I received three calls objecting to Sunday’s detailed look at the troubled life of Cookie Thornton, whose shootings at Kirkwood City Hall on Feb. 7 ended with six dead, including Thornton.

(The three-level headline read: Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton. BEHIND THE SMILE. Everything was “fan-tas-tic” — even when falling apart.)

I suspect the authors of Sunday’s story — reporters Stephen Deere and Doug Moore — and Sunday Editor Ron Wade heard from more readers. I’ll ask them to add comments if so.

One reader told me that he thought Sunday’s story was intended just to sell papers, “by stirring it up.” He said the article was in “poor taste,” and that it was time to let the matter rest.

Another reader questioned why we would devote much of the front page and two pages inside to an examination of a killer. Disrespectful to the victims, she said.

“Enough is enough,” another caller said. He said everyone at the Derby Party he went to Saturday thought the space devoted to the subject was excessive and — again — disrespectful to the victims’ families. (The story was posted on STLtoday about noon Saturday, and was available in early editions of the Sunday Post-Dispatch at stores  starting Saturday morning.)

A former editor at the Post-Dispatch sent an email praising the reporting job. The subject field was “attaboy.” He said: ” What an eye-opener for so many of us Kirkwoodians. “