Devvy Kidd
December 31, 2001
This is a big story. It came to me in the form of an e-mail:
The Very Mysterious Deaths Of Five Microbiologists
By Ian Gurney
12-20-1
"It is a story worthy of a major conspiracy theory, the script for a Mel Gibson "Who dunnit?" action movie, or a blueprint for a contrived and unbelievable episode of "The X Files". Except the facts surrounding this story are just that. Facts. The Truth.
"Five eminent microbiologists, leaders in their particular field of scientific research, either dead or missing, and a bizarre connection between one of the dead scientists and the mystery surrounding the death by Anthrax inhalation of a sixty one year old female hospital worker in New York. Sounds far fetched? Read on.
"Over the past few weeks several world-acclaimed scientific researchers specializing in infectious diseases and biological agents such as Anthrax, as well as DNA sequencing, have been found dead or have gone missing.
"First, on November 12th, was Dr. Benito Que, a cell biologist working on infectious diseases like HIV, who was found dead outside his laboratory at the Miami Medical School. Police say his death was possibly the result of a mugging. The Miami Herald reported that:
"The incident, whatever it may have been, occurred on Monday afternoon as the scientist left his job at University of Miami's School of Medicine. He headed for his car, a white Ford Explorer parked on Northwest 10th Avenue. The word among his friends is that four men armed with a baseball bat attacked him at his car."
"On November 16th, within of week of Dr. Que's assault, Dr. Don C Wiley, one of the United States foremost infectious disease researchers was declared missing. Bill Poovey, a journalist with Associated Press wrote:
"His rental car was found with a full tank of petrol and the keys in the ignition. His disappearance looked like a suicide, but according to colleagues and Dr. Wiley's family, the Harvard Scientist associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute would NEVER commit suicide.
"Associates who attended the St. Jude's Children Research Advisory Dinner with Dr. Wiley, just hours before he disappeared, said that he was in good spirits and NOT depressed. He was last seen at the banquet at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis the night he vanished. Those who saw him last say he showed no signs of a man contemplating his own death."
"Wiley left the hotel around midnight. The bridge where his car was found is only a five-minute drive away and in the wrong direction from where he was staying, leaving authorities with a four-hour, unexplained gap until his vehicle was found.
"Now Memphis police are exploring several theories involving suicide, robbery and murder.
"We began this investigation as a missing person investigation," said Walter Crews of the Memphis Police Department. "From there it went to a more criminal bent."
"Dr. Wiley was an expert on how the human immune system fights off infections and had recently investigated such dangerous viruses as AIDS, Ebola, herpes and influenza.
UPDATE.....
Harvard Biophysicist's Body Found in Mississippi River
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/594752/posts
"From the United States, the story moves to England. On November 23rd, Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, a former microbiologist for Biopreparat, the Soviet biological-weapons production facility was found dead. The Times was the only newspaper to provide an obituary for Dr. Pasechnik, and said:
"The defection to Britain in 1989 of Vladimir Pasechnik revealed to the West for the first time the colossal scale of the Soviet Union's clandestine biological warfare programme. His revelations about the scale of the Soviet Union's production of such biological agents as anthrax, plague, tularaemia and smallpox provided an inside account of one of the best kept secrets of the Cold War.
"After his defection he worked for ten years at the U.K. Department of Health's Centre for Applied Microbiology Research before forming his own company, Regma Biotechnics, to work on therapies for cancer, neurological diseases, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. In the last few weeks of his life he had put his research on anthrax at the disposal of the Government, in the light of the threat from bioterrorism."
"Back to the United States, and on December 10th, Dr. Robert M. Schwartz was found murdered in Leesberg, Virginia. Dr. Schwartz was a well-known DNA sequencing researcher. He founded the Virginia Biotechnology Association where he worked on DNA sequencing for 15 years.
"On Wednesday, December 12th the Washington Post reported:
"A well-known biophysicist, who was one of the leading researchers on DNA sequencing analysis, was found slain in his rural Loudoun County home after co-workers became concerned when he didn't arrive at work as expected. Robert M. Schwartz, 57, a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, was found dead in the secluded fieldstone farmhouse southwest of Leesburg where he lived alone. Loudoun sheriff's officials said it appeared that Schwartz had been stabbed."
"And so to Victoria State, Australia, where, on December 14th, a skilled microbiologist was killed at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's animal diseases facility in Geelong, Australia. This is the same facility that, as the journal Nature announced in January this year:
"Australian scientists, Dr Ron Jackson and Dr Ian Ramshaw, accidentally created an astonishingly virulent strain of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox, among laboratory mice. They realised that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed."
