Episode 7: Pot of Gold

Summary

Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer

Episode 7: Pot of Gold

Release Date: April 30, 2025
Hosts: Wolf Entertainment + CBC

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Introduction and Context

In Episode 7, "Pot of Gold," of the Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer podcast series, narrator Jeremiah Kroll delves deep into the intertwined narratives of political maneuvering and relentless FBI investigation that surrounded the infamous anthrax attacks in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. This episode particularly focuses on the pivotal moments that led to the misdirection of blame towards Iraq and the subsequent shift in the FBI's investigation towards scientist Dr. Bruce Ivins.

Colin Powell's UN Speech and Political Pressure

The episode opens in early 2003 within the tense corridors of the White House's Oval Office. Colin Powell, then the U.S. Secretary of State, finds himself under immense pressure from President George W. Bush to address the unresolved anthrax attacks. Despite the FBI's inability to pinpoint the perpetrator, Bush pushes a narrative linking Iraq to the bioterrorism incidents.

Jeremiah Kroll describes a critical moment:

"In the absence of a clear answer, Powell's boss, President George W. Bush, has come up with his own." [00:26]

Colin Powell grapples with the weight of responsibility, emphasizing the necessity of ensuring the intelligence is sound:

"I spent four days and nights out at the CIA going over it and asking every way I could, are you sure of this?" [02:08]

On February 5, 2003, Powell delivers a landmark speech at the UN Security Council, using a vial filled with white powder as a prop to illustrate the potential threat of anthrax:

"This is just about the amount of a teaspoon... less than a teaspoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the United States Senate..." [04:01]

The FBI Investigation and Scott Decker's Dedication

Parallel to the political theater, FBI Agent Scott Decker is deeply immersed in the anthrax investigation. Decker, portrayed as a meticulous and open-minded investigator, becomes increasingly skeptical of the FBI's focus on Dr. Steven Hatfill:

"When I looked at it from a scientific standpoint... Hatfill did not have the training or the experience in bacillus anthracis or in bacteriology at all." [06:55]

Decker's insistence on exploring all avenues without bias showcases his commitment:

"You develop experiments where you would just continually prove your hypothesis without self critiquing... you've got to keep an open mind." [05:56]

Shifting Suspicion to Dr. Bruce Ivins

As the investigation stalls, Decker begins to suspect another scientist within the FBI's radar: Dr. Bruce Ivins. Ivins, a respected anthrax researcher at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRID), exhibits peculiar behavior that raises red flags. An early interaction between Decker and Ivins hints at underlying tensions:

"I naively said, well, that's exactly the same as using it as a weapon... He immediately changed and went irate." [09:20]

Further scrutiny reveals Ivins' obsessive behavior and connections to Dr. Nancy Hegwood, who had previously reported odd incidents involving Ivins, including impersonation and harassment:

"He had assumed her identity and written as if he were a member of KKG." [32:52]

Forensic Breakthroughs: Genetic Fingerprinting and Envelope Analysis

A significant turning point in the investigation comes with advancements in genetic fingerprinting, inspired by the Human Genome Project:

"Claire Fraser and her team at TIGR had been pursuing this genetic fingerprint for more than a year now." [14:17]

Simultaneously, Decker explores forensic analysis of the anthrax-laden envelopes. By examining microscopic printing defects in the pre-printed stamps, the team narrows down potential sources:

"A microscopic printing defect on each of the anthrax envelopes. A slight blue line along the bottom edge of the eagle's right wing." [22:49]

Despite the vast number of envelopes, these minute discrepancies provide a forensic pathway to potentially identify the perpetrator.

The Aftermath: Iraq War and Political Consequences

While the FBI grapples with scientific evidence, the political narrative spirals out of control. President Bush's declaration of war on Iraq is depicted as a catastrophic misstep fueled by flawed intelligence:

"When Colin Powell waved that vial of fake anthrax at the UN, he said he did it with the confidence that he was telling the truth." [36:49]

Colin Powell later reflects on his regret:

"I deeply regret that the information, some of the information... was wrong and it is a lot on my record." [37:50]

The war in Iraq leads to devastating consequences for the Iraqi populace, with Brown University reporting approximately 134,000 civilian deaths directly linked to the conflict.

