Category: threats and nastiness

FBI resolves email threat

April 3, 2018 • 1:00 pm

On February 18 I got a particularly vile email threat from a person (male, I assume) telling me the lovely things he’d do to me, involving both eye-gouging and sexual penetration. I’ve said on this site that I won’t tolerate physical threats—not to me, nor to any readers. I wasn’t seriously worried about this threat, but one never knows, and it’s a felony to threaten people over email with such violence.

I reported the two emails I got from this boor to both the University cops and the FBI, forwarding them the complete email headers.  While the University detectives proclaimed themselves unable to track the person down, the FBI came through, calling me today to say they’d found who made the threats. They also had sent an agent over to “have a talk with the person.” They couldn’t of course tell me who it was, except to say that the person was from out of state and tried to exculpate himself—again, I don’t know the sex for sure—by saying he was drunk.

The FBI said they don’t think I’ll have any trouble from this person again. Yes, I think a visit from an FBI agent would do that. Anyway, thanks, Bureau, for taking the time to track this down.

I get email threats

February 18, 2018 • 11:30 am
This is the first email I read when I got up this morning. The name and email address are surely fake, and the title of the email, oddly enough, was “Interesting paper about hybrid speciation”. I reproduce the email exactly as I got it:
Anonymous Anonymous <anonymous596268@gmail.com>
Hello,

I’m sick of religious fanatics like you trying to shove gOD down my fucking throat. I don’t even need to read your blog to figure out you’re just another Kurt Wise preaching creationism while raping innocent nigger children hypocritically. I’m hacking into the mainframe to find your address right now and when I do don’t be surprised when you wake up with a dick in your mouth and your eyes gouged out. That’s what you get when you mess with Antifa and side yourself with DRUMPF supporters you goddamned motherniggering kike.

Sincerely,
James Affleck

Now this person is clearly deranged, if for no other reason than they have no clue about my stand on creationism or my religiosity. Still, this is one of the few nasty emails that I consider a threat, though I’m not really scared.

I have the full email headers, and am inclined to report this to the authorities. But to whom? The local police? The FBI? And are there cybersleuths among the readers who might be able to track this person down from the full email header?