The Parkland shooting suspect is getting fan mail, money, and sexual pictures in jail
(Photo: tfund)
Nikolas Cruz, who is charged with 17 counts of murder for the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., is getting fan mail, sexually suggestive photographs of young women, money, and more sent to jail.
According to the Sun Sentinal, which obtained copies of some of the letters, the 19-year-old is âbeing showered with attentionâ while being held at the Broward County jail. Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein estimated that Cruz has received between 100 and 200 pieces in the mail since he arrived in mid-February. âIn my 40 years as public defender, Iâve never seen this many letters to a defendant. Everyone now and then gets a few, but nothing like this,â he told the paper.Â
While the jail, which screens all incoming missives (minus legal documents), has read Cruz some of the religious letters, Finkelstein noted that âwe have not and will not read him the fan letters or share the photos of scantily-clad teenage girls.â
Cruz currently has about $800 in his commissary account, and Finkelstein shared that this has been filled, in part, by his fanbase. To raise funds, some supporters have gone so far as to create merchandise, including a $2 purple bracelet with the words âJustice for Nikâ and T-shirts that read âI stand with Nikolas Cruz.â
(Photo: Ebay)
However for Finkelstein, itâs the letters that shake him up the most because âthey are written by regular, everyday teenage girls from across the nation. ⊠That scares me. Itâs perverted.â Finkelstein added that he worries âeveryday boys and girls are starting to view him in an elevated way, looking up to his fame and notoriety.â
Gaining this celebrity status most likely served as one of Cruzâs motivators for perpetuating the massacre. âThis love for notoriety and the desire to get it by being an anti-hero or villain goes back to Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James, and Jack the Ripper,â Sherry Hamby, PhD, a research professor of psychology at Sewanee, the University of the South, and the founding editor of the American Psychological Associationâs journal Psychology of Violence, told Yahoo Lifestyle.
âThere are lots of figures from our past that have gone down in history in this way and proven that itâs a successful way to go down in history,â Hamby explained. âThe desire to have fame in and of itself is not unusual or pathological, but thereâs definitely this subgroup of the population who want to get it any way they can, and violence is not off the table for them.â
The media, Yahoo included, is partly to blame for the accused shooterâs fame. A problem resulting from reporting on mass shootings is, according to Hamby, that the tragedies have been proven to act âlike an infectious disease, and have elements of whatâs known as social contagion.â Unfortunately, one of the side-effects of so much attention is exposure to high-risk, vulnerable youth. And for those who are experiencing a lot of rejection, alienation, and family problems, associating with figures like Cruz can have a âtitillatingâ effect. While most individuals respond to tragedies like the one at Parkland with horror, distress, or frustration, a person psychologically at risk can yield a completely different response.Â
âItâs just hard to even begin to express how different their reaction could be,â Hamby noted. âThey see this, and it looks like power, a way of showing everybody. It may remind them of things theyâve seen in other violent media or video games and is now made real to them, and they might have a very positive response.â
Research is starting to emerge revealing how important it is, even in milder cases, how to disperse information during events like mass shootings, Hamby said, adding, âYou have to be careful in how you talk about this so it doesnât cause some to fantasize and project themselves into the world of the bad guy.â
Additional reporting by Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy.Â
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