"The microbiologist who died had worked for 15 years at the facility. His name was Set Van Nguyen. Victoria Police said:
"Set Van Nguyen, 44, appeared to have died after entering an airlock into a storage laboratory filled with nitrogen. His body was found when his wife became worried after he failed to return from work. He was killed after entering a low temperature storage area where biological samples were kept. He did not know the room was full of deadly gas which had leaked from a liquid nitrogen cooling system. Unable to breathe, Mr. Nguyen collapsed and died."
"Now for the intriguing part of this story. On Friday, November 2nd, the Washington Post reported:
"Officials are now scrambling to determine how a quiet, 61-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, riding the subway each day to and from her job in a hospital stockroom, was exposed to the deadly anthrax spores that killed her this week. They worry because there is no obvious connection to the factors common to earlier anthrax exposures and deaths: no clear link to the mail or to the media."
"The name of this quiet 61 year old hospital worker was Kathy Nguyen."
Copyright Ian Gurney, December 2001.
Ian Gurney is the author of "The Cassandra Prophecy"
http://www.caspro.com
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I was stunned when I read this information. How could five microbiologists all die violent deaths in only 33 days? (I would assume since Dr. Wiley was found dead in a big old river, his demise was probably violent.) As with all these types of stories that come my way, I do my best to verify the information before I put it up on my site unless I know the author and trust the accuracy of their writing. So, let's look at each one of these individuals separately and the events surrounding their deaths a little further.
All emphasis are mine. My opinions and observations below are strictly that. They are speculation. Since I disassociated myself from Media Bypass Magazine several months ago, I no longer have press credentials and it makes it much harder to get information.
November 12th , was Dr. Benito Que, a cell biologist working on infectious diseases like HIV, was found dead outside his laboratory at the Miami Medical School. I spent several hours trying to find out anything about Dr. Que, but zip turned up. It appears that Dr. Que's work was not as well known as Dr. Wiley, Dr. Schwartz or Dr. Pasechnik's. Dr. Nguyen was also unremarkable as far as recognized achievements, but his death is also tragic.
Let's move on to Dr. Don C. Wiley who disappeard November 16th , four days after Dr. Benito Que was murdered. To say that Dr. Wiley was at the top of his field is an understatement:
Dr. Jack L. Strominger (United States
of America)
(Higgins Professor of Biochemistry,
Harvard University)
Dr. Don C. Wiley
(United States of America)
(John L.Loeb Professor of Biochemistry
and Biophysics and
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Investigator, Harvard University)
Prize Category:
Molecular Recognition and Dynamics
in Bioscience
Reasons for Award:
Elucidation of the three dimensional
structures of class I and class II human histocompatibility antigens and
their bound peptides
"Antigen presentation, which ultimately directs immune responses to microbial and viral pathogens and controls tissue tolerance in organ transplantation, plays a critical role in the maintenance of human health. Drs. Jack L. Strominger and Don C. Wiley collaborated in the isolation and elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of the human histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II molecules, the principal structures involved in mediating immune recognition. Their contribution provided a detailed understanding of how peptide determinants derived from processed foreign antigens and self proteins are presented to
"Tlymphocytes (T cells) for the initiation of an immune response.
"It had been shown earlier that T cell antigen receptors (TCRs) recognize a complex consisting of a peptide determinant, cleaved and processed from antigen, in association with a class I or class II MHC molecule. This peptide/MHC complex is formed as a result of fragmentation of proteins within the antigen-presenting cell. The resulting peptides subsequently associate with a binding site on the MHC molecule. Although much has been learned about the mechanisms of antigen processing, as well as T cell functions in response to antigen recognition, a key issue remained: how do MHC molecules present peptide antigens to T cells?
"Dr. Strominger's laboratory laid the groundwork for structural analyses of the MHC, when they solubilized human MHC proteins by cleaving them from cell membranes, and purified specific allotypes of class I molecules from human lymphoblastoid cell lines. Their work also led to the elucidation of serological polymorphisms that define the class I molecules. They also described the domain structure of these molecules, and delineated the location of polymorphic amino acid residues at specific positions.
"These early studies led to the collaboration with Dr. Wiley, resulting in the crystallization and determination by X-ray crystallography of the three-dimensional structure of class I molecules. Their ground-breaking accomplishment made it possible to visualize for the first time how MHC molecules interact with peptides and the TRC. In fact, the discovery of the prominent peptide binding groove, with electron density that hinted at the location of the peptide itself, immediately clarified years of uncertainty about how MHC molecules interacted with antigen peptides.
