2003 ricin letters
Encyclopedia
The 2003 ricin letters refer to two ricin
-laden letters found on two separate occasions between October and November 2003. One letter was mailed to the White House
and intercepted at a processing facility; another was discovered with no address in South Carolina. A February 2004 ricin incident at the Dirksen Senate Office Building
was initially connected to the 2003 letters as well.
The letters were sent by an individual calling him or herself "Fallen Angel". The sender expressed anger over changes in federal trucking regulations and stated that they owned a trucking company. As of 2008, no connection between the Fallen Angel letters and the Dirksen building incident has been established. A $100,000 reward was offered in 2004 by the federal law enforcement agencies investigating the case, but to date the reward remains unclaimed.
of ricin in humans provided that exposure is from injection
or inhalation
. Ricin is easily purified from castor-oil
manufacturing waste
. It has been utilized by various states and organizations as a weapon, being most effective as an assassination weapon, notably in the case of the 1978 murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov
.
and were aimed at reducing fatigue related accidents and fatalities. Called the most far-reaching rule changes in 65 years, the regulations reduced daily allowed driving time from 11 hours to 10. The most controversial measures involved the way that workdays were calculated. The calculations were not allowed to factor in such delays as food and fuel stops and other time spent waiting at, for instance, a factory for a load. The new provisions allowed drivers to stay on duty for only 14 hours, thus the time spent waiting could eat into the time a driver spent on duty. These rule changes were what the self-proclaimed "Fallen Angel" took aim at in the ricin-laden letters.
, near the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport
. The package contained a letter and a small metal vial containing ricin powder. A label on the outside of the envelope containing the vial displayed the typed message: "Caution ricin poison enclosed in sealed container. Do not open without proper protection". The presence of ricin was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on October 21. The letter inside the envelope was typewritten to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and stated:
Despite the potentially deadly nature of the poison, no one was exposed to, injured by, or killed by the ricin. The Greenville facility where the letter was found was also declared ricin-free in the ensuing weeks. In addition, the letter had no delivery address and no postmark.
contamination on mail equipment, the U.S. Secret Service ordered a retest that showed by November 10 the letter was "probable for ricin".
The letter was postmarked on October 17 in Chattanooga, Tennessee
. Though addressed to the White House, the threatening language contained in the letter was again directed at the U.S. Department of Transportation and written by an individual calling him/herself "Fallen Angel". The text of the letter stated:
(FBI), and other key agencies, including the CDC, of the discovery and positive tests until November 12. In the November 21, 2003 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
the CDC recommended that until Fallen Angel was captured, "healthcare providers and public health officials must consider ricin to be a potential public health threat and be vigilant about recognizing illness consistent with ricin exposure". The CDC's November warning mentioned only the first Fallen Angel letter. The discovery of the ricin letter at the White House facility was not disclosed to the public until early February 2004. The public disclosure of the second ricin letter from Fallen Angel coincided with the discovery of ricin in the mail room of a senate office building.
in the Dirksen Senate Office Building
, a white powdery substance was found on a sorting machine. Tests on February 3 confirmed that the substance was ricin. The positive test results were indicated by six of eight preliminary tests on the substance. The discovery resulted in more than a dozen staffers undergoing decontamination as well as the closure of the Dirksen, Hart, and Russell Senate Office Buildings. The incident was treated as a criminal probe with investigators looking carefully for any connection between the ricin found at Dirksen and the "Fallen Angel" cases.
fell instantly upon the individual calling him/herself Fallen Angel in the two letters. The FBI was the lead agency in the Fallen Angel investigation. Agents questioned various individuals during their probe, such as one vocal former trucker in Florida. Federal officials, most notably at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), remarked that the letters did not have the hallmarks of international terrorism and were more likely produced by a homegrown criminal.
