To Catch A Killer (or Killers)

As to Dr. Ivins I'll remain agnostic. It's true, he had a checkered background and it doesn't look good that he threatened to kill his therapist. On the other hand, I daresay that many senior U.S. government officials harbor homicidal thoughts, as often as not shared with a therapist, so that in itself does not seem sufficient proof of serial murder. Perhaps there's other evidence. Hopefully the FBI will make more of what it knows public.

One thing that's always bothered me is the notion that Dr. Ivins, or any solitary individual, could have carried off these attacks but then stopped cold. Let's say you're a deranged, homicidal microbiologist. You're a top scientist at the top U.S. biological warfare laboratory. You manage to cook up your private stash of anthrax. You mail samples to diverse parties. People die. And then, what? You just decide, "OK, I've had my fun, now I'll get back to work"? What kind of compartmented psychology is that? Of course I'm no psychiatrist but I should imagine that the internal pressure on such an individual would be overwhelming, that they could not possibly resist the temptation to continue sending anthrax letter bombs until they were eventually caught. Isn't that what always happens with serial murderers?

Which leads also to the question of why the particular targets? The office of the Senate Majority Leader at the time, Tom Daschle, and the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, Pat Leahy. To ABC, NBC, and CBS, and the New York Post. And to the offices in Boca Raton, Florida of the National Enquirer. Wait, the National Enquirer? If the point is to panic the Senate into passing the Patriot Act then Daschle and Leahy made sense, being probably the two key Senators necessary. ABC, NBC, and CBS made sense for being the main network news outlets. But who gives a fig for the New York Post except people who live in New York City? And the Enquirer — that's just straight out of left field. I can practically hear some FBI agent reflexively prating on about 'throwing off suspicion' and how diabolically clever Dr. Ivins was, but I am willing to bet that the FBI will never find any evidence whatsoever linking Ivins with the Enquirer, or that he even knew of its existence. To properly wrap up the case these choices should enter, somehow, into the narrative.

Moreover, if it does now close the case, the FBI should at least attempt to explain how it managed to screw things up for so long.