Something Was Wrong - S6: (1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

*Content warning: gun violence, stalking, emotional, mental, and psychological abuse, violent threats, criminal threats, hate crimes, racism, antisemitism, transphobia, and homophobia. J.E. Reich is a journalist, editor, survivor, and victim advocate. They shared their story on Something Was Wrong season 6, episodes 5 and 6, which aired on December 6th and December 13th of 2020. The episodes discuss the impact of the devastating 2018 shooting at The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the impact the hate crime had on J.E.’s community. The three episodes also bring awareness to the related, horrific stalking J.E. and their family would be subjected to in the years following. However, at the time of the episodes’ release, J.E. and their family had received no justice for the unending harassment and death threats ‘The Caller’ executed over those years. The Broken Cycle Media team is extremely grateful J.E. was willing to return today to share more of their journey to seek justice, and about the start of their consequent healing process. Something Was Wrong Season 6 E5, Massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue | JE: https://wondery.com/shows/something-was-wrong/episode/10716-massacre-at-the-tree-of-life-synagogue-je/ Something Was Wrong Season 6 E6, Panic Attack City | JE: https://wondery.com/shows/something-was-wrong/episode/10716-panic-attack-city-je/ J.E.'s Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jereichwrites For more resources and a list of related non-profit organizations, please visit http://somethingwaswrong.com/resources

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What Came Next is intended for mature audiences only. Episodes discuss topics that can be triggering, such as emotional, physical, and sexual violence, animal abuse, suicide, and murder. I am not a therapist, nor am I a doctor. If you're in need of support, please visit Something Was Wrong.com forward slash resources for a list of non-profit organizations that can help. Opinions expressed by my guests on the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself or broken cycle media. Resources and source material are linked in the episode notes.

Thank you so much for listening. J. E. Rike is a journalist, editor, survivor, and victim advocate. They shared their story on Something Was Wrong, Season 6, episodes 5 and 6, which aired on December 6th, and December 13th of 2020. The episodes discuss the impact of the devastating 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the impact the hate crime had on J.E.'s community. The episodes also bring awareness to the related, horrific stalking

J.E. and their family would be subjected to in the years following. However, at the time of the episode's release, J.E. and their family had received no justice for the unending harassment and death threats, the caller, executed over those years. The Broken Cycle Media team is extremely grateful J.E. was willing to return today to share more of their journey to seek justice

and about the start of their consequent healing process. My name is J.E. Reich. I'm an editor and a journalist. I'm also a fiction writer and nonfiction writer. I currently live in Boston with my partner, our cats, and a very fiendish dog. I was on Something Was Wrong, Season 6 for a two-part episode, where I discussed my experience with the Tree of Life synagogue shooting of 2018. It was and still is the biggest massacre of Jews on U.S. soil in U.S. history.

Six months later, there was Poway in California around San Diego. You never hear about that anymore. People barely remember Tree of Life anymore. To say it's unsettling is a disservice. It's frightening. It's terrifying. The immediacy of a call-da-action is all the more imperative in terms of telling these stories.

making sure that people don't forget them and aren't desensitized to them. There are real people who experience it and who will experience the ramifications and the after effects for the rest of their lives. I should overtly state that I'm anti-occupation. I'm for Palestinian rights. I also believe in a two-state solution. I do not call myself a Zionist because I think the word is what I now consider pretty colonialists.

I have friends who are Jews. who do believe in Israel in general, but are against Netanyahu's government, which has become its own sort of nationalist exercise. So I do want to be overt and upfront about that. Of course, it's difficult to talk about these topics and to do it any service because it's so serious and so many people are being harmed. Just to be clear, I do not agree with anything that the Israeli government has done. But we're three Jewish people on this recording and the anti-Semitism obviously plays such a piece in what we're going to discuss these difficult nuances and layers to all of this, which is complex. Exactly. The shooting happened on October 27th, 2018. It was two

years and some change afterwards. When we recorded those episodes, we were in the middle of of high pandemic. And in Pittsburgh, we were also feeling the ramifications of the murder of George Floyd. A few months prior to the shootings, there was the death of Antoine Rose II. He was a young adult who was murdered

by a police officer, who I believe was acquitted. We'd sort of see these headlines, unfortunately, constantly. They just passed through the news cycles now, and we don't always get a sense of how many people and how communities at large can be impacted by these events. It was a really brave time for you. I don't even know how long it was between when you submitted and when I contacted you. I think it was pretty quick.