"The basic principles of how each MHC molecule in the polymorphic family could bind numerous peptides of very different sequences were also elaborated in a series of studies, which described polymorphic pockets in the binding groove that provided specificity by binding a few anchor residues of peptides, with hydrogen bonding from their termini to residues conserved in all class I molecules.
"The collaborative research led by Drs. Strominger and Wiley has extended further to the study of human class II MHC molecules. Multiple allotypes of the major isotype were crystallized and their three dimensional structures elucidated. It was discovered that, unlike the class I molecule, the peptide binding cleft is open, so that the peptide extends out both ends.
"The seminal contributions of Drs. Strominger and Wiley are fundamental in understanding the molecular and chemical bases for the functioning of the immune system. The three-dimensional structures of the class I and class II MHC molecules opened a wide vista for investigation of autoimmune diseases which have been linked to specific MHC allotypes. It has also opened a new avenue of research for the detailed molecular understanding of transplantation rejection, tumor immunity and the response to foreign pathogens.
"In conclusion, the isolation and elucidation of the three dimensional structures of the MHC molecules by Drs. Strominger and Wiley had a major impact in both basic and clinical immunology. Their innovative work is one of the highlights of modern biology, particularly in the context of Molecular Recognition and Dynamics in Bioscience."
1999: Japan Prize awarded to three U.S. scientists
"The Japan Prize, our local equivalent to the Nobel Prize, was awarded last month to three American scientists by the Japan Science and Technology Foundation in special ceremonies in the presence of Their Imperial Majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
"Receiving the awards were Dr. W. Wesley Peterson, Dr. Jack L. Strominger and Dr. Don C. Wiley."
October 1995
Wiley shares 1995 Lasker Award for solving the crystal structure of MHC proteins
Don C. Wiley
"Don C. Wiley, a Hughes investigator at Harvard University, and Jack L. Strominger, a biochemist also from Harvard, have been awarded the 1995 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
"The prize was
awarded this year to five scientists who have advanced the field of immunology.
Wiley and Strominger were honored for their solution of the structure of
major histocompatability (MHC) proteins and their peptide complexes. MHC
proteins bind to foreign peptides thereby making the foreign proteins recognizable
to T-cells which stimulate an immune
response.
"A citation issued to Wiley by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation states that "Dr. Wiley's extraordinary accomplishments have changed the ground rules of immunology. By providing a precise picture of MHC-peptide binding, he has made the rational design of specific molecules for antiviral vaccines a reality. Research into tumor antigens, allograft rejection, and autoimmune diseases as diverse as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes mellitus, has made essential advances that originate in the achievements of Don Wiley."
"An immune response against invading organisms is initiated by T lymphocytes, called helper T-cells, whose outer membranes carry MHC molecules unique to each individual. Class II MHC molecules, found in macro-phages and other antigen-presenting cells, bind to foreign protein fragments (peptides) inside the macrophage, and then transport these peptides to the cell membrane. The complex of MHC molecule plus peptide functions as a signal for T-cells which recognize the complex as foreign and initiate the immune response. Class I MHC molecules, found in all body cells, perform the same function, but their complexes are recognized by killer T-cells which destroy the infected host cell."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
His bio is deserving of great respect. I'm showing it in it's entirety so everyone can see exactly how complicated his field of work was:
"Don C. Wiley, Structural Biology, 2001-11-05, Harvard University, immune response, immune system, immunology, autoimmune disease, autoimmunity, HIV-1, insulin dependent diabetes, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, influenza, Ebola, herpes, histocompatibility, Hong Kong Influenza virus, x-ray crystallography, HRSV, IDDM, virus, National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Lasker Award, Gairdner Award
"Don Wiley studies the atomic structure and biochemical functions of membrane glycoproteins on viral and human cellular surfaces that are involved in infectivity and human immune responses.
"My research group studies how proteins from the surfaces of viruses initiate viral infections and how proteins of the human cellular immune system respond by presenting antigens and mobilizing defensive cells. We use x-ray crystallography to determine the atomic structures of proteins isolated from viruses and human cells. The structures provide us with a framework for determining how the molecules carry out their biological functions. We focus on the function of viral membrane glycoproteins, especially their functions in receptor binding, viral entry by membrane fusion, and evolution to evade the host immune response.
"We study proteins from influenza, HIV-1, herpes, and human respiratory syncytial viruses. We also study the functions of a number of human membrane glycoproteins that are involved in presenting antigens as part of the human cellular immune response, including T cell receptors (TCRs), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) glycoproteins, antigen peptide transporters (TAPs), and the proteins involved in trafficking and loading of antigenic peptides onto MHC molecules (Ii, tapasin, and DM).
