Why voicemail is an imperfect medium for threatening to kill one’s former colleagues

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By Alex Aldridge on

A junior lawyer who lost his job at top US firm Bryan Cave is facing five years in jail for threatening to kill a former colleague at the firm. Central to the case is a voicemail apparently left by Ryan Walsh, 30, in which he details his murderous plan…

Here is the key part of the not especially coherent message Walsh is accused of leaving at 9:27 pm on June 15.

Voicemail-threat

Prosecutors in the case said the Bryan Cave employee who received the message “took the threat seriously”.

Having lost his job in Bryan Cave’s New York office in 2008, Walsh moved to a small town in Missouri — a part of the world, according to US blog Above the Law, that makes prison seem like “an attractive alternative”.