Legal Insurrection has a follow up story on a threatening anti-semitic note left on the porch of a college professor. The police have no leads, no suspects and investigation continues. A photo of the offending note was provided and is here: Exclusive-photo-of-antisemitic-note-left-at-Oberlin-College-professors-porch.

First some background. I am a retired police officer with thirty years on the job, fifteen in investigations. I have never been assigned to a unit that dealt regularly with questioned documents or domestic or bias violence issues. My exposure to such investigations was both incidental and occasional.

Now some background on Oberlin College. The school is in the middle of a series of protests surrounding the arrests of three students. One student sparked the incident by trying to shoplift a bottle of wine. When he resisted a citizen arrest, with violence, he turned a low grade misdemeanor into a felony (robbery). Two accomplices were arrested when they came to his aid, in trying to resist arrest. The shop and employees are being vilified for not allowing their property to be stolen. All the defendants are black, so the stolen wine has no bearing on the case, it is all about skin color. BLM is involved and has called for boycotts of the shop. These have been less than successful. Apparently groups from the “town” have mounted counter protests.

Back to the note. My information is dated and may no longer hold true. But the FBI Behavioral Science Unit first ran across a newsprint cutout in the context of a threat while investigating a Munchausen by Proxy case in the 1980’s. The newsprint cutout note may have been used in other crimes; extortion, kidnapping, robbery and was certainly a favorite with English mystery novelists and Hollywood screenwriters. The Behavioral Science Unit could not find a single instance where the cutout note had been used  to terrorize or threaten a personal attack. If this still holds true the likelihood is that threat and the note are fraudulent.

Munchausen is named after a hypochondriac who went around feigning illness and seeking treatment. Invariablely the doctors would try a variety of treatments, all to no avail. In the meantime the victim would be the center of attention.

Munchausen by proxy introduces the parent as the heroic victim trying to save their sick child. It doesn’t have to be a parent, Genene Jones an LVN in Texas is suspected of killing over forty infants in her efforts to”save” them. Transgender-munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy-and-child-abuse-same-side-of-the-coin

This may be a third variation on the theme, I’ll call it “Munchausen as Political Theater”.  A-tale-of-two-dissidents, tells the story of how student dissidents suffered at Brown University because a speaker that did not represent their viewpoint was allowed to speak. I don’t know if the professor at Oberlin had anything to do with the ongoing protests. The professor is not named, but small school, small protest movement I wonder if there is a relationship between the boycott and the note, that is not stated. 

Some care about the cause, while others suffer for the cause. These can be tough cases to prove. The offender/victim often denies any responsibility even when confronted with video evidence of their involvement.

Experience shows that those with a terroristic bent attack symbols or institutions. It is more likely that a Synagogue will be the target of a terroristic act rather than a Unitarian Church. The trick is identifying the right Synagogue. To telegraph a specific location ahead of time is to lessen the odds of success. Given the observations in the original article coupled with the nature of Munchausen’s, a crime may have been committed here, just not the one receiving all the press.