WASHINGTON – A letter containing ricin sent last year to the White House threatened to turn Washington, D.C., into a “ghost town” if new trucking safety regulations went into effect, according to a copy of the letter released Monday by the FBI.
The letter, one of two intercepted last year that were signed “Fallen Angel,” bore an Oct. 17 postmark from Chattanooga, Tenn. It was addressed to the White House and was discovered by the Secret Service at a Washington offsite mail processing facility in early November.
The White House letter was typewritten on what appears to be yellow legal paper. Although it was addressed to the White House, the letter begins with “department of transportation” and then says:
“If you change the hours of service on January 4, 2004, I will turn D.C. into a ghost town. The powder on the letter is RICIN. Have a nice day. Fallen Angel.”
A similar ricin-laced letter was found Oct. 15 at a mail processing facility in Greenville, S.C. In both cases, the author complained about new regulations that mandate more periods of rest for long-haul truckers.
Many truckers and companies have raised concerns about lost pay and productivity because of stricter rest requirements.
The South Carolina letter also claimed that the author was the owner of a tanker fleet company and had access to large amounts of pulp from castor plants, which are the source of the poison ricin.
Investigators are also trying to determine the source of a small amount of ricin found earlier this month on a mail-opening machine in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. No envelope or threatening letter has been found in that case.
No one has been sickened in any of the cases, but on Capitol Hill three Senate office buildings were closed for several days after the ricin was discovered there.
The FBI, Postal Inspection Service and Transportation Department are offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the author of the threatening letters. The FBI is also operating a toll-free tipline in the case at 1-866-839-6241.
