Terrified mother discovers crank letters came from son
When Marie Cacavio’s life was threatened she never guessed her own son was behind the plot.
Last April 5 she noticed a piece of paper in a milk bottle on her porch. When she pulled it out she found it was a note addressed to her. The unfamiliar, scribbled handwriting made vague threats about how she was going to be hurt. Later in the day another note was stuffed into her mailbox. « I was suddenly terrified, » she said.
Marie couldn’t understand why anyone would want to frighten her, and she didn’t realize she was going to spend the next 10 days receiving similar threats.
Marie called the police and told them someone was sending her anonymous letters, but since she had no enemies, she couldn’t understand who was threatening her.
For several days the notes kept turning up in unexpected places — stuffed under her door, in her grocery order, on her bedroom window sill. The police told her the letters were probably just the work of some crank, but suggested she move away until they caught the criminal. So Marie packed for herself and her 14-year-old boy, Thomas, and moved from their Hamilton, New Jersey home to stay with relatives.
But the notes poured in at the new address, and that was the first clue the police had. Marie hadn’t told anyone where she was going, and Thomas said he hadn’t either.
The police went to Thomas’ high school principal and received permission to open his locker. They compared the handwriting in the threatening letters to his classroom notes. The samples matched, so they went to talk to Thomas. He admitted sending the letters.
« I only did it to scare her, » he said. « I didn’t mean to commit a crime. But after she got so scared by the first ones, I decided to keep it up. »
Thomas was released in his parents’ custody pending action by juvenile authorities. « It was only a boy’s prank, » said Marie, « but it nearly gave me heart failure. I hope the authorities aren’t too hard on him. »

Midnight, May 24, 1965.

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La mère canadienne et son enfant, 1967.

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La mère canadienne et son enfant, 1967.

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