Conclusion and Ongoing Investigation

As the episode concludes, the FBI's investigation inches closer to identifying Dr. Bruce Ivins as a prime suspect. The discovery of the genetic fingerprint and envelope discrepancies positions Ivins at the center of the case, despite his seemingly unassuming demeanor:

"The complexity of this investigation... it's highly unlikely that there were large stockpiles of deployed militarized chemical and biological weapons there." [36:01]

The episode underscores the profound impact of political decisions intertwined with flawed intelligence, leaving lasting scars both domestically and internationally.

Notable Quotes

• Scott Decker:
  "When I looked at it from a scientific standpoint... Hatfill did not have the training or the experience in bacillus anthracis or in bacteriology at all." [06:55]

• Colin Powell:
  "I deeply regret that the information, some of the information... was wrong and it is a lot on my record." [37:50]

• Bruce Ivins:
  "This is Bruce Ivins. I just wanted to tell you how. Just disappointed in the betrayed I feel." [38:52]

Final Thoughts

Episode 7, "Pot of Gold," masterfully intertwines the high-stakes political landscape with a methodical criminal investigation, highlighting the tragic consequences of misapplied intelligence and the unwavering dedication of those seeking the truth. For listeners unfamiliar with the series, this episode serves as a compelling chapter in understanding the complex web of events that reshaped America in the early 2000s.

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Produced by Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, Dig Studios, and CBC, this eight-part series offers unprecedented access to declassified materials and firsthand accounts, revealing the hidden impact of the anthrax attacks that still lingers today.

Transcript

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Scott Payne spent nearly two decades working undercover as a biker, a neo Nazi, a drug dealer, and a killer. But his last big mission at the FBI was the wildest of all.

[Colin Powell]

I have never had to burn Bibles. I have never had to burn an American flag, and I damn sure was never with a group of people that stole a goat, sacrificed it at a.

[Scott Decker]

Pagan ritual, and drank his blood. And I did all that in about.

[Colin Powell]

Three days with these guys.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Listen to Agent Palehorse. The second season of White Hot Hate, available now. This is a CBC podcast. It's early 2003 in the Oval Office of the White House, and Colin Powell, the US army general and now Secretary of State, is in a bind. After almost 18 months, the FBI still hasn't been able to point to the person behind the anthrax attacks. So in the absence of a clear answer, Powell's boss, President George W. Bush, has come up with his own. Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror, the Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. President Bush has a personal history with Iraq. His own dad had launched a war there when he'd been president. And that war is where Colin Powell had made a name for himself. He turned into a decorated war hero, a trusted military veteran. So now the younger Bush is coming to Powell, his Secretary of State, wanting to use that trust.

[Colin Powell]

He said, what should we do? I said, well, we should first and foremost take it to the United Nations. And we then had a meeting a week or so later, and every member of the national security team agreed with the judgment that we take it to.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The UN by taking it to the un, Powell means standing in front of the United nations and asking them to go to war. So he's got to make that case. But there's something he wants to do before he goes out on that limb. His reputation is on the line.

[Colin Powell]

So I spent four days and nights out at the CIA going over it and asking every way I could, are you sure of this? You have multiple sources on this.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And.

[Colin Powell]

And I got those assurances. There's the same assurances that the intelligence community gave to the President, the same assurances the intelligence community gave to the Congress four months earlier.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Then, on February 5, 2003, with those assurances in hand and a special prop in his pocket, Powell makes his case to the UN Security Council.

[Colin Powell]

Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, distinguished colleagues, I would like to begin by expressing my thanks for the special effort that each of you made to Be here today. This is important day for us all as we review the situation with respect to Iraq and its disarmament obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1441.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

He sits at a large desk in a dark suit and a red tie. Serious looking men sit behind him.

[Colin Powell]

I cannot tell you everything that we know. But what I can share with you when combined with what all of us have learned over the years is deeply troubling.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

It's a commanding image. The four star general soberly presenting the facts to a room full of world leaders.

[Colin Powell]

Indeed, the facts and Iraq's behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The UN already knows that Iraq admitted to having anthrax back in 1995. So as Powell continues on with his new intel on Iraq's so called weapons of mass destruction, he has an opportunity to make that threat feel real. He calmly reaches over and picks up a prop, a small transparent tube full of white powder.

