Deadly Letters That Terrorized America After 9/11 | Forensic Files

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[music] Retirement didn't suit 63-year-old [music] photojournalist Robert Stevens.
He lasted just 6 months before boredom drove him back to his beloved [music] former job as a photo editor at the Sun
Tabloid newspaper. By October 2001, Robert was settling back into the routine at the PAP's
editorial headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, when he [music] was struck down by a persistent illness.
Suffering from fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, and intense muscle aches, Robert assumed he had come down with a
particularly severe strain of the flu. But as his condition rapidly worsened, he was taken to hospital.
By then, [music] he had become incoherent and delirious, and a seizure soon left him in a coma. [music]
Doctors carried out urgent tests, including an examination of Robert's spinal fluid.
The normally clear liquid had turned cloudy with white blood cells, a sign that his body was fighting a serious
infection. [music] Under a microscope, the cores appeared as clusters of rod-shaped bacteria,
almost wormlike in form. Their presence left medical staff stunned. [music] Anthrax is an infectious disease caused
by bacteria typically found in the blood of grazing animals. When infected animals die and decompose, the bacteria
are released as toxic spores that are invisible to the naked eye and can contaminate soil, plants, and water.
Outside a host, these spores are metabolically inactive, essentially dormant, which makes them
extraordinarily resilient. They can withstand extreme environmental conditions and remain viable for
decades. But once inside a warm, nutrient-rich environment such as the human body, they
activate into germinating bacteria and begin to multiply. Although anthrax was not something the
average person encountered in everyday life, Robert Stevens had clearly been exposed to it somewhere.
As an avid outdoorsman, the possibilities seemed endless. He had recently fished by a lake, pulled
weeds in his vegetable garden, cycled through a park with a friend, taken his granddaughter to the beach, and eaten
steak at a restaurant. The weekend before he was hospitalized, Robert traveled to North Carolina with
his wife and daughter. During a hike through Chimney Rock State Park, he took a detour that led him to a
waterfall. Leaning over the clear, cool water, he cuped his hands and drank two mouthfuls.
As doctors deliberated the source of Robert's infection, news of the highly unusual case reached the press.
Experts were quick to reassure the public that the situation was under control. The threat was considered low
because anthrax is [music] not contagious and Robert's illness appeared to be an isolated incident.
One of Robert's doctors said, "There is no reason to believe at this juncture that this is anything other than a
manifestation of a rare and obviously very serious illness [music] that has found its way into the life of one
individual." But one epidemiologist wasn't so sure. His job was to analyze patterns, trends,
and data related to disease, using them to assess risk and anticipate what might
come next. Naturally occurring anthrax had become exceedingly rare in developed countries after the widespread
introduction of vaccines for both animals and humans half a century earlier. Historically, the highest risk regions
in the United States were rural areas with large livestock populations and extensive grazing land, [music]
not densely populated coastal cities. Florida was not considered an endemic region, [music] and nearly three decades
had passed since the state's last known case. In recent years, anthrax infections were
typically linked to industrial settings involving contaminated imported animal products such as wool, hides, hair, or
meat, not mountain streams, vegetable gardens, or steak dinners. Most concerning of all, an X-ray
revealed that Robert Stevens had swollen lymph nodes between his lungs and spine,
a hallmark sign of inhalation anthrax. Inside the lungs are macrofasages, specialized white blood cells that act
as the body's first responders by patrolling the airways and destroying foreign particles and bacteria.
When anthrax spores are inhaled, macrofasages engulf them as they would any other pathogen.
But unlike most microbes, anthrax spores can survive inside these cells. As part
of their normal immune function, the macrofasages travel to nearby lymph nodes, inadvertently carrying the spores
with them. There, the [music] spores germinate into active bacteria that enter the bloodstream and spread
throughout the body. Their growth is rapid. What begins as a small number of bacteria can multiply
into trillions within days. Early symptoms often resemble a mild respiratory illness. one of the
disease's greatest clinical challenges as it can easily go undetected. [music] Meanwhile, the bacteria release toxins
that damage tissue and disrupt vital bodily functions, attacking the body on multiple fronts and overwhelming its
natural defenses. If the exposure dose is low and antibiotics are administered promptly,
patients can recover. But [music] if the dose is high and treatment is delayed, the disease can progress with terrifying
speed. By the late stages, anthrax [music] bacteria can account for roughly 30% of
the patients blood weight. [music] Nausea becomes violent, bloody vomiting. Swollen joints make even the slightest
movement excruciating. The face becomes so inflamed it is almost unrecognizable.
Bloody fluids squeeze the space between the brain and skull causing immense pain
and delirium. [music] The lungs, kidneys, and eventually heart begin to fail. Even with medical intervention, it is
almost impossible to treat inhalation anthrax once it reaches this stage. [music]
Such was the case for Robert Stevens. He was diagnosed with inhalation anthrax on Thursday, October 4, 2001.
>> [music] >> He died the next day. A sample of the anthrax that killed Robert Stevens was sent to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention for testing. Using a recently [music] developed
genetic technique, scientists extracted DNA from the sample and worked overnight
to compare it against a database of more than 1,000 anthrax specimens collected from around the world.
The [music] results both surprised and unsettled them. The sample [music] was genetically
indistinguishable from a specific strain of anthrax known as Ames. This finding was striking on multiple
fronts. First, Ames was not an obscure [music] foreign strain discovered in nature, but
a well-known laboratory strain. Considered the gold standard for anthrax because of its extreme virulence, it was
among the most potent strains ever studied. Most significant was the strain's origin.
Ames [music] had first been isolated from a dead cow in Texas in 1981 before being sent to the National Veterinary
Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, where it received its name. The strain had only ever been identified
in that single infected cow [music] and had never again been found in nature. This meant [music] that the Ames anthrax
inhaled by Robert Stevens almost certainly originated from a laboratory. By the early 2000s, the Ames strain was
restricted to a small number of laboratories operating under strict security and regulatory controls.
Anthrax of this quality was primarily used in biodfense research, including vaccine development, where highly
concentrated spores were needed to rigorously test [music] effectiveness. Records showed that fewer than 20
laboratories possessed live cultures of Ames, all but three of them located in the US.
However, the samples were stored either as liquid slurry or on vegetative cell slants, not in a dry inhalable form.
That meant that someone couldn't simply have stolen a ready-made quantity of dry
Ames off the shelf because no such stock was known to exist. The use of the Ames strain did not
necessarily prove that the anthrax which killed Robert Stevens had originated in
the US. Samples of the strain had been shared with laboratories in Canada, the United Kingdom, [music] and France.
More broadly, as investigative journalist Bob Cohen observed in his book Dead Silence, biological materials
were historically exchanged between research laboratories with minimal documentation, [music] weak oversight,
and limited regulation. According to Cohen, this lack of control extended even to dangerous [music]
pathogens. During the 1980s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly shipped hazardous viruses
internationally [music] by Express Mail to a range of countries, including geopolitical adversaries such
as Iraq, South Africa, Cuba, [music] the Soviet Union, and China. Investigations in the 1990s were
reportedly unable to determine whether such transfers reflected legitimate scientific collaboration or something
more concerning. Robert Stevens home was cordoned off and thoroughly inspected with his belongings
removed in biohazard bags for [music] testing, but no trace of anthrax was found.
The search then extended to his office at the sun. Although there was no obvious reason for
anthrax to be there, a swab taken from Robert's computer keyboard tested positive.
Investigators knew that a highly lethal laboratory strain of anthrax couldn't have ended up on Robert's work [music]
desk by mere accident. As more sinister explanations were considered, his colleagues were
questioned. They were shocked by the circumstances [music] of his death, describing Robert
as kind, generous, and funny. It was clear that he was genuinely well-liked, and that no one at the Sun appeared to
have any reason to harm him. Inspectors in hazmat suits began a thorough examination of the building,
while staff were asked to leave behind their personal belongings and undergo nasal swab tests.
The investigation took a dramatic turn when two of Robert's colleagues also tested positive for anthrax.
Through [music] them, a possible source of the contamination was identified. On Wednesday, September 19, 2001, 2
weeks before Robert Stevens was hospitalized, a bulky Manila envelope arrived at the Sun. It had been
postmarked the day prior and was addressed to the PAP's managing editor, Joe West, with the instruction, "Please
forward to Jennifer Lopez, care of the son." When Joe picked the envelope up, he felt
something cylindrical inside and [music] instinctively decided not to open it, tossing it straight into the bin.
But the package piqued the interest of Joe's news assistant, Bobby Bender, whose daughter was a fan of American pop
star Jennifer Lopez. Bobby retrieved the envelope, insisting, "I want to open it." The exchange caught
the attention of several nearby staff members, [music] including Robert Stevens.
Bobby opened the envelope to find a folded sheet of paper. As he carefully unfolded it, a pile of
what looked like talcum powder was revealed at the center, partially concealing a small gold object.
A handwritten message expressed the author's admiration for Jennifer Lopez and a desire to marry her.
The envelope also contained a cigar tube with a cheap cigar inside, [music] an empty can of chewing tobacco, a
cigarette rolling device, and a small box of laundry detergent. Why the sender wanted the newspaper to
forward these random items to Jennifer Lopez became the subject of amused discussion around the office.
