A week after George Zimmerman rolled out a revamped website, his parents have unveiled their own website, detailing in voluminous detail the upheaval and death threats suffered by three generations of the family after their son, 28, shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, on Feb. 26.
The younger Zimmerman's website, therealgeorgezimmerman.com, is an open appeal for donations to help pay for his legal fees, security and living expenses, and a forum to try to offer an unfiltered account of who George Zimmerman is.
The parents' site, called robertandgladys.com aims to counter the way their son has been "savagely portrayed in the media," and has a tab asking for contributions to their "greatly increased living expenses."
What follows is a painstaking detailed history of the family -- from Robert and Gladys Zimmerman's courtship in the late 1970s to the frenzied days after the shooting.
In his missive, Robert Zimmerman describes a barrage of threatening calls, the media "beating down our door" and death threats.
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel Pool/AP Photo
The worst came, he writes, after Rosanne Barr published the family's address and phone numbers.
"Almost immediately, threatening phone calls and letters were received," he writes. "However, one in particular was alarming because it threatened to kill anyone with George's DNA -- it was not mailed, but was left at our front door."
The family fled, taking only key medicine and a few articles of clothing each, Robert Zimmerman writes, describing their unhappy, itinerant lifestyle.
"It's been a challenge getting hotel rooms when we cannot provide our correct names, use credit cards or produce any valid identification," he writes. "Today, that is very much what our existence is. ... There have been other severe hardships. However, for security reasons, these cannot be mentioned at this time.
The family roamed from hotel to hotel, George Zimmerman's sister had to quit her government job and, writes Robert Zimmerman, he and his mother-in-law had to end their physical therapy.
For a family that has zealously kept the barest information from the public, the 3,000-word missive veers into the confessional, with Robert Zimmerman explaining that he suffered chest pains weeks before the shooting, and lovingly noting that his son, George Zimmerman, despite his studies and his work, slept faithfully by his father's side.
On multiple occasions, the letter points out that George Zimmerman is not a racist.
Robert Zimmerman writes that his son grew up with black children in his house -- and George Zimmerman's grandmother babysat for them.
It also mentions that George Zimmerman insisted on mentoring two young black children.
"When George's mother ask why he had to travel to such a dangerous area to mentor children, George's reply was 'Mom, I really love these kids and if I don't go, they won't have anyone,'" Robert Zimmerman writes. "To this day, George is very saddened that he will most likely never see these children again."
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