[Colin Powell]

This is just about the amount of a teaspoon. Less than a teaspoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the United States Senate in the fall of 2001. This forced several hundred people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed two postal workers just from an amount, just about this quantity that was inside of an envelope. But Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 liters. This amount would be enough to fill tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Of course the powder in that vial is not actually anthrax. And of course Saddam Hussein has nothing to do with the anthrax attacks. The FBI had already repeatedly said that the anthrax that shut down Capitol Hill had nothing to do with Iraq. But none of that matters in this moment. The leaders in that room are focused on what the equivalent of that vial has done to America. Five deaths, thousands of exposures. A capital brought to its knees. But now, when a lot of people look back at this image today, they think about something else. They wonder if that vial of fake anthrax started a war. I'm Jeremiah Kroll and from Wolf Entertainment, this is Aftermath. The Hunt for the anthrax killer. Episode 7 Pot of Gold in the months leading up to Colin Powell's speech at the un Agent Scott Decker was frustrated with the direction the anthrax investigation was taking. There was beginning to be a kind of collective tunnel vision that was familiar to him from his days working in science labs.

[Scott Decker]

You develop experiments where you would just continually prove your hypothesis without self critiquing. The same Thing with being a detective, you've got to keep an open mind. You got to look at every piece of evidence. And if you find something that disproves the guilt of the guy you're looking at, you can't discount it. You've got to include it.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And for Decker, this is one of the trickiest parts of leading an investigative team, making sure that team faces the things that disprove the current hypothesis. And in early 2003, it's exactly what's happening with the evidence against Dr. Steven Hatfill. FBI agents had searched his house. Dogs had sniffed for his scent. Divers plunged in a pond. The FBI then drained that pond. Other than being splashed all over the national news, none of it led anywhere. And despite the fact that Hatfield was technically skilled in the lab, with expertise in biological warfare, he didn't normally work with bacteria. He was a virus guy.

[Scott Decker]

When I looked at it from a scientific standpoint, scientifically, Hatfill did not have the training or the experience in bacillus anthracis or in bacteriology at all.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

So Decker's now leaning away from Hatfill. But his colleagues are divided.

[Scott Decker]

There was one part of the task force that was pro Hatfill, and there was another part of the task force that was, we gotta get moving on the forensics here and develop something else, because we don't think it is Hatfill.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Unfortunately for Decker, the pro Hatfill camp includes his direct supervisor.

[Scott Decker]

There was some frustration at that period about where are we going to put our resources? So I was treading a little carefully.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Decker is now starting to believe that the culprit is a scientist in their midst. That's where the evidence points. The letters, the psychological profile, the sophistication of the anthrax samples themselves. So if it's not Hatfill, it's gotta be another scientist, Someone they may have worked with, someone Decker's somehow been missing.

[Scott Decker]

The worst thing is to put the blinders on. You may miss something that's important.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And there was someone in their midst who, looking back, struck Decker as odd. A scientist who'd been consulting with the FBI since the beginning of the case. The guy who strangely ended up volunteering to hand out coffee for the Red Cross during the search of the lake. The vaccine whiz, Dr. Bruce Ivins. He'd been there. He'd made sure to have been there every step of the way.

[Scott Decker]

He leaned forward, real proactive on trying to get the FBI to look at co workers to the point where that was suspicious. Why is he Trying so hard to help us. This is not his job. He's too old to be a wannabe detective. Why is he doing this?

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Ivins is the same guy who had told officials back in 2001 that the anthrax powder used in the attacks was light, high quality, and, in his words, not garage spores. Now, Decker and the other agents who think Hatfill is innocent want to check Ivins out. Thinking back to the beginning of the investigation, Decker now remembers an odd experience he'd had talking to Ivins after the Capitol Hill attacks. Ivins was telling him about an experiment he'd done on a monkey with aerosolized anthrax.

[Scott Decker]

And I naively said, well, that's exactly the same as using it as a weapon. It's biological warfare. You've just described it to me. And he immediately changed and went irate. His eyes widened. He said something like, no, it's not. And he stared at me. He was pretty pissed off. And we were about three or four feet apart, so I actually shifted my balance a little bit in case things got rough. I apologized. I said, that's really stupid. I can see now where the two things are different. You know, please accept my apology, et cetera, et cetera. He calmed down.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

It had felt a little odd at the time, but sometimes scientists are a little odd. Now, though, Decker's wondering if there was more to it. On the other hand, Bruce Ivins and many of his colleagues at the US military's bioweapons lab, USAMRID, had already been on the FBI's watch list for months. They'd been checked out. Ivins himself had passed a polygraph. In fact, Ivins was an altogether unlikely suspect. He was one of the most respected anthrax scientists in the country, who regularly lectured at conferences and had published over 40 scientific papers. He was active in his Catholic church, playing the keyboard in the band. He was well liked by his colleagues. On top of that, the FBI had just publicly accused someone who, so far, despite all of their efforts, wasn't panning out.

