Man Charged With Threatening Pitt Professors
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A man from New York State has been arrested for allegedly sending threatening emails to four current or retired University of Pittsburgh professors.
Mark Lee Krangle, 65, of Croton-on-Hudson, NY, was arrested as soon as he stepped off a plane at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Attilio Favorini, a professor in Theater Arts at Pitt, says both he and his wife were unnerved.
"The second email was particularly scary because it said, 'cooperate or perish,' and it wasn't at all clear what we were to cooperate in," said Favorini.
According to police papers, Krangle referenced both the Pitt bomb threats and the shootings at Western Psych. He is not charged in making the bomb threats, but does face charges of harassment and making terroristic threats for allegedly sending the emails.
He allegedly wrote in one: "If you guys do not show me supportiveness in every possible way your meager little academic fantasy world lives can muster, your graves will be defiled by enraged citizens in the future after you die. (I hope natural deaths.)"
Krangle claims he studied rhetoric at the University of Pittsburgh, and wrote a book in which he claims he was part of Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign and that the election was rigged.
Police say he wrote in one of his emails that he was coming to Pittsburgh to get his story out.
He also allegedly wrote: "Don't try to do anything that may involve Western Psych when I get to town. I am not violent or crazy and that's why Shick was put into play. Things would get much worse if you derail me. Support me or perish."
On Krangle's Facebook page, he makes numerous comments about the bomb threats plaguing Pitt.
Stay with KDKA for more on this developing story.
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