After years of emailing violent, gender-related messages throughout the country to the ACLU, Hasbro, The Walt Disney Co., DC Comics, USA Today, the president of one university and two professors at another, a California man has been charged with threatening dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster Inc.
Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, Calif., was charged in Massachusetts’ federal district court with “transmission in interstate commerce of communications containing threats to injure the person of another”.
“We believe Hanson sent a multitude of anonymous threatening and despicable messages related to the LGBTQ community that were intended to evoke fear and division,” said Rachael Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said. The threats were serious enough to force Merriam-Webster to close its Springfield, Mass., headquarters for a week out of an abundance of caution, she said.
Hanson was arrested in California but was released on multiple conditions after a court appearance in the Central District of California, prosecutors said.
Hanson faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI special agent.
The federal charge alleges that on Oct. 2-8, 2021, Hanson posted multiple threatening messages on Merriam-Webster’s website after the dictionary added a definition for a girl: “a person whose gender identity is female.”
One comment posted on Oct. 2 said, “The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.” And a threat posted on Oct. 8 said, “The moron who created this fake definition should be hunted down and shot. I am sick and tired of these cultural Marxists denying science and destroying the English Language. Merriam-Webster headquarters should be shot up and bombed. Boys aren’t girls.”
Also posted on Oct. 2, 2021, was this: “You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have … altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”
Also posted on Oct. 8, 2021, was this message: “I am going to shoot up and bomb your offices for lying and creating fake definitions in order to pander to the tranny mafia. Boys aren’t girls, and girls aren’t boys… I will assassinate your top editor.”
All four messages were traced to accounts registered to Hanson’s mother, Lauren Zack, with whom he lives.
Threats stopped for awhile
FBI investigators interviewed Hanson in 2015 at a California medical center while in the presence of his mother and a medical psychiatric resident.
According to the FBI, Hanson said he uses various websites that provide anonymous IP addresses.
He also admitted sending an email in 2014 to an Irish politician that stated, among other things, “Hope you enjoy getting raped by savage Muslims when Irelands falls to sharia law.”
Hanson said he regretted making statements online that threatened murder and rape. He “repeatedly expressed remorse and indicated that he promised to refrain from sending any threatening remarks via social media or online in the future,” the FBI reported.
He kept that promise for several years, but the threats started again two years ago.
Ÿ The American Civil Liberties Union posted a message on April 19, 2020, that pertained to absentee ballots and a lawsuit in Missouri. In response the organization received an Instagram message that stated, “The ACLU is a shameless partisan hack that hates freedom, hates America. I’d like to go on a shooting spree in their offices.”
The comments were traced to an account registered to Hanson’s mother.
Ÿ A week later an employee of Land O’ Lakes, an agricultural company headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., reported two nearly identical Instagram threats: “Lake O Lakes headquarters deserve to be shot up and bombed for turning into a cultural Marxist company that panders to political correctness.” The message was transmitted from Zack’s IP address.
Toymaker threatened
with bombs, shootings
Ÿ An employee at the Hasbro toy company headquarters in Rhode Island received two threatening messages on Feb. 25, 2021, that included, “I am going to shoot up and bomb your headquarters for pandering to the tranny freaks. Mr. Potato Head is male.”
FBI agents interviewed Hanson and his mother on March 4, 2021, about the Hasbro threats. Hanson admitted he sent both messages but did not intend to carry out the threat, the investigators said. He also said he had difficulty controlling what he posted online when he became “angry”.
Ÿ IGN, a video game and entertainment media public company, posted on Instagram in October 2021, “DC’s New Superman Jon Kent Comes Out as Bisexual.” Subsequently a writer for DC Comics received threatening communications via Facebook Messenger from Jeremy Hanson.
The messages claimed the sender would “kill you” and “rape your wife and decapitate her, then blow up DC Comics headquarters” for “making Superman gay.”
FBI agents interviewed Hanson on Oct. 27, 2021, in the company of his mother at their home in California. He said he “understands the threatening remarks he makes online are illegal, but he is unable to control himself or his emotions.”
Ÿ Threatening emails were sent to a New York rabbi on July 12, 2020, declaring he ought to be shot, he and his family “should be gassed” and his synagogue ought to be “shot up and bombed”; to a Black alderwoman in Madison, Wis., on Aug. 8, 2021, suggesting that she “should be lynched” because of her role in the removal of a controversial stone; to two professors at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 6, 2022; and to the president of the University of North Texas at Denton, Texas, on March 3, 2022, who was told, “You ought to be shot in the head and have your offices set on fire for supporting child genital mutilation and transgenderism.”
All of the messages were traced to Hanson or to an IP address registered to his mother.
Ÿ The chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Co. received threatening emails on March 10 and 11, 2022, and the company received a bomb threat on March 16, 2022. The emails were traced to Zack’s IP address, and the bomb threat was placed from a telephone registered to Hanson.
Ÿ Threatening communications also were sent to USA Today on March 18, 2022.
Ÿ A death threat sent to the Eau Claire, Wis., Area School Board on March 21, 2022, was traced to a Sony PlayStation that Zack bought for Hanson.
Mom says Hanson
autistic, immature
During interviews with Hanson’s mother on May 27, 2020, March 2, 2021, and again on March 12, 2022, FBI agents said they were told:
Ÿ Because of stresses related to the coronavirus coupled with recent changes to his medications, Hanson may be lashing out online. Zack insisted her son poses no threat to the community because he is reclusive, she supervises him, and he has no access to weapons.
Ÿ Hanson is fixated on transgender issues and is prone to what Zack described as “verbal hyperbole.”
Ÿ Hanson suffers from developmental disorders, including autism, and is “unable to reason through the consequences of making statements that could be construed as threats.”
Zack also told the agents that Hanson had the maturity of someone between the ages of 13 and 16, and that her son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, and that he takes several psychiatric prescriptions.
Conditions imposed
for pre-trial release
U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Early allowed Hanson to be released from custody on a $25,000 surety bond posted April 29 by his mother, Lauren Zack, but imposed several conditions. Hanson must:
-- avoid all contact, directly or indirectly, including by electronic means, anyone who is a witness in the investigation and any entities referenced in affidavits filed in the case;
-- possess no firearms or ammunition;
-- submit to a mental evaluation;
-- wear a location-monitoring bracelet;
-- submit to home detention;
-- have no possession or access to “any device that offers internet access”;
-- refrain from sending any “threatening communications”;
-- surrender any passports (Hanson told the judge he has no passport).