FBI: Mass. Man mailed airport threats, notes to Jodie Foster

[Ian David]

Source: Boston Herald

By O’Ryan Johnson
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - Updated 3h ago

A Holliston man was arrested yesterday for allegedly making bomb threats to a California airport that contained a bizarre reference to popular stalker icon and actress Jodie Foster.

Michael Smegal, 39, was released to his father’s* custody on $10,000 surety after he pleaded not guilty during an appearance in federal court to answer to charges of mailing a bomb threat, said Christine DiIorio-Sterling, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston.

More than 100 threatening letters were mailed to the Van Nuys Airport between September 2007 and January 2008, all of which were sent from either Massachusetts or Rhode Island. According to an FBI affidavit, the letters all contained an identical block-letter message that read in part, “Jodie Foster S” and the words “going to be a gas bomb in this building.”

The FBI affidavit states that starting in 2004 Smegal began mailing letters to Foster. One included a prepaid cell phone, with instructions to call a number. Foster’s security guard called the number and spoke to a man who identified himself as Michael Smegal. In the course of that conversation, Smegal used the phone to send the guard a picture of himself and his dog. In 2005, a postal inspector visited the suspect’s Holliston home, where Smegal allegedly admitted to mailing letters to Foster and vowed to stop, the affidavit states.


Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1079690&srvc=rss

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*Wonder where Michael Smegal gets it from?

The JodiBomber's father is apparently an anti-gay bigot.
http://www.knowthyneighbor.org/thelist.php?searchValue=Smegal&searchField=last_name&sortBy=last_name&sortDir=ASC&page=1&anchor=list#list


I wonder what they're FreeRepublic screen names are?

[Teaser]

1. lady can't catch a break

.

[bigworld]

2. She really attracts the loonies, doesn't she?

[cyclezealot]

3. what is the attraction of Jodie Foster

was she not the obsession of Ronald Reagan's attempted assassin?

[tanyev]

8. Yep, just a random nutso trying to impress Jodie Foster.

Funny how that became the story instead of what a bizarre coincidence it was that a son of the vice-president was scheduled to have the shooter's brother over to his house for dinner the next evening.

Good collection of contemporaneous newspaper articles in an old Free Republic thread, oddly enough.
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38432f49307d.htm

[cyclezealot]

9. Maybe Jodie Foster

should consider the role her acting roles have on attracting the wackos.

[Solly Mack]

4. perk

[AndyA]

5. What exactly is it about Jodie Foster?

She's a great actress, but I just don't see what it is about her that seems to attract this kind of attention.

And Lohan and Spears think they've got problems!

[fascisthunter]

6. Smegal....

great name

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. What you all said

No wonder she guards her privacy so carefully.

[kestrel91316]

10. Poor Jodie. Jeebus, first Hinckley and now this.

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

11. Jodie was a child

in the role that Hinckley became obsessed - Taxi Driver.

This wacko seems to have identified with her role as an FBI agent.