Behind the Bastards: How The FBI Botched the 2001 Anthrax Scare (Part 1)

Podcast: Behind the Bastards
Host: Brandon (with co-host Sophie and guest Courtney Kosak)
Date: October 2, 2025
Episode Theme:
A deep dive into the early life, character, and career of Dr. Steven J. Hatfill—the man wrongly accused of the 2001 anthrax mail attacks in the U.S. This episode unpacks how Hatfill’s strange backstory, eccentricities, and false claims made him an appealing but ultimately innocent target for the FBI and media, setting the stage for a notorious federal debacle.

Episode Overview

In part one of this multi-episode arc, the hosts introduce the context of post-9/11 America and the subsequent anthrax attacks. They explore how the media and FBI, in their zeal to find the perpetrator, zeroed in on Dr. Steven Hatfill—a man with a “bastardly” yet ultimately unrelated life story. This episode focuses exclusively on Hatfill’s biography and the events that made his name synonymous with an uncommitted crime.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: The 2001 Anthrax Attacks (00:01–02:57)

• Anthrax-laced letters were sent to politicians and media just after 9/11, causing national panic and five deaths.
• Dr. Steven Hatfill became a suspect, largely because of his unusual life and credentials.

Quote:
“These happened right in the wake of 9/11...they never found who did it, but they had a suspect for several years. And that suspect is a guy who is a bastard...but...he was done dirty.” (Brandon, 01:01)

2. Introducing Steven Hatfill: The Eccentric Candidate (05:30–08:11)

• Born in 1953, Mattoon, Illinois; normal middle-class upbringing, nothing to foreshadow future controversy.
• Admits to being a poor student, “I never took a book home from school.”
• Early interests: medical science, military history, electives; flew gliders at 14, aspired to be a Marine Corps fighter pilot, but disqualified due to imperfect vision.
• The disappointment “shattered” him—he dropped out of college for a year to volunteer at a mission hospital in the Congo.

Quote:
“He travels to the Congo, finds this mission, doing like, medical work...he’s volunteering and we don’t have enough people, so let’s take him in.” (Brandon, 08:33)

3. Adventuring and Mythmaking: Africa, the Military, and Special Forces Tales (10:10–14:10)

• Returns to Southwestern College, earns a degree, joins the Army, but fails Special Forces (Green Berets) qualification—despite later presenting himself as a veteran Green Beret.
• The official record: “He did enlist...entered the rigorous Special Forces qualification course...But he didn’t last long there. After a few weeks, he was discharged from active duty and wound up in the Army National Guard.” (Brandon quoting Marilyn Thompson, 12:00–13:17)
• Early marital life complicated by tragedy (father-in-law executed in Africa), followed by divorce and estrangement from his daughter.

4. Rhodesia: Moral Quandaries and Medical School in a Pariah State (16:10–24:00)

• 1978: Hatfill moves to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), then a white supremacist, internationally isolated apartheid state.
• Here, he attends medical school and claims to have served as a medic with the elite Selous Scouts (Rhodesian special forces)—a claim doubted by other veterans and official records.
• Rhodesia was notorious both for pioneering ruthless counterinsurgency tactics and, increasingly, for being mythologized by modern far-right military enthusiasts.
• Recurrent exaggeration and fabrication: “He was an extraordinary guy and very, very bright, but he was also a real Walter Mitty kind of character. And he would tell these enormous, awful lies.” (Brandon reads, 23:20)
• Notable moment: The hosts highlight how pervasive this mythmaking was—for Hatfill, resume inflation began early and persisted.

5. The Anthrax Epidemic in Rhodesia and the Seeds of Suspicion (28:54–38:22)

• While Hatfill studied in Rhodesia, a devastating anthrax epidemic hit, mainly affecting Black-owned farms.
• Rhodesia’s government was known to use chemical/biological weapons on “insurgents”. There is extensive debate among historians and scientists whether the anthrax outbreak was a natural disaster or a deliberate act.
• The episode emphasizes that, despite the timing, there is no evidence Hatfill participated in Rhodesia’s CBW program.
• “[Rhodesia] absolutely did and is confirmed to have weaponized and used anthrax on human beings...But as Matthew Turner points out...there’s a lot of good reason to believe that this was a natural anthrax outbreak.” (Brandon, 33:47–34:10)
• Biographical parallel: Years later, these coincidences would be used (superficially but powerfully) against Hatfill during the U.S. anthrax scare.

6. Questionable Credentials and Professional Turbulence (39:37–44:05)

• Continues studies in South Africa (University of Cape Town), claiming several master’s degrees and attempting (but failing to attain) a PhD.
• Habitually padded his resume: at various times claimed UK medical credentials and Royal Society membership—none substantiated.
• Anecdotes surface of him carrying a gun to labs and allegedly bragging to have trained white supremacist bodyguards—a rumor consistent with, but not confirmed by, his political leanings at the time.

