A man charged with gunning down five people at a Maryland newspaper sent three letters on the day of the attack, including one that said his aim was to "kill every person present."
Sergeant Jacklyn Davis, a spokeswoman for Anne Arundel County police, said the letters were received Monday.
They were mailed to an attorney for the Capital newspaper, a retired judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and a Baltimore judge.
The letter Jarrod Ramos sent to the Baltimore-based lawyer was written to resemble a legal motion for reconsideration of his unsuccessful 2012 defamation lawsuit against the paper.
Letters and flowers forming a memorial at the State House, in Annapolis, Maryland. Source: AP
A copy of the letter was shared with The Associated Press.
"If this is how the Maryland Judiciary operates, the law now means nothing," Ramos wrote.
He quoted a description of the purpose of a defamation suit, saying it was intended for a defamed person to "resort to the courts for relief instead of wreaking his own vengeance."
"'That' is how your judiciary operates, you were too cowardly to confront those lies, and this is your receipt," Ramos wrote.
He signed it under the chilling statement: "I told you so." Below that, he wrote that he was going to the newspaper's office "with the objective of killing every person present."
In a letter attached to what appeared to be the faux court filing, he also directly addressed retired special appeals court Judge Charles Moylan, who ruled against Ramos in his defamation case.
Ramos had sued the paper after pleading guilty to harassing a high school classmate.
"Welcome, Mr Moylan, to your unexpected legacy: YOU should have died," he wrote and signed it: "Friends forever, Jarrod W. Ramos."
He also sent a document to Maryland's highest court, and it has been sealed at the request of prosecutors.
Ramos, 38, has a well-documented history of harassing the paper's journalists.
Thousands of people march during a candle light vigil to remember the five journalists from The Capital newspaper. Source: AAP
The defamation suit was thrown out as groundless, and he often railed against current and former Capital staff in profanity-laced tweets. Police found him hiding under a desk after Thursday's attack and jailed him on five counts of first-degree murder.