[Scott Decker]

I needed a little more hard evidence before we actually turned his Ivan's life upside down.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

While Decker turns his attention away from Steven Hatfill and toward new suspects, the highest offices in America had come up with their own culprit.

[Colin Powell]

Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post September 11th world. We must not fail in our duty and our responsibility to the citizens of the countries that are represented by this body. Thank you, Mr. President.

[Scott Decker]

The White House really thought Iraq was behind the anthrax letters. We repeatedly told the boss, the director, there is absolutely no connection that we can see to Iraq. We have no evidence at all to point in that direction.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

And yet that direction, going after Iraq, evidence be damned, is exactly where they're headed. On March 19, 2003, five days after Colin Powell's speech at the UN, President Bush makes an announcement that will change the geopolitical landscape forever. My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger. This isn't just an attack on bricks and mortar. It is an assault on the human senses. The attack came in waves. Cruise missiles Followed by the F117 stealth bombers with so called bunker busting bombs.

[Bruce Ivins]

Iraqi hospitals say they're overwhelmed, reportedly amputating limbs because they've run out of medicine to treat the injured.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The invasion of Iraq is a horrific distortion of the anthrax investigation. At home, the Secretary of State held up a vial of anthrax to the world, essentially saying, without actually saying it, that perhaps Iraq is to blame for the anthrax attacks and all the related chaos and fear on U.S. soil. And now, even though the FBI has been saying for months that Saddam had nothing to do with the attacks, Iraqis are paying the price. All Decker, the FBI and the scientists working on the case can do is keep grinding away. And about a month after the invasion of Iraq, they get some unexpected help.

[Scott Decker]

Well, this is a landmark occasion here.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

In the very month of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's double helix. I am pleased and honored, perhaps I should say exhilarated, to declare the goals of the Human Genome Project to be completed. Dr. Francis Collins announces a major breakthrough in human DNA. The essentially complete set of genes in a human cell called a genome, have been decoded for the first time. And it gives real hope to the idea that anthrax too could be mapped genetically. One of the most striking revelations of the Human Genome Project was that a tiny amount, just 0.1% of our genes, make each of us unique. So Decker and the FBI want scientists to explore the genetic map of anthrax to Decode the figurative 0.1% that made this particular sample unique.

[Claire Fraser]

It revealed to us, to the entire scientific community, how little biology we truly understood, even for the simplest forms of life.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Claire Fraser and her team at TIGR had been pursuing this genetic fingerprint for more than a year now.

[Claire Fraser]

Where we felt a tremendous amount of tension was the urgency we were feeling from the FBI to get this information as quickly as possible. But us also knowing that going quickly could lead to inadvertent errors.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

So the process wasn't going quickly. But the payoff, if they can get it right, is huge. If Tiger can identify the unique microscopic differences, the genetic fingerprint of the anthrax from the letters, they could trace it back to its mother batch somewhere in a lab, which could point them to the workplace of their killer scientist.

[Claire Fraser]

And when you start to think that, you know, this isn't just information that's gonna be out there to enable science, this is information that ultimately could be entered as evidence in a criminal trial. That's a pretty chilling thought.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

They're doing this critical work at a lab in Usamrid, the same place Bruce Evans and Stephen Hatfill have worked. And it's here in the lab where the first major genetic breakthrough happens entirely by accident.

[Claire Fraser]

In one case in error, one of the laboratory staff had left these plates in an incubator longer than they should have.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Basically, she'd left some anthrax test samples in the oven too long. Typically this would ruin the sample, and she thought she'd have to start over.

[Claire Fraser]

But this is where the breakthrough happened. So when she pulled these plates out of the incubator to get rid of them, she looked at them. That's when we first saw the differences in the DNA sequence between these morphotypes and the reference.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Claire and her team had found a faint microscopic variant between the original strain of Ames found in Texas and the Ames strain that had been mailed. Just one tiny difference in a genetic map of over 5 million cells. That alone doesn't tell them much. But the fact that they've found that difference means it's possible to find more differences. It finally seems they might be able to get that full DNA fingerprint which would point them to the lab of the killer. While Claire's team's doing that, Decker has another idea. This one a little more old school.

[Scott Decker]

I thought there was maybe more we could do with the forensics of these envelopes because I knew nothing about them. But we had crazy ideas about what we could do.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

One of these crazy ideas is to hunt for clues not in fancy genetics, but in the manufacturing process of the envelopes themselves. They hadn't been lucky enough to get any obvious forensic clues.