Given the [music] son's tendency to publish sensational stories, from claims that Elvis Presley was still alive to
reports of celebrities impregnated by aliens, the tabloid was no stranger to receiving bizarre mail. But the letter
to Jennifer Lopez particularly intrigued Robert Stevens. Let me see that," he said, taking the
paper back to his desk [music] for a closer look. He placed it on top of his computer keyboard, studying the powder
and the small gold object buried within it. "Gee, it looks like a Jewish star," he
remarked. A photo assistant editor named Ros Sus wandered over to Robert's desk and
reached into the powder, plucking out the object with her fingers. It was indeed a star of David, a
recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism. Made of plastic, it featured a small
loop that allowed it to be worn on a necklace or bracelet. The Star of David along with the letter
and the other contents of the Manila envelope were discarded long before Robert Stevens was diagnosed with
inhalation anthrax. As a [music] result, investigators had nothing left to examine after his death.
No one could remember the letter's exact wording, only its general tone. Because the package had seemed like a
harmless curiosity at the time, staff had paid little attention to details such as the author's handwriting or
whether a return address had been included. In addition to the anthrax spores found
on Robert's keyboard, more were discovered in the building's mail slot where the package had been deposited.
Spores were also detected at the local post office, specifically in the area where mail bound for the sun was sorted.
This confirmed that the anthrax had arrived through the mail. As a precaution, everyone who might have been
exposed, from [music] newspaper staff to postal workers, was immediately given antibiotics.
Of the many people who handled the Jennifer Lopez letter, only two others were found to have contracted anthrax.
[music] 73-year-old Ernie Blanco, who received the package in the son's mail room,
passed it to 36-year-old Stephanie Daly at the administrative desk. Both tested positive for the disease.
While Ernie became seriously ill afterwards, Stephanie showed [music] no symptoms at all.
This was not unusual. Inhalation anthrax can incubate for up to 60 days after exposure, and a healthy
person would typically need to inhale between 8,000 and 10,000 spores for the infection to become fatal.
Brief contact with the package likely spared Ernie and Stephanie from receiving a more dangerous dose.
Investigators were more puzzled by the cases of Joe West, Bobby Bender, and Ros Sus, all of whom had handled the
envelope without falling ill. Ros had even touched the suspicious powder while retrieving the Star of David.
Further complicating matters were inconsistencies in witness accounts. Most staff remembered the suspicious
powder arriving with the Jennifer Lopez letter, but Bobby Bender insisted that the powder, cigar tube, cigarette
rolling device, chewing tobacco, detergent, and Star of David had come in an entirely separate package.
He recalled the powder as pink in color and said it smelled like detergent leaking from the box.
This led investigators to question whether the Lopez letter and its contents were truly the source of the
outbreak. They considered the possibility that another genuinely contaminated a letter had arrived at the
sun around the same time, but that memories of it had later become overshadowed or muddled by the bizarre
Lopez package. Anthrax mailings weren't entirely new in the US. In 1998, powder-filled letters
bearing the message [music] anthrax have a nice death were mailed to abortion clinics across the country over the
course of a week. That same year, a Florida magazine received a white powder accompanied by the warning, "You have
been exposed to anthrax poison." In both cases, the substances proved harmless. These incidents were just two among
hundreds of anthrax hoaxes reported before 2001. As part of his role as photo editor,
Robert Stevens routinely received photographs through the mail, which he opened himself. If he had received any
unusual or threatening letters, he never mentioned them to anyone. A search of his office uncovered nothing
suspicious, although anything significant might already have been misplaced or discarded.
Still, investigators couldn't rule out the possibility that the Lopez letter was connected to the outbreak and that
those who handled it without falling >> [music] >> ill had simply been lucky. Robert
reportedly began showing symptoms the day after examining the package. He then continued working through his worsening
illness for nearly 2 weeks before seeking medical attention, ultimately waiting too long for treatment to save
him. [music] Since 1990, there had been 18 documented cases of inhalation anthrax in the
United States and only two of those infected individuals had survived. All were accidental infections linked to
the animal industry. Robert Stevens death was entirely different. It marked the first known
homicide in the US carried out using anthrax sent through the mail. Anthrax is an effective biological
weapon because it can be produced relatively cheaply and with relative ease in a laboratory. While only a small
quantity is needed to infect large numbers of people, its microscopic spores can be dispersed through powders,
sprays, food, air, or water, often without detection because they are odless and tasteless.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies anthrax as a tier 1 biological agent, meaning it poses a
high risk of deliberate misuse with the potential to cause mass casualties and severe disruption to infrastructure, the
economy, [music] and public morale. The resulting infection can be so horrific that the United Nations has
described the intentional use of anthrax as repugnant to the conscience of mankind. [music]
As news of the anthrax outbreak spread through medical circles, doctors across the US became increasingly cautious and
vigilant. Patients presenting with suspicious symptoms were tested more readily, and
[music] soon another positive case emerged. Investigators were surprised to learn it
was not connected to the Sun offices or even to Florida. The case surfaced more than 1,000 mi north in the heart of New
York City. On Tuesday, September 25, 2001, 38-year-old Erin O' Connor noticed a sore on her chest. By early October, it
had developed into an oval-shaped ulcer roughly an inch long, capped by a cold black crust.
The [music] lymph nodes in her neck were also swollen, and she felt weak, feverish, and fatigued.
When Aaron visited her doctor, he was alarmed by her symptoms given the deadly anthrax outbreak unfolding in [music]
Florida. Although her illness differed from the fatal inhalation case, the possibility
of anthrax quickly crossed his mind. Aaron's painful spreading lesion suggested the cutaneous form of the
disease in which the bacteria enter the body through a cut [music] or break in the skin. A sample taken from the wound
on her chest later confirmed the diagnosis. [music] While still serious, cutaneous anthrax
is both more common and far less lethal than inhalation anthrax. The immune response usually confines the
infection to one area, and [music] the incubation period is typically less than a week.
What begins as a small itchy pimple-like bump gradually develops into an ulcer surrounded by swelling and marked by a
distinctive black scab. Despite its alarming appearance, the lesion is usually painless, slow to
progress, and rarely fatal because it is detected early. Standard antibiotics and clean gores are
generally enough for recovery with the black scab eventually falling away within a week or two. [music]
If left untreated, the infection can spread into the bloodstream and become fatal, though this [music] is extremely
rare. As investigators searched for the source of Aaron Oconor's infection, she described a recent incident at her
workplace. Aaron worked at the Manhattan headquarters of the television network,
home to numerous late night talk shows, sitcoms, dramas, game [music] shows, and
news programs. On Tuesday, September 18, an envelope had arrived at the studios addressed to
Tom Bro, host of the flagship evening news program NBC Nightly News. Inside was a folded sheet of plain white
paper. When it was removed, a heavy granular substance resembling a mixture of brown sugar and sand fell out.
>> [music] >> The paper contained a short handwritten message written entirely in capital
letters with each sentence placed on a separate line. At [music] the top, the author had
written a date from the previous week, September 11, 2001. The letter read, "This is next. [music] Take penicellin
now. Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is [music] great. 23-year-old NBC intern Casey Chamberlain
opened the letter as part of her desk [music] assistant duties. "What is this?" she asked those around her, who
were equally puzzled. The author hadn't provided their name or a return address. The handwriting was
messy and childlike, [music] and the word penicellin, the antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections, had been
misspelled. Why did the note insist it be taken immediately? And what connection did Tom
Brokor have to any of it? As a veteran newscaster and household name across the US, Tom Brokor routinely
received mail from the public, ranging from love letters and gifts to hate mail and even packages containing feal
matter. This threatening message appeared to be just another letter from a disgruntled viewer. perhaps a prank or
the ramblings of an unwell individual. In the days that followed, Casey Chamberlain woke in intense [music] pain
and discomfort. The glands in her neck became so swollen that her chin was nearly obscured. She developed a high
fever, a [music] rash, and an unusual tingling sensation that ran through her veins.
Casey suspected [music] she was having an allergic reaction to acne medication she had recently begun taking.
In reality, she had contracted [music] cutaneous anthrax. Fortunately, she sought medical
attention as her symptoms worsened. Although her doctor didn't initially suspect anthrax, he prudently prescribed
antibiotics. Of the more than 400 employees tested at NBC Studios, Casey [music] Chamberlain
and Aaron O' Connor were the only staff who tested positive. both recovered. Investigators soon learned about the
letter sent to Tom Brokor in midepptember, the one Casey had opened and Aaron had later handled.
Although Casey had immediately discarded the strange powder inside, [music] the envelope and letter itself had remained
in Aaron's office. Both items were promptly tested and confirmed to contain anthrax.
The risk of contamination was significant. Anthrax spores were also detected in the nasal passages of a
police officer and a laboratory technician who handled the letter, while another technician was found to have
spores on their face. There was little doubt that the NBC outbreak had been intentional,
especially given the short, cryptic message accompanying the deadly powder. Death to America, death to Israel. Allah
is great. The wording appeared closely tied to the date written at the top of the letter,
September 11, 2001. On that day, [music] multiple coordinated jihadist terrorist attacks
were carried out against the United States, commonly known as the September 11 attacks or 9/11. Four commercial
airliners were hijacked and deliberately flown into locations of major symbolic and strategic importance.
Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both skyscrapers to collapse. A
third aircraft crashed into the Pentagon headquarters of the US Department of Defense in Virginia.
The fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to regain control from the hijackers.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed, making 9/11 the deadliest terrorist [music] attack in US history.
