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A Rossmoor man has pleaded guilty to sending violent, anti-LGBTQ threats to Merriam-Webster after apparently becoming angry at the dictionary company’s gender definitions.

Jeremy David Hanson, 34, pleaded guilty last week to interstate transmission of threatening communications during a hearing at a federal courthouse in Massachusetts, where one of Merriam-Webster’s offices is located.

In a statement of facts filed with Hanson’s plea deal, he admitted to also threatening the ACLU, religious and political leaders, video game and comic-related entertainment companies, professors and university presidents, Amnesty International, Walt Disney Company executives, government agencies and school boards, and other private companies.

Multiple threatening messages sent to Merriam-Webster through their website’s “Contact Us” section related to definition entries for “Girl,” “Woman” and “Female” led the dictionary company to close its offices in Springfield and New York City for about five days, according to a federal criminal complaint.

The often extremely-violent messages from Hanson outlined in the court filings largely centered on gender and sexual orientation, and included repeated threats to shoot or bomb his chosen targets.

Many of the messages included explicit misogyny, racist-language and homophobic and anti-transgender slurs.

In one of the threats to Merriam-Webster cited by federal prosecutors, Hanson allegedly wrote that “there is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.” In another, he allegedly wrote “You evil Marxists should all be killed. it would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”

According to the statement of facts, Hanson “suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, Aspergers, anxiety and depression and he struggles with impulse control.” During an FBI interview in 2015, Hanson expressed remorse and promised not to send any more threats, according to court filings, but apparently continued to do so in the subsequent years.

At one point, Hanson’s mother told agents that Hanson knows the threats he makes online are illegal but is “unable to control himself or his emotions.” His mother also told the agents that Hanson is “usually able to vent his anger” to her but that after she goes to bed he “makes comments online without the added benefit of his mother as a filter or sounding board.”

Hanson is scheduled to return to federal court for sentencing on Jan. 5, 2023. He could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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