I’m a moderator of a closed mailing list for officers of local alumni associations. Somehow I ended up angering this random crazy man via email who then threatened me. It ended up with the random crazy man calling me a jerk, telling me to watch my back, calling me an insulting little twit, and other fine things. The random crazy man is not just random, I’ve since found out that he was a past president of a prominent local alumni association.

I’ve forwarded the threatening email to the Portland Police Bureau.

All I did was post the following:

Subject: Does anyone know <innocent person> of the <alumni association>?
He is requesting to join <our mailing list>

His first reply, to the entire mailing list, was:

He’s the President of <alumni association>, jerk. Just say “Welcome, <innocent person>”.

The mailing list is for club officers of alumni clubs of Ivy League colleges (plus MIT and Stanford, et al) so I didn’t expect this kind of response. All we ever post are book signings, singing performances, lectures, etc. that local alumni associations are hosting. It’s really to let other clubs know about events. So my reply was:

Well, I’ve added <innocent person>, and removed <rude person>@<email place>.com.
Thanks for the feedback.

<rude person>@<email place>.com is the email for <rude person>. I didn’t know <rude person>’s real name until after the whole email exchange.

He then sent me the threatening email:

arrogant functionary. we’ll meet some time. watch your back.

Of course, receiving such an email made me defensive (and not too wise) and I replied:

Nice threat. I’d report this to the police but I figure you’re a coward.

I reconsidered and forwarded his threatening email to the Portland Police Bureau, as well as his ISP.

His final reply was:

Couldn’t get into med school….can’t get a good job….time to get your life together young man.
Don’t ever send out an email asking a question like ‘Who is <innocent person>….he wants to get onto the list I
manage….. you insulting little twit. Respect your elders. You might get somewhere in life.

He emphasizes the point I don’t understand. I am the moderator of this email list. I have no idea of the affiliation of anybody wanting to join the group unless, of course, they’re affiliated with MIT (I am an alumnus, after all). I mistakenly thought I was the only moderator (I am co-moderator) and so the only way I could find out about the person joining (<innocent person>, who did nothing wrong in this entire exchange) was to ask the mailing list. How did I set this guy off?

I guess, like my friend Greg says, I’m a shit magnet.

Addendum:

The police told me that threats, verbal or written, are free speech. I kind of think that means they don’t want to do the paperwork, but whatever.