Death Threats

I had one.

We were doing a story on Coach X committing [said felony]. We had everything. Victim's family, documents, couple of witnesses, comments from local municipalities and bureaucracies. We needed Coach X's comment. He knew it was coming.

We call him, and he goes fucking ape shit. I really didn't care. I expected it. And, it really didn't matter what he had to say. We just had to give him an opportunity.

Later that afternoon, we get a document from a previous Freedom of Info Act we submitted. It wasn't terribly important. But, it did give some chronology to the story. So, I pull the story from the budget and from the paper.

So, we spend the next two days reworking the story to give it proper chronology. He calls me several times. He yells at me. Screams at me. Tells me he's going to "own [my f'ing] house." I expected it. Big deal. Go for it, Dude. Good luck.

The last one, the day before it was to appear in the paper, was a real one. You would recognize it if it happened to you. There was pure, unadulterated desperation in his voice. The kind when you grit your teeth. Anger. Pure anger. The Dirtbag was serious.

Me: "We're running it."
Dirtbag: "You're mother [f'ing] dead. And I know where your family goes to church."
(My wife and I had one daughter at the time.)
Me: "You just made the second biggest mistake of your life."
Dirtbag: "What are you going to do about it?"
Me: "Goodbye."

Walked over to the Managing Editor's office. He called the Editor. We all called the FBI.

He lost everything. The Dirtbag pleads to a lesser charge on the felony. But, he pleads no contest to "disseminating death threat(s) over phone lines."

(Nothing about the death threats appeared in the paper. Not until Metro covered the conclusion and complete sentencing was revealed.)

That was nine years ago. He gets out in June, I'm told.
He would have been out a long time ago had he not made that phone call. Dirtbag.

 

Never been threatened physically. A couple of lawsuit threats along the way, though.

Those never really amount to anything.

 

I had a frat boy threaten to punch me in the face because of an article I wrote. I don't think that's unusual, though.

 

I've had it happen a couple times... The first one, I kind of nervously laughed off, and then when I got a few more that same day, I alerted my editors. I don't know if I ever truly thought anything would happen, but it definitely gets your attention.

I have friends in this business who have gotten calls saying, "I know where your son goes to X school and you had better keep your eyes on him..."

Fortunately, I haven't had any of those.

 

One of the stranger ones I got came a few years ago when I reported that it was likely that a certain player was going to declare for the NBA draft.

This was hardly a surprise and I was hardly the only one to report it, but some asshole on one of the school's message boards got hold of my phone number and posted it and I got 200+ calls in the next 24 hours from people. Some just screamed fanboy comments into the phone but one guy told me he was a booster from the school and he knew how to take care of guys who "spread shit like you do..." He then told me he carries a shotgun in his truck.

That was a fun day...

 

Folks, that's why Jones is where he is and the rest of us ... aren't. That sentence says it all.

 

Death threats or similar more heinous retaliations are considered de rigeur my patient clientele. My home address and phone number remain unlisted and the hospital knows not to release the information under penalty of death. Fortunately cell phones allow communication without revealing location.

 

Oh, come on, you could be in Canada too.

 

I wasn't aware of this. So doctors get a lot of heat from unhappy relatives and such?

Is it more commone in the ER or surgery practices?

It's only happened like twice in 20 years on ER.

 

During my days as an "Internet columnist" I received death threats all the time. The funniest being a guy asking me for my address. He said he was going to kick my ass and kill me, and if I had any balls, I would tell him where I lived so he could come over. I told him to give me his address, I would come over to his house, and we could talk about it like men in his front yard. His reply was, "Nice one, fag!"

Technically, this wasn't a death threat, but I missed a volleyball game due to my brother getting in an accident at work. He almost died. Word traveled around the office and people called in and complained about the game not getting covered. I go to the same school to cover a game a week later and had someone screaming "Hey jerk, how's your brother" in a loud, sarcastic voice as I walked past the stands. I turned around and a bunch of parents sat there smirking.

 

I had two after reporting a specific story about a coach. Funny thing was the fans hated me for it and the coach was the source. ;D

Anyways we took them very serious, turned them in and my company put my family at a hotel and got me protection for four days until they felt the authorities had it handled. Very scary, not so much for me but my family. Very specific threats about my home and family. Sad.