ELON Musk has been the target of death threats since he was five years old, his father told The US Sun.
The world’s richest man, 52, told Tesla shareholders earlier this month that two “homicidal maniacs” had tried to kill him over the past seven months.
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Elon hinted that he was targeted for no apparent reason other than his fame.
Speaking from his home in South Africa, the tech mogul’s father Errol said this isn’t the first time Elon has been in the crosshairs.
Retired electromechanical engineer Errol, 78, revealed he received death threats against Elon and his other children when he became involved in politics in the 1970s.
Errol said the threats came in the form of late-night phone calls while he was a Pretoria city councilor and still married to Elon’s mother, Maye.
“Maye and I and the kids were threatened with death around 1976,” he revealed.
“We were told we would all be killed in 2am phone calls that lasted about three weeks.
“I was told that my children Elon, Kimbal and Tosca would be killed first, then Maye and then me.
“They knew our movements, including where the children studied.
“Maye was quite scared as she sometimes answered calls.
“The police told me how difficult it is or was to trace calls, it took them two weeks to do it.
“I kept them in line with the promise of money and eventually they were tracked down and arrested.”
Errol says the threats were retaliation for his role in providing evidence for an investigation while he was a councilor.
This forced him to carry a gun and provide a police escort for Maye and the children, he claims.
Asked how Elon, his younger brother Kimbal, now 51, and his sister Tosca, 49, reacted to the police escort, Errol said: “I couldn’t explain it to them, but I’m sure they found it amusing.”
We were told we would all be killed in 2am phone calls that lasted about three weeks.
Errol Musk
He says he refused to prosecute the suspects when they were arrested after a police colonel informed him about them.
“He told me they were old men shaking and crying in their cells,” Errol explained.
“I told him that each of them should write me a letter of apology.
“They did, shaky writing and all.”
Errol first became involved in politics in 1972, when he was elected as an independent to the Pretoria City Council.
He also ran twice for the South African parliament, in 1974 and 1981, but was unsuccessful.
Errol, who met with his son in Texas in November, says Elon currently has a security team of about 50 guards who work three eight-hour shifts every day.
The Tesla co-founder was asked at the electric carmaker’s annual shareholder meeting earlier this month about what steps he is taking to stay safe.
“It’s getting a little crazy these days,” he replied.
“You know, to a first approximation, that the probability of a homicidal maniac trying to kill you is proportional to how many homicidal maniacs hear his name.
“They hear my name a lot and I’m like, okay, I’m on the list.”
He added: “We [Tesla] in fact, I’ve had two homicidal maniacs in the last seven months, who have aspirational tried to kill me and a bunch of other people, so it’s not just me, and there wasn’t a real problem that they articulated – they were just, you know , in the career of a homicidal maniac.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
