Yesterday news broke that a Cincinnati man, Michael R. Hoyt, had been indicted by the feds for a plot to poison John Boehner. So far a lot has been speculated about this case, but I want to give the view from a person that knows very well the area where Hoyt is from, as well was the potential scene of the crime. First a little background from the site that broke the story, WCPO:
Ebola, evil voices and the devil.
Those are just a few of the things a Butler County bartender cited as reasons he was going to kill House Speaker John Boehner this past fall, federal agents said.
Michael Robert Hoyt, 44, was indicted Jan. 7 on charges of threatening to murder the congressman in a plot police said included poisoning his drink at a country club.
Hoyt served drinks to Boehner for more than five years at the Wetherington Country Club in West Chester and was known as “Bartender Mike” to employees there.
Hoyt called police on Oct. 29, a week after being fired from the club, and blamed Boehner for his woes, police said.
Wetherington is a high dollar Country Club, surrounded by the Wetherington community, a gated community about 20 miles north of Cincinnati, and also the home of John Boehner. Here’s an aerial view of just a part of Wetherington:
Travel about 15 miles southeast and you hit Deer Park. Deer Park, a suburb of Cincinnati, is your typical, blue collar community. There really isn’t a nice aerial view like we have for Wetherington, so instead allow me to show a picture of a house from a real estate site. This house is only a few blocks away from where Hoyt lived:
As you see there is a huge difference between the two communities. So what does this tell us? Well we have a guy from blue collar America having to travel 15 miles each day to work, serving some of the top earners in the Cincinnati area. This isn’t making an excuse for Hoyt’s actions, but I just wanted to put this in a little perspective.
Now Hoyt has been described as someone suffering from long term mental illness. If you take someone suffering mental problems, then have them head from middle-class USA to upper-class USA to serve and listen to the complaints of the elite, you can start to understand how that may take a toll on someone.
I can’t defend what Hoyt was planning, but can have a little understanding. I also can blame his former employer, Wetherington Country Club, for not seeing signs of mental illness, and for most likely not providing health insurance to cover it. Bartending is not like any other job. I know, I have done it for over 20 years. When you bartend, you open up more to people than anyother job. Hoyt tended bar at Wetherington Country Club for years. We’re not talking about the local, corner bar, but a private country club with limited membership. Adding that factor in, the people in Wetherington, including doctors, should have really picked up on the fact that something wasn’t quiet right with this guy.
And speaking of the mental illness, there’s another troubling aspect to this story:
Agents said they also found a bullet hole in the upper wall of Hoyt’s first-floor bedroom.
Officers said they later recovered Hoyt’s SKS assault rifle at his mother’s home in Hebron, Ky. She told investigators she removed it from his home while he wasn’t there because she noticed he was not eating or sleeping and becoming increasingly agitated, Desrosiers said.
Catch that? We have a person, with a history of mental problems, that also owned an assault rifle. Thankfully his mother had the foresight to take the gun from him, or we could be looking at a much bigger story here.
I have also seen a lot of speculation about how Hoyt may have got the email address for Boehner’s wife, Debbie. Here’s an exchange they had:
Hoyt: “Mr. Boehner, I sincerely do not want to embarrass anyone. I am willing to drop all of this if you and Dr. Bob Buring deliver my termination report to me personally, or transport me to a secure location where the three of us can have an honest conversation. If I had any intention of hurting Mr. Boehner, I could have poisoned his wine at Wetherington many, many times. I do not believe I have lied about anything nor exaggerated. This is extremely urgent. Tuesday. Earlier the better. Talk to Dr. Bob Buring. PLEASE!!! We can work together and succeed or …..fail miserably. My phone died. I am at home. I have a dog and cat so please do not bust in. I will leave my lights on inside and out all night. You probably already know where I live. REDACTED Matson Ave. Deer Park, Ohio.”
Debbie Boehner: “What is this about??”
Hoyt: “Mrs. Boehner, I was fired. I could not email Mr. Boehner directly because of the zip code block on his email. It doesn’t matter anyway. If he took a real interest in anything he would insure his Club was better than the Country, but they are exactly the same and life goes on SSDD. Sincerely, Mike. Mike, your former bartender.”
No need for conspiracy theories, or accusations of hacking here. Debbie is a realtor for one of the area’s top agencies. Being in real estate, that means her email address is very easy to find online. A quick Google is all Hoyt needed to contact the Speaker’s wife.
One final thing on this story. As soon as it broke, we also saw right wing sites jump to the “damn liberals” argument, claiming that Hoyt is from the left. Truthfully, we have no idea where his politics lie. Since 1998 this man has voted only twice, once in the 2000 general election and again in the 2012 general. He’s not registered with any party and there is no political views online for him. Instead this is just a highly disturbed man that was thankfully stopped before he could have carried out a heinous crime. To that, kudos must go to local law enforcement, the FBI and Capital Police.