I had heard about this, but never paid much attention to the details.

Not surprising honestly....it was one of those "oh shit" moments in the anarcho-crypto community back in the 90s - people were scared to host his essays or even publicly talk too much about him because of the fear of reprisal, so it never really got the attention it deserved, he was very much a victim of his time....had this happen 10 years later he would probably received much more public support.