The anthrax laced letter had been mailed to NBC [music] just one week later, but
investigators soon discovered it was not an isolated incident. 30-year-old Joanna Huden worked as the
editorial page assistant for the New York Post and was responsible for opening the PAP's mail. On Friday,
September 21, she noticed an itchy red bump on the middle finger of her right hand. Over the following days, it became
swollen and eventually burst, releasing fluid. Joanna covered it with a band-aid,
assuming it was one of the skin conditions she was prone to. When she later removed the bandage, the wound had
turned jet black. The center was dry, and the discoloration was spreading down her finger. It was not especially
painful, and with so much else happening in New York at the time, Joanna dismissed it and carried on with her
life. But the wound continued to worsen, eventually prompting her to seek medical
attention. Doctors initially suspected a spider bite and prescribed antibiotics.
Joanna assumed the problem had been resolved until she learned about the recent anthrax infections.
After reading about the symptoms, she realized she might have also been exposed.
Subsequent tests confirmed she had contracted cutaneous anthrax. This third outbreak was traced [music]
to a letter sent to the New York Post on the same day that NBC received its anthrax laden envelope.
Unlike the NBC letter, which had been addressed to a specific recipient, the post envelope was addressed simply to
editor. Unsure which colleague it was intended for, [music] Joanna had left it unopened
on her desk rather than passing it on. When authorities examined the envelope weeks later in October, a small quantity
of brown granular powder spilled out and tested positive for anthrax. It was accompanied by the [music] same
threatening message sent to NBC Nightly News with both letters being photo copies of an original.
Because Joanna hadn't opened the envelope, she hadn't inhaled the toxic powder inside [music] and had only come
into contact with trace amounts on its exterior. The envelopes from both letters bore
postmarks showing they had been mailed from Trenton, the capital of New Jersey. 48 post offices and 625 public
collection boxes fed into the Trenton postal processing facility and each was swabbed for anthrax spores.
A blue streetside mailbox positioned across from the main entrance to Princeton [music] University was found
to be heavily contaminated. Authorities concluded that [music] this was the box from which the anthrax
letters had been mailed. The discovery appeared to strengthen possible links to the September 11
attacks. Several of the hijackers had spent time in New Jersey before boarding the flight
that later crashed in Pennsylvania. Others had lived in Florida, not far from Robert Stevens office in Boca
Raton. There were also unconfirmed reports that some of the hijackers subscribed to
tabloids owned by American Media Incorporated, which included The Sun. The letters [music] themselves
referenced Allah, the Arabic word for God in Islam, and contained anti-American and anti-Jewish rhetoric
commonly associated with jihadist extremism. There were also unverified reports that
a dark skin lesion had been observed on one of the hijackers's legs. Weaponized anthrax has a long global
history. At various times, many nations have produced, experimented with, or stockpiled it. Hundreds of strains have
been documented worldwide, differing in resilience, virulence, and susceptibility to antibiotics.
Although anthrax research was often conducted for defensive or preventative purposes, the bacterium had also been
used in warfare. However, the 2001 attacks marked the first known instance of anthrax being
used for hostile purposes within the United States. Early statements by government officials
fueled speculation that the mailings had been orchestrated by Osama bin Laden, the jihadist leader behind the September
11 attacks. Vice President Dick Cheney stated, "We know Bin Laden has over the years tried to acquire weapons of mass
destruction, both biological and chemical weapons. He has trained people with respect to
how to deploy and use these kinds of substances. If not bin Laden himself, officials
suggested that members or sympathizers of his militant extremist group al-Qaeda might have been responsible.
This suspicion formed part of the broader justification for US and allied military action in Afghanistan, where
the government had been accused of harboring bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Attention also turned toward Iraq and
its president, Saddam Hussein, a long-standing geopolitical adversary of the US.
Iraq had previously admitted to weaponizing thousands of liters of anthrax and other biological toxins for
use in warheads. The possibility that September 11 had marked the beginning of a broader
campaign against the US, one now extending into biological warfare, was [music] deeply upsetting.
The government warned that another terrorist attack on American soil could occur in the immediate future, raising
fears that a far larger and more devastating threat was unfolding. For a nation traumatized by 9/11, the
warning was a crushing blow. President George Bush urged Americans to continue living as normally as possible,
stating, "Our government is doing everything we can to make our country as safe as possible."
One bioteterrorism expert urged the American people to remain calm, saying, "Whoever is doing this wants everyone to
panic. If the media panic and the public panics, you're completing the attack for
them. Despite these asurances, fear and anxiety spread rapidly across the country. People with flu-l like symptoms
flooded hospital emergency rooms, while others called 911 and doctor's offices demanding antibiotics, which quickly
vanished from pharmacy shelves. Some businesses discarded all incoming mail opened or unopened, while others
suspended deliveries altogether. Celebrities stopped accepting fan mail as investigators dealt with a wave of
hoaxes involving harmless powders mailed to high-profile figures. Newspapers carried the message, "This
paper is not printed in the state of Florida to reassure readers following Robert Stevens death." While the US
Postal Service issued guidance on identifying suspicious mail, citizens were advised to watch for items
that were unexpected, unusually heavy, misshapen, stained, or odorous, marked with restrictive instructions such as
personal, confidential, to be opened by a dressy only, or lacking a return address.
The atmosphere was described as a whole new dimension of unreal. One New Yorker angrily told reporters, "We've done
nothing. Nothing. And now we're living in fear of our own male." Tom Brokor addressed his close call on
air during NBC Nightly News, saying, "This is so unfair and so outrageous and so maddening, it's beyond my ability to
express it in socially acceptable terms." Personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and partner agencies
joined forces to investigate those responsible, forming a task force cenamed athrax.
But bioteterrorism presented unique challenges for criminal investigators. Such incidents are treated first and
foremost as health emergencies with criminal investigations often taking secondary priority until public safety
is restored. As a result, resources are initially directed toward disease diagnosis,
treatment, and containment rather than identifying and apprehending perpetrators.
Multiple agencies may handle the same materials as they are rapidly transported for testing and
decontamination, making strict forensic tracking difficult to maintain. Trace evidence can be destroyed. Samples
may not be preserved under ideal conditions, and patterns become harder to analyze once interventions begin
altering the scene. Decontamination procedures and the disposal of potentially dangerous
materials can also hinder efforts to reconstruct events. Leads often develop slowly, while
interviews become increasingly difficult as the number of possible exposure sites, witnesses, and victims expands
with each new discovery. The [music] method used to deploy the anthrax further complicated the
investigation. Although the postal system was not the most efficient means of dispersing the
spores, it offered major strategic advantages. [music] Authorities didn't even realize a crime
had been committed until weeks after the letters had been mailed, giving the perpetrator a substantial head start to
evade capture or carry out additional attacks. As authorities began the painstaking
process of interviewing thousands of people connected to the three known outbreaks, an incident unfolded at the
Hart Senate office building in Washington, DC. On Friday, October 12th, one week after
Robert Stevens death, a group of Alaska natives arrived at Democratic Senator Tom Dashel's office carrying a Ziploc
bag filled with fur. They described it as a gift for the senator in recognition of his opposition
to oil drilling. The group asked 21-year-old intern Grant Leslie to take a handful of the fur as a
symbolic gesture of thanks, claiming it came from an animal that would become endangered if the drilling proposal were
approved. Aware of the ongoing anthrax scare, [music] Grant acted cautiously. She asked the group to place the fur
into an envelope and after they left alerted the office manager who [music] contacted police.
Subsequent tests confirmed that the fur didn't contain any anthrax. Relief [music] swept through the office,
but the incident had interrupted mail delivery, leaving Grant and her colleagues with twice as much mail to
process when they returned on Monday, October 15. That morning, staff crowded into the
sixth floor mail room of the senator's office suite where a long narrow table was piled high with unopened letters and
packages. Grant sat in the middle of the room with a stack of mail on her lap. At the top
was an envelope addressed to Senator Dashel. She carefully scanned it for the telltale signs of an anthrax letter,
including a Trenton, New Jersey postmark dated September 18, and [music] the absence of a return address.
But this envelope appeared different. It had been mailed on October 9 and listed a return address in the upper
left corner. 4th grade Greenale School, Franklin Park, New Jersey. Opening mail was often monotonous work,
but Grant felt a flicker of excitement. A letter from school children would probably be cute and light-hearted, a
welcome contrast to the hostile and threatening correspondence [music] the office routinely received.
She turned the envelope over and noticed it had been sealed with tape, [music] a
fairly common precaution intended to keep its contents secure during transit. As Grant [music] cut into one corner
with a pair of scissors, a fine white powder spilled [music] out, coating her hands, skirt, and shoes.
Nervously, she announced, "I just spilled white powder all over myself." The room fell silent as tension filled
the air. Grant Leslie froze, careful not to disturb the powder any further while
police were contacted. The partially opened envelope was taken away for examination.
Inside was a letter written in the same handwriting as the ones sent to NBC and the New York Post in September. Like
those, it bore the date September 11, 2001 at the top. But this message abandoned the warning
to take penicellin now, replacing it with a series of new threats. You cannot stop us. We have this
anthrax. You die now. Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great. The powder inside the envelope, roughly
the size of a grape, tested positive for anthrax. Unlike the brown, granular, and heavy
powder sent to New York City, the Washington DC sample was white, lightweight, and capable of remaining
airborne. Test scenarios showed that opening a letter containing this form of anthrax
caused spores to disperse instantly, heavily contaminating everyone nearby. Within 45 seconds, spores had spread
throughout the entire room. The powder itself was highly concentrated, containing an estimated
trillion spores per gram. It had been refined to an optimal particle size, approximately 1 to 3 microme wide and 2
microme long, small enough to bypass the body's natural respiratory defenses, which typically filter out larger
particles. By comparison, the microscopic pores in a standard paper envelope can exceed 20
micrometers in size, allowing the spores to escape even from tightly sealed letters.