On January 4, 2004 the FBI, along with the USPIS and the DOT, offered a $100,000 reward in connection with the October 2003 case from Greenville, South Carolina. In late 2004 the amount of the reward was increased to $120,000. The criminal has not been captured to date.
were tasked to the investigation; like in the Fallen Angel investigation, the FBI was the lead agency. Detectives and agents focused on the possibility that the individual responsible for the 2003 letters was also responsible for the contamination at the Dirksen building. Within two weeks of the incident, investigators were questioning the validity of the positive ricin tests at the Senate building. The results raised suspicion because no source (e.g. a letter) was ever found for the ricin. It was possible that the "contamination" was from paper by-products and not ricin.
However, later tests confirmed that the initial tests did not indicate a false positive and the substance was indeed ricin. By the end of March 2005, there were no suspects and no confirmed source for the ricin found in Senator Frist's office. Investigators also found no connection to the Fallen Angel case as of the same date. Despite those developments, investigators were not yet ready to declare a dead end to the investigation. As of 2008, no direct connection has yet been found between the Frist case and the Fallen Angel case and no explanation found for the origin of the ricin in Frist's office.
Ricin
Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein. A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult. The LD50 of ricin is around 22 micrograms per kilogram Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally...
-laden letters found on two separate occasions between October and November 2003. One letter was mailed to the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and intercepted at a processing facility; another was discovered with no address in South Carolina. A February 2004 ricin incident at the Dirksen Senate Office Building
Dirksen Senate Office Building
The Dirksen Senate Office Building is the second office building constructed for members of the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., and was named for the late Minority Leader Everett Dirksen from Illinois in 1972.-History:...
was initially connected to the 2003 letters as well.
The letters were sent by an individual calling him or herself "Fallen Angel". The sender expressed anger over changes in federal trucking regulations and stated that they owned a trucking company. As of 2008, no connection between the Fallen Angel letters and the Dirksen building incident has been established. A $100,000 reward was offered in 2004 by the federal law enforcement agencies investigating the case, but to date the reward remains unclaimed.
Ricin
Ricin is a white powder that can be produced as a liquid or a crystal. Ricin is an extremely toxic plant protein that can cause severe allergic reactions, and exposure to small quantities can be fatal. The toxin inhibits the formation of proteins within cells of exposed individuals. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that 500 micrograms is the minimum lethal doseLethal dose
A lethal dose is an indication of the lethality of a given substance or type of radiation. Because resistance varies from one individual to another, the 'lethal dose' represents a dose at which a given percentage of subjects will die...
of ricin in humans provided that exposure is from injection
Injection (medicine)
An injection is an infusion method of putting fluid into the body, usually with a hollow needle and a syringe which is pierced through the skin to a sufficient depth for the material to be forced into the body...
or inhalation
Inhalation
Inhalation is the movement of air from the external environment, through the air ways, and into the alveoli....
. Ricin is easily purified from castor-oil
Castor oil
Castor oil is a vegetable oil obtained from the castor bean . Castor oil is a colorless to very pale yellow liquid with mild or no odor or taste. Its boiling point is and its density is 961 kg/m3...
manufacturing waste
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
. It has been utilized by various states and organizations as a weapon, being most effective as an assassination weapon, notably in the case of the 1978 murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov
Georgi Markov
Georgi Ivanov Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer.Markov originally worked as a novelist and playwright, but in 1969 he defected from Bulgaria, then governed by President Todor Zhivkov...
.
Trucking regulations
On January 4, 2004 new federal transportation rules took effect which directly affected the over-the-road trucking industry in the United States. The rules took effect with a 60 day grace periodGrace period
A grace period is a time past the deadline for an obligation during which a late penalty that would have been imposed is waived. Grace periods, which can range from a number of minutes to a number of days or longer, depending on the context, can apply in various situations, including arrival at a...
and were aimed at reducing fatigue related accidents and fatalities. Called the most far-reaching rule changes in 65 years, the regulations reduced daily allowed driving time from 11 hours to 10. The most controversial measures involved the way that workdays were calculated. The calculations were not allowed to factor in such delays as food and fuel stops and other time spent waiting at, for instance, a factory for a load. The new provisions allowed drivers to stay on duty for only 14 hours, thus the time spent waiting could eat into the time a driver spent on duty. These rule changes were what the self-proclaimed "Fallen Angel" took aim at in the ricin-laden letters.
