Anthrax Case Solved?

[sdreid]

I would expect that mailing venomous animals would be pretty ineffective since there would be a substantial chance that they would perish before they arrived.

[sdreid]

Although things like poisonous snakes and spiders have been used in attempts to commit murder

The Robert James Case probably being the most famous example.

[sdreid]

Although things like poisonous snakes and spiders have been used in attempts to commit murder, I can't think of any that were sent through the mail yet.

[sdreid]

The mail murders that I can think of were pathogen as we have here, bombs, poisoned consumables and, in the case of the Zip Gun Case, a booby-trap gun.

In fiction, we also have Susan George getting her time-card punched when she opens a package containing a very angry poisonous snake in the movie Venom.

[sdreid]

I guess it's a catchier name than Zip Gun Booby-trapper.

[sdreid]

Zip Gun Case, a booby-trap gun.

Although, the perpetrator is erroneously called the Zip Gun Bomber.

[sdreid]

The mail murders that I can think of were pathogen as we have here, bombs, poisoned consumables and, in the case of the Zip Gun Case, a booby-trap gun.

[sdreid]

I think the majority of mail murders are with bombs.

[sdreid]

I don't know if you want to call mail a product but in virtually all the product tampering cases that have been solved, the killer proved to be someone who was targeting one of the victims with the other murders being for cover. This was true of Christina Edmunds back in 1871 and Stella Nichell in 1986 as well as some of the trick-or-treat poisonings. In fact, this is a recent epiphany with me regarding the 1982 Chicago Cylenol Poisonings. Perhaps authorities should be looking for someone who personally knew one of the victims and not necessarily one of the victims who died.

In the case of Christiana Edmunds, she had a cover victim who died but her intended victim survived the poisoning attempt.

Somewhat ironically, Ivins killed himself with Tylenol and without the need of any added cyanide.

[sdreid]

Interesting that spores were found in the mailbox but none were ever found on or in any of Ivins' personal property.

[sdreid]

The belief is that there were, at least, seven letters sent out; 5 in the first group and two in the second. All the over 600 boxes from which the letters could have been mailed were checked and only one contained any anthrax spores. It is thus assumed that both groups of letters were mailed from this same box. The only other reasonable possibility would be that one group was sent from this box and the others from another box and that these letters were so clean that they left no detectable spores.

[sdreid]

These Amerithrax letters were mailed out in two batches. The first group was postmarked Tuesday September 18 and could have been mailed as early as late on the 17th. Postmarks on the second batch were also on a Tuesday, October 9. These however could have been placed in the mailing box as early as late Saturday October 6 because Monday was the Columbus Day holiday.

[sdreid]

I see that one account claims that about 70 people were harmed in the attacks but only 17 seriously of whom five died.

[sdreid]

The recently aired PBS program Frontline shot the case against Ivins full of holes.

[sdreid]

Kathy Nguyen and Ottilie Lundgren.

There has been some suggestion that these women just died from anthrax that had cross contaminated their mail. That would seem to be a minute amount compared to what a lot of people came in contact with and survived. I suppose they could have been in a weakened state of health for some reason though.