Threatening letter

“ Sending business letters is surely a far more hateful and slimy degree of wickedness than sending threatening letters; the man who throws grenades and torpedoes is less malicious; the Devil in red-hot hell rubs his hands with glee as he reckons up the number that go forth spreading pain and anxiety with each delivery of the post. ”

“ If a debtor has assets and there is no dispute concerning the account, he will usually pay. He may pay because you threaten him, but most people with the ability to owe money are quite impervious to threats, and although a threatening letter may seem to bring results, it can never be the best letter because on the other side of the ledger must be recorded the loss of the customer. The average writer of a collection letter usually gets to threatening something or other and quite often exposes himself to the danger of counter legal action. ”

“ Boyce went on reading.
(6) Motive. Although motive is not essential in the case of a lunatic, it is helpful with a certain type of criminal’s mental derangement. There is abundant evidence that Jackson had a fancied grievance against the late Home Secretary, who had turned down all his petitions for release from the asylum at Broadmoor. He had also sent threatening letters to Sir James.
(7) The Actual Crime. Jackson states that he followed Sir James in, after he had been to the Pillar Box in the Square to post a letter. Mrs. ”

“ Longcluse, courage is safety, and honesty the best policy. Good-night, Sir.”
“A thousand thanks, Mr. Arden. Might I ask one more favour, that you will endorse on each of these threatening letters a memorandum of the facts of this strange interview?—I mean a sentence or two, which may at any time confound this fellow, should he turn out to be a villain.” ”

“ It is generally agreed that an anonymous letter should be treated with silent contempt, and cast aside as the malicious lies of a coward who dares not say to a man’s face what he secretly commits to paper, and forces upon him. ”

“ Offence of sending letters etc. with intent to cause distress or anxiety. 1.— (1) Any person who sends to another person—
(a) a letter or other article which conveys— (i) a message which is indecent or grossly offensive; (ii) a threat; or (iii) information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender ”

“ Robbing the mail is an offence which is punished by heavy penalties. You, Lewis, were seen to take a letter from among those which Tony carried to the post-office; you, Percy, standing by and not interfering, even if you were not aiding and abetting. ”

“ We know of nothing more calculated to knock a man out of all time than a wholly unexpected and equally unwelcome communication imparted through the agency of the post. If imparted by word of mouth, he can find some relief in questioning his informant, but when coming through the medium of a letter, especially a lawyer’s letter, there is that in the cold, stiff paper, in the precise, hateful characters, as unbending, as inexorable as the very finality of Fate. ”

“ Now if you are accusing me merely for the purpose of providing me with further motives for writing to you, and only pretend to reproach me, then I am very glad to receive your criticism, and in this very letter that has now come I take to myself the whole of the kindness implied. But if you really accuse me of being in any way remiss in my duty to you, "who could be more wretched than I" [4] through the wrongdoing or negligence of letter-carriers, when I, least of all men, deserve the reproach? ”

“ If exaggeration, or, still worse, malice, guide your pen, in imparting painful subjects, or if the desire to avoid causing grief makes you violate truth to soften trying news, you are signing your name to a written falsehood, and the letter may, at some future time, rise to confront you and prove that your intelligence cannot be trusted. ”

“ He who pries into letters for one purpose, may be led to pry into them for another. When one has become accustomed to tampering with letter seals, he has broken through a powerful restraint to crime, and has laid himself yet more open to the assaults of temptation.
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Sometimes a state of things exists in a neighborhood which clearly shows that some unauthorized person is acquainted with the contents of many of the letters passing-through the post-office, before the rightful owners have received them. ”

“ The very innocent act of mailing a letter is enough to tie one into a conspiracy if the purpose of the letter is to advance a criminal plan. And we have multitudinous examples in the jurisprudence of the United States where the mailing of a letter brought one not only within the orbit of the definition of crime, but within Federal jurisdiction. ”

“ Now, a man who, to injure another, will write an anonymous letter, is, in the first place, a coward, and, in the second place, a villain. Many of these offensive anonymous letters you see in the bad newspaper have been found to be written in the editorial chair. ”

“ Where an offense is committed by means of a communication through the post-office, the sender has sometimes, as appears by the cases cited for the petitioner, been held to be punishable at the place where he mails the letter. ”

“ The offence here set out against Straughan, the mail-carrier, is substantially in the words of the statute, § 2. If any person employed in any of the departments of the post-office establishment, shall secrete, embezzle or destroy any letter, packet, bag, or mail of letters, with which he shall be intrusted, or which shall have come to his possession, and is intended to be conveyed by post, containing any bank-note, &c., such person shall, on conviction, be imprisoned, &c. ”

“ Intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress
3.— (1) No person shall, with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress to another person, by any means—
(a) use any threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour; or (b) make any threatening, abusive or insulting communication, thereby causing that other person or any other person (each referred to for the purposes of this section as the victim) harassment, alarm or distress. ”

“ He cannot hold out against a surprise. The word, by which you will know your friends, is
Counterfeit."
"Ah, ha!" thought I, "this is more like it." And moved by a sudden impulse, I hastily copied the letter into my memorandum-book, and then returning to the original, scratched out with my penknife the word northeast and carefully substituting that of southwest put the letter back into the box, in the hope that when he came to consult the envelope in his pocket (as he would be sure to do sooner or later) he would miss its contents and return to the post-office in search of it. ”

“ In criminal law, courts generally determine whether and individual’s word or actions constitute a threat by examining whether a reasonable person in the same circumstances would conclude that a threat had been made. ”

