# Amateur Detectives: Does this sound like a genuine threat against this Canadian gay couple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 25, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522 "2013-07-25T21:09:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/1 "2013-07-25T21:09:27Z")
I don’t know how much this has been reported outside Canada, but I wonder what kind of conclusion the combined intelligence of the teeming millions on the SDMB can come up with. The gist of the story is that a lesbian couple in Kingston (Ontario, Canada, NOT Jamaica) have received threatening letters telling them to get out of town and implying they will be shot at, albeit with a BB gun. Kingston police still have not broken the case, but the two letters they received can be read with the news stories. Here is the article showing the letter with the reference to the BB gun [http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2013/07/23/gay-couple-sent-threatening-letters-receive-local-support](http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2013/07/23/gay-couple-sent-threatening-letters-receive-local-support) Here is an article about the first letter telling telling them to get out of town and move to Vancouver or San Francisco: [http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/07/21/hate-letters-threaten-g](http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/07/21/hate-letters-threaten-g) The group threatening them is allegedly from the “deep south” ??? (If it is the deep south of Canada it would be Windsor, Ont.) How serious does this look? Is it just me or do both of these letters have “teen-age prank” written all over them? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/2 "2013-07-25T21:22:04Z")
The letter apologizing for only having a BB-gun to shoot at them sounds like something out of “Venture Brothers”. But in any case, I suspect its neither an organized group as it claims to be or teenagers trying to be funny, but just some lone nutcase. ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/3 "2013-07-25T21:27:03Z")
Here is a better link: [http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/07/23/gay-couple-sent-threatening-letters-receive-local-support](http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/07/23/gay-couple-sent-threatening-letters-receive-local-support) Oh, by the way, I notice that the couple are noew being accused by some commenters of sending themselves the letters as part of the “gay agenda” or something to get sympathy. **This thread is open to ALL theories.** ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/4 "2013-07-25T21:39:13Z")
The Sudbury Star link is giving me an error from the site. So all I’ve seen is the ‘followup’ letter. Nothing there indicates they want to harm this couple because they are lesbians. For all I know it’s because they declawed their cats or don’t tip. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/5 "2013-07-25T21:41:20Z")
My vote would be for sick prank. It seems too stereotypical red neck (deep south, gun nuts etc.) to be believable. Still If I were the couple I wouldn’t want to stake my safety on it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/6 "2013-07-25T21:49:26Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The Sudbury Star link is giving me an error from the site. So all I’ve seen is the ‘followup’ letter. Nothing there indicates they want to harm this couple because they are lesbians. For all I know it’s because they declawed their cats or don’t tip. Or drove to the mall while texting and parked their car in a fire lane. ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/7 "2013-07-25T22:02:14Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The Sudbury Star link is giving me an error from the site. So all I’ve seen is the ‘followup’ letter. Nothing there indicates they want to harm this couple because they are lesbians. For all I know it’s because they declawed their cats or don’t tip. My apologies for the screwed-up Sudbury Star link. See my later message with the Calgary Sun link. It it perfectly clear that the harm is being threatened because they are lesbians. ---
**Author:** ![G-SE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f0a364/32.png) [@G-SE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G-SE)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/8 "2013-07-25T22:32:36Z")
I’m going with attention-seeking lesbian hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/9 "2013-07-25T22:42:14Z")
I just noticed something. The articles say BOTH letters arrived on the same day. But the second letter says “As a follow-up we had a group meeting yesterday”. That almost sounds like the letter that says “I would send you money but I have already sealed this letter in the envelope.” But given that one of the women is a college professor, would she be so stupid as to go along with a fraud of this kind? I still see it as teenage kids who need their asses kicked! ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/10 "2013-07-25T22:44:50Z")