"In the past year, our studies of virus proteins have included determining the structure of a complex between a human cytomegalovirus protein (US2) and a human class I MHC molecule (with Hidde Ploegh, Harvard Medical School), showing how the virus subverts antigen presentation to avoid destruction by the immune system, and determining the structure of a complex between the HIV-1 glycoprotein responsible for viral entry into cells (gp41) and a synthetic inhibitor of that membrane fusion event that we had discovered earlier in collaboration with Stuart Schreiber, Stephen Harrison (both HHMI, Harvard University).
"(HIV-1 studies were supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health). We have also found methods for producing large quantities of the soluble trimer of SIV-1 glycoprotein gp140, closely related to the HIV-1 gp140, which is responsible for initiating AIDS infections (in collaboration with Harrison and Ellis Reinherz, Harvard University). (These studies were partially funded by the National Institutes of Health.)
"We also determined the three-dimensional structures of avian H5 and swine H9 influenza hemagglutinin glycoproteins (HAs) from viruses closely related to those that caused outbreaks of human disease in Hong Kong in 1997 (which caused 6 fatalities of 18 known cases) and 1999, and bound them to avian and human cell receptor analogs (in collaboration with John Skehel, National Institute for Medical Research, London, and with support from the National Institutes of Health). Emerging influenza pandemics have been accompanied by the evolution of receptor-binding specificity; from the preference of avian viruses for sialic acid receptors, linkage to the preference of human viruses for 2,6 linkages.
"When compared with our previously reported crystal structures of HA/sialoside complexes of the H3 subtype that caused the 1968 Hong Kong influenza virus pandemic, the new structures make clearer how receptor-binding sites of HAs from avian viruses evolve as the virus adapts to humans.
"To understand how viruses enter cells by membrane fusion, we have studied influenza, HIV-1, and Ebola virus in the past and found they share many elements of their atomic mechanism. While continuing to study those mechanisms, we have also begun to study human herpes simplex virus and human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV), which initiate membrane fusion differently. This year we determined the structure of a complex of the herpes glycoprotein gD with one of its cellular receptors, a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family (in collaboration with Roselyn Eisenberg and Gary Cohen, University of Pennsylvania; partial funding from the National Institutes of Health).
"These studies revealed a conformational change induced upon receptor binding, which we are now studying. Herpes viruses are a major human health problem: HSV-1 infections become latent, emerging sporadically to cause oral lesions in humans; HSV-2 causes genital lesions. Glycoprotein gD of herpes virus is required for infection and the cell-to-cell spread involved in emergence from latency.
"This is the first of the 11 glycoproteins of any herpes virus to be seen at atomic detail. Our studies on HRSV, in collaboration with John Skehel (London) and Jose Molero (Madrid), used biochemistry and electron microscopy to define two conformations of the membrane fusion glycoprotein F and to show that two proteolytic processing events are required before this glycoprotein is able to be activated for membrane fusion.
"In the past few years we have determined five structures of human bound to class I MHC molecules presenting peptides, revealing an atomic picture of the recognition event that occurs between a cytotoxic (killer) T cell and an antigen-presenting cell (in collaboration with William Biddison, National Institutes of Health). In the past year we determined a similar complex but with a TCR recognizing a class II MHC molecule presenting an influenza virus peptide, which showed the intercellular recognition event that a T helper cell would make with an antigen-presenting cell during an influenza virus infection.
"Despite these structures and a few from other research groups, it remains unclear how the T cell knows that an MHC-peptide complex has bound to an MHC molecule. In one study last year using an array of physical chemical methods, we showed that the soluble TCR-MHC complexes do not dimerize; dimer formation had been favored as the mechanism of signal transduction. Our work, repeating experiments from other laboratories and extending the study by applying other methods, indicates that the results from two previously published studies cannot be generalized to the two different TCR-MHC complexes we studied. It remains possible that the entire TCR in membranes will form dimers once bound to MHC-peptide complexes between cells. The new result thus serves to focus our efforts on the more complicated membrane-bound forms of the TCR.
"Susceptibility to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) is linked to specific class II MHC molecules. Recently, in collaboration with Kai Wucherpfennig (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), we determined the structure of the class II MHC molecule most closely associated with IDDM, DQ8, complexed with a peptide from insulin. Comparisons and modeling of peptide-binding pockets suggest DQ8 is similar to other human allelic products and the mouse MHC molecule associated with autoimmune diabetes. These similarities suggest that diabetes is caused by the same antigen-presentation event(s) in humans and the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice and provide evidence that the NOD mouse is a good model for the human disease.