In practical terms, this anthrax had been engineered for maximum infectivity. The change seemingly reflected an effort
to overcome the shortcomings of the earlier attacks, which had infected fewer people than intended.
This time, it worked. Grant Leslie was infected along with 20 of her colleagues, six first responders, and
several employees from a neighboring office. All received immediate treatment, and
the building was locked down for extensive decontamination. With these measures, the fourth outbreak
appeared to have been [music] contained before any lives were lost. 9 days later, on Sunday, October 21, a
911 call was placed by 55-year-old Thomas Morris Jr. Struggling to breathe, he told the
operator, "I suspect that I might have been exposed to anthrax." Thomas had worked for years at the
United States Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center on Brentwood Road in Washington, DC.
The facility handled mail destined for Capitol Hill, including correspondents bound [music] for the office of Senator
Tom Dashel. When Thomas first began experiencing [music] symptoms, he contacted postal officials
to ask whether he might have been exposed to anthrax, but received no response. A doctor who initially examined him
noted his fever, sweating, and muscle aches, and suspected an ordinary viral illness, recommending over-the-counter
pain relief. Over the following days, however, Thomas's health rapidly deteriorated.
His head and body achd intensely. He vomited repeatedly, his chest tightened, and breathing became increasingly
difficult. By the time he called 911, he was bedridden with even slight movement
causing such extreme pain that he thought he might lose consciousness. Thomas was rushed to hospital and
correctly diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, but treatment came too late. He died before the night was over.
Investigators [music] quickly began screening the more than 2,000 postal employees working at the
Brentwood facility. Three additional workers tested positive for anthrax, each having suffered
varying degrees of illness. One of them was 47year-old Joseph Kerine. In the days beforehand, Joseph had
become so sick he could no longer work. After he fainted during church, his wife
took him to hospital. Doctors initially believed the fatigue, nausea, and excessive sweating he was
experiencing were symptoms of a stomach virus and sent him home to rest. On the morning of Monday, October 22,
Joseph's wife found him doubled over on the bathroom floor, struggling to breathe and [music] barely able to
speak. She rushed him back to hospital where tests revealed his bloodstream was teeming with anthrax bacteria.
By then it was too late to save him. Within 6 hours of arriving at the hospital, Joseph Kerine too had passed
away. Neither Thomas, Joseph, nor their colleagues had knowingly opened a threatening letter or come into contact
with suspicious powder. Yet, [music] the Brentwood facility processed around 2 million pieces of mail each day.
Letters passed through a vast system of worring belts and rollers that read barcodes and sorted envelopes into
delivery bins with the machinery capable of processing up to 13,000 letters an hour.
During this [music] process, the male was compressed for efficiency, forcing air and loose particles, outward.
Mechanics periodically cleaned the machines using blasts of compressed air, sending accumulated dust and debris,
including microscopic spores, cascading onto employees working below. Although investigators strongly
suspected the postal workers had been exposed through the letter sent to Senator Tom Dashel, they took no
chances. All mail destined for Capitol Hill was impounded and sealed inside barrels for
examination at a secure containment facility. In total, hazardous materials teams
wearing full protective suits and respirators faced the daunting task of searching through 280 barrels of
unopened mail. Attempting to inspect every letter by hand posed serious risk. Disturbing
contaminated mail could release spores into the workspace, endangering investigators and contaminating the
entire facility. The sheer scale of the operation also increased the likelihood that fatigue or
lapses in concentration could cause dangerous [music] items to be overlooked. Investigators remained mindful of the
mysterious Jennifer Lopez letter sent to the son. If additional anthrax mailings existed,
they might not even resemble the dashel envelope at all. To simplify the search, the effort
shifted away from identifying specific letters and toward detecting anthrax itself.
The mail from the barrels had been consolidated into 635 trash bags. Because the dashel letter had
contaminated large areas wherever it traveled, investigators reasoned that [music] any other anthrax laced letters
would probably have spread spores throughout the bags containing them. Each bag was carefully jostled to loosen
any spores trapped inside. A small opening just [music] large enough to insert a swab was then cut
into the plastic. The swab was rubbed around the interior, removed, and the hole immediately sealed
with duct tape before the sample was sent for testing. This method streamlined the search.
Instead of individually inspecting thousands of letters, authorities only needed to test the several hundred
sealed bags. Around 50 bags were ultimately found to contain trace amounts of anthrax.
Seven were labeled hot, indicating unusually high concentrations of spores. To measure contamination levels more
precisely, air was drawn from each bag for 2 minutes and bubbled through water so individual spores could be counted.
[music] Most of the hot bags produced between 100 and 300 spores. One bag contained more than 23,000.
If another infected letter still existed within the postal system, it was almost
certainly inside that bag. [music] As expected, the bag contained an anthrax laced envelope.
It was addressed to another Democratic senator named Patrick Ley and included a photocopy of the same message previously
sent to Senator Tom Dashel. Neither man had any understanding of why they had been targeted or who might be
responsible. The head of the FBI's Washington Field described the perpetrator as a
coldblooded murderer, emphasizing that three innocent people had already died and that none of them were the intended
targets. Senator Patrick Ley told reporters that the one bright light in the ordeal was
his hope that the letter intended to harm him might instead help authorities identify whoever was behind the attacks.
At first, that possibility seemed promising. Both Washington DC letters carried the
same return address, a supposed fourth grade class at Greenale Elementary School in New Jersey.
But the lead quickly collapsed when authorities discovered no such school existed anywhere in the state.
It became clear that the center had deliberately tried to make the envelopes appear harmless by disguising them as
letters from school children, increasing the likelihood they would be opened. Even so, New Jersey remained critically
important to the investigation since the letters sent to NBC and the New York Post had also originated there.
The first anthrax letters had entered the postal system on September 18. By late October, the two major mail
facilities responsible for processing the contaminated correspondents, one in Trenton, New Jersey, and the other in
Washington DC, [music] had both been shut down. During that time, the facilities had
processed roughly 85 million pieces of mail bound for [music] every state in the country and even destinations
overseas. Authorities were left grappling with the terrifying possibility that millions of
contaminated letters might now be circulating through the vast labyrinthine postal network.
Still, there was some reassurance in [music] the fact that every known exposure up to that point had been
identified quickly and managed [music] effectively. 61-year-old Kathy Nun worked as a clerk
in the storage supply room in the basement of the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital. She occasionally
emerged to restock the pharmacy and operating rooms above. On Thursday, October 25, Kathy confided
to a friend that her eyes were sore and she was feeling unusually tired. a dedicated employee who often
volunteered for overtime. She was not someone who typically complained. Kathy continued going to work, but by
Sunday, the [music] aches, chills, and fever she had developed had become unbearable.
"It hurts to breathe," she admitted to a colleague who urged her to seek medical
attention. Although Kathy worried about missing work and inconveniencing her employer,
she eventually agreed. At the hospital, Kathy described worsening chest pain and shortness of
breath over the previous two days. There was no obvious explanation. She had no history of asthma or
respiratory illness, and an initial X-ray suggested her heart was normal. All she could say was, "It just hurts."
When her condition failed to improve, a doctor reviewed the X-ray again and noticed swelling between her lungs and
spine. The implication was immediate and deeply alarming. Kathy was suffering from
inhalation anthrax. Despite aggressive treatment, she died a week after her symptoms first appeared.
Kathy became the fourth known victim of inhalation anthrax since the outbreak had begun 4 weeks earlier. Her death
came only 3 days after that of Joseph Kerine, marking three lives lost in less than a week.
Kathy Newion's case was particularly troubling because she was the first person in the country to contract
inhalation anthrax without any direct connection to a known target. [music] Whether a media organization, politician
or postal facility. How and where she came into contact with the bacteria remained a mystery. Her
life revolved around work and outside of that she kept to herself in the apartment where she lived alone.
Though well-liked by neighbors and colleagues, Kathy was a private person, making it difficult to retrace her
movements and determine the source of her exposure. Before her death, Kathy never mentioned
handling suspicious mail or encountering strange powders, and no anthrax was found in her apartment or mailbox.
that didn't entirely rule out earlier contamination. As a notably tidy person, she might have
unknowingly wiped away or discarded trace spores before investigators arrived. It was also possible that any spores
present had simply been displaced or filtered out each time her mailbox was opened and closed.
[music] The closest authorities came to an explanation was Cathy's workplace. Her stock room in the hospital basement
was located near the mail room. Yet, no anthrax was detected there either. None of the hospital's roughly 2,000
employees were infected, and no suspicious letters were discovered on the premises.
Kathy appeared to have no identifiable connection to any of the previous outbreaks.
Her death raised a deeply unsettling possibility. [music] Just a week earlier, the director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had assured the public that anthrax crosscontamination, the
accidental transfer of spores from one person, place, or surface to another, was highly unlikely to virtually
impossible. That assessment was based on several accepted scientific assumptions.