October 2003 letter
On October 15, 2003 a package was discovered at a mail-sorting center in Greenville, South CarolinaGreenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
, near the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport
Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport
Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport , also known as GSP International Airport or Roger Milliken Field, is a public airport located in unincorporated Greenville and Spartanburg counties in South Carolina, United States, 3 miles south of central Greer; the airport serves Greenville and...
. The package contained a letter and a small metal vial containing ricin powder. A label on the outside of the envelope containing the vial displayed the typed message: "Caution ricin poison enclosed in sealed container. Do not open without proper protection". The presence of ricin was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on October 21. The letter inside the envelope was typewritten to the U.S. Department of Transportation, and stated:
To the department of transportation: I'm a fleet owner of a tanker company. I have easy access to castor pulp. If my demand is dismissed I'm capable of making Ricin. My demand is simple, January 4, 2004 starts the new hours of service for trucks which include a ridiculous ten hours in the sleeper berth. Keep at eight or I will start dumping.You have been warned this is the only letter that will be sent by me.
Fallen Angel
Despite the potentially deadly nature of the poison, no one was exposed to, injured by, or killed by the ricin. The Greenville facility where the letter was found was also declared ricin-free in the ensuing weeks. In addition, the letter had no delivery address and no postmark.
November 2003 letter
On November 6, 2003, another letter, described as "nearly identical" to the October letter, was discovered. This time, the letter was addressed to The White House and it was discovered at a White House mail-processing facility in Washington D.C. The letter contained a small vial of a white powdery substance that initially tested negative for ricin. After subsequent testing at the mail facility resulted in positives for ricinRicin
Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein. A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult. The LD50 of ricin is around 22 micrograms per kilogram Ricin , from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally...
contamination on mail equipment, the U.S. Secret Service ordered a retest that showed by November 10 the letter was "probable for ricin".
The letter was postmarked on October 17 in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
. Though addressed to the White House, the threatening language contained in the letter was again directed at the U.S. Department of Transportation and written by an individual calling him/herself "Fallen Angel". The text of the letter stated:
Department of transportationThe Secret Service did not alert the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
If you change the hours of service onJanuary 4, 2004 I will turn D.C into a ghost townThe powder on the letter is RICINhave a nice dayFallen Angel
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
(FBI), and other key agencies, including the CDC, of the discovery and positive tests until November 12. In the November 21, 2003 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is a weekly epidemiological digest for the United States published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
the CDC recommended that until Fallen Angel was captured, "healthcare providers and public health officials must consider ricin to be a potential public health threat and be vigilant about recognizing illness consistent with ricin exposure". The CDC's November warning mentioned only the first Fallen Angel letter. The discovery of the ricin letter at the White House facility was not disclosed to the public until early February 2004. The public disclosure of the second ricin letter from Fallen Angel coincided with the discovery of ricin in the mail room of a senate office building.
February 2004 mail room contamination
On February 2, 2004 in a mail room serving Senator Bill FristBill Frist
William Harrison "Bill" Frist, Sr. is an American physician, businessman, and politician. He began his career as an heir and major stockholder to the for-profit hospital chain of Hospital Corporation of America. Frist later served two terms as a Republican United States Senator representing...
in the Dirksen Senate Office Building
Dirksen Senate Office Building
The Dirksen Senate Office Building is the second office building constructed for members of the United States Senate in Washington, D.C., and was named for the late Minority Leader Everett Dirksen from Illinois in 1972.-History:...
, a white powdery substance was found on a sorting machine. Tests on February 3 confirmed that the substance was ricin. The positive test results were indicated by six of eight preliminary tests on the substance. The discovery resulted in more than a dozen staffers undergoing decontamination as well as the closure of the Dirksen, Hart, and Russell Senate Office Buildings. The incident was treated as a criminal probe with investigators looking carefully for any connection between the ricin found at Dirksen and the "Fallen Angel" cases.
