Binghamton Killer Sends Letter to Cable Channel

It’s noteworthy that the letter from Binghamton (NY) mass murder Jiverly Wong (assuming, of course, it is actually his writing) was sent not to a traditional TV station in Syracuse, but to the cable channel News 10 Now.

GM Ron Lombard found the letter yesterday morning. It was dated March 18 and postmarked April 3rd. The 13 murders happened April 3.  

The News 10 Now Website reads:

What began as a normal day in our newsroom took a sharp turn when this arrived. A letter, photographs of Wong with weapons, what appears to be his driver’s license and his pistol permit. It arrived in a standard, white envelope. It’s postmarked, from Binghamton, April 3rd. Friday. The day of the shooting. But the letter itself is dated March 18th. It’s arrival staggered our news director Ron Lombard, to say the least.

“Honestly, a moment of panic! I’ve been in this business for about 30 years now, I’ve never experienced something quite like that. I think realizing what we apparently have in our hands was kind of scary, actually, in understanding the gravity of it as I started reading the letter, it appears to contain some of his personal history and it amounts to his reasoning of why he was going to carry out the attack,” said Ron Lombard, News 10 Now General Manager and News Director.

News 10 Now is owned by Time Warner Cable.

The Syracuse TV market was hit hard when some 40 staffers were laid off in the Granite-Barrington consolidation last month.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.