The Anthrax Letters: The Attacks That Shocked America (50 page)

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his book was built on the courage, sadness, frustrations, hopes, and determination of many people. They include, foremost, the victims of the anthrax letters, the people who cared for them, and others who are dedicated to protecting this nation from bioterrorism in the future.

Among the anthrax victims and their families and friends, who generously shared their time and recollections with me, I thank Ernie Blanco, Dena Briscoe, Dave Cruz, Shirley Davis, Jim Harper, Teresa Heller, David Hose, David Hose, Jr., Johanna Huden, Qieth McQue, Maria Orth, Jyotsna Patel, Ramesh Patel, Allison Paliscak, William Paliscak, Leroy Richmond, Susan Richmond, Robin Shaw, Anna Rodriguez, Esperanza Vassello, Mark Cunningham, Patrick O’Donnell, Maureen Stevens and Norma Wallace. Friends and colleagues of Bob Stevens who spoke with me about him or about anthrax at American Media, Inc., include Bobby Bender, Joan Berkley, Carla Chadick, Martha Crompton, Ron Haines, Lee Harrison, Gloria Irish, Mike Irish, Martha Moffett, Sheila O’Donovan, Daniel Rotstein, Ed Sigall, Roz Suss, and Martha Warwick.

I thank three people in particular for the immense help they provided to me in the course of this project: Dr. Larry Bush, who persisted in his diagnosis of Bob Stevens’s anthrax despite skepticism from colleagues; Dr. Nancy Connell, whose guidance on scientific issues was frequent, unstinting, and indispensable; and Dr. D. A. Henderson, whose contributions to public health deserve recounting in a volume of their own.

Several scientists patiently explained to me various research and analytical techniques: Amol Amin, Sara Beatrice, Philip Cole, Nancy Connell, Mitchell Gayer, Paul Keim, John Kornblum, Philip Lee, Jessica Mann, Donald Mayo, and David Perlin. For explanations about the operation of the U.S. Postal Service and its connection to the anthrax letters I thank David Bowers, Dena Briscoe, Jim Harper, Thomas Day, William Lewis, Genevieve Mulvihill, Joseph Sautello, and Diane Todd. Several current and former agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were very helpful, including William Atkinson, Robert Blitzer, John Iannarelli, Randolph Murch, Judy Orihuela, and Christopher Whitcomb.

Terrorism analysts who shared their insights with me include Jeffrey Bale, Boaz Ganor, Bruce Hoffman, Michael Hopmeier, John Parachini, Jerrold Post, Peter Probst, and Jessica Stern. Similarly, experts in biological defense or biological arms control included Ronald Atlas, Kenneth Bernard, Charles Dasey, Edward Eitzen, Gerald Epstein, Elisa Harris, Marie Chevrier, Barbara Rosenberg, Richard Spertzel, Jonathan Tucker, and Alan Zelicoff.

Many public health officials offered the benefit of their experiences to me on matters related to the anthrax letters and biopreparedness. Among them, current or former officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Philip Brachman, Julie Gerberding, James Hughes, Richard Kellogg, Jeffrey Koplan, Scott Lillibridge, Donald Millar, Stephen A. Morse, Stephen Ostroff, Tanja Popovic, Bradley Perkins, Jennita Reefhuis, Thomas Skinner, and Sherif Zaki; and from the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci and Mary Wright.

State and local health officials included Joel Ackelsberg, Rex Archer, Eddy Bresnitz, George DiFerdinando, James Hadler, Timothy Holtz, Clifton Lacy, Marcelle Layton, Brian Letourneau, Jean Malecki, John Marr, Carol Moehrle, Lloyd Novick, Michael Osterholm, Ron Osterholm, Faruk Presswalla, James Spitzer, Christina Tan, and Steven Wiersma.

Other scientists or healthcare professionals who were helpful with issues related to biological defense and preparedness were Ken Alibek, Thomas Argyros, Sue Bailey, Richard Ebright, Michael Franzblau, Martin Furmanski, Margaret Hamburg, Martin Hugh-Jones, Thomas Inglesby, Roberta Lavin, Joshua Lederberg, Brendan McCluskey, Matthew Meselson, Stephen S. Morse, Tara O’Toole, Zarnaz Rauf, Monica Schoch-Spana, Shmuel Shapira, and Boaz Tadmor. Physicians who treated or oversaw treatment of anthrax cases (confirmed or suspected) included Lydia Barakat, Larry Bush, Elyse Carty, Tyler Cymet, John Eisold, Mayer Grosser, Gary Kerkvliet, Norman Lee, Susan Matcha, Parvaiz Malik, Bushra Mina, Cecele Murphy, Michael Nguyen, Carlos Omenaca, Baksh Patel, Howard Quentzel, Jonathan Rosenthal, Michael Tapper, and Martin Topiel.

On matters concerning anthrax hoaxes, Harvey Berk, Chris Bosch, Sidney Clearfield, Robert Duffy, Carmen Fontana, Richard Heideman, Blake Kaplan, Reggie Lattimer, Dan Mariaschin, Mary McColl, Mark Olshan, Greg Ono, Luis Ortiz, Jason Pate, Reva Price, Rebecca Poedy, Dennis Roddy, Angie Stefaniak, Christine Vendel, and Clayton Lee Waagner were helpful.

For their valuable comments on the manuscript, I thank Emil Gotschlich, Paul Talalay, Scott Shane, and Jonathan Tucker. I thank Rebecca Allen for her cheerful acceptance of last-minute requests to transcribe hours of tape. For other varied, but highly valued, contributions, I am grateful to Kim Chiorella, Pat Clawson, Russell Feingold, Lawrence Feldman, Ralph Gomory, Theodore Greenwood, Pat Hallengren, Ron Krumer, Shalom Levin, Elizabeth McGuire, Mary Murphy, Wendy Orent, Laura Petrou, William Powanda, Hannah Rosenthal, Mary Ann Schierholt, Ann Silverman, and Susan Whyte Simon.

I am deeply indebted to John Thornton, my agent at the Spieler Agency, for his unfailing kindness and wisdom; to Jeffrey Robbins, my editor at the Joseph Henry Press, for his many valuable suggestions toward enhancing this book; and to the many others at the press for their support including Stephen Mautner, Heather Schofield, Ann Merchant, Jennifer Risko, Robin Pinnel, Jessica Henig, and Alvaro Rojas. For their help with the production of the 2009 edition of this book, I thank Abigail Gehring, Bill Wolfsthal, and the rest of the talented staff at Skyhorse Publishing. For his editorial advice I am especially grateful to my dear friend, Richard Karlen, and for a lifetime of partnership and support, to my wife, Ruth Cole.