A 73-year-old Delaware County man who previously got in trouble for leaving lewd and threatening voicemails for U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean pleaded guilty Wednesday to stalking a Philadelphia TV news personality.
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Stephen M. Cilurso, of Aldan, admitted to one count of stalking by use of the mail and one count of witness tampering before U.S. District Judge Gail A. Weilheimer in Philadelphia federal court.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf did not identify the victim, but court records describe the target of Cilurso’s homophobic and threatening mailed letters as a TV news personality who has a spouse and children.
Cilurso mentioned the man’s children by name in several of his threatening letters, according to the memorandum for Cilurso’s plea deal with prosecutors.
Even after Cilurso was contacted in March by law enforcement about the harassment, Cilurso continued to send letters to the TV personality — but this time he was asking the victim to help get the criminal investigation dropped, the memo said.
Cilurso reportedly did the same with Dean (D., Montgomery).
He was charged in 2021 with making threatening and lewd calls to Dean’s office because she was involved with the impeachment of Donald Trump, who he supported in 2020. At one point, he mentioned Dean’s daughter by name.
After police began to investigate the calls, Cilurso left additional messages apologizing for his behavior and begging Dean to tell detectives to stop the investigation.
Cilurso pleaded guilty in the Dean case and was sentenced to probation, court records show.
In January, Cilurso was arrested for allegedly making threats to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill when she was a member of Congress. The outcome of that case was not immediately clear Wednesday night.
In the Philadelphia case, Cilurso mailed his first letter in 2019 and included homophobic comments and mentioned that he just saw the victim with his kids.
Cilurso continued mentioning the victim’s children in subsequent letters as well as the victim’s spouse, prosecutors said.
He also threatened to release snakes around the victim’s home.
“Regarding why the snake letters were mailed, the defendant stated he saw a news segment where Victim 1 revealed on the air that he is deathly afraid of snakes,” the plea memorandum said.
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“The defendant thought Victim 1’s fear of snakes was funny, so he began mailing threatening communications to Victim 1 indicating he was planning to release snakes at Victim 1’s residential property,” the memo said.
In a September 2025 letter, Cilurso again used homophobic slurs and mentioned the victim’s spouse. At the end of the letter, according to the memo, Cilurso wrote: “I hope what happened to Charlie Kirk happens to you.”
The victim received that letter about a week after Kirk, a conservative activist, was fatally shot on Sept. 10.
Prosecutors said the victim felt as if his life was in imminent danger after receiving that letter and installed security cameras around his house. He also contacted the Philadelphia police, who then notified the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
After being interviewed by law enforcement in March, Cilurso sent additional letters to the man, but was now asking for his help to stop the investigation.
“I am the 73 year old scumbag who wrote you” the letters, Cilruso wrote, according to the memo.
The plea memo said Cilurso begged for the victim to “help me out of this nightmare. Please ask the FBI to drop any future charges against me … I will donate a monetary amount to your favorite charity on your behalf … [D]on’t let me go to jail again and be away from my 3 remaining cats. I love my cats as you love your [children],” he wrote, again using their actual names.
In a sidenote, the agents confirmed that Cilurso owned three cats.
In another letter, Cilurso admitted that an agent came to his house and told him to stop communicating with the victim, the memo said.
In his last letter in March, according to the memo, Cilurso wrote: “I know that I told you that I would not write you again, but things have changed and not for the better for me.”
Cilurso described health problems he claimed he had, and that he would take his own life and the lives of his cats rather than go back to jail, the memo said.
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