Celephais
12-21-2007, 11:38 AM
http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-threat1221.artdec21,0,3206890.story?coll=hc_tab01_ layoutA Frightening Obsession
21-Year-Old Gets 10 Years In Prison For Threatening Letters To Former Classmate
By LYNNE TUOHY | Courant Staff Writer December 21, 2007 BRIDGEPORT — - The first time Anthony Perone's mother ever heard him talk about a girl, it was to ask if she had saved his elementary school class pictures. In them was a girl he was obsessed with in third grade.
The obsession never faded.
The first time the now 21-year-old recluse ventured from his rural Minnesota home to a store, it was to buy an assault rifle. The first shots he fired were not bullets, but anonymous letters to the obsession of his life. They contained hateful words and depicted horror — sketches of her severed head in his hands. He told her she should "NEVER sleep sound again. I'm coming for you."
Related links
Perone Letter 2 (http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-perone2-pdf,0,3342673.acrobat?coll=hc_tab01_layout)
Perone Letter 1 (http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-perone1-pdf,0,3014992.acrobat?coll=hc_tab01_layout)
They came together Thursday in a Bridgeport federal courtroom, where Perone's threats to massacre her, her family and other grade-school classmates were given great credibility by U.S. District Judge Janet Hall. The diminutive Perone was sentenced to an extraordinary 10 years in prison for threats that involved no overt acts of violence.
But this was a case in which everyone was reading between the lines.
Perone, who had never traveled anywhere but from Bridgeport at age 15 to Minnesota six years ago with his mentally ill parents, had packed a suitcase in the spring of 2006 with clothing and machetes honed to razor sharpness.
He had filled a backpack with ammunition and details of his victim's location, and of her grandmother's Bridgeport home, where he had sent the letters. Other entries in a journal spoke of his obsession and resentment and figments of his imagination. To date, his terrified victim can recall no slight in elementary school that would have triggered his hatred. In truth, she could not recall him, even upon learning his name and seeing his photograph.
Yet, chillingly, he could recount her favorite Christmastime movie, her love of swimming, a play on a kickball field, the boy on whom she showered her attention in third grade.
Thursday, she remained baffled and terrified by it all.
She had been seated in a back row of the courtroom throughout the proceeding. Perone had never turned his head to look at the spectators.
Between heaving sobs on the witness stand — with Perone voluntarily absent from the courtroom because she feared him seeing what she looks like as a 20-year-old — the victim said she is convinced he will stalk her to the end.
"He listed other people in the class I recognize," she said of his letters. "He drew the third- and fourth-grade classrooms to a T," she said. Everything rung a bell but who he was. He knew my favorite Christmas movie, who I sat next to, who I was friends with. I was scared because this person remembered everything about third and fourth grade and me, and I had no clue who he was."
As Perone emerged from his self-imposed exile to further his threat by buying a gun, he plunged her unwillingly into the life of exile as well. She said she quit her job and school, seldom left her home and would call her mother each time she returned home so her mother could watch her walk from her car to the door. The vivacious young woman had reverted to child, and was pained by the anxiety those who loved her were suffering as well.
Any time she did venture out, she had a calling tree of numbers to dial to confirm she had reached her destination safely or was moving to another.
"It's like I'm 5 years old again and having to mark every move I make," she said tearfully. "I limit who I talk to because you never know. I don't even hardly turn on my computer that my grandparents bought me, because of the Internet. You don't know what kind of sick people are out there."
Her fear of Perone, she said, doesn't abate, even though he's been incarcerated for 18 months. She said she believes his obsession is so great that "I don't think he's going away." She is convinced he will return again, but the next time without warning.
"I don't think he's going to write letters the next time," she said.
What stood between Perone and potential tragedy for his victims and headlines reminiscent of the school shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech were a stalwart family and a veteran U.S. Postal Service investigator named Thomas Lambert Jr., who took the threats seriously and obtained a search warrant from the Fairmont, Minn., home where Perone lived with his parents.
In Perone's sentencing memorandum, his attorney described his parents as both suffering "disabling medical and emotional problems." His father is on antipsychotic medication, and his mother suffers from a panic disorder and depression. Perone himself was diagnosed by federal prison psychologists as having a personality disorder and posing a "moderate to high risk" to the safety of others.
Perone had intended his letters to be anonymous. But when he gave them to his mother to mail for him, she thought she was doing her son a favor by adding his return address to them. (heheh, :rofl: ) This gave federal investigators a huge jump start.