Unlike respiratory viruses, anthrax [music] is not a contagious airborne disease that spreads easily through
everyday activities such as talking, coughing, or sneezing. [music] Anthrax spores also do not multiply
outside a host and tend to settle quickly, meaning infection generally requires direct [music] exposure to a
contaminated source. Up until that point, every confirmed case had been linked to a clear exposure
pathway that could be identified and contained. Kathy Nun's isolated death [music]
forced officials to confront the possibility that crosscontamination was not only possible, but potentially far
more dangerous than previously believed. [music] Cathy's daily routine mostly consisted
of commuting to and from work, including two train rides and a short walk through
New York City. Anthrax spores could have escaped from a contaminated letter adhered to a person
or surface and ultimately reached Kathy in that way. And unlike many respiratory viruses,
anthrax spores don't lose infectivity over time. If Kathy had in fact contracted anthrax
through incidental contact with a contaminated surface, it raised a terrifying possibility.
The existence of an unknowable number of invisible carriers and exposure points scattered throughout the city, making
containment appear almost impossible. That fear deepened as additional spores and infections began appearing across
New York City without any clear source. One particularly alarming case involved a producer for ABC's World News Tonight.
On Friday, September 28th, she brought her 7-month-old baby to the company's studio in New York City, where several
people held and cuddled the [music] infant. The following day, a red saw appeared on
the back of the baby's left arm. By Monday, October 1, his condition had deteriorated so severely that he
required hospitalization. Tests confirmed he had contracted cutaneous anthrax. His red blood cell count dropped and his
kidneys began to fail. After several days of blood transfusions and antibiotic treatment, his condition
finally improved and he recovered. By this stage, fear was spreading faster than the infection itself.
Americans began stockpiling antibiotics, gas masks, and chemical protection suits. Mailboxes were scrubbed with
bleach. The Federal Reserve, Department of State, Supreme Court, and Pentagon were all evacuated in incidents later
determined to be false alarms. For the first time in modern history, Congress was effectively shut down.
One anxious New Yorker said, "I see anthrax in the toothpaste. I see it in the orange juice. I see it in the sugar.
They're going to kill me with a heart attack before they kill me with anthrax. The state governor declared, "It's
obvious we're in a new war, and it's a war of nerves." Whenever a new infection appeared,
authorities responded with rapid large-scale tracing, testing, and treatment. [music]
The strategy appeared effective, and gradually no further cases emerged. Although Kathy Nuan's unexplained
infection had initially shaken confidence that the outbreak could be contained, the crisis ultimately
subsided without additional loss of life. The director of homeland security stated, "I'm hopeful, like the rest of
America, that the anthrax has stopped permanently." 94year-old Otilli Londren lived in the
small farming town of Oxford, Connecticut. Despite her age, she remained sharp and
alert. When she wasn't reading travel or mystery novels, she enjoyed reciting poetry.
But in November 2001, something changed. Ortilli developed a mild cough and fever
and appeared noticeably weaker than usual. When her condition failed to improve,
concerned relatives urged her to see a doctor. On Friday, November 16, she finally
agreed. At first, doctors were unsure what to make of her illness. Tilly didn't appear
critically unwell. She joked with hospital staff and her symptoms seemed relatively mild. A chest
X-ray appeared normal. It was only after her blood was examined that alarm spread through the hospital.
A rodshaped bacterium was detected. One infectious disease specialist thought, "This looks exactly like
anthrax, but what are the odds?" Ortilli was a widowed woman with no children, living alone in a quiet rural
town in a state where no anthrax outbreaks had been reported. Although her niece, neighbors, and
friends occasionally visited to help around the house, she rarely traveled far. Her daily life mostly revolved
around the local supermarket, church, [music] beauty parlor, and diner. The infectious disease specialist
visited Otilian Hospital and asked a series of urgent questions. Did you receive any mail with powder in
it? Did you see any powder in the mail? Did you travel to New York? Artilli answered no to every question.
While further tests were conducted, doctors administered antibiotics as a precaution.
The specialist's suspicions were soon confirmed. Ortilli had contracted anthrax.
Given that her symptoms were relatively mild and treatment had begun immediately, doctors remained
optimistic. But her condition deteriorated rapidly. 5 days after being admitted to hospital,
Artilli Londren became the fifth victim of inhalation anthrax. Until that point, all known victims had
been connected to the three major outbreak areas, Florida, Washington DC, and in New York City.
Although Connecticut lies roughly 100 m northeast of New York, Ailly had not traveled.
Every local place she had recently visited was examined, yet no anthrax was found. [music]
A possible explanation only emerged after spores were discovered on four mail sorting machines at the postal
distribution center serving Oxford, Connecticut. Additional spores were found in a
collection bin used to hold mail destined for Ailly Street. Trace amounts were also detected at her
local post office. Each day, [music] Ortilli collected her mail from the mailbox outside her home,
carried it inside, and sorted through it at her dining table using a letter opener.
Unwanted mail was torn up and placed into a waste basket before later being discarded in the outdoor rubbish.
No anthrax was found inside Ailly's home. But [music] as with Kathy Nun's case, spores might already have been cleaned
away, discarded, or dispersed before investigators arrived. [music] The inability to detect spores
in the homes or workplaces of infected individuals didn't necessarily rule anything out.
For people with weakened immune systems, even an extremely small number of spores
could prove [music] devastating. As one epidemiologist put it, in theory, one spore in the right place at the
right time can kill. Fortunately, [music] the weeks passed with no further infections or suspicious letters, and it
appeared that Artilli Londren had become the final fatality in the anthrax attacks.
It became increasingly clear that the threat was limited rather than the beginning of a nationwide biological
outbreak. The panic that had gripped the country gradually subsided, giving way to
adaptation and eventually a fragile sense of stability. Public attention shifted toward the
wider aftermath of the September 11 attacks, including the escalating war in Afghanistan [music] and the broader
trauma left by 9/11 itself. With the immediate public health emergency easing, the investigation
could finally put its entire focus into identifying whoever was responsible. Only four Anthrax letters were ever
recovered. The two [music] mailed to NBC and the New York Post in September, and
the two sent to Senators Tom Dashel and Patrick Ley in October. No foreign fingerprints, hair, or DNA
were found on any of the envelopes. The paper itself contained no identifying watermarks or impressions.
Aaritrax evolved into a vast multidisciplinary effort involving microbiologists, biodefense scientists,
counterterrorism analysts, forensic specialists, and linguistic experts. The investigation faced intense [music]
political, public, and institutional pressure to connect the mailings to 9/11. But investigators remained cautious.
premature conclusions risked diverting resources, [music] compromising both investigations and inflaming public
fear. They also carried the potential to influence foreign policy and military decisions in ways that could later
damage confidence in intelligence agencies [music] if those conclusions proved wrong.
The reality was that no direct forensic evidence, matching materials, identifiable suspects, or operational
overlap linked the two attacks. Their apparent motives also differed significantly.
The September 11 attacks represented the largest act of terrorism the Western world had ever experienced.
They involved extensive coordination and strategic [music] planning designed to project power, inflict mass
psychological shock, disrupt [music] the global economy, and reshape international politics.
Each target had been carefully selected for its symbolic importance to the US, representing the country's financial,
governmental, or military power. The attacks were highly visible and intended to maximize both civilian
casualties and worldwide attention. Assama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were quickly implicated through intelligence
histories, operational evidence, and intercepted communications. Yet, by the end of 2001, nothing
substantial had emerged linking them to the anthrax mailings. >> [music] >> No other foreign adversary or extremist
organization had claimed responsibility either. That absence was strategically unusual
and didn't align with the typical objectives associated with groups like al-Qaeda, which generally sought clear
attribution in order to optimize propaganda value and send an unmistakable political message.
In contrast, the anthrax letters were anonymous, limited in number, and unevenly distributed, targeting just two
US senators and a small group of media organizations that weren't even considered the most prominent in their
industry. The Sun was one of the smaller tabloids published by American Media Incorporated
with a national circulation of roughly 226,000. The New York Post performed better,
selling an estimated 700 to 800,000 copies daily, though its readership was concentrated largely in New York City,
and it lacked the prestige and national influence of broad sheet rivals such as the New York Times, one of the country's
most widely read newspapers. NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokor represented a far more prominent
national platform. As one of America's big three evening newscasts, it regularly attracted
between [music] 8 and 10 million viewers per night with ratings climbing even higher during the peak of 9/11 coverage.
Senator Tom Dashel was among the most influential politicians in Washington as Senate Majority Leader, serving as the
public face of the Senate's Democratic leadership. His colleague Patrick Ley was less
publicly visible, but nevertheless wielded substantial influence as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
[music] overseeing judicial nominations, civil liberties, intelligence oversight,
and anti-terror legislation. Even so, the pair represented only two of the 100 members of the US Senate
alongside another 435 representatives in the broader Congress. As one expert observed,
to go to all the lengths of creating a virulent anthrax and getting it into a form that's dangerous just doesn't make
sense if you're just going to target a few people. I can think of a hundred easier ways [music] just to target a few
people. Don Foster, [music] a text analyst and forensic linguist, initially accepted the prevailing belief
that the anthrax letters were probably the work of foreign extremists. That changed when aithrax investigators
asked him to personally examine the letters and provide a professional linguistic assessment.
After reviewing the material, Dawn developed a theory and timeline of the attacks.