[Scott Decker]

Pretty much the only source of DNA would have been from licking the stamp or licking the envelope. And in this case, the people that had made the envelopes had inked a stamp onto it so you didn't have to put your own stamp on it. No licking. And the envelopes were taped shut, not licked. So we didn't have a licked envelope, we didn't have licked stamps. There was no reason to think there was any place we were going to get human DNA.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But Decker's wondering if a microscope could reveal anything else about these envelopes. Could there be something distinct about them that would differentiate them from the countless others with the same design? Each of the envelopes has a 34 cent ink stamp pre printed on it by the United States Postal Service. So these are official envelopes created and printed by the usps. That means they would likely have been purchased at a post office. So if Decker and the FBI can figure out which post office sold these envelopes, they might be able to pinpoint the anthrax killer's neighborhood. The bad news, they discover the Postal Service had printed 45 million of these envelopes in 57 different production runs over the last several years. So Decker's monumental challenge now is to figure out which of those 45 million envelopes became the four that ended up with anthrax in them.

[Scott Decker]

It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But we weren't even sure there was a needle to look for. We went. We weren't sure we were going to get an answer. We couldn't say for sure it was going to work.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Nevertheless, they put those doubts aside and start looking for their needle. Okay, Gav, what is the hardest thing about doing a news quiz right now in 2025? Donald Trump. The hardest thing is that we've had to rewrite the script, what, four times today because he changes his mind literally every hour. Yeah, the tariffs are off. The tariffs are on. But I mean, the good thing is on our quiz show, it doesn't really matter if people give the right answer because it's more fun when they give the wrong answer. This is true and guaranteed. If Trump's in the office, there will be a lot of wrong answers. Ah, Spotify. Follow us every Friday new EP it's because news in the winter months of late 2004, Decker and another investigator drive out to the factory where the pre stamped envelopes had been made. It's in central Pennsylvania, a state known for its legendary paper making mills. And Decker feels right at home to me.

[Scott Decker]

That was interesting because I grew up in the paper mills. I shouldn't say grew up. I spent my 18, 19, 20 years working at the paper mills in Jersey. So I Kind of understood what they were doing.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

He'd driven a lot of forklifts in his time there. But Decker also worked in quality control there, monitoring paper chemistry. Talk about the perfect person for the job. The man knows how to look at paper, and he knows that paper companies keep records. But when he goes to look at the paper mill's records, he hits a snag. All of the records, Starting right before October 2001, the exact weeks Decker needs, had been retired. And now in 2004, are nowhere to be found. So he turns to the printer of the ink stamp on those same envelopes. The printer does have records, and those records show that the ink for the 34 cent stamp was reformulated in January of 2001, almost a year before the attacks. That is great intel. Decker can now eliminate 9 million envelopes printed with the old ink before January 2001. Only 36 million more to sort through. But because the killer mailed the attack letters in September and October of 2001, the 5.5 million envelopes printed after that can also be crossed off the list. Boom. From what was 45 million down to 31 million. But that still leaves 31 million envelopes. From there, Decker works off a hunch.

[Scott Decker]

They actually made vinyl printing plates, and they'd spin around and they would roll over the envelopes and ink on the stamps. So each piece of this vinyl lasts for about a million envelopes. Then we have to start with a new one because it wears down.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

This discovery that vinyl rollers wear down and need to be replaced means everything to Decker. It means that the printing on each and every 34 cent ink stamp on the envelope, over time and almost imperceptibly.

[Scott Decker]

Starts to degrade during the wearing process. These small defects in printing would arise. So the first hundred would not be the same as the last hundred in the run of a million. So now we had a way, a forensic way to differentiate between these little envelopes. Technically, each one would be different if you put it under a microscope and looked at the printing defects.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

That 34 cent printed stamp is the image of an eagle with its wings outstretched, printed in royal blue ink directly on each white envelope. Decker's team wants an expert to hunt for any printing defects in that image. So he turns to an agency founded after the Civil War, the Secret Service. Today, they're known almost exclusively for protecting federal officials. But the Secret Service also specializes in federal counterfeiting cases. It turns out they're very good at finding tiny telltale discrepancies that make all.

[Scott Decker]

The difference so we went to Secret Service and said, can you look at these things and can you tell? Is there a difference between the ink or the stamp or the USPS copyright mark at all? If I give you a box of envelopes from month number one, month number two, do you think you can distinguish them by looking at the printing on the envelopes under a microscope?