In testimony Thursday, Lambert described the home as "deplorable," and Perone's room as "utterly disgusting" — littered with food waste and reeking of the urine filling a plastic bucket that served as Perone's toilet.
The room also was rife with journals that deepened Lambert's perception of Perone's hatred of the young girl and his intent to commit violence. It already was "by far" the worst mail threat case he had investigated in more than 20 years. But the packed suitcase, long gun and backpack of ammunition sealed his conviction that Perone was prepared to commit mass murder.
"All these writings, the actual weapons, it appeared in my professional opinion this was going to happen," Lambert said.
The journal entries included scribblings like, "Death to people," "Killing is my thing" and shopping lists that included a mask, gloves, a grappling hook and handgun. His wish list included an "AK-47." He also wanted "shoes to make me taller." He appeared in court Thursday to be barely over 5 feet tall, his prison khakis hanging off a thin frame. He stared straight ahead most of the time, answered Hall with the single word, "yes," when asked if he had conferred with his attorney, Public Defender Paul Thomas, and understood what was going on. He declined the invitation to speak. Thomas said he had expressed remorse in conversations with him and would take it all back "if he could."
In his second letter addressed to the victim in the spring of 2006, Perone warned in broken sentences that she was at the point in her life where everything changes.
"For 20 years you lived a rich life with everything. Money, family, being popular. It's now gonna end. Your gonna learn about suffering and having nothing. Pain you feel. Fear. Being alive. Prepare yourself."
The family has lived with the threats, and it has been painful. The victim's grandmother testified that, after receiving the letters, she had deadbolts and peep holes installed on her doors and caller ID on her phone. She had panic attacks if a strange car was in the neighborhood and recurring nightmares of walking into her home and up the steps to her kitchen only to find Perone seated at the table and her granddaughter's severed head resting on it.
"I'm convinced the next time this animal is released, we won't be getting any of these letters. He'll just be here," she testified. She is almost 73.
"As long as that man's breathing, I'll never be the same. I'm convinced in my mind he's never going to leave us. I believe he's going to come after us again. I can't find the words. You have to walk in our shoes to know."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Reynolds said the Perone case "is the kind of case that keeps you up at night" and noted that the extended victim's family is still suffering.
"In some ways, Mr. Perone succeeded in one of his threats: 'Never sleep sound again. I'm coming.' The nightmare for them continues. They are living their lives worried," Reynolds said.
21-Year-Old Gets 10 Years In Prison For Threatening Letters To Former Classmate
By LYNNE TUOHY | Courant Staff Writer December 21, 2007 BRIDGEPORT — - The first time Anthony Perone's mother ever heard him talk about a girl, it was to ask if she had saved his elementary school class pictures. In them was a girl he was obsessed with in third grade.
The obsession never faded.
The first time the now 21-year-old recluse ventured from his rural Minnesota home to a store, it was to buy an assault rifle. The first shots he fired were not bullets, but anonymous letters to the obsession of his life. They contained hateful words and depicted horror — sketches of her severed head in his hands. He told her she should "NEVER sleep sound again. I'm coming for you."
Related links
Perone Letter 2 (http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-perone2-pdf,0,3342673.acrobat?coll=hc_tab01_layout)
Perone Letter 1 (http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-perone1-pdf,0,3014992.acrobat?coll=hc_tab01_layout)
They came together Thursday in a Bridgeport federal courtroom, where Perone's threats to massacre her, her family and other grade-school classmates were given great credibility by U.S. District Judge Janet Hall. The diminutive Perone was sentenced to an extraordinary 10 years in prison for threats that involved no overt acts of violence.
But this was a case in which everyone was reading between the lines.
Perone, who had never traveled anywhere but from Bridgeport at age 15 to Minnesota six years ago with his mentally ill parents, had packed a suitcase in the spring of 2006 with clothing and machetes honed to razor sharpness.
He had filled a backpack with ammunition and details of his victim's location, and of her grandmother's Bridgeport home, where he had sent the letters. Other entries in a journal spoke of his obsession and resentment and figments of his imagination. To date, his terrified victim can recall no slight in elementary school that would have triggered his hatred. In truth, she could not recall him, even upon learning his name and seeing his photograph.
Yet, chillingly, he could recount her favorite Christmastime movie, her love of swimming, a play on a kickball field, the boy on whom she showered her attention in third grade.
Thursday, she remained baffled and terrified by it all.
She had been seated in a back row of the courtroom throughout the proceeding. Perone had never turned his head to look at the spectators.
