News Channel 5
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Officials: Hate Mail Sent From Cleveland To Derek Jeter
Letter Calls Him 'Traitor To His Race'
POSTED: 6:27 am EDT September 27, 2005
NEW YORK -- Yankees star Derek Jeter received a threatening letter that
reportedly warned he'd be "shot or set on fire" if he didn't stop dating
white women.
The FBI is investigating "racially threatening letters to Jeter and others
across the country," special agent Scott Wilson said Monday by phone from
Cleveland. He declined to comment further.
Jeter downplayed what he called the "stupid letter," saying he did not
perceive it as a specific threat.
The Daily News reported that the hate mail to the Yankees' 31-year-old
captain called him a "traitor to his race" for dating white women. It
warned him "to stop or he'll be shot or set on fire," the paper said in
Monday editions, quoting an unidentified law enforcement source.
Similar threatening letters denouncing interracial relationships have been
sent to other public figures in recent months, including U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Jason
Taylor and the parents of tennis star James Blake. The threats have been
traced to the Cleveland area.
Jeter, who was in Baltimore on Monday for a game against the Orioles, said
he heard about the letter two or three months ago and did not feel
threatened by it.
"It wasn't like, 'I'm going to do this to you. I'm going to do that to
you,' " Jeter said. "It was just a stupid letter. I've gotten stupid
letters before. That's basically it. Now, for some reason, it's on the
front page and it's some big, huge story."
Jeter, picked by People magazine as one of the world's most eligible
bachelors, has been linked with models, singers, actresses and athletes
of various racial and ethnic backgrounds in New York's gossip columns.
His mother is white, his father is black.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Jeter said that he
and his sister were taunted for being bi-racial while growing up in
Michigan. But he said he has never heard any racial epithets from the fans
at Yankee Stadium in his 11 seasons playing there.
The NYPD's hate crimes unit recently completed a four-month investigation
into the Jeter letter, which police said was mailed to Yankee Stadium
earlier this season. The probe's findings haven't been made public.
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/3984521/detail.html
Hate Letters Sent To Local Black Athletes
High School Students Receiving Letter
UPDATED: 12:13 pm EST December 10, 2004
CLEVELAND -- Racially-motivated letters are surfacing again, but this time
the letters are being mailed to black high school athletes, officials said.
Bob Hawk, of Cleveland's FBI, confirmed that the letters that contain a
threatening message to black athletes warning them about becoming involved
in interracial relationships are now going to high school athletes.
The letters were sent to athletes at St. Ignatius and St. Edwards high
schools. Eight letters have been received by St. Ignatius athletes and two
to St. Ed's students, NewsChannel5 reported.
Both schools are operating under a heightened level of security.
"We have contacted their parents," said Carolyn Kovach, St. Ignatius
spokeswoman. "We did that immediately when we received the letters. We
have provided them parking spaces closer to the school. We've told them if
they want a security escort to their cars that they can receive an escort.
We've told them to be more cognizant of their surroundings."
Hawk said the sentence structure and wording of these letters are very
similar in nature to the threatening letters that were sent to
professional athletes and famous people about a year ago.
Those letters had a common theme of discouraging relationships between
black men and white women. Hawk also said that the letters said that if
these relationships or dating of white women continue, black men will be
shot, castrated or set on fire.
Hawk said that a total of 60 letters are being investigated. About 30 NFL
players around the country have received the letter.
The case that involves letters being mailed nationwide is being led by the
Cleveland because most of the letters were postmarked in Cleveland.
Other letters were sent from Youngstown, Ohio, Pittsburgh and Erie, Pa.
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