Category: Administrative
Posted on: July 13, 2008 4:48 PM, by PZ Myers
Some of you may have noticed the little promise over in the left sidebar.
I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.
I'm posting without comment the worst of today's crop of email threats. Formatting will be little wacky since it is just a raw dump of the mail with headers.
From: mkroll@1800FLOWERS.com Subject: your short life Date: July 13, 2008 8:07:31 AM CDT To: myersp@morris.umn.edu Delivered-To: pzmyers@gmail.com Received: by 10.100.126.5 with SMTP id y5cs262374anc; Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:08:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.65.237.15 with SMTP id o15mr14501258qbr.56.1215954482483; Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:08:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mtain-a.tc.umn.edu (mtain-a.tc.umn.edu [134.84.119.205]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id u2si9779510pyb.16.2008.07.13.06.08.01; Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:08:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: from 1800flowers.int (mail2.800-flowers.net [205.153.87.31]) by mtain-a.tc.umn.edu (UMN smtpd) with ESMTP for ; Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:08:01 -0500 (CDT) Received: from ([10.180.1.74]) by CPNYMAIL02.1800flowers.int with ESMTP id 5202711.34123806; Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:07:31 -0400 Return-Path: Return-Path: Received-Spf: neutral (google.com: 134.84.119.205 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of mkroll@1800flowers.com) client-ip=134.84.119.205; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 134.84.119.205 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of mkroll@1800flowers.com) smtp.mail=mkroll@1800flowers.com X-Umn-Remote-Mta: [N] mail2.800-flowers.net [205.153.87.31] #+HN+NR+OF (I,-) X-Umn-Report-As-Spam: X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5 Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <900E52131BA0F248B0CB176E84D0A26E06DE335A@18f-exch01.1800flowers.int> X-Ms-Has-Attach: X-Ms-Tnef-Correlator: Thread-Topic: your short life Thread-Index: AcjkaTBIDzgwGOqkTNCCBD35Hlh9EA== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C8E4E9.68CD4469" Paul, what I would like to know is how did you even get a job at a collage. when you are obviously a moron. How would you feel if nice folks starting ranting against Fags, and atheist like yourself. well sir, you don't get to blaspheme and walk away from this. You have two choices my fucked up friend, first you can quit your job for the good of the children. Or you can get your brains beat in. I give you till the first of the month, get that resignation in cunt This e-mail, including attachments, may include confidential and/or proprietary information, and may be used only by the person or entity to which it is addressed. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or his or her authorized agent, the reader is hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by replying to this message and delete this e-mail immediately.
Professor PZ Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota Morris in the United States, has been receiving email threats for a post made on his Pharyngula blog in support of a University of Central Florida student who took a consecrated host from a Catholic Mass in protest of the church activities. The student began receiving death threats and response, Myers said it was just a "cracker" and if any of his readers could acquire some consecrated Eucharistic hosts he would treat the wafers "with profound disrespect and heinous cracker abuse, all photographed and presented here on the web." The criticism was fed in part by a press release by the Catholic League and its President Bill Donohue.
Professor PZ Myers
"It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ. We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively," Donuhue said in the press release. After consecration, the wafers become the Body of Christ, in the view of Catholics, through a process known as transubstantiation.

After the press release, Myers started receiving death threats. In response to the large number of threats, Myers began posting the entire emails, including IP information. One email in particular was sent from the work account of Melanie Kroll at 1-800-Flowers in Brookhaven, New York that told Myers: "You can quit your job for the good of the children. Or you can get your brains beat in." 

Posters on his blog contacted the company alerting them to the threat. Subsequently, after an investigation the company fired Kroll. It was later revealed that it was not her, but Charles (Chuck) Kroll, her husband, who sent the email from the default address on her computer.

Greg Laden of ScienceBlogs says that he received an email, which he believes is from Chuck Kroll. In it, Chuck confirms that Melanie was fired. He regrets sending a "moronic" email and explains how he accidentally sent it from the work account of his wife instead of his own home account, both of which are on the same computer. Chuck also accused Myers of unfairly targeting Christianity without the same critique of Islam and blames Myers for his wife's firing.

According to IDG News Service, Myers said: "This was not my intent to get somebody fired." He continued, "She apparently did something stupid, which I don't have sympathy for. I would just rather not see people getting fired over an e-mail message."