Cops & Crime: Caring guy seeks pen pal. One catch: He's an imprisoned killer

Divorced white male, 56 years old, with a great sense of humor and always willing to help others. Enjoys creating art, watching documentaries and working out five days a week “to stay strong and in shape.”

Sound like a pretty typical online dating profile?

Well, not exactly.

That's the pitch Luther Casteel, convicted of killing two men and wounding 16 other patrons when he shot up an Elgin bar in 2001, is making for pen pals via the website writeaprisoner.com.

Casteel, whose death sentence was commuted to a life term in 2003, is one of nearly 2,600 inmates locked up in Illinois prisons who are on the website looking for people on the outside to write them.

Besides allowing inmates to seek pen pals, the site also posts their resumes, allows donors to send them books, gives inmates free access to self-improvement guides and provides scholarships for the children of prisoners. It costs an inmate $40 a year to have a profile posted on the site. Letter writers pay nothing and are discouraged from sending money to inmates.

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Pen pals for killers?

All this begs the question: Do people behind bars - in some cases for committing heinous crimes - really deserve all this?

We asked Adam Lovell, who launched writeaprisoner.com in 2000.

“We can't go down the list of the millions of people incarcerated and decide who is or isn't worthy of contact with the outside world,” Lovell wrote us. “The fact is that even the inmates convicted of the worst crimes still benefit from correspondence with law-abiding citizens outside of prison.

“That being said, the inmates convicted of the worst crime are the hardest people to find a pen pal for,” he added. “Pen pals typically research the inmate's background before initiating contact with them.”

Lovell said the site takes steps to prevent letter writers from becoming victims of scams, including a long list of precautions they must review before corresponding with an inmate.

What do you think? Email us at copsandcrime@dailyherald.com.

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Where'd G.I. Joe donations go?

Plenty of questions remain a year after Fox Lake police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz killed himself, apparently in hopes of avoiding disclosure that he was skimming money from a police department youth group.

Among them: What happened to the money donated to his family back when people believed Gliniewicz was a murder victim?

Officials at BMO Harris Bank tell our Lee Filas a fund set up for the Gliniewicz family has been cashed in by its “account holders.”

Who are they? How much did they get? The bank isn't saying.

Harris spokesman Patrick O'Herlihy said bank officials consulted with government and law enforcement officials and thoroughly explored options regarding the release of the funds.

“With those options exhausted, we had no other legal option except to release the funds to the account holders,” he said.

<h3 class="leadin">Old scam, new twist

If you've read this column, you've heard of the scam in which a caller pretending to be an IRS agent threatens someone with arrest for tax fraud unless some form of payment is made immediately.

With kids heading back to college, scammers are putting a new twist on the old favorite, according to the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. The con artists call students and demand they wire money immediately to pay a nonexistent “federal student tax.”

“The callers can be very aggressive and threatening, and that can be especially frightening to a student living away from home for the first time,” BBB President and CEO Steve J. Bernas said.

So what should your favorite student do if he or she receives one of these calls? Hang up and report it to the Federal Trade Commission by visiting FTC.gov and clicking on “File a Consumer Complaint.” They can also report the call to BBB Scam Tracker at bbb.org/scamtracker/us.

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Everybody has an app

Including the BankRobbers.fbi.gov website, the FBI announced Monday. You can get it for free through Google Play or Apple's App Store. You can see pictures of wanted suspects, learn which banks near you have been robbed and more. FYI: In 2015, there were 4,091 robberies, burglaries and larcenies of financial institutions in the U.S. That includes banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions and armored cars. Firearms were used 877 times.

<h3 class="leadin">The 'labor' in Labor Day

While most of us are enjoying some extra time off over the holiday weekend, officers at police departments across the suburbs will be putting in extra hours to watch for traffic scofflaws and drivers who got behind the wheel after having a few too many.

So, please, help make their jobs easier this weekend by driving safely and sober.

<h3 class="leadin">Ending on a sad note

Our condolences to the family and law enforcement colleagues of Huntley police Sgt. Leonard Marak, who died at just 40 years old on Aug. 23 from synovial carcinoma. He had been with the department since 2002. As detailed by our Madhu Krishnamurthy in Thursday's Daily Herald, a car bought last year in a fundraiser for the Gliniewicz children will be auctioned again Sept. 9, this time with the proceeds going to Marak's family.

Got a tip? Have a question? Please email Charles Keeshan and Susan Sarkauskas at copsandcrime@dailyherald.com, or call our tip line at (847) 427-4483.