a nuclear war, and, ...

Nightshade on the Passaic

For two years, Antabanez traveled up and down the

Passaic River Passaic River ( ) is a river, approximately long, in Northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburban northern New Jersey, ...

, occasionally with his daughter, Star, as first mate, exploring abandoned buildings on its shores as well as the river itself. The Passaic is one of the most polluted waterways in the US and is home to the world's largest collection of the deadly chemicals,

dioxins Dioxin may refer to: * 1,2-Dioxin or 1,4-Dioxin, two unsaturated heterocyclic 6-membered rings where two carbon atoms have been replaced by oxygen atoms, giving the molecular formula C4H4O2 *Dibenzo-1,4-dioxin, the parent compound also known as ...

. Seeking out the worst possible places, Antabanez chronicles his exploration of abandoned buildings in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Lincoln Park, New Jersey. Nightshade on the Passaic was released as a special issue of

magazine in July 2008. The Passaic River continues to be full of unusual stories, including the discovery of a child's body that had been taken from a grave in Connecticut as part of a suspected

Palo Mayombe Palo, also known as Las Reglas de Congo, is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th or early 20th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa, the Rom ...

ritual. With no one more familiar with its macabre history, Wheeler serves as an expert to curious reporters interested in the river. In September 2010, Wheeler co-hosted a live broadcast from the last working boat yard on the Passaic for Billy Jam's Put the Needle on the Record show on

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, in ...

. Guests included WMFU's X-Ray Burns and Mark and Mark from

. Wheeler's adventures on the Passaic River caught the eye of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

in late 2010. National Public Radio sent a two-person crew to NJ to travel the Passaic River and its shoreline with Wheeler as their guide. The resulting stories and interviews turned into a feature on

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

with a radio segment, written article and video.

Passaic River Floods

The

overran its banks in the spring of 2010 and again in 2011. For both floods, Wheeler was on-site to capture the destruction. In March 2010 Wheeler visited the flood zone near Willowbrook Mall and talked with those affected. Almost exactly a year later, the neighborhoods surrounding the river flooded again. Wheeler traveled the streets by canoe and followed the flood for seven days to create a short documentary, Following the Flood.Bleiberg, Erika
Paddling the Flood
''Baristanet''. March 22, 2011. Wheeler states in the video that he is currently filming a movie, Wheeler on the Passaic.

Further Works

In addition to his published works, Wheeler has an unpublished novel, Matt & Jess Forever. The story follows a young couple through drugs, murder and an intense love and is available online in its entirety. In March 2009, Wheeler returned to his roots writing online and began a photo-based novella, Lucky Cigarette. With a new photo and entry each day, the website is a combination of Wheeler's skills as a photographer/videographer as well as novelist. Wheeler is currently seeking a publishing deal for Matt & Jess Forever, Lucky Cigarette and a collection of short stories. In early 2010, Wheeler uncovered writings from his youth and added them t
Lucky Cigarette
Even in his childhood writings, it is clear to see the start of Wheeler's style and his flair for storytelling.

Bibliography

gasstationthoughts
(2001)
Nightshade on the Passaic
(2008)

The Old Asylum and other stories (2016)

Full list of Wheeler's articles and books

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antabanez, Wheeler 1977 births Living people People from Montclair, New Jersey Writers from New Jersey People from West Caldwell, New Jersey