Dear Mr. Wycliff:

The death of any young man or woman is inherently tragic, cutting short as it does a life of infinite promise. Still, I was initially baffled to find on Page 1 of [the Sept. 8] Tribune your belated obituary of Peter Berry, a young art student who, despite the protests and pleas of his mother, devoted the last 10 years of his life to defacing public and private property around Chicago with graffiti. ...

What, I wondered, qualified Mr. Berry for the extraordinary tribute that the Tribune offered him? Deep in the article I found my answer: His stepfather is a Tribune executive ...

To say that reporter Bill Glauber's story last week about Peter Berry, a.k.a. Kiser, stirred strong emotions among readers would be a monumental understatement. Gerald P. Mulderig's letter, excerpted above, was one of the milder ones. More typical was one from Christopher B. Jurczyk, a staff member in Northwestern University's engineering school.

Why would you write this article?

Now there is going to be even more graffiti. Graffiti Busters is already cleaning my neighborhood once per week! This includes my garage and my neighbor's house. ...

I think there should be a call to all "graffiti artists" by your paper to creatively redesign Tribune Tower.

Easy there, Mr. Jurczyk. As they say in my native Texas, now you've left off preaching and gone to meddling.

But seriously, folks, have you ever wondered who does that stuff and why? Did it not surprise you even a little to learn that a kid from a fairly privileged background--and a member of the U.S. Army Reserve besides--lived what Hanke Gratteau, the Tribune's associate managing editor for metropolitan news, called "this lawless life."

As for Berry's relationship to Tribune Publishing Co. executive Richard Cason, Gratteau said she wasn't aware of it until the day she went in to offer the "tagger" story for Page 1.

For his part, Glauber says he is "incredulous" at the ferocity of the criticism, which included at least one letter that said, "Good for him. He died."

"People have no heart," Glauber said. "People have no heart."