He proposed that the perpetrator first sent Anthrax to the son in Florida in September, possibly through the strange
package addressed to Jennifer Lopez that staff dismissed, or perhaps through another seemingly ordinary letter that
went unnoticed. When this failed to produce the desired impact, the center escalated by mailing
a second batch of letters to major media organizations in New York City. This time, the threats were explicit
with the phrase death to America. Yet again, the attacks failed to generate the grand outcome apparently
intended. When Robert Stevens died from inhalation anthrax in early October, news coverage
largely focused on the theory that his infection had occurred naturally, while officials reassured the public that no
broader danger existed. At the same time, several other victims were developing the less severe
cutaneous form of the disease, though few recognized the wider threat. What had begun as a deliberate
large-scale attack risked becoming a quiet and anticlimactic failure. The perpetrator responded by escalating
further, producing a new lightweight powder engineered to spread far more effectively.
The targets also shifted from media outlets to politicians, presumably because attacks on elected officials
would provoke greater public attention and notoriety. One detail in particular intrigued Don
Foster. The sender clearly appeared intent on causing widespread fear and harm. Yet,
the early letters had still instructed recipients to take penicellin now, almost as though the author didn't
initially want to kill anyone outright. Although the later letters omitted that warning, suggesting fatalities had
become less of a concern, they still openly identified the substance by declaring, "We have this anthrax."
The contradiction was striking. It almost seemed as though the perpetrator wanted terror, disruption,
and attention more than mass death without fully considering the possibility that random bystanders could
be caught in the crossfire. Don Foster began drawing his own conclusions about the identity of the
perpetrator. Conclusions that many investigators and experts involved in athrax also considered plausible.
The anthrax letters were short, crude, and grammatically simplistic. Although the author instructed
recipients to take penicellin, penicellin was not considered the preferred treatment for anthrax in 2001.
The broadspectctrum antibiotic cyprofluxin had become the standard frontline therapy instead.
The incorrect reference to penicellin combined [music] with its misspelling initially appeared to support the theory
that the writer was a non-native English speaker from abroad. Yet, Don cautioned against taking the
letters at face value. [music] He noted that the messages were so brief and deliberately vague that almost
anyone could have written them. More importantly, he argued that anyone capable of orchestrating such a
sophisticated, untraceable anthrax operation would almost certainly have been far more intelligent,
knowledgeable, and calculating than the letters suggested. After all, the perpetrator possessed
either the access or scientific capability to obtain or produce the AIM strain. They also demonstrated the technical
expertise required to safely handle, process, [music] and disperse anthrax spores.
that demanded specialized microbiological knowledge, laboratory equipment, and a highly specific skill
set entirely different from the operational planning involved in hijacking aircraft.
Given the potency of the material, it was also highly likely the perpetrator had exposed [music] themselves to
anthrax spores during the preparation or mailing and had therefore taken precautions against infection, whether
through vaccination, antibiotics, or both. In other words, this was not a crime an
ordinary person could easily commit. Don Foster believed the person [music] responsible was most likely a scientist
or someone with advanced scientific training. The intended targets also struck him as
unusual. A television news anchor, several relatively obscure tabloid editors, and [music] two Democratic
senators, all while the country was led by a Republican president seemed like oddly selective targets.
He questioned whether outsiders would even know that American fourth grade students [music] sometimes write letters
to elective representatives as school projects. To Dawn, the entire operation reflected
a level of cultural familiarity with American society that felt unusually precise for foreign extremists.
Then there was the repeated reference to the date [music] of the September 11 attacks.
Every anthrax letter prominently displayed 0911 01 at the top despite none of them
actually being mailed on September 11. Dawn found that detail deeply suspicious.
Why, he wondered, did the author feel compelled to include the date at all unless they wanted investigators and the
[music] public to forcefully draw a connection between the two events. As Don put it, when an offender gives
you unnecessary information that tells you [music] what to think, you probably want to think twice.
The numerical format of the date [music] also stood out. It was written in the month, day, year style.
Much of the world instead [music] uses day, month, year formatting, including many countries in the Middle East where
the date would ordinarily appear as 110901. Writing the date as September 11, 2001
reflected a style commonly used in the United States. >> [music] >> The possibility that the anthrax
mailings were the work of a domestic terrorist didn't come as a complete surprise to the Aarthax task force.
Recent history had already shown that the US had its own homegrown extremists willing to threaten anthrax attacks in
the pursuit of ideological causes. Alongside the anti-abortion hoax letters of the late 1990s, an American
microbiologist linked to right-wing radicals had been arrested 5 years earlier after claiming he possessed
enough anthrax to wipe out the city of Las Vegas. Tests later revealed the substance was
merely a harmless vaccine strain obtained through a biological supply company. As one expert observed, crises such as
9/11 tend to bring out quote All sorts of wackos from pranksters and attention seekers to apocalyptic groups that
interpret catastrophic events as signs of the end times and attempt to fulfill those beliefs themselves.
FBI criminal profilers came to suspect the perpetrator was likely a socially isolated older man living in the US with
advanced scientific and laboratory expertise, but no direct ties to organized terrorist groups.
A $2.5 million reward went unclaimed as months passed without any arrests. By early 2002, Amerthrax faced mounting
criticism over what some described as a slowmoving inquiry, while others accused
the FBI of a cover up. Officials strongly denied the allegations, insisting the investigation had not
stalled. There are no easy answers or instant gratification, one official said. Another added, you can't be in a hurry
on this stuff. Much of the delay stemmed from the extraordinary scientific complexity of
the investigation. Traditional forensic analysis was of limited use because the primary evidence
was lethally contaminated, while rigorous testing of the anthrax and related samples required painstaking,
time-consuming verification before any conclusions could be drawn. Since October 2001, investigators had
generated thousands of leads and were pursuing hundreds simultaneously, most of which ultimately led nowhere.
The inquiry was further burdened by approximately 17,000 hoaxes and false alarms reported across the country.
Tens of thousands of searches, interviews, and polygraph examinations were conducted as attention increasingly
focused on personnel working at the small number of US research facilities authorized to possess [music] the AIM
strain of anthrax. Eventually, investigators narrowed their attention to a small pool of individuals believed
to have the scientific expertise, access, or authority necessary to obtain or produce the material. An estimated 30
to 40 scientists. Among them was Steven Hatfield. [music] 48-year-old Hatfield was a biod defense
specialist who worked as a consultant on classified projects for multiple federal
agencies. His work focused on biological threat preparedness, including the development
of biodfense training materials and response planning for biological weapons scenarios.
Prior to 1999, he had spent several years working at a research institute where samples of Ames anthrax were
stored. In January 1999, amid the anti-abortion anthrax hoax mailings, Hatfield and a
colleague sought to better understand the feasibility of a terrorist attack involving anthrax sent through the mail.
They commissioned William Patrick to produce a report on the subject. Patrick, the former head of the US
biological weapons program, was widely regarded as one of the foremost experts in weaponizing biological agents,
including techniques for refining anthrax into a fine, dispersible, inhalable powder.
Although retired, he continued working in an advisory role on biodense and biocurity matters and was considered
Steven Hatfield's mentor. The resulting report completed in February 1999 later drew intense
scrutiny because some viewed it as resembling a blueprint for the 2001 anthrax attacks.
One detail that attracted particular attention was its estimate of the maximum amount of anthrax powder that
could be placed inside an envelope without creating a suspicious bulge. 2.5 g. Every known anthrax letter mailed in
2001 contained less than that amount. Hatfield also drew attention after eight separate individuals identified him to
the FBI as a possible suspect. According to those accounts, he had openly discussed his knowledge of
weaponizing anthrax, questioned colleagues about their understanding of the subject, and frequently warned
others about the dangers posed by biological weapons. This combined with reports that Steven
Hatfield had begun taking the primary antibiotic [music] used to prevent and treat anthrax shortly before the 2001
mailings led him to become a person of interest in the Ammerthrax investigation.
Hatfield voluntarily participated in multiple interviews and polygraph examinations during which some of his
answers about the attacks were described as elusive. Suspicion intensified further when a
search of a pond near his home uncovered an airtight plastic container and a rope
that initially tested positive for anthrax. Investigators suspected the items might
have been used to safely handle and transfer anthrax powder into the envelopes. Hatfield also consented to extensive
searches. Yet no trace of anthrax was found in his home, vehicles, or other locations connected to him. He was
placed under continuous surveillance for an extended period, but no incriminating
behavior was observed. The investigation suffered a setback when follow-up testing failed to confirm
the presence of anthrax on the rope recovered from the pond with authorities later attributing the original result to
laboratory error. Hatfield consistently maintained his innocence. He stated that he had never
visited the location in New Jersey where the letters were mailed and explained that he had been taking antibiotics to
treat an unrelated chronic sinus and bronchial infection. Ultimately, the investigation into
Hatfield reached a dead [music] end with the case against him remaining entirely
circumstantial. Still, some observers found it suspicious that no further anthrax
letters, infections, or deaths occurred while he was under intense scrutiny. Although there was insufficient evidence
to charge Hatfield with any crime, the US Attorney General publicly identified him as a person of interest, fueling
widespread media speculation that severely damaged his reputation and career. Hatfield later sued the Department of
Justice and filed defamation claims against several journalists and news organizations, arguing that he had been
unfairly portrayed as the anthrax attacker. He ultimately received multi-million
dollar settlements. By the time Hadfield was effectively ruled out, the FBI had spent nearly 6
years focused largely on him. It became increasingly clear that Ameritthrax needed a new direction.
Following a leadership change in late 2006, [music] the investigation essentially started
over and earlier leads and suspects that might not have received sufficient attention were revisited
through advances in genetic analysis and forensic testing. A major breakthrough finally emerged in 2007 when scientists
succeeded in tracing the spores used in the letters. Rather than originating from some
unidentifiable engineered variant of Ames, they were linked to a highly specific laboratory batch designated RMR
1029. Records showed that RMR 1029 had been created and maintained at the United
States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases [music] by a microbiologist named Bruce Ivans.
