Chuck Palahniuk Rampage (a public Christmas party involving pranks and drunkenness) in Portland, Oregon. His participation in the Society inspired some of the events in his writings, both fictional and non-fictional. Most notably, he used the Cacophony Society as the basis for Project Mayhem in "Fight Club". In May 1999, Palahniuk's father and a woman the father was dating were murdered by the woman's ex-partner. Palahniuk was asked to help determine the sentence for the man who killed his father; he asked for the death penalty. Palahniuk came out as gay after an interview with Karen Valby, a reporter for "Entertainment Weekly".
Chuck Palahniuk his father, Fred Palahniuk, had started dating a woman named Donna Fontaine, whom he had met through a personal ad under the title "Kismet". Her former boyfriend, Dale Shackelford, had previously been imprisoned for sexual abuse, and had vowed to kill Fontaine as soon as he was released from prison. Palahniuk believes that, using a personal ad, Fontaine was looking for "the biggest man she could find" to protect her from Shackelford, and Palahniuk's father qualified. After his release, Shackelford followed Fontaine and the senior Palahniuk to Fontaine's home in Kendrick, Idaho after they had gone out for a date.