It hadn't even been that long since the shooting had taken place and the fact that you had spoken out already. Not everybody's able to do that, even in writing. by you doing so. It was very inspiring. Thank you. On something was wrong, I discussed the aftermath, which included a stalker targeting me, my mother, and my stepfather, who had threatened my life fantasized and spoke at length about how she would do it in multiple ways, like cutting my head off. Of course, she invoked a lot of Holocaust imagery, which lasted for a number of years. 80 to 90% of the calls were directed at me, even though they were made at my stepdad's phone. They almost always began with her using my first name, which is not the name I used for my byline.

So she did do some investigating to figure out what that was. What we think happened was she read that Vanity Fair essay. They had reached out to me to write that the day after the shooting. I think it was published two days afterwards. We think she read that essay and then figured out my stepfather's office phone number from when he worked at Tree of Life and then was able to attain his cell phone number from his answering machine from Tree of Life because for months and months the bills were still paid, things in the building worked. And we're here today to give an update on that, which includes some... sort of justice. I remember I felt very safe and secure during the initial recording of those episodes. And before those episodes were released, the podcast blew up. When we were recording,

I had an idea of what the reach would be. That was wild. I had been on podcasts before, but it was stuff about like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is still amazing. There was a comedy podcast I wasn't sharing these types of things about myself. When I tell stories about myself, it tends to be through writing. There is some level of control that I have in the sense of a traditional writer, editor, relationship. When I pitch a personal essay or something like that, obviously this is a different kind of medium, it was a very positive experience for me

and to be able to get my story out that way in a way that I had never done before. Really interesting timing that J.E. came into my life because the podcast had just went number one that happened to have happened the week or two before their story was going to air. Insane time. But getting to interview J.E. was this major moment for me.

I felt so. incredibly honored to work with them and share their story. And it felt like, wow, this person is trusting me with this. And that was not lost on me. It was incredible to work together. And it was honestly for me, the first major gun violence story that we had really gotten into on the podcast. It just felt like Kismet in a lot of ways. And then I would go on to work with Amy. So we were recording all at the same time then. I hope this is also okay to share. Amy, I listen to your episodes. I remember your story and I remember your mother's name always Hadassah because Esther who becomes Queen Esther, her name was Hadassah. And I feel okay sharing this. I'm a transmasculine non-binary person. So my Hebrew name from birth was

Estelle, which means star in Hebrew. But her name was Hadassah and then she became Esther. So I always felt like a connection in that kind of a way. When we initially recorded those episodes, my memory is pretty clear in the day of. And then the two or three days following, my memory is just blank. I have no memory of the weeks after that. I do remember receiving a number of lovely messages from people that I knew, who I hadn't heard from in a really long time, people who I went to high school with, people who also grew up in Squirrel Hill, which is the

neighborhood where Tree of Life was situated. And I try to respond. Thank you so much. I'm happy that this helped you in some way. I braced myself for a deluge of hate mail just because I'm a writer. I'm a journalist and I am a veteran at this point of those types of messages that are anti-Semitic, homophobic, or transphobic in nature. Sometimes it's all three. What I was very surprised about was how few negative messages I received in response to the episode. Most of them were just like, I thought it was nice until you brought up politics.

Leave the politics out of it. And I'm like, well, obviously, you've never been a person whose entire existence has been politicized since the day you were born. The overwhelming majority of messages were incredibly kind and incredibly touching. While I was relieved, still, there was this recurring sense of numbness and disassociation. It brought me back to a place, and this ties back to when that initial Vanity Ferris, they came out. I just felt numb. It brought me back to that place of trauma, and I never used that word lightly. At the point where we recorded, technically it was an open FBI investigation, but it was pretty much dormant. The calls at that point had trickled off. When these calls were

happening, I of course assumed that this caller was a white supremacist. I had an idea of maybe who the caller was, but it was pure speculation. I couldn't really back it up with anything. I'm glad that I did that because I was very much wrong. The calls had ceased for a number of months. They started back up sometime in 2022. I remember my mom calling me and telling me that they started receiving these calls again. I immediately leapt to action. At that point, my mother and my stepfather had moved from Pittsburgh to the greater Miami area.

My stepfather, it's also important to note, have been diagnosed with Parkinson's. These calls were still going directly to his phone. He hadn't changed the number that was on purpose because we had no idea where she lived. At that point, we were still operating under the assumption she lived in the Pittsburgh area. The idea of going outside, walking around, it still felt like I was living in some sort of alternate reality. The real escalation lasted from October 2022 to March 2023 when she was eventually arrested. My mom had downloaded an app or software or something onto my stepdad's cell phone so that these calls could be recorded. So it wasn't just audio caught on his voicemail.