55year-old Ivans had a lifelong passion for science. He earned a bachelor of science, master
of science, and doctorate of philosophy, all in microbiology, with his doctoral research focusing on toxicity in
disease-causing bacteria. Ivans went on to work as a scientist for nearly 40 years, including 18 years at
the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Dietrich, a major military installation and the
center of the country's biological defense program. [music] There, Ivan served as a senior
researcher on a specialized six-member biodefense team within the bacteriology division and developed a reputation as a
skilled vaccinologist. [music] After conducting extensive research into Legionella and cholera, he focused
increasingly on anthrax, eventually becoming one of the nation's leading experts on the bacterium's growth,
spoilation, [music] and purification. Over the course of his career, he published more than 50 professional
papers on the subject. In the immediate aftermath of 911, colleagues began noticing unusual
changes in Ivan's behavior. Normally shy and soft-spoken, he appeared [music] to be under mounting
professional pressure. His two decadel long anthrax vaccine research program was facing growing criticism amid
concerns about effectiveness and safety. Another military vaccine project he was
involved in was also attracting allegations [music] that it had caused harmful side effects in some soldiers.
Without a critical solution, there were fears the program could be shut down. Ivans was deeply invested in his work
and highly sensitive to criticism. He began working a regular late night hours in the laboratory, sometimes
remaining there past midnight and returning on weekends when no one else was present.
The pattern was considered unusual for him and reportedly stopped abruptly once the anthrax letters were discovered.
When questioned about the after hours activity, Ivans was unable to provide a clear explanation and had not properly
documented the work in his lab notebooks. He only stated that he sometimes went to
the lab to escape difficulties at home. At the same time, Ivans appeared to be experiencing growing personal and
emotional strain. One colleague he had become emotionally dependent on had recently left and
another was preparing to move to a new job. He viewed them as his only close [music] friends and important sources of
emotional support. However, he could become resentful and vindictive towards them when he felt
ignored, excluded, or betrayed. [music] Ivans was characterized as a man driven by obsessions, particularly involving
women for whom he developed unrecrocated romantic feelings. [music] In emails sent to his two close
colleagues, both women, he apologized for his behavior, expressed profound loneliness, and wrote that he felt truly
and completely alone. He also described episodes of paranoia and what he called terrifying mental
instability, noting that he was seeking help. Ivans visited a psychiatrist who suggested that he might be suffering
from paranoid personality disorder, a condition associated with persistent distrust and suspicion of others, often
without justification. Shortly before the anthrax mailings, his anti-depressant dosage was doubled.
At work, Bruce Ivan's expertise in anthrax made him a valuable asset once the Ammerthrax investigation began.
From the outset, the institute assisted the inquiry by providing scientific expertise, laboratory testing, and
decontamination support, among other contributions. Ivans and his colleagues worked long
hours testing samples to distinguish [music] genuine anthrax from the hoax substances sent during that period. He
also personally analyzed the anthrax recovered from the letter mailed to Senator Tom Dashel.
Privately, Ivans continued exhibiting signs of troubled and erratic thinking. The day after the Dashel letter arrived
for [music] testing, one researcher emailed another. Bruce has been an absolute manic basket case these last
few days. By December 2001, Ivans was sending unusual poems to friends in which he
described having two personalities. As the crisis intensified, Ivan's team [music] expanded to roughly 85
scientists, many of whom had to learn anthrax handling procedures on the fly. At the height of the emergency, dozens
of staff members slept in their cars or on CS at the lab to keep pace with the constant flood of incoming specimens.
Over the following months, the team tested around 30,000 suspicious envelopes, packages, and other materials
along with approximately 320,000 environmental samples from locations including the Brentwood Postal Facility
where anthrax victims Thomas [music] Morris Jr. and Joseph Kerine had worked. When investigators started concentrating
heavily on Steven [music] Hatfield as a possible suspect, Ivan's life stabilized.
His anthrax [music] vaccine program, previously at risk of being discontinued, was revitalized in the
aftermath of the attacks. He [music] referenced the mailings in scientific papers, presenting his theory
that combining antibiotics with vaccination could provide a more practical strategy for responding to
future bioteterrorism events. Ivans went on to co-invent two patents relating to genetically engineered
anthrax vaccines. In 2003, he received the Declaration for Exceptional Civilian Service, the
highest honor awarded to civilian employees of the Department of Defense for his contributions to solving
technical problems in anthrax vaccine production. Everything changed in 2007 when Steven
Hatfield was fully exonerated after the spores used in the [music] letters were traced to RMR 1029.
Hatfield had no realistic means of accessing the batch, which had been created by Bruce Ivans and stored in a
flask inside a walk-in refrigerator in his lab. Investigators [music] consequently
shifted their focus toward the institute, its six member biodefense [music] team, and Ivans himself.
Ivans began showing signs of serious strain and spiraling out of control. His increasingly troubled behavior,
including comments about suicide, alarmed colleagues and led [music] to him losing access to sensitive areas
within his workplace. Ivans had long struggled with mental health issues stemming in part from a
traumatic childhood marked by an abusive mother who told him he was unplanned and
dumb wanted. He found comfort in education and science, eventually marrying and having
two children. Yet his psychological difficulties persisted into adulthood, and he periodically sought professional
[music] treatment. In the year before the anthrax attacks, Ivans attended a mental health clinic
where he regularly met with a counselor. [music] In one session, he reportedly spoke in a flat, detached manner about a
young woman he was attracted to who lived out of town. He said he had traveled to watch her
play in a soccer match and had brought with him a mixed poison he had created. Ivans claimed he intended to poison the
woman if her team lost the game, adding that he was a skilled scientist who knew
how to do things without [music] people finding out. The counselor reported the comments to
the clinic director, a psychiatrist who had also treated Ivans, as well as to police.
However, because Ivans had not identified the woman by name or provided any details about where she lived,
authorities concluded there was little they could do. Ivan's mental state deteriorated
significantly when athrax began closing in on him. In March 2008, his wife found him
unconscious after he overdosed on medication. He was hospitalized and recovered, but
two days later, he sent disturbing and rambling emails to his friends that reflected growing paranoia and emotional
instability. In one, he accused those around him of abandoning him, writing, "I lose my
connections. I lose my years. I lose my health. I lose my ability to think. I lose my friends. What do I have left but
eternity? Two months later, colleagues observed Ivans alone in his office behaving
erratically and talking [music] to himself. He was also active online, posting violent comments about decapitating a
woman on a reality television program whom he disliked, among other disturbing statements.
He even sent the woman an email claiming to be her biggest fan and expressing a desire to meet her, signing the message
with a pseudonym. Investigators discovered that Ivans had used more than a dozen aliases over the
years to conceal his identity when communicating with others, often for deceptive or inappropriate purposes.
On Wednesday, July 9, 2008, during a group therapy session, Ivans appeared especially distressed.
He revealed that he was a suspect in the Ameritthrax investigation and expressed
intense anger toward investigators, the government, and the broader system. His fears were wellfounded.
After months of surveillance, forensic analysis, searches of his home and computers, and interviews with people
close to him, Ivans had been informed that prosecutors were preparing to charge him over the 2001 anthrax
mailings. Alongside concerns about Bruce Ivan's behavior before, during, and after the
attacks was his expertise and access to anthrax, specifically RMR 1029. The batch couldn't be legitimately
accessed without Ivan's authorization, and no one else in his lab possessed [music] both the opportunity and
technical ability to use, prepare, or store the material without attracting attention.
When investigators requested samples of RMR 1029 for comparison with the anthrax
used in the letters, Ivans intentionally submitted specimens that [music] produced inconclusive results,
complicating efforts to establish a definitive match. He was unable to provide a clear
explanation for why those particular samples had been selected. Ivans also minimized his technical
capabilities in [music] ways considered inconsistent with his expertise. He repeatedly insisted that he could not
produce anthrax spores of the quality used in the attacks, stating that nothing he had ever created was as good.
[music] He further claimed he lacked the knowledge to operate a sophisticated machine used to dry spores and said he
had no training in producing powders. Records showed that Ivans was the custodian of the drying machine and the
instruction manual stored with it was marked property of Dr. Ivans. In an October 2000 email, a fellow
microbiologist asked whether he could demonstrate how to use the machine, to which Ivans replied, "Absolutely,
anytime." The machine took hours at a time to use, meaning it was not a process that could
be carried out quickly or discreetly in a busy lab without attracting notice. Ivans was never observed using the
machine suspiciously while working alongside colleagues, but the long unscheduled and undocumented periods he
spent alone in the lab after hours gave him ample opportunity to conduct [music]
such work unnoticed. Ivans was also discovered to be a prolific letter writer. More than 60
letters he had mailed to members of Congress and news organizations over two decades were recovered, including one
sent to NBC [music] in 1987 at the same address later used for the anthrax letter sent [music] to Tom Bro.
While no clear motive was ever established for why Ivans would target any of the anthrax recipients, [music]
his personal beliefs might have influenced the selection of Democratic senators Tom Dashel and Patrick Lehey.
Ivans, a devout Roman Catholic, reportedly opposed their liberal positions on issues such as abortion
rights. He was also known to express [music] hostility toward Muslims, which could help explain why the anthrax
letters attempted to frame Islamic extremists through the use of jihadist rhetoric.
