Mailing of Venomous Snake to Songwriter Investigated

The spitting cobra seemed anxious to end its travels through the U.S. postal system.

Stuffed in a foam-filled box, the 2-foot-long South African snake, one of the deadliest in the world, stuck out its head, ready to greet the unsuspecting man who received the venomous package last week at his Winnetka home, authorities said.

An investigation continued Tuesday as Los Angeles police tried to determine where the blackneck spitting cobra was mailed and why it was sent to Joseff Calhoun, the 30-year-old San Fernando Valley songwriter who trapped the slithering interloper by quickly closing the lid. Calhoun was not hurt.

Calhoun told investigators that he had no idea why anyone would mail him a reptile. Police said the culprit, if found, could be charged with attempted murder.

“The snake was not random,” Det. Rick Swanston of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division said.

“Either someone was trying to kill [Calhoun], or hurt him or send him a message.”

Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann, the Valley bureau’s commander, said authorities also are looking into a connection with Death Row Records, a label that helped launch such hard-core rappers as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog into commercial successes.

Death Row’s controversial co-founder is the recently jailed Marion “Suge” Knight, the focus of a six-year federal racketeering probe in which the government investigated Knight’s alleged ties to street gangs, drug running, money laundering and violent acts.

Bergmann said Calhoun received a threatening letter in November, but he declined to give further details about it or a Death Row Records connection.

Calhoun could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His attorney said the letter was vague but frightening.

“It said something to the effect of, ‘I’m coming to get you. Bang, bang,’ ” said Malanie Baghdaian, who practices in the mid-Wilshire area.

“It was very simple and very disturbing,” she said.

Prior to the November letter, Baghdaian said Calhoun had received another threat on his life, though Baghdaian said she did not know the specifics. Her client, she said, had told her he does not know who might want to harm him.

Initially, Calhoun had planned to speak Tuesday at a news conference at the West Valley police station but canceled it at his attorney’s suggestion.

“He is pretty nervous,” Baghdaian said. “He’s happy he was smart enough to close the lid on the box.”

Neither Baghdaian nor her client believes a connection exists between the cobra and Death Row Records, now known as Tha Row Records.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Baghdaian, while acknowledging that she does not know the specifics of Calhoun’s music dealings or if he had worked with the label.

A spokesman for Tha Row said the label is unaware of the songwriter and has no knowledge of a cobra connection.

Authorities, meanwhile, euthanized the reptile Tuesday morning at the Los Angeles Zoo. They preserved the remains for the police investigation.

The decision to kill the snake was based on the cobra’s dangerous nature coupled with an inadequate place to house it, said Russ Smith, the zoo’s reptile curator. A tumor also was found on its face, he said.

California law prohibits people from owning venomous animals without a permit from the state Fish and Game Department. Authorities, however, said a cobra or other creature can be obtained for less than $100 from reptile dealers, often found on the Internet.

The blackneck spitting cobra is usually dark with a pinkish belly and eats rodents, birds and other reptiles.

It spews venom that can irritate human eyes, even causing partial blindness. Its bite is often fatal.

“One of the first things this kind of cobra does when it’s angry is rear its head, raise its hood into a wide band and spit venom,” Smith said.

The boxed reptile traveled for an undetermined number of days through the postal system.

After its capture, it spent a weekend at a Chatsworth animal shelter, trapped in a 20-gallon plastic trash can, with the lid heavily sealed with duct tape.

Then, on Tuesday, still confined to its taped bin, the cobra was taken by car to the zoo, where Smith said he “very calmly and very carefully” coaxed it into a clear tube for its lethal injection.

Locally, it was not the first time someone had used a snake to terrorize.

In a high-profile case in the late 1970s, an attorney was bitten by a rattlesnake in his mailbox.

Authorities called it a revenge attack on the lawyer, who had won a judgment against the Synanon Foundation, an alternative lifestyle drug-rehabilitation program.