Secret Admirer

You might remember a few weeks back that a death threat was delivered to Wisconsin lawmakers. I wrote about it at the time; it was a very sweet, loving message:

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we've had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it's going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it's a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn't leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so "high" on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won't tell you all of them because that's just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it's necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We Will "get rid of" (in which I mean kill) you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel that it's worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible andsay goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!

Some very nice touches there. Well, now we know the author of that particular love note:

A 26-year-old woman was charged Thursday with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts for allegedly making email threats against Wisconsin lawmakers during the height of the battle over Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill.

Katherine R. Windels of Cross Plains was named in a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Criminal Court. According to the criminal complaint, Windels allegedly sent an email threat to State Sen. Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) March 9. Later that evening, she allegedly sent another email to 15 Republican legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).

The report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is pretty deadpan:

The subject line of the second email was: "Atten: Death Threat!!!! Bomb!!!" In that email, she purportedly wrote, "Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your families will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks."

"I hope you have a good time in hell," she allegedly wrote in the lengthy email in which she purportedly listed scenarios in which the legislators and their families would die, including bombings and by "putting a nice little bullet in your head."

According to the criminal complaint, Windels told investigators “I sent out emails that I was disgusted and very upset by what they were doing.”

Well, I guess "very upset" is one way of putting it. I would also suspect that we could have the J-S reporter drop the "alleged" business, but perhaps she just sent it out and it was some other criminal mastermind who actually wrote the thoughts. Or maybe they took turns. But I digress.

The internet is a remarkable thing, because it makes it very easy to learn things about people. So what do we know about Ms. Windels? Well, you can pull up this site and learn the following -- she apparently graduated from Madison Area Technical College in 2003 and has a psychology background. Abnormal psychology, apparently, but again I digress.

But you know what's really nifty about Windels? Her work history includes "Wexford Head Start" and the "Red Caboose." Do you know what the Red Caboose is? It's a day care center. That's right, folks -- she is someone who wants to educate young children.

At a certain level, I almost feel sorry for this obviously disturbed young woman. She's 26 years old and should have a long life in front of her, but she's committed a serious offense and is going to have a difficult time finding a way to escape her past. At the same time, I don't feel sorry for her at all. She's let hatred blind her to the implications of her actions. And I sure the hell wouldn't want her working in a day care center.

There's a real sickness in the heart of a lot of people. I wrote earlier today about haters and this young woman has a great deal of hate welling within her. You wonder what happened to her along the way. According to the online profile, Katherine Windels has lived in Madison, Cross Plains (a lovely little town west of Madison), Jericho, VT and in our area, in Inver Grove Heights. I've not been to Jericho, but it appears to be a lovely little town like Cross Plains. Inver Grove Heights is a comfortable, middle class suburban enclave. It's difficult to imagine that this young woman has ever faced any real hardship, at least financially. Something else has to account for the hate that seems to have creeped into her heart, a hate so all-consuming that she would threaten to put a "nice little bullet" in someone's head. I hope that someday she'll be able to move beyond the hatred she has now. But I also think a little stay in Taycheedah is in order, too.