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The answer is, yes, they can. And incredibly, they find something. A microscopic printing defect on each of the anthrax envelopes. A slight blue line along the bottom edge of the eagle's right wing. To Decker, this is forensic proof that the letters came from the same batch of envelopes and the same person. So if Decker's team can somehow find a record of which post offices that specific slightly defective batch was shipped to, they can narrow their search and find the killer's location.

[Scott Decker]

I mean, here's another huge hurdle, but at the end of the day, there might be a pot of gold, you know, at the end of the rainbow. We've just got to get there.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The first step in this new phase is to get envelope samples from each of the relevant post offices. This results in almost 300,000 samples from post offices across the country. From there, they have to figure out if any of those envelopes had that telltale discrepancy, which means examining 300,000 envelopes by hand. It's a Herculean effort. There's no AI or computer scans to do this in 2004. So once again, the Secret Service gets to work.

[Scott Decker]

They used a dissecting microscope, just like they would counterfeit money. It's tedious work.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

It is.

[Scott Decker]

And I give them a lot of credit that they stuck with it and did it for us, because it wasn't their investigation, it was ours. But they were the experts in the country to do something like this.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Months go by. It's now 2005, another summer, another anniversary of the attacks. And then winter. By December, it's been a full year since Decker visited those printing mills in Pennsylvania. And then he gets a call.

[Scott Decker]

They actually found a box that had nearly identical marks on it. They find a run of envelopes with almost the identical marks.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

This is the moment Decker and his team have worked and hoped for. The shipping records show that this box of envelopes was mailed on March 21, 2001, to post offices in just seven towns, all in the Mid Atlantic region. And one of those towns is Frederick, Maryland. Frederick, Maryland, you'll remember, is the home of Stephen Hatfill. That's one point for the Hatfill camp. But Frederick is also just 11 minutes from USAMRID, the Army's bioterrorism lab. So several other scientists work and live nearby, including anthrax vaccine whiz Dr. Bruce Ivins. As far as the FBI is concerned, every scientist with the right clearance at USAMRID is now a suspect. But for Decker, it's one point for the Ivins camp. And there's another point against Ivins that now comes into sharp focus, one it turns out the FBI had been following at a distance for years.

[Bruce Ivins]

I got an email from the American Society of Microbiology asking every single member to please think about who might have been involved in some way in these attacks, because it takes expertise and access to have done this.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

You might remember hearing about one of the microbiologists who got this email. Her name is Dr. Nancy Hegwood.

[Bruce Ivins]

I remember reading that and immediately having a terrible sinking feeling, just a gut feeling, oh, my God, this could be Bruce.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Nancy had met with FBI agents way back in early 2002 and told them she had a strained relationship with her former colleague Bruce Ivins, that he'd asked her too many personal questions, including about her college days and her sorority.

[Bruce Ivins]

Bruce had collected a group of people he was emailing on a regular basis, and I happened to be one of those people on the string.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

She told the FBI back then that it was in one of those emails that Nancy had seen a photo that worried her. A snapshot of Ivins making anthrax.

[Bruce Ivins]

It is not at all normal to send a picture of yourself to other scientists. And in the photograph, you can clearly see that he was not wearing gloves, which was the normal procedure for all microbiological work.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

After that photo and the attacks and then the FBI's email asking for help, Nancy realized that Bruce may not be who she'd thought he was.

[Bruce Ivins]

I was nervous. I mean, it's strange to do something like that, especially without any proof. But I just had a terrible feeling it could be Bruce, and that's. So I called the FBI that day. I just told them I was concerned and I would appreciate them looking into it. And eventually they did.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

A couple of agents came out to talk to her. But at the time, in early 2002, the FBI had looked into hundreds of these kinds of leads. Agents had taken her report, took note of the photo, and that was sort of that. Soon after, Nancy saw on the news with everyone else that the FBI had turned its focus to Stephen Hatfill. Over the years, the FBI occasionally followed up with Nancy and eventually started asking more and more questions about Bruce. Ivins.

[Bruce Ivins]

So I began to think that they were looking into the possibility he might have been involved a little more seriously by 2005.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

As agents probe further, they discover a whole new layer to her story. She tells the FBI that it all started while she was getting her PhD at the University of North Carolina in Chapel. Hillary Ivins was there too, working as a postdoctoral fellow in a neighboring lab.

