Suspect in 2001 Anthrax Attacks That Affected Virginia Commits Suicide
By: Lowell
Published On: 8/1/2008 5:45:30 AM
Almost seven years after a series of anthrax attacks that, among other things, hit a State Department mail annex in Sterling, Virginia (a worker there, David Hose, contracted inhalation anthrax), comes this bizarre turn of events:
A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.
The scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who worked for the past 18 years at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., had been told about the impending prosecution, the Los Angeles Times reported for Friday editions. The laboratory has been at the center of the FBI's investigation of the anthrax attacks, which killed five people.
Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland. The Times, quoting an unidentified colleague, said the scientist had taken a massive dose of a prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.
So, does this finally solve the mysterious anthrax attacks case? According to the LA Times:
The eldest of his two brothers, Thomas Ivins, said he was not surprised by the events that have unfolded.
"He buckled under the pressure from the federal government," Thomas Ivins said, adding that FBI agents came to Ohio last year to question him about his brother.
"I was questioned by the feds, and I sung like a canary" about Bruce Ivins' personality and tendencies, Thomas Ivins said.
"He had in his mind that he was omnipotent."
He worked at a biodefense lab as a scientist, the government was just about to file charges against him, his brother wasn't surprised that "the feds" suspected him, and he thought he was "omnipotent?" Sounds like this very well might have been the guy. Thoughts?
Comments
Thoughts? I have a few (passingthrough - 8/1/2008 7:02:40 AM)
Anyone seen "
Arlington Road"? This is all a little bit too convenient. Its the 'Publicans remind us "Why We Need Them" (if I may steal from
V for Vendetta too). Yeah, you can call me a crazy conspiracy theorist... but come on! Ya'lls see this too, right? It cant just be me, right?
i was a postal worker then (pvogel - 8/1/2008 7:17:50 AM)
I was checked for anthrax, got an early out because of it, and
hope that this is the guy who did it.
If he was, may he rot in hell, if there is one.
Justice better have the goods (martin lomasney - 8/1/2008 8:38:54 AM)
on this guy and show us all their cards, after the Hadley fiasco. Otherwise this guy's suicide will look really bad.
Precisely! (passingthrough - 8/1/2008 1:35:28 PM)
I'm already thinking "cover up".
FYI (HisRoc - 8/1/2008 4:56:05 PM)
Stephen Hadley is the National Security Advisor. The "person of interest" who just collected $5.8M of our tax dollars from the Justice Department was Steven Hatfield.
Conspiracy, cover-up? You bet. The McCoys did it.
:)
Okay (HisRoc - 8/1/2008 5:09:44 PM)
So it was really Steven Hatfill. The Hatfields and McCoy thing was too good to pass up.
What a weird way for someone like this to kill himself (Silence Dogood - 8/1/2008 10:38:06 AM)
I get the codeine thing, but Tylenol? If anyone else is asking "who the hell tries to kill themselves with Tylenol?" it's a good question. I knew an 18 y.o. girl once who tried to kill herself once by taking a whole bottle of Tylenol because it was an impulsive thing she decided to do at the time, and Tylenol was the only pill she had available. It didn't work, it just made her really sick and damaged her liver.
This guy's supposed to be a biological warfare expert with access to all sorts of deadly substances, but when he wanted to kill himself he picked Tylenol? Obviously none of us have an informed opinion because we don't know the evidence the Feds are holding against him, but my gut reaction after hearing how he died is that this man does not sound like a criminal mastermind.
toxic tylonel (pvogel - 8/1/2008 11:16:36 AM)
from paracetomal website
single doses above 10 grams or 200 mg/kg, which ever is lower, have a reasonable likelihood of causing toxicity
I weigh 100 KG so the toxic level for me is 20000 mg...thats 40 extra strength tablets.
so a whole bottle of tylonel with codeine by script is 30 pills.
If he hoarded the drug over the years, he whould have enough to do the deed to himself.
sounds guilty to me!
Toxicity != lethality (Silence Dogood - 8/1/2008 11:48:29 AM)
Acetaminophen is metabolized in the liver, so "toxicity" in this case simply means you get liver poisoning, which sucks, but it's not something that's going to kill you quickly and painlessly. The newspaper just may be unclear in saying what he killed himself with, the medication may have been acetaminophen mixed with codeine at the pharmacy before he picked it up. But, um, if any of y'all are planning on trying to off yourself, please don't do it with Tylenol. You'll survive and wish you didn't.
Thinks he's omnipotent (Teddy - 8/1/2008 11:42:27 AM)
is quite a judgment from a personal relative who admits he "sang like a canary?" My, how interesting. This personality defect, if true, describes many who want to play God with the world, and think they know best how to organize everyone else. If he is guilty of the anthrax terrorism, let's recall who received mail from him. Was it not a so-called liberal Senator (Daschle?) for example. I hope that someone investigates the man's political leanings. I have always suspected that the anthrax caper sounded as though it came from a deranged right-winger, very much as does the recent shotgun assault at a Unitarian Church children's theater performance by a maniac who proclaimed that the liberals were destroying America.
toxicity (pvogel - 8/1/2008 1:55:00 PM)
If you injure your liver bad enough, you die quickly. Its not a pretty way to go.
The liver helps in the production of white blood cells, platelets, and other blood products.
You just start to bleed out everywhere, nd you get a massive infection of MRSA.
to thimk this is less unpleasent than a trial is foolish.
Speaking of unindicted criminals, check this out
Hey the Bush administration said the Saddam had 80000 litres of liqufied anthrax in
Iraq, it was a wmd( You can google it)
and we never stopped accepting mail from Iraq, and the us mail was the method of transmission.
Either the bush regime was criminally stupid, or just criminal