"The structure also suggests the locations on the DQ molecule that might be blocked specifically to inhibit antigen presentation of DQ. In a related study we also determined the structure of another class II MHC molecule, DR1, with a hybrid-peptide inhibitor blocking its antigen-binding site (in collaboration with Gary Olson [Provid Research]; David Bolin [Hoffmann-LaRoche]; and Andrew Benowitz, Paul Sprengeler, Amos Smith III, and Ralph Hirschmann [University of Pennsylvania]).
"We also recently determined the structure of human MHC class I molecules complexed with modified peptides from antigens presented by melanomas. Such peptides are candidates for antimelanoma vaccines. (This work was a collaboration with Olivier Michielin, Jean-Charles Cerottini, Immanuel Luescher, and Pedro Romero, from Strasbourg and Lausanne, and Martin Karplus, from Harvard University).
"Antigenic peptides are transported into the endoplasmic reticulum to be loaded on MHC class I molecules by an ATP-dependent transporter, TAP. To determine how this membrane-bound peptide-loading machinery operates, we recently determined the structure of one of its pieces, the TAP1 ATPase domain. The structure revealed how TAP1 binds ADP and provided a framework for experiments on its activity."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Like all these other deceased scientists, pretty heavy stuff. How did Dr. Wily die?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,39355,00.html
Authorities Search For Missing Harvard Virus Specialist
"BOSTON The FBI is monitoring the investigation into the disappearance of a Harvard biologist because of his research into potentially lethal viruses, including Ebola.
"Dr. Don C. Wiley, 57, was last seen in Memphis, Tenn., where he attended the annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. His car was found on Nov. 16 on a bridge over the Mississippi River, with a full fuel tank and the key in the ignition.
"Wiley had left the Peabody Hotel just four hours before the rental car was discovered. He was supposed to have met his wife and two children that same day in Cambridge, Mass.
"FBI agents took an interest in Wiley's disappearance because of his expertise and "given our state of affairs post-Sept. 11," FBI agent William Woerner in Memphis told The Boston Globe.
"Wiley, a Harvard biochemistry and biophysics professor, is considered a national expert on Ebola, HIV and influenza. Ebola is a highly contagious virus that kills 50 to 90 percent of its victims; there is no vaccine."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Is there a problem with Ebola outbreaks lately?
Disease Outbreaks Reported
24 December 2001
Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Gabon/The Republic of Congo - Update 8
"As of 23 December, 27 confirmed cases (12 laboratory and 15 epidemiologically linked), including 18 deaths, have been reported. An additional 7 suspected cases are under investigation in Gabon. All contacts (having direct or suspected contact with the blood or other body fluids of a case) are being closely monitored for signs or symptoms of Ebola haemorrhagic fever for 21 days. Currently, 203 contacts are under active follow up. We anticipate one or more cases may develop among these contacts.
"Of the 27 cases, 15 were detected in Gabon and 12 in the neighbouring villages of the Republic of the Congo (see map below). As of 23 December, 109 contacts are being followed up in Gabon and 94 in the Republic of the Congo. The international team is operational on both sides of the border and is working closely in the field with the teams from the Congolese and Gabonese Ministries of Health on outbreak control interventions."
And:
WIRE: 12/12/2001 8:43 am ET
Ebola victim disappears from Gabon village, raising fears disease could spread
The Associated Press
"LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) A woman infected with the deadly Ebola virus has disappeared from her village in the Central African nation of Gabon, and health officials fear she fled to neighboring Republic of Congo and could spread the disease.
"Villagers told local authorities the woman believed she had been bewitched and left the remote village of Ntolo to join relatives on the other side of the border, said provincial health director Dr. Prosper Abessolo-Mengue.
"The woman is one of at least two people infected with Ebola in a recent outbreak that has killed 10 others in Gabon. Authorities have been trying to keep the highly contagious disease from spreading beyond the affected region in the remote northeastern province of Ogooue Ivindo.
"Upon hearing about the woman's disappearance, Gabon authorities notified their counterparts in Republic of Congo. They asked for help in finding her and in restricting movement across the border.
"We are very worried," Republic of Congo Health Minister Leon Opimbat said by telephone from the capital, Brazzaville."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Likely the woman died along the way as hemorrhagic fevers are 99.9999% fatal.
How and where was Dr. Wiley finally found?
http://www.courttv.com/news/2001/1221/body_ap.html
December 21, 2001
Body carrying missing scientist's ID found in Mississippi River
"MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) A body found snagged on a tree in the Mississippi River carried the identification of a missing Harvard University scientist who was last seen in Memphis over a month ago.
"Memphis police Lt. Joe Scott said the body and the wallet with Don C. Wiley's identification were found Thursday by workers at a hydroelectric plant in Vidalia, La., about 300 miles south of Memphis.
"An autopsy was scheduled in Memphis on Friday.
