A rash of hateful letters, a source no one suspected was on the front page of the Newark Star-Ledger today, tells the story of Livingston resident Stephen Reiter. This is a guy who built a decent-sized business from nothing, $15 million in annual revenues, and has served on the town zoning board. Popular and friendly, the story has the typical neighbor quotes of “he was such a nice guy” and “I never suspected him.”
But Reiter fell into an emotional black whole after his father passed three years ago, taking drugs, going over the line with business ethics, far enough to have to sell it. He started writing hateful, nasty letters to his neighbors; since they weren’t signed and he took care not to leave fingerprints, police had a tough time figuring out the source. Livingston is such a quiet town that the cops apparently had nothing better to do and kept at it, analyzing lists of ways the recipients were connected and finally figured it out.
Big deal. Reiter was fined $500 (plus $420 š court costs) and 28 days in jail, credited as served for having done a couple of rehab stints. Of course he’s finished in Livingston.
The article is typical sensationalistic journalism. If this was worthy of the front page then they should have put much more meat on it, looking at other similar cases, finding some insights into the psychological pressures facing Reiter. None of that though, just brief who done it. Sad for the neighbors who got the letters, since it caused a number of them problems with a spouse or work, but sad for Reiter too.
BillSaysThis 