Bruce Ivins and the 2001 Amerithrax Attacks
Overview
Bruce Edwards Ivins was an American microbiologist and biodefense researcher who worked at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, known as USAMRIID, at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. He became the central suspect in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, a series of bioterrorism mailings that killed five people, sickened seventeen others, contaminated postal facilities and government buildings, and spread fear across the United States only weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Ivins was never tried or convicted. Federal prosecutors were preparing to seek an indictment against him when he died by suicide on July 29, 2008. In 2010, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service formally closed the Amerithrax investigation and stated that the evidence showed Ivins acted alone. Because he died before trial, the case remains controversial to some researchers, journalists, and observers, but the official federal conclusion identified him as the person responsible for the mailings.
The Anthrax Letters
The attacks were carried out through letters containing powdered Bacillus anthracis spores, the bacterium that causes anthrax. The letters were mailed in two waves in September and October 2001. The first wave was directed at media organizations, and the second wave was directed at two United States senators. The letters were designed to look political and terroristic, with handwritten messages invoking death, fear, America, Israel, and Allah. This wording initially led investigators to consider whether the attacks were connected to foreign terrorism, but the investigation later focused on a domestic source with access to laboratory anthrax.
The first known mailing occurred between the evening of September 17, 2001, and noon on September 18, 2001. These letters were postmarked September 18, 2001, in Trenton, New Jersey, and were sent to Tom Brokaw at NBC News and to the editor of the New York Post in New York City. Investigators also believed that an anthrax-contaminated mailing likely reached the American Media, Inc. building in Boca Raton, Florida, although no envelope from that location was recovered.
The second known mailing occurred between October 6, 2001, and October 9, 2001. These letters were postmarked October 9, 2001, in Trenton, New Jersey, and were addressed to Senator Tom Daschle and Senator Patrick Leahy at their Washington, D.C. offices. The Daschle letter was opened in the Hart Senate Office Building on October 15, 2001. The Leahy letter was discovered and recovered on November 16, 2001.
Victims Who Died
- Robert Stevens Age 63. He was a photo editor at American Media, Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida. He was diagnosed after becoming severely ill with inhalational anthrax and died on October 5, 2001, in Boca Raton, Florida. His case was the first death publicly connected to the attacks.
- Thomas L. Morris Jr. Age 55. He was a postal worker at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, D.C. He died from inhalational anthrax on October 21, 2001. His death showed that postal employees who handled contaminated mail could be exposed even without opening the letters.
- Joseph P. Curseen Jr. Age 47. He was also a postal worker at the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, D.C. He died from inhalational anthrax on October 22, 2001, one day after Thomas Morris. His death intensified public concern about contamination inside the postal system.
- Kathy T. Nguyen Age 61. She was a hospital employee in New York City. She died from inhalational anthrax on October 31, 2001. Her exact route of exposure was never clearly established, but investigators considered contaminated mail a likely possibility.
- Ottilie Lundgren Age 94. She lived in Oxford, Connecticut. She died from inhalational anthrax on November 21, 2001. Investigators believed her infection was likely caused by cross-contaminated mail, meaning ordinary mail may have picked up spores after passing through contaminated postal equipment or facilities.
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