This is my letter to the editor regarding the story below in the NY Times.

Real Concern or Witch Hunt?
The real horror is your article.
“Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar”

I was appalled to read this headline from the NY Times on Tuesday, and the equally slanted article. But I am most appalled by the treatment of Linda E. Kay in the media and by law enforcement. It is reminiscent of the Salem witch-hunt where a person who did not fit with the immediate “norms” of their community (despite not committing any violent crimes) could be publicly smeared with ridiculous claims. I don’t doubt that they found skulls, and a human hand in a jar of formaldahyde. But where is the crime, except in the exorbitant bail of $100,000 for unlawful disposition of human remains? What exactly does that law state? I assume it is for public health concerns, but I can go to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, or the Bodies exhibit in South Street Seaport and see human remains preserved and not fear disease. I can also purchase human bones, and skulls from stores in Manhattan such as Evolution or Obscura. So why are we so shocked!
It must be that she is being persecuted for her aesthetic sensibility, which does not fit a “Judeo-Christian” model of social norms when it comes to the dead. We allow through our very constitution, a freedom of expression and a freedom from religious bigotry. Many cultures do not hold the same “sacred corpse” taboo that is prevalent in the West. Buddhist mediate over human remains and carve beautiful reliefs into skulls and the Parsees in India feel that the deceased ‘s body is only an empty shell of what was once a person, and should be given back to nature, by being eaten by vultures. Perhaps Ms. Kay’s appreciation isn’t so deep, but who are we to judge.
Your reporters insistence in adding ridiculous details such as Ms. Kay’s messy gardening habits, a seemingly biased accusation of pedophilia (you really want to smear someone, just add children to the mix) and that she might have been “normal” once because she was on her high school swim team only show how far we haven’t come since 1692. I hope that someone with a level head will find out the facts of this case, which should not be to hard to unearth (no pun intended), and we can get some sort of real perspective. Forensics and an unbiased investigation should be able to determine whether the hand was from a murdered victim or a grave robbery. If Ms. Kay’s claim is true that it was a present from a medical student, then give her hand back, and let’s move on to prosecuting real atrocities.

-Michelle Levante

Here is the lousy story:

Cuffed in hand find




SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. - A severed hand was found at the home of an exotic dancer who decorated her home with skulls, and she was charged with improper disposition of human remains, authorities said yesterday.
Friends said the hand had been given to the woman by a medical student.
Police responding to a report of a suicidal person at the home of 31-year-old Linda Kay discovered the large, roughly severed hand in a jar of formaldehyde on a bedroom dresser, according to the police report.
The subject of the suicidal person report was not located, authorities said, but six skulls were found in another room. The Middlesex County medical examiner determined that all are human.
Kay was arrested Friday and freed on $100,000 bail pending arraignment today.
Two people who knew Kay told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the hand, which Kay nicknamed "Freddy," was a gift from a medical student who frequented an all-nude juice bar where she dances.
"She has a flair for the dramatic," said Kay's mother, Patricia Ann Kay.

The Associated Press

Twist on a Famous Formula: A Severed Hand in a Topless Dancer’s Jar
0. E-MAIL
0. PRINT
0. REPRINTS
0. SAVE

By JONATHAN MILLER
Published: July 26, 2006
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., July 25 — A scrawled note on the door read: “No!!! comment. Just stop knocking. You want a story read a book.”
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Middlesex County prosecutor’s office
Linda Kay, accused of unlawful disposition of human remains.
But who could beat the story of the house in this middle-class town, where the police say an exotic dancer at a nude juice bar had a severed hand, nicknamed Freddy, preserved in formaldehyde, and six human skulls?
The police said it was unclear where the body parts had come from, but that did not deter them from charging the dancer, Linda E. Kay, 31 — who works at Hott 22, a strip club in Union — with unlawful disposition of human remains.
The police said they found the crudely hacked hand inside a Mason jar in Ms. Kay’s bedroom on Friday afternoon after answering a call from a woman who said that an owner of the house, Sean McDonough, had threatened to kill himself with a hammer.
When the police arrived, Mr. McDonough was nowhere to be found, but Ms. Kay answered the door.
She became uncooperative, the police said, and they proceeded to search the house based on the phone call and found the jar containing the hand.
Capt. Paul Brembt of the South Plainfield Police Department said that Ms. Kay conceded that she owned the hand, although she would not say where she got it. Nor were the police sure who owned the six skulls, which were found in an upstairs room.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the discovery of the hand and skulls on Tuesday.
Andrea Leipow, 25, an aspiring model, said she had lived at the house for a brief time, ending in April. She said that Ms. Kay had told her that a medical student who was a fan of Ms. Kay’s dancing had given the hand to her as a gift.
Ms. Leipow said that residents of the house had nicknamed it “Lefty” or “Freddy” or, simply, “the Hand.”
She said that the house’s residents scared her, so she left. “They had tons of weapons,” she said. “They had a medieval mace, a shotgun, they had another sawed-off shotgun, pistols, knives.”
No one answered repeated knocks on the door at the cream-colored, aluminum-sided split-level house on a quiet, winding street on Tuesday, but neighbors spoke of the home, at 28 Diana Drive.
“That house” was all the reference needed, said C. T. McClain, a next-door neighbor.
It was a house where weeds frequently climbed to the knee and higher, they said, and trash was regularly scattered on the front steps. There were parties that went on until 3 or 4 a.m., and that had recently featured fireworks.
Neighbors said they saw school-age children coming and going.
For the past several years, Ms. Kay worked at Hott 22, where she went by the stage name Zilla.
Ira Weiner, a lawyer for the club, said that he often spoke with her.
“She’s kind of an artistic person, with her own sense of aesthetics,” he said. “But she’s harmless. You know, what she collected was not a manifestation of her being vicious, it’s just simply what she thought was cool or had some artistic merits.”
Ms. Kay graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in 1993. Her senior yearbook identifies her as a member of the swim team.
Ms. Kay was released on $100,000 bail on the day she was arrested. The police are not sure where she is.
The police arrested a second exotic dancer who lived in the house, Polina V. Nikulina, 26. She was charged on Friday with failing to appear in court on a weapons charge.