"Wiley, 57, has been missing since Nov. 16, when his rental car was discovered on a Mississippi River bridge. The keys were in the ignition and the gas tank was full.
"The molecular biologist had been in Memphis for a two-day annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"His disappearance, following the terrorist attacks by about a month, had raised larger concerns because Wiley had done research into a number of potentially deadly viruses, including Ebola, a fever that is highly contagious and lethal.
"Scientific organizations, including St. Jude, posted rewards totaling $26,000 for information leading to the "arrest and charge" of anyone responsible for Wiley's disappearance.
"We're holding out any and all hope that this is not Don," St. Jude hospital deputy director Dr. William Evans said Thursday. "I can't speculate on what happened, but the night he went missing we were with a very engaging and outgoing individual who was acting completely normal."
"Memphis police consider Wiley's disappearance a missing persons case and have said it might have been suicide.
"As soon as the body gets in our morgue, the medical examiner will begin the autopsy to help answer a lot of questions," said Memphis Police Director Walter Crews."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
So, here is an eminent Doctor of Science who goes to a conference for St. Jude's and his body is found 5 days later in a river 300 miles from where his rental car is found. BTW, the news release above states:
"His disappearance, following the terrorist attacks by about a month, had raised larger concerns because Wiley had done research into a number of potentially deadly viruses, including Ebola, a fever that is highly contagious and lethal."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Somebody got lazy. Dr. Wily disappeared on November 16th, which is 2 mos and 5 days after Sept 11th, not a month. I attempted to find out the guest list for this St. Jude's Children Research Advisory Dinner, but haven't come up with anything yet. Again, since I no longer have press credentials, one doesn't get the same treatment over the phone.
One thing I will say, it's amazing how many web sites I hit looking for information on Dr. Wiley that were slams regarding his death. At least a dozen opened with "The conspiracy nuts will have a field day with this one! Ha! Ha!" I don't find anything funny about the deaths of five microbiologists within a 33 days period. But this world is full of crack pots and people in a state of utter and complete denial about what's really going on in this world. Like I always say: Stupid is as stupid does and small minds come in small packages.
Could Dr. Wiley have committed suicide? Not according to his family who knows him best:
Professor's trail leaves few clues
By David Abel and Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff, 12/2/2001
"MEMPHIS - It was getting late and the well-dressed professor had switched from sipping port to ginger ale when he told a few of his colleagues how much he was looking forward to taking his wife and two young children to see where Elvis Presley lived.
"The group of eminent scientists had retired to the piano bar from a penthouse banquet hall in The Peabody, a century-old hotel. As midnight approached on Nov. 15, Harvard biochemist Don C. Wiley was preparing to drive back to his father's home about 20 minutes away.
''He was very
upbeat,'' recalls Patricia Donahoe, the chief of pediatric surgical services
at
Massachusetts General Hospital
and an old friend of Wiley's who chatted with him about 10:30 that night.
''He was his normal, even-tempered self, and he was happy his family was
coming in.''
"But Wiley, one of the nation's foremost experts on the way viruses such as HIV, influenza, and Ebola become deadly infectious diseases, never got to take his family to Graceland. He never even made it back to his father's.
"Instead, the lanky 57-year-old professor vanished. At 4 a.m., police found Wiley's rental car abandoned on a mile-long bridge that spans the Mississippi River, with his rental-car contract in the glove compartment, the keys in the ignition, and a full tank of gas.
"Two weeks later, police here say they have no clue what happened to him. Speculation abounds about the fate of the man colleagues say was doing work that could make him a candidate for a Nobel prize. But after more than a dozen Globe interviews with family, colleagues, and police, every theory seems to have serious flaws.
"Since his car was parked in a traffic lane without any signs of a struggle and on a bridge where others have jumped, some investigators surmise Wiley killed himself. Yet family and friends insist the father of four and granddad of three is just not the type to commit suicide: He's exuberant about his work and was nearing a breakthrough in a molecular understanding of HIV that could help develop an AIDS vaccine.
"While it's possible he was mugged or abducted, police and local criminologists say the downtown area around the Peabody is heavily patrolled and the safest part of Memphis. And both police and colleagues say Wiley has no scientific knowledge that would benefit bioterrorists, making it absurd to suggest he was kidnaped for his expertise.
''At this point, it could really be anything,'' says Lieutenant Richard True, a spokesman for the Memphis Police Department.
"Wiley had come to Memphis on Wednesday Nov. 14 to attend a two-day annual meeting of the scientific advisory board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, on which he has served for about a decade.
