HEAVEN SENT Merrill
The atheist cousin of Merrill Lynch's founder—and openly gay widower of Johnson & Johnson heir Evangeline (Casey's great aunt)—has become a First Amendment freedom fighter.
Charles Merrill has been loudly defending his civil rights since the New York Times-owned North Carolina paper the Hendersonville Times News suspended his message board account because of his screen name, Anti Christ. It started when Merrill began commenting on the paper's message boards using the handle Charles 6. "They started calling me Charles 666 because of my atheist and gay views," Merrill tells Radar. "Since I had that mark of the beast, I just thought I'd give them the whole enchilada and call myself Anti Christ. About two or three days later, my account was suspended," a move he says amounts to taking away his First Amendment rights.