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Panama News Briefs
 

Bogus letters over the editor's forged signature

by Eric Jackson

Shown above is an envelope that contained a letter "returned" to this reporter. Of course, one can have something "returned" that one never sent, and this letter was never sent by me or anyone else at The Panama News.

The intended recipient, a cooking show host, is someone that this reporter does not know. The contents of the forged letter were vile and insulting and will not be published in The Panama News.

They were, however, made available to the New York State Police. You see, several days after this surprise came in the mail, a man identifying himself as an officer with that law enforcement agency called to inquire about another insulting, and apparently threatening, letter that was sent to another woman who lives in Albany.

If you, or anyone you know, has received a letter like this purportedly from Eric Jackson, The Panama News would like to know about it. Send an email to us about it at the address at the bottom of this page.

What appears to be happening is that some malicious individual or group is trying to tarnish the reputation of The Panama News by way of these forgeries. It's a very old political smear tactic.

The bogus letters were sent from a post office in Panama City, with distinctive errors in both Spanish and English spelling and diction. Note, for example, the use of the word "estafa" for "estafeta" in the "return" address.

There are a few people who might reasonably be suspected, but really there is no hard evidence to go on other than fingerprints or DNA on the letters that might possibly be matched if the culprit was so stupid as to leave such traces.