This was to essentially build a cache of evidence that was forensically irrefutable. especially if the FBI could figure out where those calls were coming from. Between October 2022 and March 2020, in the court documentation, they say that there were 238 recorded calls. That number only represents the calls that were recorded, and that were admitted as evidence during discovery. That number is only a fraction of the calls. that she made in total, meaning they were hundreds of others that she called and then hung up,

or called and then we missed. There's a possibility that these calls could have been in the thousands, especially if you include the calls that she made during phase one, which were eight or nine months prior to when we first recorded the first pair of episodes for something was wrong. It also took me a really long time to realize that this itself was a form of stalking. was hard to be able to talk to anybody about it. I fell out of touch with so many friends because how could I begin to describe or explain or narrate what had gone on? I also didn't want to trauma dump, especially because other people during the pandemic were going through their own traumas and their own hardships. Some people have lost loved ones. I didn't want to add to anybody else's

pain as well. There were also times where I can't say for certain, but I likely lost a contract job that I had because I had to say to my boss at the time, I couldn't even believe these words were coming out of my mouth, but it was right after the calls had begun. And I had to say, I need to step aside to be able to speak with an investigator about anti-Semitic harassment related to a terrorist attack that occurred at the shul that I grew up in. So I won't be able to work at this time. Even while the words were coming out of my mouth, I was like, who's ever going to believe me? My world just became so small. And even now, if you total it, this has been five years of my life. That's a substantial chunk of my life. I'm 36 years old now. How do I talk about

anything that happened to me within the past five years without somehow touching on that. And I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable. I don't think it's fair that it's something that would make people feel uncomfortable in the sense of what this was was a hate crime. This was stalking. This does happen. It happens every day. But at the same time, when you're just socializing, you don't really want to talk about this stuff. It's just really hard to figure out how to navigate. I always carry this with me. It's not like I can escape it in any way.

At that point, the investigation was taken over by the Miami FBI field office. The agents who essentially investigated the case and were able to identify who this caller was were really, really wonderful. We did find out that she did not live and was not based in Pennsylvania or in Florida. She was actually based in California.

We still don't have solid proof as to how or why she came to become fixated on us or me. Because it was an open investigation, there was little that we could be told. They didn't say anything as to how she was able to call us and not have a traceable number. What was interesting is at the beginning, there was some sort of device. that she used to sort of mask her voice to some extent. But towards the end, she stopped using that, so you could pretty much hear her voice clearly. They pretty much got identified her.

And then I just remember in March of 2023, receiving a call, I think it was first for my mom. And then from the FBI liaison, who was one of the agents, saying that she had been arrested. It was in the middle of my workday. And I took a 10-minute break. And I just sat with it.

I felt like I was a passive figure in my own life. I guess it's a form of disassociation. This was a recurring theme. I do know that she was let out on bond. So even though she had been arrested, she was still allowed to live free in the public. So there was a period of some time in which she was just able to live her life. when she was first arrested, I found out she had at least two machetes in her house.

And I just kept thinking about how many times she had left messages. She had talked about cutting my head off. The idea that she really had that weaponry at the ready. And if she had wanted, she could have driven across the country and done exactly that. I think of those machetes a lot, actually. and then she was arrested again over a domestic act of violence. She had thrown a heavy object at her partner. So she was arrested and then eventually extradited to Florida

where the court proceedings ultimately took place. That's when we entered the discovery phase. During that time, I was not allowed to put anything in writing about anything that had happened. Like if I wanted to write about the experience for some reason, I couldn't do that. I don't think I would have done that at that time anyway, just because everything was so raw and new. What was there to really write about? At least that's what I thought about at the time.

I couldn't send an email mentioning anything about it. I couldn't say anything on social media. I stopped using social media for the most part. It was sort of like I was living on two respective planes of being, one in which I was living my life, completely. disconnected from what was happening. And the other one where I was fully enmeshed in it, it paralyzed me and isolated me. It affected everything in my life. I couldn't really talk about anything with anybody because I was terrified of somehow ruining the case. It wasn't until 2024 when things started to take off. During that time, during discovery, she was assessed for competency. It horrified me

the idea that if she wasn't competent to stand trial but was made to stand trial anyway, that's inhumane. So it was important to me and also my mom and my stepdad that she was given a full psychiatric assessment. She underwent one assessment initiated by the prosecution. And then another one by the defense, which we were totally on board with, just to be safe. As far as I know, there were definitely undiagnosed mental health issues, which she received treatment for and is currently receiving treatment for. During that time, I was under a lot of stress myself for the first half of 2024. My partner and I have lost a pet. I was dealing with some health issues. And the three months leading up to what eventually was the sentencing hearing, I started to experience issues with my heart health.