> [@G-SE](#): > > I’m going with attention-seeking lesbian hoax. Not impossible, I guess, but the stuff with the BB-gun seems too rambling and weird to have been written by someone who was just composing a threatening letter to get attention. Especially as one of the lesbians is a history prof, and so I assume does a lot of writing, I’d think is she were to write an attention seeking threatening letter, it would be a lot more focused on being threatening without weird digressions about the difficulty of obtaining a firearm in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/11 "2013-07-25T23:16:00Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Not impossible, I guess, but the stuff with the BB-gun seems too rambling and weird to have been written by someone who was just composing a threatening letter to get attention. Especially as one of the lesbians is a history prof, and so I assume does a lot of writing, I’d think is she were to write an attention seeking threatening letter, it would be a lot more focused on being threatening without weird digressions about the difficulty of obtaining a firearm in Canada. That’s what they want you to think. 😃 While I have no idea who sent the letters, I don’t discount the idea that people seek publicity by sending themselves threatening letters and even injuring themselves. These letters could also be sent by frineds of the “victims”. This could also end up being a genuine threat. I question why this case became public. Did the police ask the public for help? Or did the “victims” turn to the media for 'help"? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/12 "2013-07-26T01:07:56Z")
> [@G-SE](#): > > I’m going with attention-seeking lesbian hoax. That probably says more about your own agenda than anyone else’s. I don’t think there’s group meetings going on in Kingston about this lesbian couple and what to do about them, though. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/13 "2013-07-26T07:10:38Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > That probably says more about your own agenda than anyone else’s. I don’t think there’s group meetings going on in Kingston about this lesbian couple and what to do about them, though. Not really. Hoaxes happen all the time. We have to wait and let the police do their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/14 "2013-07-26T10:16:04Z")
[QUOTE=madsircool] We have to wait and let the police do their jobs. [/QUOTE] Seconded. As an intelligent (I hope) Doper, I must decline to speculate what with thee dearth of evidence is available to me. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/15 "2013-07-26T20:03:47Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > The group threatening them is allegedly from the “deep south” ??? (If it is the deep south of Canada it would be Windsor, Ont.) No, Wolfe Island. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/16 "2013-07-26T20:14:58Z")
Purely my opinion based on nothing much: The letters are simply too stupid to be a self-serving hoax. If I was a lesbian woman of reasonable intelligence, who for reasons of my own wanted to make such a hoax - and one of the couple is a professor, so I assume they are both pretty clever - I’d take the trouble to write a more convincing hate letter, one that didn’t sound like it came from the imagination of a disturbed adolescent. Mind you, I also wouldn’t pull such a hoax in the first place … I’m going with “lone nutcase, pretending to be a conspiracy group”. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/17 "2013-07-26T20:18:21Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Purely my opinion based on nothing much: > > The letters are simply too stupid to be a self-serving hoax. If I was a lesbian woman of reasonable intelligence, who for reasons of my own wanted to make such a hoax - and one of the couple is a professor, so I assume they are both pretty clever - I’d take the trouble to write a more convincing hate letter, one that didn’t sound like it came from the imagination of a disturbed adolescent. > > Mind you, I also wouldn’t pull such a hoax in the first place … > > I’m going with “lone nutcase, pretending to be a conspiracy group”. Yup. Also, the letter spends a lot of time pointing out that it is from a group, with younger members and older members, and members who want this versus members who want that. Clearly a lone penman. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/18 "2013-07-26T20:47:28Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > But given that one of the women is a college professor, would she be so stupid as to go along with a fraud of this kind? > **[Claremont Hate Crime Called Hoax](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-mar-18-me-claremont18-story.html)** > > Police say a professor damaged her own car, but she denies it. Last week's incident sparked anti-racism rallies. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/19 "2013-07-27T15:03:12Z")
All sorts of stuff is possible. But ime, the adage “Truth is stranger than fiction,” came to be an adage for a reason. Paradoxically, because fiction tends to follow rules of verisimilitude, fiction tends to be excluded from being like reality (when reality gets weird). I am inclined to think that the “weirdness” of the letters points to them not being the product of intentional fiction. I think that someone other than the couple wrote them. But, that’s not very strong evidence imho. But there’s not much else for me to go on. Based on my “feelings,” it sounds like a group of 2 - 7 kids between the ages of 10 & 17. The tone of the letter suggests that the audience was each other to me. They egged each other on giggling. I think that if it were written by one person it would be more somber in tone. Based on stuff I pulled from thin air. ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522/20 "2013-07-27T16:18:07Z")
There was another lesbian couple in my state (Colorado) who caused a media sensation with they claimed vandals wrote “Kill the Gays” on their garage door. They also claimed to be getting other, vague anti-gay threats from their HOA. Last year they both [pled guilty](http://kdvr.com/2012/06/29/lesbian-couple-pleads-guilty-to-faking-hate-crime/) to false reporting and admitted they wrote “Kill the Gays” on their own garage. Instances like that will reasonably make people skeptical about the motivations and veracity of others in similar circumstances. I hope the Canadian couple are safe. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amateur-detectives-does-this-sound-like-a-genuine-threat-against-this-canadian-gay-couple/664522.md?page=2)