"He had flown in from Washington, where he went that Sunday to attend meetings for several days at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md. The institute has long sponsored much of his research. At the Memphis airport, he rented a white 2001 Mitsubishi Gallant from Avis and drove for about 20 minutes to his 82-year-old father's ranch home in Raleigh, a quiet residential neighborhood in north Memphis.
"It was late in the afternoon and the professor's father, William C. Wiley, says that his son seemed in good spirits. The two caught up for a while and the professor called his wife in Cambridge to let her know he had arrived and to find out what time he should meet her and their two children Lara, 7, and William, 10, at the airport that Friday.
"Wiley's wife had already bought four tickets to visit Graceland. The couple's son, William, is a budding Elvis fan. The professor and the boy have a close relationship, and Wiley was eager to finally take him to Graceland.
''There was nothing out of the ordinary,'' says Wiley's wife, Katrin Valgeirsdottir, about their last conversation at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 14. ''We talked about where we were going for dinner on Friday night, and how I should talk to his dad about finding a nice place to eat. He sounded happy to see his dad.''
"Wiley left his father's house soon after for a dinner meeting at the Peabody Hotel with members of St. Jude's scientific advisory board, a group of high-profile scientists serving the nation's largest childhood cancer center. One board member, Leland Hartwell of Seattle, for example, was recently awarded the Nobel prize in Medicine. And Wiley, who colleagues say has a strong shot at the Nobel for his work using X-ray crystallography and complex mathematical formulas to diagram viruses, has received the prestigious Lasker and Japan awards.
"The reserved professor greeted his colleagues that night with the same subdued but warm embrace they had come to expect from him. He inquired about the families of some and the progress of others' research. After finishing business for the night, Wiley and a few colleagues walked across the street to the Rendezvous, a rib joint that is perhaps Memphis' most famous barbeque restaurant.
''All I can really say is that he was definitely engaged,'' says Marvin Zelen, a board member who's a professor of statistical science at Harvard School of Public Health.
"After dinner, Wiley returned to his father's home. The next morning he was up early and drove to the sprawling campus of St. Jude's to meet the board for a 7:30 breakfast.
"His mission that morning was to review the hospital's structural biology department, which Wiley played a key role in founding. The professor toured the high-tech facilities and at times marveled to some of the department's 46 staff members that St. Jude's often received the latest scientific equipment before Harvard.
"Later, in a formal review in front of the advisory board, Wiley delivered a report that praised the progress of the department's researchers in paring diseases down to their molecular level and making discoveries that might soon help treat a variety of infectious diseases.
''He asked a lot of technical questions and he was very thorough,'' recalls Larry J. Shapiro, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School and a board member who reviewed the structural biology department with Wiley. ''I saw nothing at all to say he was disturbed, agitated, uneasy, or anything atypical.''
"When the board meeting wrapped up late in the afternoon, Wiley drove back to his dad's house. Around 5 p.m., the professor's father returned home from a few errands and found a note telling him his son was out for a 5-mile run and would be back soon.
"When Wiley returned from the run, his youngest brother, Greg, who also lives in Memphis, popped in for a short visit. ''We just shot the bull,'' says Greg Wiley, recalling the last time he saw his brother.
"The professor showered, shaved, and just before 7 p.m. he zipped back to the Peabody Hotel for the banquet in honor of the visiting scientists. Wiley was wearing a black suit he had bought in 1999 when the emperor and prime minister of Japan awarded him their country's top science prize for his work showing how the immune system fights infections.
"The formal gathering in the Peabody's penthouse included about 150 doctors, researchers, and administrators from St. Jude's. Several colleagues remember talking to Wiley that night about how he took his son sailing and his family's plans for the weekend.
''He was in great spirits,'' says Samuel L. Katz, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center who also serves on the hospital's advisory board.
"Dinner ended about 10 p.m. and Wiley and several colleagues decided to hang around for a while in the hotel's lobby. After nursing a glass of port for about an hour, the professor switched to soda and told Patricia Donahoe and others about his plans to take his family to Graceland.
"Although he had a room reserved for him at the hotel, Wiley told his remaining colleagues around midnight he was heading back to his father's house and he would see them the next day.
"It was the last time anyone saw him.
"The next four
hours are a mystery."
As you can see, Dr. Wiley appears to be a slender man based on how lean he looks in this picture.
Now on to Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik.
November 23rd, Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik. Dr. Pasechnik traveled in some pretty spooky circles. You know, the average person out there really can't even imagine some of the stuff that's going on around this globe - very dangerous stuff to the continuation of mankind. Let me repeat the section from above about his work:
Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, was a former microbiologist for Biopreparat, a Soviet biological-weapons production facility.