Quote:
“That’s like bold pre-Internet lying, right? You could so get away with this shit before...I could be doing surgery today if it was the 1980s.” (Sophie & Brandon, 41:44–42:05)

7. Rising Through the Ranks: U.S. Government and Biosecurity Work (44:07–63:10)

• Hatfill’s skill as a scientist and teacher lands him white-collar jobs at the National Institutes of Health and, in 1997, a prestigious two-year fellowship at USAMRIID (the U.S. Army’s top bioweapons research center).
• The hosts describe the genuinely terrifying, top-security facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
• Hatfill develops a reputation as an alarming but talented expert in germ warfare (mainly viruses like Ebola, not anthrax).
• Partners with Bill Patrick, a legendary (if sinister) bioweapons scientist with “five secret patents on weaponized anthrax.”
• Hatfill’s professional network, rare expertise, and confidence make him a fixture in U.S. biodefense—even as he continues to exaggerate his experience.

Quote:
“In just a couple of years, he’s gotten to the point anyone in a field like this wants to, where...you can start taking private sector money as a consultant, because that’s where the real cash is, baby.” (Brandon, 61:01)

Quote:
“The number of Americans who can actually claim that—have extensive knowledge of wet and dry biological agents and how to produce them—was, at this point, maybe 50 to 100 people.” (Brandon, 62:07)

8. Red Flags: Security Clearances, CIA Polygraphs, and Mobile Weapons Labs (63:14–67:16)

• In 2001 Hatfill applies for a top-secret CIA clearance. He fails the polygraph, is denied, and the denial triggers a suspension of his Department of Defense clearance.
• He becomes a liability for federal contractors and is isolated from sensitive projects.
• Just pre-9/11, Hatfill develops a mock “mobile biowarfare lab” for the U.S. military, which eerily mirrors what officials later speculate Saddam Hussein owns.
• The hosts note the unintended irony: “the US Government pays Steve Hatfill to design a mobile WMD production facility that Saddam Hussein did not have…even though their government was the only one with the resources to build one.” (Brandon, 66:16)

Quote:
“You don’t wanna be one of the 50 to 100 Americans who could credibly make the claim to know how to weaponize anthrax…That becomes less of a positive thing once someone’s done it.” (Brandon, 63:14)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On resume inflation:
  “He once told me his wife died in the Congo. Again, he just left. They divorced. He left her with the kid. Her dad died in the Congo.” (Brandon, 23:20)

• On Hatfill’s dangerous expertise:
  “He’s very charismatic...He starts getting contracts to instruct special forces teams on defensive techniques…He’s giving seminars, he’s giving speeches, and he’s also conducting training classes...” (Brandon, 50:09–50:36)

• On how quickly things can spiral:
  “Come 2001, when there’s an anthrax attack, you don’t wanna be one of the 50 to 100 Americans who could credibly make the claim to know how to weaponize ant[hrax]. That becomes less of a positive thing once someone’s done it.” (Brandon, 63:10)

Structure & Flow

The episode artfully balances biographical narrative, historical digression, and sharp, irreverent commentary on the intersection of mythmaking and suspicion in American security culture. Brandon and his co-hosts regularly step back to question the reliability of sources, the moral ambiguities of Hatfill’s decisions, and the broader institutional failures of the FBI and media.

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:01–02:57 — Introduction, recap, and episode premise
• 05:30–08:11 — Early life, gliding, and military disappointment
• 10:10–14:10 — Army, Special Forces stories, and first marriage
• 16:10–24:00 — Rhodesian years, Selous Scouts myths, far-right fascination
• 28:54–38:22 — Rhodesian anthrax outbreak: natural or weaponized?
• 39:37–44:05 — Medical degrees, UK credentials, and South African politics
• 44:07–50:27 — USAMRIID, infectious disease work, and rise in U.S. biosecurity
• 61:01–63:10 — Mentor Bill Patrick, weaponized anthrax expertise, and rare skills
• 63:14–67:16 — CIA clearance denial and the infamous mobile weapons lab
• 67:16–end — 9/11 as the threshold for Hatfill’s infamy (to be explored in Part 2)

Conclusion & Set-Up for Part 2

Part one concludes with Dr. Hatfill’s life teetering on the edge: credentials questioned, security clearances pulled, just as the world changes with 9/11. The ensuing anthrax panic and the FBI’s fateful decision to focus in on this “perfectly flawed” candidate is set for next episode.

Quote:
“…after 9/11, not long after, we’re going to get the anthrax attacks and Steve’s life is going to change dramatically for the worse. But I think we’ve set up the dominoes of, like, why this guy is going to wind up in the crosshairs of the media and federal law enforcement...” (Brandon, 67:18)

For listeners, this episode offers a fascinating, sometimes darkly funny forensic biography of a complicated man cast as villain not by his actions, but by a blend of bluster, bad timing, and the fevered anxieties of post-9/11 America.