to investigators and others show a man driven by obsessions. In the month before his suicide, his homicidal tendencies became more pronounced, as he posted violent messages on the Internet regarding a reality TV star and made death threats during a group therapy session. One of the mental health providers who was present when Dr. Ivins made these threats noted in publicly filed court papers that Dr. Ivins had "a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats, actions, [and] plans," and that a prior psychiatrist "called him homicidal [and] sociopathic with clear intentions."
4. Proximity to source of the envelopes. Scientific analysis by the USPIS, FBI, and United States Secret Service ("USSS") revealed that the envelopes used in the attacks were part of a batch distributed in bulk to post offices in Maryland and Virginia, and envelopes from this same batch were sold at post offices in Frederick, Maryland, and surrounding communities. USSS experts identified certain exploitable print defects in the envelopes used in the mailings and compared these defects to envelopes collected from identified post offices throughout the country. They concluded that the envelopes most similar to those used in the attacks were also distributed to the Frederick, Maryland post office, which was located just a few blocks from the home of Dr. Ivins, and where Dr. Ivins maintained a post office box at the time of the mailings.
5. Language used in the letters. An analysis of the language used in the anthrax letters linked them to Dr. Ivins. In an e-mail he sent to a colleague on September 26, 2001 – i.e., after the first anthrax letters were mailed, but before they had been discovered – Dr. Ivins wrote: "I just heard tonight that the Bin Laden terrorists for sure have anthrax and sarin gas" and "Osama Bin Laden has just decreed death to all Jews and all Americans." In the anthrax letters themselves, all of which displayed the date "09-11-01" and were written in a manner to suggest that they were from someone associated with al Qaeda or other similar extremists, the following parallel language was used: "We have this anthrax" and "Death to America, Death to Israel." Also, within the text of the anthrax letters, there were instances where the letters "A" and "T" were bolded, suggesting that the letters contained a hidden code. Dr. Ivins was fascinated with similar codes and hidden messages. Dr. Ivins was particularly fond of a book dealing extensively with coded messages, including codes conveyed in bolded letters and codes involving the letters "A" and "T" – both of which letters are significant in genetics. Dr. Ivins made efforts to hide this book from investigators, as discussed below.
6. Consciousness of guilt. Dr. Ivins engaged in a series of actions and made several statements that were evidence of a guilty conscience. In the immediate aftermath of the anthrax attacks, he – one of the nation's leading experts in anthrax – sent an e-mail to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") suggesting nonsensical explanations for why the first victim might have contracted inhalation anthrax. A few months after the anthrax attacks, he took environmental samplings for anthrax contamination in the building where he worked – an unauthorized procedure – and found it only in the area where he himself worked. He then decontaminated his office and his lab, and failed to report it. In the spring of 2002, when the Task Force undertook efforts to link known cultures of Ames anthrax to the mailed material, he submitted questionable samples of RMR-1029 to the FBI Repository.
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