“ If I committed an error, it was in not then informing you what I had done; this, however, was an error of omission only. Before opening the letter, I had no knowledge or intimation of its contents. You say you are 'astonished' at it. I am surprised that you should express astonishment, in view of our long intimacy, and in view of the fact that I have for so many years taken out your letters from the post-office at your request, and forwarded them to you, when you were absent from Rogersville, as you were when I opened the letter. ”

“ No: on my honor I ask for no letter of yours— not a word that has been written by you or to you. That packet contains a stolen letter: a letter written by a woman to a man—a man not her husband—a letter that means disgrace, infamy—
NAPOLEON. A love letter?
LADY (bitter-sweetly) . What else but a love letter could stir up so much hate?
NAPOLEON. Why is it sent to me? To put the husband in my power,– eh?
LADY. No, no: it can be of no use to you: I swear that it will cost you nothing to give it to me. It has been sent to you out of sheer malice—solely to injure the woman who wrote it. ”

“ But don't trouble yourself. You have not the money, and I have not the letter. The letter is in my lodgings. I was not fool enough to bring it with me, and have you call a policeman to arrest me, and take it for nothing. ”

“ Of all secret crimes buried in the mystery of private life, the most disgraceful is that of breaking the seal of a letter, or of reading it surreptitiously. Every one, whoever it may be, and urged by whatever reason, who is guilty of such an act has stained his honor beyond retrieving. ”

“ Those sustaining indictments in cases similar to this hold that the term 'writing' comprehends 'letters,' and insist that, even if the general phrase 'other publication' is allowed to apply to the word, the sending or mailing a letter by one person to another is a sufficient publication to bring a letter within the statute, as is held to be the case in an action of slander and libel. ”

“ It is neither unusual nor unexpected that some people at public street meetings mutter, mill about, push, shove, or disagree, even violently, with the speaker. Indeed, it is rare where controversial topics are discussed that an outdoor crowd does not do some or all of these things. Nor does one isolated threat to assault the speaker forebode disorder. Especially should the danger be discounted where, as here, the person threatening was a man whose wife and two small children accompanied him and who, so far as the record shows, was never close enough to petitioner to carry out the threat. ”

“ At common law the employment of threats or other forms of intimidation to induce a person to enter into a contract will give the right to sue for its recision or avoidance, or to plead the special form of intimidation in answer to any action brought, or to sue for damages occasioned by entering into the contract. ”

“ I challenge my learned opponent to show me in all these instances, which are really appalling, one single expression indicating that the defendant objected to the failure to carry out his earlier threatening orders. Not a single word can be found and here, your Honors, the truth becomes so obvious that no intelligent man can ignore it. ”

“ With regard to the proposition 'that the failure to allege in some of these indictments that the letter had not been delivered to the party to whom it is directed renders the whole proceeding void,' we think it is unsound. While the purpose for which this clause was inserted in the act is not very clear, it was probably intended to repel the idea that the stealing or embezzling of such a letter after it had been carried through the mail or delivered by the letter carrier to its owner, and its purpose served, did not render the party guilty under this statute. ”

“ A refusal to grant a letter should not anger the person who asked for it, and the person who feels compelled to deny the request should give a courteous reason—there is usually such a reason—for doing so. ”

“ I have therefore been obliged to promise him that I will break our engagement and end this correspondence, and I beg that you will not make it harder for me by any protest, either in person or letter. No appeal can ever be made against a fanatic’s decision, because it is based not upon reason, but upon superstition, a sort of spiritual insanity that becomes violent when opposed. ”

“ First, a plea of "No libel": secondly, that the letter did not bear the defamatory sense imputed by the plaint: thirdly, a denial of the publication, and, fourthly, a plea of privilege. This last was evidently the real defence and was grounded upon facts which afforded some justification of Lady Wilde's bitter letter. ”

“ He, in turn, was now moved to anger. He would not have false motives imputed to him. It would be useless to talk to her while her present mood continued. But he could write, and leave the letter where it would be found. Inasmuch as he had faced the worst storm his disclosure could have aroused, there was no cowardice in resorting to a letter with such explanations as could not be brought to her mind in any other form. ”

“ So long as he threatens, I can buy off a threat—so long as he persists in a story by which he would establish a claim on me on behalf of a child whom I have every motive, as well as every reason, to disown as inheriting my blood—whatever I bestowed on himself would seem like hush-money to suppress that claim. ”

“ They that forbear threatening may win better service by that fact, for nothing so provokes carelessness and disheartens effort, as the impatience that regards a mistake as a crime, and brands an oversight as an insult. ”

“ And, for saving a default for non-appearance upon the return of the writ of quo warranto, that some person or persons be appointed and empowered, by letter of attorney, to appear and make defence until our agents may make their appearance and submission as above. ”

“ Nevertheless, about two months after the circulation of the inflammatory paper given above, amidst an almost total absence of formal complaint, and certainly without substantiation of any grievance in respect of a class, or even of individuals, a meeting of letter-carriers was held in the South Western district, and reported in the newspapers, at which “Speeches were made containing statements which the men who uttered them must have known to be false, but from the consequences of which they endeavoured to screen themselves by concealing their names.” ”

“ We may have a right to expect sympathy from our friends, but we have no right to make our letters inflictions. Letters should invariably be written cheerfully if possible, and, at least, in a tone of resignation.
An ill-tempered letter is as great a mistake as a lachrymose one. Nothing is so inexpedient as to write a letter in a fit of indignation and anger. If you must give way to your feelings, write your letter, but let it remain unposted until the next day ”