Sandy Hook dad who killed himself was under a constant attack by conspiracy theorists: NYT reporter
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Jeremy Richman’s body was found at the Edmond Town Hall on Monday morning of an apparent suicide. The death of a child is horrific and barely manageable, but Richman was bullied every day by conspiracy theorists who claimed his daughter was still alive.
New York Times feature writer Elizabeth Williamson posted a Twitter thread about the heartbreak the Sandy Hook dad faced that likely made his depression worse with the barage of hate.
“One of these hoaxers, Wolfgang Halbig–whose Twitter account was suspended ONLY LAST MONTH–spent years insisting that Avielle Richman was alive, living in alias as another girl in Newtown, a child he repeatedly named online,” she wrote Monday evening. “Halbig’s naming of this child has terrified her family. He’s appeared on Alex Jones’ Infowars show multiple times.”
Jones claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a “false flag” attack by the American government. He alleged that no one actually died and the children were actors. While an FBI report disputes this, the right-wing media host also alleges that the FBI is part of a deep-state attack on Americans, particularly President Donald Trump.
Six families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting as well as an FBI agent who responded to the emergency call filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones for his role in spreading conspiracy theories by Halbig.
Halbig has “also requested thousands of pages of documents from Newtown officials, including the identities of Sandy Hook choir kids invited to sing at the Super Bowl after the shooting,” Williamson explained. “This, again, has terrified the families of Sandy Hook survivors. Halbig has appeared multiple times in Newtown, seeking documents that he wrongly insists will prove Avielle and other children killed at Sandy Hook are alive. He has done this at times with an Infowars camera crew in tow.”
“There’s no current evidence Mr. Richman’s death is linked to harassment by hoaxers,” Williamson clarified. “But too few Americans know the hell these families have endured, after the murders of their children. And social media has enabled it. Thanks for reading.”
A spokesperson for Jones released a statement Monday saying, “We note the tragic passing of Jeremy Richman with heavy hearts and profound sorrow. Mr. Jones sends his condolences to Mr. Richman’s family and wishes only for peace.”
Read the full thread on Twitter.
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It's a terrible thing that for the third time in less than 2 weeks that 2 people have killed themselves over shootings.
This poor man hounded to death (literally) by the lunatic fringe.
There are still those among this crowd that thinks 9/11 was a conspiracy. An insult to all those who died that day.
So sad that this poor man could not find relief but in death.
Sadly POS like this can and do destroy good people that are dealing the a dramatic moment in their lives that will last forever. The loss of a child has to be the single most devastating thing that a parent has to endure.
Halbig and Jones, two of a kind that don't deserve to be called human.
If this parent has been harassed by some lunatics for 6 1/2 years telling him his daughter is still alive and living in another town , and they wont go away, I think there is a very strong chance it led to this suicide.
Alex Jones needs to take all the millions he's made and go live off in seclusion somewhere and contemplate all the bad he has done in this world.
There's one dad whose waging war on the Alex Jones acolytes (is idiolytes a word ?).
Sandy Hook father Leonard Pozner on death threats: ‘I never imagined I’d have to fight for my child’s legacy’
I listened to him being interviewed at length on PBS last weeks. What a nightmare he's living through but he is a force to be reckoned with and he's getting results.
I'm trying to be a softer, gentler, nun. I promised myself that from now on, compassion and understanding for all sides of an issue will be my personal mantra.
That said, I would like to give Alex Jones a kick to the balls that would leave his fat wobbling and his eyeballs spinning (in the same socket) for the next 5 years. These 'false flag' people are beyond disgusting, and Mr. Jones is directly responsible for whipping their stupidity into a frothing frensy.
And PS: That sympathy statement from Alex Jones is an extra slap in the face to the friends and family of this man.
When the term "deplorable" was applied to Trump and far right wing followers I never realized how true and how apt that phrase was going to pan out.
They care nothing for American Veterans who are not part of the right wing cabal, they care nothing for the suffering of Americans who are under siege by far right wing hate, they care nothing for any other point of view at all.
In fact they are so deplorable they attack the slain children across the country and attack their families, whether it was Sandy Hook or Newtown or Marjory S. Douglas high school, or any other major loss of children.
It is deplorable and the poor family of Seth Rich. These people vote and we must out vote them, no other answer to change things.
Of course.
There are "deep state" believers on this site, who while they are not like the Sandy Hook truthers, still are happy to go along with any number of ridiculous conspiracies. People so disassociated from reality or brainwashed by right wing media are not going to change, they need to be outvoted.