What kind of murderer, they wonder, would ask the cops to test his own gun for ballistics? To many of Ivins’ former colleagues at the germ research center in Fort Detrick, Md., where they worked, his invitation to test the Dugway material and other spores in his inventory is among numerous indications that the FBI got the wrong man. They said years of cutting-edge DNA analysis had borne fruit, proving that his spores were “effectively the murder weapon.” At a news conference, prosecutors voiced confidence that Ivins would have been found guilty. Seven years later, as federal investigators prepared to charge him with the same crimes he'd offered to help solve, Ivins, who was 62, committed suicide. He mentioned several cultures by name, including a batch made mostly of Ames anthrax that had been grown for him at an Army base in Dugway, Utah. He said he had several variants of the Ames strain that could be tested in “ongoing genetic studies" aimed at tracing the origins of the powder that had killed five people. In his email, Ivins volunteered to help take things further. WASHINGTON – Months after the anthrax mailings that terrorized the nation in 2001, and long before he became the prime suspect, Army biologist Bruce Ivins sent his superiors an email offering to help scientists trace the killer.Īlready, an FBI science consultant had concluded that the attack powder was made with a rare strain of anthrax known as Ames that's used in research laboratories worldwide. This story is a joint project with ProPublica, PBS Frontline and McClatchy.
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