Between heaving sobs on the witness stand — with Perone voluntarily absent from the courtroom because she feared him seeing what she looks like as a 20-year-old — the victim said she is convinced he will stalk her to the end.
"He listed other people in the class I recognize," she said of his letters. "He drew the third- and fourth-grade classrooms to a T," she said. Everything rung a bell but who he was. He knew my favorite Christmas movie, who I sat next to, who I was friends with. I was scared because this person remembered everything about third and fourth grade and me, and I had no clue who he was."
As Perone emerged from his self-imposed exile to further his threat by buying a gun, he plunged her unwillingly into the life of exile as well. She said she quit her job and school, seldom left her home and would call her mother each time she returned home so her mother could watch her walk from her car to the door. The vivacious young woman had reverted to child, and was pained by the anxiety those who loved her were suffering as well.
Any time she did venture out, she had a calling tree of numbers to dial to confirm she had reached her destination safely or was moving to another.
"It's like I'm 5 years old again and having to mark every move I make," she said tearfully. "I limit who I talk to because you never know. I don't even hardly turn on my computer that my grandparents bought me, because of the Internet. You don't know what kind of sick people are out there."
Her fear of Perone, she said, doesn't abate, even though he's been incarcerated for 18 months. She said she believes his obsession is so great that "I don't think he's going away." She is convinced he will return again, but the next time without warning.
"I don't think he's going to write letters the next time," she said.
What stood between Perone and potential tragedy for his victims and headlines reminiscent of the school shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech were a stalwart family and a veteran U.S. Postal Service investigator named Thomas Lambert Jr., who took the threats seriously and obtained a search warrant from the Fairmont, Minn., home where Perone lived with his parents.
In Perone's sentencing memorandum, his attorney described his parents as both suffering "disabling medical and emotional problems." His father is on antipsychotic medication, and his mother suffers from a panic disorder and depression. Perone himself was diagnosed by federal prison psychologists as having a personality disorder and posing a "moderate to high risk" to the safety of others.
Perone had intended his letters to be anonymous. But when he gave them to his mother to mail for him, she thought she was doing her son a favor by adding his return address to them. (heheh, :rofl: ) This gave federal investigators a huge jump start.
In testimony Thursday, Lambert described the home as "deplorable," and Perone's room as "utterly disgusting" — littered with food waste and reeking of the urine filling a plastic bucket that served as Perone's toilet.
The room also was rife with journals that deepened Lambert's perception of Perone's hatred of the young girl and his intent to commit violence. It already was "by far" the worst mail threat case he had investigated in more than 20 years. But the packed suitcase, long gun and backpack of ammunition sealed his conviction that Perone was prepared to commit mass murder.
"All these writings, the actual weapons, it appeared in my professional opinion this was going to happen," Lambert said.
The journal entries included scribblings like, "Death to people," "Killing is my thing" and shopping lists that included a mask, gloves, a grappling hook and handgun. His wish list included an "AK-47." He also wanted "shoes to make me taller." He appeared in court Thursday to be barely over 5 feet tall, his prison khakis hanging off a thin frame. He stared straight ahead most of the time, answered Hall with the single word, "yes," when asked if he had conferred with his attorney, Public Defender Paul Thomas, and understood what was going on. He declined the invitation to speak. Thomas said he had expressed remorse in conversations with him and would take it all back "if he could."
In his second letter addressed to the victim in the spring of 2006, Perone warned in broken sentences that she was at the point in her life where everything changes.
"For 20 years you lived a rich life with everything. Money, family, being popular. It's now gonna end. Your gonna learn about suffering and having nothing. Pain you feel. Fear. Being alive. Prepare yourself."
The family has lived with the threats, and it has been painful. The victim's grandmother testified that, after receiving the letters, she had deadbolts and peep holes installed on her doors and caller ID on her phone. She had panic attacks if a strange car was in the neighborhood and recurring nightmares of walking into her home and up the steps to her kitchen only to find Perone seated at the table and her granddaughter's severed head resting on it.
"I'm convinced the next time this animal is released, we won't be getting any of these letters. He'll just be here," she testified. She is almost 73.
"As long as that man's breathing, I'll never be the same. I'm convinced in my mind he's never going to leave us. I believe he's going to come after us again. I can't find the words. You have to walk in our shoes to know."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Reynolds said the Perone case "is the kind of case that keeps you up at night" and noted that the extended victim's family is still suffering.
"In some ways, Mr. Perone succeeded in one of his threats: 'Never sleep sound again. I'm coming.' The nightmare for them continues. They are living their lives worried," Reynolds said.