[Bruce Ivins]

Abreus is a very friendly guy and he was a little quirky from the start, but he was serious about his scientific work and was clearly interested in getting to know others since he was relatively new.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Agents discovered that in one of her early conversations with Bruce, Nancy casually mentioned that she was advising her KKG chapter, the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, as an alum.

[Bruce Ivins]

He was very interested and took a somewhat out of proportion interest in that and asked lots of questions about what did I know about the cipher book and any of that stuff. And I said, this is, this is secret stuff and we're not going to talk about this anymore. I just thought it was very strange after that.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

For most of her PhD years, Nancy politely tolerated Bruce's eccentricities. Then in the late 1970s, he'd moved away to Maryland, and for all intents and purposes, that was the end of their interactions. But agents find out that after Ivins moved, something strange happened to Nancy at her PhD lab.

[Bruce Ivins]

I came into work one day and discovered that my lab notebook was not there. And I didn't worry too much. I figured perhaps somebody had come in and borrowed it from somebody else in my laboratory or my PI might have done that, my professor. But no one seemed to know where it was. So then I started to worry a little bit.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Inside Nancy's notebook was months of work, which would all be lost if she couldn't get it back.

[Bruce Ivins]

Shortly thereafter, I received a note at my home that the notebook had been deposited in a US mailbox downtown in. In Chapel Hill, which is sort of a one post office box town.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

The note was anonymous, but it seemed someone had taken her notebook for some reason and placed it in a mailbox downtown.

[Bruce Ivins]

I alerted the police, the Chapel Hill police, and eventually they and the post office were able to open the sealed box and there was my notebook.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

No explanation as to why it was there. Nancy tells the FBI she'd been relieved and mystified about what had happened and that an odd thought had crossed her mind at the time.

[Bruce Ivins]

The police asked me what I thought might have happened and I said, I suppose it's some kind of prank, but I can't imagine anybody would really do this. It's rather cruel. And I didn't really think anybody from my own lab would do that. And I said, the one person that I'm a little suspicious of doesn't live here anymore, and that's Bruce Ivins.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Unless Bruce Ivins was visiting or had traveled the nearly five hours from Maryland to Chapel Hill, it didn't make sense to Nancy that it could be him. And yet he was still the person that somehow came to her mind.

[Bruce Ivins]

Over the subsequent years since I met Bruce, and while I was finishing my PhD, I think that Bruce had exhibited more oddball behavior than I had originally seen. And I was starting to feel kind of uncomfortable around him. And I remember actually talking to him and saying that I. I wished him well, but that he was married. I'm, you know, I'm not really looking for a friend. And I attempted to. I won't say cut off the relationship, but make it clear to him that certainly anything other than the occasional hello in the lab was not really that welcome.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

As agents continue to question Nancy, they discover one other strange incident from her past. It happened in 1983, after she'd moved closer to Ivins in Frederick, Maryland, for her postdoctoral fellowship. The editor of the local Frederick News Post had received a letter. Nancy found that letter printed in the opinion pages. A letter to the editor defending hazing rituals conducted by Nancy's own college sorority, kkg. It was signed Nancy L. Hegwood, which surprised Nancy L. Hegwood, because Nancy L. Hegwood says she didn't write it.

[Bruce Ivins]

I called Bruce because that had his fingerprints all over it and said, bruce, I really do not appreciate this. I believe you're the only person who would have done something like this. And he denied it, but it was clear that he had done that.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Nancy tells the FBI, it seemed Bruce had assumed her identity and written as if he were a member of kkg. Bruce's interest in KKG interests the FBI.

[Scott Decker]

One of the fellow grad students he was with in grad school had been a sister in the sorority as an undergrad. And he tried to talk to her about it during grad school to the point where she, Keith, felt he was a creep. Why do you keep bringing this subject up over and over again? It became an obsession. He asked one of the girls from that sorority out on a date, and she told him no. And he took that to heart. This guy Ivins did not let go at that point. He developed a big grudge against this particular sorority.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Decker and the FBI no longer see Ivins As a harmless oddball. Turns out, underneath the surface, he has a history of obsessive behavior, Possibly even stalking women and driving long distances to act on his grudges. Agents also see the seeds of a pattern that ties to an imposter letter mailed to the media and a post office used as a conduit for the crime. And then there's the kicker. The blue mailbox in Princeton, New Jersey, where the anthrax letters were mailed from.

