Scientist Began Drinking Heavily as FBI Used Aggressive Tactics
As the FBI closed in on government scientist Bruce Ivins, he began drinking as much as a liter of vodka in the evening and taking large doses of sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs.
A friend of Ivins’ described the researcher’s turmoil in interviews with the Washington Post and the New York Times. Ivins committed suicide before he could be indicted in the September 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.
The friend, also a scientist, said he was receiving late-night e-mails from Ivins filled with “gobbledygook, ranting and raving” about FBI persecution of his family, according to the Post account.
Ivins had complained that FBI agents offered his son $2.5 million and a sports car to turn him in, the Associated Press reports. Ivins’ daughter was shown pictures of dead anthrax victims and told, “This is what your father did,” according to the scientist friend who spoke to AP.
The Justice Department is expected to release details of its case against Ivins today, the Times story says.
