On the surface, Richard Hyerczyk doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd threaten to kill cops and burn the mayor's house down.
A draftsman for a suburban machinery company, Hyerczyk is also an avid naturalist with a master's degree in botany. He's known as one of the foremost local authorities on lichens and for years has led tours to identify and study the quirky fungi in Chicago area parks and woods. And neighbors in his tidy Southwest Side neighborhood described him as quiet and a bit eccentric.
But authorities say Hyerczyk, 54, had a dark side.
On Thursday, after a decade-long investigation by a joint terrorism task force, Hyerczyk admitted in federal court that he sent more than 90 letters between 2003 and 2012 threatening law enforcement, public officials, religious institutions and private individuals, some with vicious language calling for their rape, torture and murder.
Among the letters were several he sent shortly after Chicago police officers fatally shot a cougar that had wandered into the city's North Side in April 2008. The shooting had sparked outrage among some environmentalists who believed police should have used tranquilizers to subdue the wild animal.
The vitriol contained in Hyerczyk's letters, though, alarmed authorities.
"Dear Cougar Killers (aka Chicago PIG Police)," Hyerczyk wrote in one letter, according to his plea agreement. "Prepare to DIE like the cougar you killed. On May 4th at your St. Jude Memorial March several PIGS will be shot by snipers."
The letter also threatened to "BURN down" then-Mayor Richard Daley's summer residence in Michigan, federal prosecutors said.
Two days after the letters were received, a suspected arson fire started in dune grass swept to within a few car lengths of Daley's Grand Haven beachfront cottage, then ignited the properties of two neighbors, gutting one home and destroying the garage of another.
No one has been charged in connection with that fire. A source close to the investigation told the Tribune on Thursday that authorities were unable to link Hyerczak to the fire.
In court, prosecutors said that Hyerczyk has cooperated since authorities first approached him in January 2013. Although he would not comment on the arson investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Veatch said Hyerczyk, who had no previous criminal record, was not considered to be a danger to the community.
In a brief telephone interview, Hyerczyk's sister-in-law, Doris Mendez Hyerczyk, said she was shocked on learning of the charges from a Tribune reporter.
"My heart is racing right now," she said. "He's such a family-oriented person. He would do anything to help his family."
She said he's not married and has no children.
Hyerczyk appeared in court Thursday in a dark, rumpled suit and stared at the floor as Veatch read the details from the letters. He was released on his own recognizance after pleading guilty to one count of sending threats through the mail. After the hearing, he tried to cover his face with one arm as he left the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse trailed by television news crews and cameramen.
Hyerczyk faces up to five years in prison when U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman sentences him on April 11.
Although prosecutors did not allege a motive for the letters, the law enforcement source told the Tribune they contained similar styles and themes and that at least two of them were sparked by the perceived mistreatment of animals. Five years before the cougar shooting, Hyerczyk sent a threatening letter to the Brookfield Zoo after news reports surfaced that a wolf had been killed there, the source said.
Hyerczyk works as a draftsman at International Molding Machine Co. in LaGrange Park. In interviews and online documents he describes botany as his passion, particularly the study of lichens. He earned a master's degree in botany from St. Xavier University in Chicago and founded the Chicago Lichenological Society, records show. According to an online profile of him on the Chicago Botanic Garden web site, he has published several papers on lichens and leads tours at local arboretums and parks.
"Other interests include his home garden, where he tends grapes and potatoes," the profile said.
Emily Waldren, a spokeswoman for the Field Museum in Chicago, said Hyerczyk worked for a time as a research associate at the museum but was never employed there.
Hyerczyk has lived for more than a decade in a two-story brick house in Garfield Ridge, a neighborhood west of Midway Airport populated by many Chicago police officers, firefighters and other city workers. Neighbors in the 5200 block of South Natoma Avenue described him as a quiet, eccentric man who mostly kept to himself but was alwaysfriendly.
Edward Sliva, a next-door neighbor, said FBI agents last year asked his wife if Hyerczyk ever talked about politics. After pouring salt onto his icy curb, Sliva said Hyerczyk just talked about environmental issues and plants.
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