[Scott Decker]

The mailbox was outside an administration office for Kippa Kippa Gamma. It was outside the sorority.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

So the mailbox with active spores that agents spent weeks scanning for in the dead of night was located right in front of the college's KKG chapter. If Ivins dropped the letters into that box, it would mean that he would have driven several hours from his home. It would mean he was extremely fixated and methodical. And for Nancy, that isn't out of the question.

[Bruce Ivins]

I'd never known anyone like that. Scientists are pretty weird people, but this is a far another order of magnitude or two beyond that.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Agents hope to turn Nancy's suspicion into evidence. So they come to her with a plan to see if she can help them catch Ivan saying something incriminating. They want her to wear a wire.

[Bruce Ivins]

They asked if I would be willing to meet with him, and I ultimately decided not to do that because I thought it was too dangerous. And I had two young children, and I just didn't want to do it.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

That avenue is now closed to them. But Decker and his side of the FBI are now convinced Ivins is a solid lead. And there's now enough disenchantment with Hatfill that top leaders at the FBI make a change, too. In August 2006, Decker's direct supervisor, who'd been so emphatic about Hatfill's guilt for years, gets taken off the case. It's technically a promotion, but inside the FBI, there's a different feeling.

[Scott Decker]

I know what happened, but I'm not going to say. Let's just say within two months, we changed directions.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

For Decker, this new direction is all about finding genetic and tangible proof to test the theory that Bruce Evans is guilty. As for the other working theory in the government, that Iraq had been behind the anthrax attacks or were at least producing other weapons of mass destruction, that was debunked entirely, but not without great cost. I believe that the effort that has been directed to this point has been sufficiently intense that it is highly unlikely that there were large stockpiles of deployed militarized chemical and biological weapons there.

[Scott Decker]

If the chaos in Iraq continues to grow, it is inevitable that the American public will link this to questions of why we got there in the first place.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

U.S. forces had spent weeks, then months, then years searching for evidence of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. When Colin Powell waved that vial of fake anthrax at the un he'd said he did it with the confidence that he was telling the truth. But the intelligence he was citing turns out to be as fake as the anthrax he was holding.

[Colin Powell]

I was more than embarrassed. I was mortified because even though the President had used the same information, Congress had used the same information, Secretary Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, all of us were using the same information. But I'm the one who made the, the biggest presentation of it. So it all sort of fell on me. That's, that's show business.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

But in show business at that level, facts matter. And it turns out that what Powell thought were three or maybe even four separate and unique sources saying Iraq had WMDs was actually one flimsy rumor disguised to look like four different reports.

[Colin Powell]

I deeply regret that the information, some of the information, not all of it, some of the information I presented, which was multi source, was wrong and it is a lot on my record.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

Ultimately, the US never finds anthrax or any other WMDs in Iraq. Powell lived the rest of his life with the shame of that speech hanging over his head. But the consequences for the Iraqi people were far greater. According to a new report by Brown University, a decade of led to the deaths of roughly 134,000 Iraqi civilians and potentially contributed to the deaths of many hundreds of thousands more. As the war in Iraq raged on, Agent Scott Decker was fighting his own battle with disinformation, hoping his team can find definitive evidence that Dr. Bruce Ivins is either innocent or guilty. This is Bruce Ivins. I just wanted to tell you how. Just disappointed in the betrayed I feel.

[Colin Powell]

Do you think they're going to submit evidence that implicates them?

[Scott Decker]

So he now had a genetic fingerprint for what was mailed in the envelope.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

I remember being really very angry and.

[Colin Powell]

In particular angry at the FBI.

[Jeremiah Kroll]

I got arrested by the police. I had the guys with the guns got roughed up. It was a terrible experience. The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer is a production of Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio and Digg Studios in collaboration with CBC Podcasts. The series is hosted by me, Jeremiah Kroll. It's created, written and executive produced by Scott, Tiffany and me at Digg Studios. Aftermath is executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliot Wolf and Steven Michael at Wolf Entertainment, Josh Block at USG Audio and Joniel Kastner at Spoke Media. The series is produced by Kelly Kolf, story editing by Janiel Kastner sound design and mix by Evan Arnett original Composition by John O'Hara Production by Spoke Media Production support for USG Audio by Josh Lalonghi Tanya Springer is the Senior Manager of CBC Podcasts. Arif Narani is the Director of CBC Podcasts. Thank you for listening. Tune in next week for an all new episode of the Hunt for the Anthrax Killer. Or you can binge the whole series ad free by subscribing to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts. For more CBC Podcasts, go to CBC Capodcasts.