Sympathy for the Devil

Then Bugbee hit upon an idea: He would create a blueberry soda. In Ely, the biggest event of the year is the Blueberry Arts Festival. Each July it attracts upward of 40,000 tourists to the town.

Bugbee set about conducting research on the internet. He scavenged wild blueberries from his father-in-law's property. Within days, he'd concocted his soda recipe.

"It was pretty easy," Bugbee says. "It's just sugar water and blueberries."

Bugbee contacted several bottling companies, finally settling on Filbert's Old Time Root Beer in his native Chicago. Within a month, the first five pallets of "Ely Elixir" were circulating around town.

By all accounts, the novelty product was a hit. Both local newspapers ran features on the fledgling company. "Pop the top on Ely's newest soda," read the headline in the Timberjay. "Ely's blueberry soda pop has Chicago roots," countered the Ely Echo.

Although Bugbee had missed the deadline to reserve a booth for the blueberry festival, local radio station WELY (94.5) agreed to share its space. By the end of the first tourist season, Bugbee had sold two truckloads of Ely Elixir.

"He was an inspiring guy," says Bill Roloff, general manager of WELY. "It took a lot of hard work, and he and Amy put a lot of effort into that business."

Bugbee took some of the profits and started a newspaper, Ely Pride, and a companion website. He shot footage for the local public access television station, and produced the area's first podcast. In August, Ely Elixir was admitted to the local chamber of commerce.

Last fall, the Bugbees began planning a festival to honor the 1983 film A Christmas Story. Teaming up with WELY, the event was billed as a fundraiser for the financially strapped Ely School District.

It was the first time in Shane's life that he felt like part of a community. "I fell in love with Ely," he says. "It was really weird to feel that embrace."

And that's when the letter began circulating.

Bugbee first heard about the letter from Roloff at the radio station. Then the local Baptist minister called to discuss it.

The letter accused the Bugbees of funneling their blueberry soda profits into "devil worship" and went on to detail their connection to various suggestively named websites, including "evilnow.com," "radiofreesatan.com," and "whoreofhorror.com."

Shane Bugbee's dark predilections had begun in his childhood. By 16, he'd dropped out of high school, run away from home, and was living on the streets of Chicago. At 17, he was arrested on burglary charges and spent two months in jail.

"I hate my father; didn't talk to him for 16 years," he says.

Instead, Bugbee directed his anger toward creative outlets, starting a zine called Naked Aggression. Eventually he established Mike Hunt Publishing, producing a cookbook featuring the recipes of convicted serial killer Dorothea Puente.

Over the years, Bugbee periodically made headlines for his over-the-top antics, including selling paintings created by child serial killer John Wayne Gacy. He also briefly managed the career of former child actress Dana Plato, and even tried to sell a recording of her final breaths.

Bugbee met Amy Stocky in Chicago in 1994 and they were married a couple of years later. Amy carved out her own niche as a sort of Martha Stewart for the satanic set, founding a magazine titled Hellraiser Homemaker.

They'd always lived in the city, from Chicago to the gritty steel town of Hammond. Soon after arriving in Ely, Shane knew he'd have to find a new line of work.

"I'm publishing shit that's considered obscene almost in the big cities," he says. "I can be arrested for what I'm doing."

After the letter, Ely seemed to turn against the Bugbees. A job offer that had been extended to Amy was abruptly canceled. Families who'd been friendly now steered their children away. Trips to the local grocery became opportunities to be born again.

"Some lady came up to Amy and said, 'I just wanted to bless you,'" Shane says. "Then her friend came down and got on her knees right by the spinach and started praying."

Then one night at 2:00 a.m., the Bugbees received an anonymous call. The person sounded drunk and demanded that his picture be removed from the Ely Pride website. As Shane attempted to decipher the man's demands, the man grew angry.

"You better watch your place," the man yelled. "I'm going to come over tonight with a shotgun and shoot your place up."