I would wake up in the morning. I could feel my heart beating in my chest. And I had like generalized anxiety disorders, so I understand symptoms related to that. But this was something entirely different. She did plead guilty. The majority of cases that are brought to court, the defendant does plead guilty. There are reasons as to why that happens. There was overwhelming hard forensic evidence that did show that these calls were made from her residence.

There were hundreds of recordings. It was very, very clear that she was guilty of the crimes that she was being charged with, one of which was a hate crime. My responsibility was in delivering my victim impact statement. It was important to me that the right sentence was given. It was also to my mother and my stepfather because they had also been so severely impacted over the years by what the caller had done. It almost made me feel better to think. about it in those terms to think that I was not just doing this for me but for somebody else

so that it would strengthen my reserve. I have generalized anxiety disorder. So the last thing that I wanted to happen was to have a panic attack in the middle of the courtroom and be unable to do what I needed to do because it wasn't just what I wanted to do, but what I absolutely needed to do. My partner and I flew in on a weekend night before the sentencing hearing the next morning. We landed around midnight, so we were obviously really tired. We checked into a hotel, woke up the next day, got ready. It was incredibly hot for that time of year, even for Miami standards. If you're somebody who is trans or is gender nonconforming, you might understand this,

especially in Florida, it was really, really important that I presented as well as I could. I was meticulous about the outfit that I wore, just because especially in a state lake Florida that is anti-LGBQ and has codified anti-LGBQ legislation. It was just very important that I looked meticulous. I just like almost treated my clothing as a suit of armor. If I looked confident, then that would help fortify me, rather, in terms of the tasks that I had to do that day. I remember driving with my partner in a rented car to downtown Miami. Parking is horrible in downtown Miami.

So we had come up with a game plan about where we would park, what we would do, how far it would be. We had to leave relatively early. I feel like it might have been two hours before the hearing would begin. I remember calling my mother after we had parked and meeting up with her and going to a Starbucks right near the courthouse. I remember reading over my victim impact statement and just looking around the Starbucks, thinking how strange it was that people were just going about their day. and in the midst of all these incredibly ordinary activities and how we were carrying this invisible weight that nobody could really see.

I remember going into the bathroom and staring at the mirror, breathing deeply, intermittently closing my eyes and then looking back in the mirror again, just because I couldn't believe what I was about to do. We all left our cell phones and our cars. We weren't allowed to take them into the courthouse. I just had a bag that I always carry with my victim impact statement in it. There's a necklace that I always wear that my mother gave to me on my B'nai Mitzvah.

She had received it on her bat mitzvah. So it's sort of like a family heirloom in the making. I've worn it almost every day since I got it when I was 13. And I remember taking it off and then putting it back on again and just clenching it in my fist. At one point, I opened my hand and I saw. the imprint of that Maziza on my palm. And I kept flexing my palm the entire time, thinking of those words etched in a place that's deeper than skin. Mazziza contains one of the most important prayer in Hebrew liturgy. It's a declaration of Jews as a people and also a declaration of monotheism.

So who we are and what we believe. I remember going up the elevator in the courthouse. which is actually a very, very beautiful building. I think it's designed to be airy and also to feel as if you're on a ship in the middle of the ocean. There's this one part that almost looks like the inverse of a masthead. It's sort of like a column that's etched throughout the building, and if you look down, you can see the bottom floor. It's a place of cascading light,

which is such an interesting juxtaposition to the dark reasons that bring people to it. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Next week on what came next. What I mourn the most and what I'm trying to grapple my way back to is I stopped writing. Writing was always something that was such a core part of me. It took that away from me because I felt like I didn't have a voice anymore for a really long time. The first real thing that I wrote of some significance or substance, at least to me,

was the victim impact statement. The printout, the one that I have in front of me is the one that I actually read in court. I'm here in court today, here in front of you, to make my existence absolute. On paper, I'm victim number three. But I am not an abstract. I'm not an idea. What Came Next is a Broken Cycle Media production co-produced by Amy B. Chessler and Tiffany Reese. If you'd like to help support What Came That,

next, you can leave us a positive review, support our sponsors, or follow Broken Cycle Media on Instagram at Broken Cycle Media. Check out the episode notes for sources, resources, and to follow our guests. Thank you again for listening.