Luke Wenke mailed this letter to the Honorable John L. Sinatra, Jr. during the fall of 2023 while detained at the Cattaraugus County Jail in Little Valley, New York on multiple federal probation violation charges. In it, he complains about Judge Sinatra telling him that he needs to learn how to work and live with the people around him while denying that he has a problem doing so.
Wenke then creepily reveals that while researching Sinatra online, he noticed that the judge has no apparent significant other. He instructs Sinatra to enroll his relatives in his mother’s music classes, to take his grandmother shopping in Olean, and to meet various other extended family members who have nothing to do with his case.
This was all supposedly part of Wenke’s plan to prove Sinatra’s statement about him needing to learn how to co-exist with people wrong. I’m just speculating, but I’d be willing to bet that these efforts did not have their intended effect.
Luke Wenke Describes His Lack of Contact w/ His Romantic Obsession as a “Forced Separation”
Perhaps the most unsettling part of this letter is when Luke Wenke describes his lack of contact with his romantic obsession, Ryan, as a “forced separation.” Wenke accuses the criminal justice system of being the reason that he and Ryan don’t communicate, but in reality, Ryan had expressed years earlier that he had no interest in corresponding with Luke Wenke.
At the time this letter was written, Luke Wenke was in custody for allegedly contacting several victims in violation of his federal probation. Months earlier, Ryan’s father had obtained a state-issued order of protection against Wenke outside New York, which Wenke was ordered to abide by as a condition of his supervised release. Wenke was also instructed not to have any contact with anyone associated with Ryan’s father, but he sent several letters to Ryan’s mother, seeming to believe he had discovered a legal loophole that would enable him to harass the family without getting in trouble.
Even after being detained for this type of conduct, Wenke continued sending letters to the family from jail, thereby demonstrating that he’s truly incapable respecting his victims’ boundaries and following the court’s rules — even when his freedom depends on it.
Luke Wenke Refuses to Accept That His Romantic Obsession Wants No Contact
Refusing to believe that Ryan doesn’t want him, Wenke seems to have convinced himself that outside forces — i.e. the court, his stalking victims, and Ryan’s defense attorney (“Victim 1”) — are keeping them apart. This falls in line with the findings of forensic psychologist Dr. Corey Leidenfrost, who testified during a February 2025 court hearing that he believes Luke Wenke suffers from erotomanic delusions.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Luke Wenke appears to remain in denial to this day over the absence of any relationship whatsoever between him and Ryan. Weeks after his release from prison last month (October 2025) and just days following the conclusion of his federal cyberstalking case, Wenke deluged Judge Sinatra with emails obsessing over Ryan’s family and stating his desire to reconnect with Ryan. In one email, he mentioned that he had bought Ryan a Christmas present and encouraged Ryan to call him, seemingly under the [most likely inaccurate] impression that Ryan even reads his letters to the court.
The signs that Luke Wenke’s stalking would continue after his release from custody have been glaringly obvious all along, but the court chose to harbor unrealistic hope that a few months of forced mental health treatment could result in some sort of turnaround. Based on his letters to the court, Wenke seems angrier, more determined to seek vengeance for perceived wrongdoings, and more convinced than ever that his victims — including myself, Ryan, and Ryan’s family — know each other and are conspiring against him.
I’ve never met or even spoken to Ryan or his family, but I worry daily that something bad will happen to them, myself, and/or other victims due to Wenke walking free with no supervision. I’ve gone to great lengths to preserve my physical safety and privacy specifically due to Luke Wenke’s obsession with me, but I live in constant fear that he’ll still somehow obtain the resources to stalk me in person rather than just on the internet — something I believe he’d aspire to do even if this website didn’t exist.
USA v. Luke Wenke – Letter
October 25th, 2023
CASE #1:22-cr-00035, DOC. #86
Katie Mentions: 3
To read a “transcribed” version of the letter, scroll past the PDF viewer. 🙂
USA v. Luke Wenke – Letter – Doc. #86Luke Wenke #86 – Page 1:
“Dear John,
“I have been face to face with Carl Paladino alone in his office July 2019. I was one of George Borrello’s top donors as late as 2021 before this mess happened to me. David DiPietro sat at the bagel and cream cheese diner by his East Aurora house May 2019 and talked about things like Ron Paul and Upstate NY statehood. The mother to the former owner of Salamanca Napoli’s Pizza, Helen Procacci, told me when I worked there in 2011 that I was ‘too honest for my own good’. You also know thanks to another letter I sent you that we come from a lifetime of facing my village level judge of a grandmother Carolyn Giardini. John Sinatra you don’t get to tell me I don’t know how to live and work with people around me, so I am going to get us off to a positive headstart for October 26th by doing my best to prove you wrong over letter. When I got back home from Allenwood March 31st, one of many things I did except get all teary eyed when I saw that Benjamin [Ryan] got 48 months and told myself wow I would have shut up and waited had I known that, I also looked you up. You are in your 50s and you don’t have a significant other on your Wikipedia. Did I make fun of you? No, I said wow he’s in the same boat I am. Wow, Covid probably hijacked his social life like it did to the rest of us. So here’s what I’m going to do to start off my ‘proving John Sinatra wrong’ experiment. My mother Janet McCaul