It was a quiet evening in South Dakota when 73-year-old Carl Ericsson rang a familiar doorbell. Norman Johnson, a beloved retired teacher and coach, opened the door — only to be shot twice in the face. The reason? A high-school prank from more than 50 years ago.
Back in the 1950s, Johnson had once pulled a jockstrap over Ericsson’s head as a locker-room joke. But to Ericsson, the humiliation never faded. “I guess it was from something that happened over 50 years ago,” he later told the judge, his voice shaking. “It was apparently in my subconscious.”
Johnson’s daughter Beth still can’t make sense of it. “It was just goofing off in a locker room,” she said softly. “He was jealous of Dad his whole life.”
Ericsson will spend the rest of his days behind bars, haunted by a memory he could never let go.
A moment of cruelty. A lifetime of hate. And a tragedy that reminds us — forgiveness saves more than one life.