After the infection of Robert Stevens became public, Ivans emailed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
suggesting that he might have contracted anthrax naturally [music] through contaminated creek water or
infected alpaca wool in clothing. These explanations were implausible given that Robert had already been
diagnosed with inhalation anthrax caused by the Ames strain. Several experts viewed Ivan's
suggestions as laughable, noting that they made little scientific sense coming from a leading anthrax specialist, while
another described them as fishy. Ivans expressed vastly [music] different opinions in an email to a friend sent
around the same time. He warned of a potential boweapons attack by terrorists. In a message written before the anthrax
letters were discovered, Ivans claimed that Osama bin Laden possessed anthrax and [music] had decreed death to all
Jews and all Americans. language that closely resembled phrases later used in the anthrax letters themselves.
Ivans was also known to drive long distances late at night to mail or deliver packages from remote post
offices. The anthrax letters had been deposited outside Princeton University in New
Jersey, several hours from his home, and Ivans already had a reason to frequent the area.
By his own admission, he had an unusual fixation on the all female sorority Kappa Kappa Gama and would drive for
hours to visit different chapter houses, briefly observe them, and then return home.
The mailbox used in the anthrax mailings was located just 300 ft [music] from the
office of Kappa Capagama's Princeton chapter. Another suspicious element was Ivan's
known fascination with codes, secrets, and hidden messages. He enjoyed playing detective and would mail anonymous
packages containing unusual objects and cryptic notes to friends, challenging them to identify the sender.
This behavior echoed aspects of the mysterious Jennifer Lopez package sent to the son, which was believed to have
contained the anthrax that killed Robert Stevens. In the anthrax letters, the letters A
and T appeared to be bolded, raising speculation that they might have formed part of a hidden code.
Ivans owned a book on coded communication that discussed hiding messages through the use of bolded
letters and the structure and formatting of the anthrax letters resembled the techniques described in that text.
Notably, A and T were also significant letters in genetics and microbiology. The night after investigators first
searched Ivan's home, he was observed at around 1:00 a.m. stepping outside in his
underwear to check whether his curbside trash had been collected. Unknown to Ivans, his rubbish had
already been secretly intercepted. And among the items recovered with a book on coded communication and a 1992 issue of
American Scientist magazine containing an article titled The Linguistics of DNA.
Ivans was also found to be in possession of three handguns, two stun guns, a taser, a bulletproof vest, a homemade
reinforced body armor plate, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, smokeless handgun
powder, an electronic detection device, [music] and computer surveillance software.
Part of his basement had been converted into a makeshift firing range. As for motive, Ivans benefited
indirectly from the attacks. Heightened fears surrounding anthrax bioteterrorism increased the government
priority and demand for vaccines, [music] elevating the importance of his research, which was on the brink of
being scrapped entirely. The two anthrax vaccine [music] patents he went on to co-invent had already been
licensed by a biotechnology company that secured a federal contract worth more than $850 million.
When questioned about his possible involvement in the attacks, Ivans made non-denial denials, [music] statements
that appeared to reject the accusations without actually explicitly doing so. Among them were comments such as, "I can
tell you I don't have it in my heart to kill anybody. [music] I don't have no clue how to make a boweapon, and I don't
want to know, and I do not have any recollection of ever having done anything like that."
All of which addressed character, intent, knowledge, willingness, and memory rather than flatout denial.
[music] While the use of double negatives such as don't have no clue further obscured his meaning,
Ivans raised the possibility of memory loss on several occasions, telling agents he experienced blackouts and
describing incidents in which he allegedly woke up at dressed as though he had gone out during the night.
Despite the growing scrutiny, Bruce Ivans consistently denied involvement in the anthrax mailings and repeatedly
attempted to redirect suspicion toward friends and professional colleagues through speculative [music] theories.
At one point, he emailed himself a list of 12 reasons why the two former colleagues he considered his best
friends might have been responsible, despite the claims being easily disproven. As the investigation against Ivans
intensified, he sent himself an email that read, "Yes, yes, yes. I finally know who mailed the anthrax letters in
the fall of 2001. I've pieced it together. Now we can finally get all of this over and done with."
He claimed he only needed to confirm a few details before turning the information over to authorities, adding,
"I should have been a private eye." No such evidence was ever produced. When Ivans voiced his fears about facing
charges for the anthrax attacks in his group therapy session on July 9, 2008, other attendees asked why he was so
concerned. If he was truly innocent, he had nothing to worry about. Ivans just smiled in response.
He [music] questioned whether he would face the death penalty and also made threatening comments about taking out
colleagues and others he felt had wronged him. He noted that with planning it was
possible to commit murder without leaving a mess. He stated that he had a bulletproof
vest, a list of targets, [music] and that he intended to obtain a handgun, adding that he wanted to go out
in a blaze of glory. Following these remarks, Ivans was involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric
facility. A subsequent report stated that he had a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats,
actions, and plans, and referred to him as a homicidal [music] sociopath with clear intentions.
Despite [music] this and over objections from, among others, the counselor who reported the group therapy threats, the
hospital released Ivans from its care on Thursday, July 24, 2008, concluding [music] that he was not a danger to
himself or others. 48 hours later, Bruce Ivans fatally overdosed on painkillers.
In the aftermath of Ivan's suicide, the US Department of Justice released the Arathrax investigative summary, a near
100page document providing a comprehensive account of the entire investigation. Athrax was an extraordinarily complex
inquiry. In the 7 years following the attacks, [music] the task force expended more
than 600,000 investigative work hours, conducted over 10,000 witness interviews across six continents, executed 80
searches, issued more than 5,000 federal grand jury subpoenas, and recovered over
6,000 items of potential evidence. Investigators [music] scrutinized more than 1,000 individuals as possible
suspects both in the US and abroad. ultimately concluding that Bruce Ivans was solely responsible.
The conclusion was met with mixed reactions. Ivan's brother said the findings made sense, claiming Ivans had
always considered himself like a god. Others who knew Ivans personally were less convinced, with one colleague
suggesting the investigation placed intense pressure on him and worsened his mental health, contributing to unstable
behavior misinterpreted as suspicious. The release of Ivan's emails documenting increasing depression, anxiety, and
paranoia was viewed by a psychologist consulted by the New York Times as consistent with psychosis, [music]
raising questions about the extent of his culpability. However, the psychologist also noted the
possibility that Ivans might have exaggerated or even feigned aspects of his mental illness to attract attention
or sympathy. Ivan's mental state became the focus of an investigative review which concluded
that at the very least the US Army hadn't adequately assessed his background before granting him clearance
to work with anthrax [music] and that such clearance shouldn't have been approved.
Some observers used these findings to question how someone perceived as mentally unstable as Ivans could carry
out such a sophisticated attack alone. According to one researcher, it would have taken at least a year of intensive
lab work to produce the spores used in the attacks. Yet, none of Ivan's [music] colleagues observed him working on
anything secretive or unusual during that time. Others who accepted that Ivans produced
the anthrax still argued that this didn't necessarily mean he was responsible for mailing it. While he
maintained authorization over RMR 1029, they suggested that someone else might have accessed the [music] flask
containing it. Some go even further and point to the possibility of a broader conspiracy in
which Ivans was a convenient fall guy. Given its historical context, the anthrax mailings remain surrounded by
extensive conjecture and conspiracies [music] due to their contribution to the heightened political and security
climate in the US post 911. Although they weren't attributed to any foreign state or adversary, they
reinforced concerns about weapons of mass destruction and contributed to the urgency of the broader war on terror,
forming part of the context in which the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq took place.
These major events overshadow the case, leaving survivors and grieving loved ones feeling as though they are an
afterthought, [music] compounded by the fact that no one has ever been held accountable.
In total, more than 10,000 people considered at risk of anthrax exposure received precautionary [music] treatment
as a result of the mailings. Of these 22 ultimately contracted the disease, [music] 11 cases of inhalation and 11 of
cutaneous. Five people died. [music] Survivors describe enduring trauma, lingering physical problems, and ongoing
psychological distress. One survivor of inhalation anthrax from the Brentwood Postal Facility recalled
the moment he was diagnosed, saying, "My head was swirling. I could not believe that it was me. And the bottom line on
everything I read was, "No one survives from the [music] anthrax bacteria." Workers at the facility later sued the
US Postal Service, alleging officials withheld information about contamination risks and [music] left them exposed.
Newscaster Tom Bro reflected on the ordeal faced by his assistants Aaron O' Connor and Casey Chamberlain in a
Newsweek article. writing, "The emotional wounds will always be with them. Wounds brought on by a craven
attack meant for me. That they paid the price is a guilt I will carry forever." [music]
Casey Chamberlain herself described how the experience changed her life. I had carried anthrax back on my clothes
and had contaminated my home. I chose to have all of my things destroyed. I lost
my [music] most personal belongings, my pictures and momentos. I worried that I'll have to see doctors
for the rest of my life. [music] I'll never have an overall sense of security again.
That's what I lost. I wish I could sit in a courtroom and look someone in the eyes and say, [music] "You did this." I
don't feel closure over it today. I'm not sure any of us ever will. >> [music]

In the tense weeks following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, a new and invisible threat emerged across the United States. Letters laced with weaponised anthrax began arriving through the mail, infecting ordinary people and spreading fear nationwide.

As the possibility of bioterrorism gripped the country, a massive federal investigation codenamed Amerithrax was launched to uncover who was behind the attacks…

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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