is in that picture of me and George Borrello you see in my court files. She is a piano teacher, SUNY graduate (Fredonia) Masters degree. Use your nieces, nephews, and other younger relatives’ music lessons needs to give yourself an excuse to go see her in Salamanca. We were supposed to go to George’s fundraiser in June, too bad off to Chautauqua County Jail with me so I could get diagnosed with borderline personality traits. The St. Cecilia portrait I got for her in 2021 watches over her piano room. That is her house and guys go after her for her money, not the other way around. [Phone number]. Ask her about her cousin [name], she’s a major force organizing events at St. Bonaventure University. [Cousin]’s husband [name] beats her too often, go fix that problem. My 71 year old grandmother [name] hasn’t been married to my grandfather since 2005 and she always did look young for her age. Use her seamstress business available at [phone number] as an excuse to perfect your judge gown and take her shopping at her ex-boyfriend Craig DiCola’s Olean store Armond’s Fashion For Men and demand he lower his prices to your liking. Do well with all of the three of them and maybe next we’ll get my 80 year old junkyard millionaire cousin Bob Giardini (NY state troopers had to talk…”
Luke Wenke #86 – Page 2:
“…to him while I was at Chautauqua County Jail because he took a back hoe to his neighbor) to introduce you to his recently college graduated granddaughters. Ok so I did my best there trying to prove this ‘Luke doesn’t work well with people around him’ accusation wrong in terms of personal stuff, next financial stuff. On August 10th when I left jail, my father Kevin [last name] got a tour of a Sinatra rental property in Buffalo and now he rents it. [Phone number], make sure his University of Tennessee MBA is put to good use and he does Sinatra family business paperwork in case he needs to make a deal with you guys if he falls behind in rent. He DOES have a lot of debt, my grandfather had to buy him a new car last year while I was at Allenwood and then he sold the car he got for free because who knows why. Oakley sunglasses stock in the spring before summer, North Face winter jacket stock in the fall right before snow. Go profit off stock speculation all you need. The minimum wage in Brazil is $258 USD per month, way lower than China’s. Why can’t Sinatras make everything for sale at Walmart cheaper in Brazil? Why can’t Donald Trump Judge John Sinatra look into every last Prohibition bootlegging era conspiracy entrapment that happened and get them posthumously overturned? Go put on a pinstripe suit, put a shiny ring on every finger, take a picture, take a picture and put it on your book entitled ‘Mafia Judge’ and go talk about it on Bill Maher’s show. Those things are just as overturn-able in front of the US Supreme Court as mine is — June 2023, a Colorado guy who did 4.5 years starting in 2014 got overturned on grounds of ‘raising the bar for free speech’, July 2023 someone who screamed way too hard at an elections official in a different state over email got overturned. Do it to mine, produce a wrongful incarceration check for every day I did like this, and donate every dollar to any charitable cause because I don’t need the money. I just helped you with business matters big time. I am not a public safety threat. A few weeks before this little stunt happened, [probation officer] can gladly testify to Katie trying to get me arrested by lying to police saying I was using my license plates that were legally turned in over a year ago by her house. Marianne Mariano should be prepared with those facts too. I know Brett [Ryan’s dad] nor Katie will admit guilt in court on October 26th when I ask who broke into my house when I got back August 10th so nobody is pleading guilty to anything on October 26th, I expect one big I Plead The Fifth Palooza from those guys. [Probation officer] lied to me when he said ‘come to Buffalo for a UA test’ and then boom jail. Making false statements in court gets us a Class A misdemeanor and Helen Procacci said I’m too honest for my own good, remember? Brett and Lauren [Ryan’s parents] have two other younger sons they homeschool, they need to teach them cursive rather than holding ‘Luke Wenke handwriting plagiarism 101’ as I presume they do. Court documented evidence of all of them having my handwriting for a while now, they won’t be admitting guilt to any of my accusations Marianne Mariano knows about. I know you see the heartbreak that drags on and on with mine and Benjamin [Ryan]’s forced separation, might as well put him on the Fed Jet, fly him here, and marry us in handcuffs in front of you to solve the extraordinary ‘Freedom To Assemble’ violation taking place not letting me and him talk things out like adults. I am in touch with Rob Yates with the North Carolina Libertarian Party again, that helps. Also I don’t recall Lauren [Ryan’s mom] specifically being in my ‘don’t contact’ paperwork nor do I know the emotional relationship status between her and Brett, last I know Brett and Lauren had issues. Katie, who I’ve known for 13 years, can explain. Looking forward to talking. -Luke Wenke”
Categories: Luke Wenke, Court Documents: letters; False Allegations: burglary/home invasion, lying to police, plagiarism, wrongful conviction/incarceration; Obsessions: Carl Paladino obsession, Katie Obsession, Ryan/Benjamin obsession
Tags: Buffalo, NY; Cattaraugus County, Cattaraugus County Jail, Chautauqua County, Chautauqua County Jail, Con Air, conditions of supervised release, contact ban violations, Dr. Corey Leidenfrost, dangerousness, New York Assemblyman David DiPietro, delusions, Donald Trump, erotomania/romantic delusions, FCI Allenwood, New York Senator George Borrello, Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS), Libertarian Party; Little Valley, NY; North Carolina; Olean, NY; orders of protection, Pennsylvania, probation violations, public safety; Salamanca, NY; St. Bonaventure University, violations of supervised release (VOSR)