R.C. Fox

R.C. Fox (a.k.a. Carl Richard Kirkwood ; May 6, 1984-March 14, 2018 ), was a furry musician, fursuiter, photographer, network engineer, and lead event organizer who lived Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Airport. He was active with the West PA Fur Eventsand Pennsylvania Furry Entertainment organizations.

Real life
He was quite shy and reserved when going into unfamiliar situations, suffering from Social Anxiety disorder and ADHD, but he claimed that he warmed up quickly when meeting other furs or wearing his fursuit. He regularly attended charity events and even encouraged others to attend the events to help promote a positive image and bring further attention to the causes they support. His overall goal was to bring positivity to people.

Fandom involvement
R.C. was a furry for most of his life. He discovered and became active in the fandom in 1997 after searching online for information about foxes to support his beliefs as an Otherkin Therian, and then stumbling across the VCL gallery. He strongly believed he is a fox inside and has admitted at times to acting like one.

Due to personal reasons, R.C. took a decade-long hiatus from 2003-2013 from the community. During this time, he kept out of the public eye and maintained only an online role under a few aliases loosely based on his fursona character's sayings. He rejoined the group at Anthrocon 2013, and was highly active in the community as a major contributor until his arrest, helping to unify the local furs around Pittsburgh and Erie, PA to form the West PA Fur Group.

He was active with the KISS Morning Freak Show DJs on their morning stream helping to promote the local furry group and participate in events. On Oct. 27, 2014, he was featured in the local newspaper's Photo of the Day Section during his recent public suiting with another local fur, Xanthos. This has led to his active participation with local media, including the Pittsburgh Business Time's article featuring himself and his friend, Zippo Wolf on the cover page as seen [Fursuit of Happiness].

In 2015 and 2016, he was a member of Midwest FurFest convention logistics staff.

Fursona
R.C. Fox's fursona, Network Fox, was a mix of 80% red fox, 10% fennec and anArctic fox. His color scheme was primarily black and white, with seven dark teal-blue stripes along his rear torso which wrap around to the front. There were also stripes along his shoulders to the arms, ears, and the patch of hair on his head. He referred to the stripe pattern as the "3-1-3", where each stripe has a specific meaning attached to a personal life events, such as starting a career, getting married, and his lovers. His ears' colors are pink and blue, which indicates his sexual orientation as bisexual.

Fursuit
R.C. Fox's fursuit was constructed by More Fur Less (Kishowolf and Sways). It features their signature changeable expressions. R.C. was known to post photos on his Facebook and Twitter accounts in various settings at meets. He was a public fursuiter and could be found suiting regularly around his hometown or at work. His fursuit helped him further express his spirituality as an Otherkin and become more sociable at events.

Since the controversy, his fursuit has taken on new ownership and has been named Agave.

Music
In the late 90s and early 2000s, he was a rave DJ and live performance artist, mostly under the alias DJ: C, among others, which varied upon the event and/or style of music performed) and producer of (4-12 House Productions) for the Pittsburgh area who was one of many production teams responsible for organizing raves and promoting local DJs.

Controversy
On August 31, 2017, R.C. was charged by Pennsylvania State Police with 20 counts of dissemination of child pornography, a count of possession of child pornography, and criminal use of a phone. The arrest came after a 2016 confession to possessing about 50 videos of child pornography on his computer, in turn following a 2015 event where a sexual video depicting an 8-year-old child was traced to R.C.'s computer. This became known in the fandom after a docket containing personal information matching R.C. was discovered in September 2017.

The lower courts transferred the case to common pleas after the initial hearing and the trial was held on March 5, 2018. On January 16, 2018 an additional charge was added, Dissem Photo/Film of Child Sex Acts (18 § 6312 §§C), a second degree felony which has a penalty of up to a decade in prison. His final charges were 20 counts of possession of child pornography, 2 counts of dissemination of child pornography, and 1 count of criminal use of a phone.

On March 14, 2018, R.C. did not show up to his scheduled Special Plea Court, and an active bench warrant was put out for his arrest. At that hearing, he was due to enter a plea and be sentenced for his 22 charges.

Death
R.C. Fox "passed away suddenly" on March 14, 2018. Within the furry fandom, his death was reported as a suicide, and linked to a story of an unidentified decedent discovered in a car, as reported in the Times Online (The Beaver County Times). Speculation into his motivations included inability to appeal a conviction or prove his innocence on the basis of proving his innocence, not wanting to jeopardize his mother's career as a schoolteacher, remorse for his actions, fear of experiencing violence while in prison, and cyberbullying from members of the furry fandom. In Oct. 2017, several months before his death, most or all of R.C.'s social media had been deleted or blanked.

Convention attendance

 * Anthrocon: 2001, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
 * Biggest Little Fur Con: 2017
 * FA United: 2015
 * Furnal Equinox: 2016
 * Furry Cruise 2014
 * FurReality: 2015, 2016, 2017
 * Midwest FurFest: 2014, 2015

Media

 * Mt Washington Overlook Post Gazette: 10/27/2014
 * Pittsburgh Penguins Freak Show Section: 10/30/2014
 * Pittsburgh First Night 2015: 12/31/2014
 * KISS FM 7 Springs Takeover: 1/10/2015
 * Pittsburgh Penguins Freak Show Section: 2/19/2015
 * Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show at the David Lawrence Convention Center: 3/5 and 3/12/2016
 * Steel City Con at the Monroeville Convention Center: 4/11/2015
 * Pittsburgh Pride Parade 2015 March: 6/14/15
 * Midland, PA 4th of July March: 7/4/15
 * Pittsburgh International Auto show : 2/13/2016
 * Guest judge for the Animal Rescue League's 5th Annual B*tches Ball as a local celebrity : 3/10/2016