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Parkland shooter flooded with fan mail, commissary money

Posted at 1:47 PM, Mar 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-29 16:47:14-04

In a bizarre twist following the Parkland, Florida school shooting that killed 17 people, the confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz has been receiving "fan letters" from across the nation. 

The Sun Sentinelreported that Cruz not only has been receiving letters from admirers, he has also received money for his commissary account, which allows inmates to purchase snacks and accessories. So far, Cruz has been given $800. 

The letters, many of which are coming from teenage girls, are not being shown to Cruz as he is on suicide watch at the jail.

Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein told the Sun Sentinel the craze is "perverted." Some of the letters have included suggestive photos of young women. According to the Sun Sentinel, one woman from Chicago sent nine photos of herself that were sexually suggestive. 

"In my 40 years as public defender, I've never seen this many letters to a defendant," he said. “We read a few religious ones to him that extended wishes for his soul and to come to God,” Finkelstein added, “but we have not and will not read him the fan letters or share the photos of scantily-clad teenage girls.”

The Sun Sentinel reported that one person from Texas sent a letter that included hand-drawn hearts and happy faces. 

"Your eyes are beautiful and the freckles on your face make you so handsome," the woman said in a letter to Cruz. “I’m really skinny and have 34C sized breasts.”

A teenager wrote, “I’m 18-years-old. I’m a senior in high school. When I saw your picture on the television, something attracted me to you," the Sun Sentinel reported.

Cruz, who admitted to killing 17 people last month at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, awaits trial. Cruz could face the death penalty for the deaths, according to Florida law.