Anthrax Suspect “Snuffs It”

One week after 9/11, some maniac began to send weaponized anthrax through the mail system, further paralyzing the country after major terror attacks and killing 5 additional people. Now the primary suspect, Bruce Ivins, who was due to be indicted, has committed suicide by overdosing on Tylenol.

HotAir has the details here. The LATimes has some interesting nuggets on the story here, namely:

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government’s elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after ingesting a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine.

The eldest of his two brothers, Thomas Ivins, said he was not surprised by the events that have unfolded.

“He buckled under the pressure from the federal government,” Thomas Ivins said, adding that FBI agents came to Ohio last year to question him about his brother.

“I was questioned by the feds, and I sung like a canary” about Bruce Ivins’ personality and tendencies, Thomas Ivins said.

“He had in his mind that he was omnipotent.”

Ivens’ own brother apparently thinks it was likely that he was behind the Anthrax attacks. And of course I really want to believe the whole incident is closed now, but there are so many questions left, most important of which is “Why?”

But if he was the one behind the attacks, overdosing on Tylenol was a good thing for him. Such a stupid act essentially liquifies your liver and kidneys. Even if you manage to survive the OD, you are on dialysis for the rest of your short ass life.