Rivereast News Bulletin publishes letter calling for return of John Wilkes Booth. “John, you don’t have to sneak around in dusty old theaters/Today you can do it from 1,000 meters” Editor apologizes.
Rivereast News Bulletin’s current editions include a call to violence against President Joe Biden on its letters page. The letter, dressed up as a poem, from a reader identified as Don Nowsch of Marlborough is a fourteen line rhyming couplet that describes a Haitian seance that makes contact with John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday in 1865. The writer call upon Booth to shoot another president of the United States–this time President Biden “from 1,000 meters.”
To the Editor:
Packed my bags and went to Haiti
Met up with a scary old voodoo lady
Paid her fees so we could move on
Wanted to contact a deceased named John
A voice came through and asked what I needed
Please come back is what I pleaded
What you did before you were labeled zero
Do it today and you’ll be called a hero
He’s murdering our country and the way we live
Only wants to take and never wants to give
John, you don’t have to sneak around in dusty old theaters
Today you can do it from one thousand meters
If bringing back John Wilkes Booth was only that easy
There wouldn’t be a leader that is so sleazy.
Don Nowsch-Marlborough
The Glastonbury Citizen and Rivereast News Bulletin are family-owned newspapers located in Glastonbury. The Glastonbury Citizen covers Glastonbury and also publishes Rivereast News Bulletin. Its circulation area includes the towns of Amston, Andover, Cobalt, Colchester, East Hampton, Hebron, Marlborough, Middle Haddam and Portland.
Contacted by Daily Ructions Monday morning, Rivereast News Bulletin editor Mike Thompson explained his decision to publish the letter:
As the editor of the paper, publishing the letter was ultimately my call. It was an extreme oversight on my part, one which I deeply regret; it was a grotesque letter that obviously shouldn’t have been printed. There simply is no excuse for it. I’ve issued an apology on the Rivereast’s Facebook page and will be running one in the print edition of the paper, and will be seriously reexamining the way letters are vetted in the future.
The letter was first highlighted by Lisa Thomas.
The online edition of the letter has been replaced by a public service ad to SeizetheAwkward.org.
Published February 27, 2023.