Fallen Angel
The focus of the probe by the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector GeneralOffice of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation
The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Transportation is one of the Inspector General offices created by the Inspector General Act of 1978...
fell instantly upon the individual calling him/herself Fallen Angel in the two letters. The FBI was the lead agency in the Fallen Angel investigation. Agents questioned various individuals during their probe, such as one vocal former trucker in Florida. Federal officials, most notably at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), remarked that the letters did not have the hallmarks of international terrorism and were more likely produced by a homegrown criminal.
On January 4, 2004 the FBI, along with the USPIS and the DOT, offered a $100,000 reward in connection with the October 2003 case from Greenville, South Carolina. In late 2004 the amount of the reward was increased to $120,000. The criminal has not been captured to date.
Dirksen Building contamination
Immediately following the incident in Frist's office, both the FBI and the United States Capitol PoliceUnited States Capitol Police
The United States Capitol Police is a federal police force charged with protecting the United States Congress within the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its territories.-History:...
were tasked to the investigation; like in the Fallen Angel investigation, the FBI was the lead agency. Detectives and agents focused on the possibility that the individual responsible for the 2003 letters was also responsible for the contamination at the Dirksen building. Within two weeks of the incident, investigators were questioning the validity of the positive ricin tests at the Senate building. The results raised suspicion because no source (e.g. a letter) was ever found for the ricin. It was possible that the "contamination" was from paper by-products and not ricin.
However, later tests confirmed that the initial tests did not indicate a false positive and the substance was indeed ricin. By the end of March 2005, there were no suspects and no confirmed source for the ricin found in Senator Frist's office. Investigators also found no connection to the Fallen Angel case as of the same date. Despite those developments, investigators were not yet ready to declare a dead end to the investigation. As of 2008, no direct connection has yet been found between the Frist case and the Fallen Angel case and no explanation found for the origin of the ricin in Frist's office.
See also
- 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attackThe 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack was the food poisoning of 751 individuals in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, through the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with salmonella...
- 2001 anthrax attacks2001 anthrax attacksThe 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
- Wood Green ricin plotWood Green ricin plotThe Wood Green ricin plot was a 2002 alleged bioterrorism plot to attack the London Underground with ricin poison. The planned attack had connections with al-Qaeda...
Further reading
- Anderson, Curt. "Ricin investigation expands to Tennessee, trucker radio", the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, via the Oakland Tribune via findarticles.com, February 7, 2004, accessed May 6, 2009. - Eggen, Dan. "Letter With Ricin Vial Sent to White House", Washington Post, February 4, 2004, accessed May 5, 2009.
- "Investigation of a Ricin-Containing Envelope at a Postal Facility — South Carolina, 2003", Morbidity and Mortality Weekly ReportMorbidity and Mortality Weekly ReportThe Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report is a weekly epidemiological digest for the United States published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
, November 21, 2003, Vol. 52, No. 56, pp. 1129–31. - Kucinich, Jackie. "Ricin case 'still being looked at'", The HillThe Hill (newspaper)The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
, September 15, 2005, accessed May 5, 2009. - Schier, Joshua G. et al. "Public Health Investigation After the Discovery of Ricin in a South Carolina Postal Facility", American Journal of Public HealthAmerican Journal of Public HealthThe American Journal of Public Health is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Public Health Association covering health policy and public health. The journal was established in 1911 and its stated mission is "to advance public health research, policy, practice, and...
, Supplement 1, 2007, Vol. 97, No. S1, pp. 152–57, (ISSN 1541-0048) accessed May 6, 2009.
External links
- Fallen Angel reward poster (FBI) (updated), Federal Bureau of Investigation, accessed May 5, 2009.
- Fallen Angel reward poster (USPIS), (original version), U.S. Postal Inspection Service, accessed May 5, 2009.
- Fallen Angel reward poster (USPIS), (updated) U.S. Postal Inspection Service, accessed May 5, 2009.
- "Poisonous Powder", Newshour with Jim Lehrer transcript and video, PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, February 4, 2004, accessed May 6, 2009.