This Biopreparat is a pretty scary place. I highly encourage you to jump over to two web sites on this place and what you'll read should make your skin crawl:
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/redlies/index.html
http://www.thepalmerpress.com/nagle1_EXP.html
Dr. Pasechnik then went on to form his own company with a partner:
http://www.biotechanalytics.com/News/London/regma_bio.htm
Regma Bio Technologies Limited is a new drug development company working to provide powerful alternatives to antibiotics. The company was founded by Caisey Harlingten and Dr Vladimir Pasechnik. Caisey Harlingten is an experienced and successful investor in intellectual property who has financed several science based start-ups that commercialise core technologies. Dr Vladimir Pasechnik is a research scientist with extensive experience in drug design and development.
He spent over 10 years working at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research at the UK Department of Health in Salisbury. The company's core technologies are focused on developing novel agents to combat microbial pathogens that can be delivered to the site of infection and treat diseased cells. With the growing decline in the efficiency of antibiotics new effective treatment are urgently needed. Regma considers that its technologies have the potential to provide powerful alternatives to antibiotics for the treatment of a variety of infections.
The advent of Antibiotics revolutionised the treatment of infectious diseases and have been successfully used to save lives and improve health for over half a century. However with the growing threat of resistance there is growing concern about how some of the world's most serious diseases will be managed in the future. Regma is working to provide alternative forms of treatment to replace antibiotics in cases where they are no longer effective. One of their first products is targeted at tuberculosis (TB), one of the leading causes of death in the world today by an infectious disease, and in particular multi drug resistant TB.
Tuberculosis
TB is on the increase in both developed and developing countries. Worldwide TB is now killing 3 million persons per year, more than AIDS and malaria. The re-emergence of TB is due in part to the over-use and misuse of antibiotics, which have enabled TB bacteria to develop resistance. In the UK, patients with TB infections are treated with antibiotics for 6 months or longer, a course which must be followed rigorously in order to completely eliminate the infection and ensure that drug-resistance does not develop. The treatment costs the NHS about œ6,000 per person, but the figure rises to a minimum of œ50,000 if the infection is drug-resistant.
A vaccine is available that is effective against some, but not all, strains of TB. The Dept of Health has recently resumed a TB vaccination programme for UK teenagers, which was suspended for 18 months due to a vaccine shortage. During this period, an estimated 3 million teenagers missed the BCG vaccination.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium which causes tuberculosis, can be spread via droplets in coughs and sneezes. Symptoms of the disease include a persistent cough, tiredness, weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, night sweats, and coughing up blood. In many cases, however, the patient may not feel ill until years after contracting the infection, thus making it hard to trace the possible origin of the disease.
Press Releases
18th January 2001 - Regma - Announces a new scientific collaboration with a university in England
Regma announce the start of a new scientific collaboration that will focus on an evaluation of the capability of new helper polypeptides to facilitate the internalisation of Regma drug candidates by human macrophages. The collaborative research programme will be funded by Regma, and the university involved will work closely with Regma's Dr Vladimir Pasechnik.
1st November 2000 - Regma - Establishes pilot laboratory at Porton Down.
Regma Bio Technologies Limited announced that it has established a pilot laboratory facility at Porton Down. The temporary facility will immediately provide the laboratory space needed for the development of products for the company's scientific collaborations. Meanwhile, a more permanent laboratory facility is being prepared and the company anticipates that it will be ready for occupation by the Spring of 2001.
20th February 2000 - Formation of Regma Bio Technologies Limited incorporated
Caisey Harlingten and Vladimir Pasechnik announce the formation of Regma Bio Technologies Limited. The company has been formed to develop a platform technology for new drugs to treat diseases caused by microbial pathogens particularly their antibiotic resistant variants.
Contact
Regma Biotechnologies Ltd
26 Fernshaw Road
London SW10 0TF
United Kingdom
email: [email protected]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
All of these microbiologists were involved in heavy duty stuff. Now, on to Dr. Schwartz in VA:
December 10th, Dr. Robert M. Schwartz. He was a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association. His death was reported in the Washington Times on December 12, 2001. The story can be viewed at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49646-2001Dec15.html
Scientist Found Slain In His
Loudoun Home
Peers Alarmed When He Missed
Work
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
December 12, 2001
"A well-known biophysicist who was one of the leading researchers on DNA sequencing analysis was found slain in his rural Loudoun County home after co-workers became concerned that he didn't come to work Monday, authorities said yesterday.
"Robert M. Schwartz, 57, a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, was found dead in the secluded fieldstone farmhouse southwest of Leesburg where he lived alone. Friends said Schwartz's wife died of cancer several years ago and their three children are away at college.
"Loudoun sheriff's officials said an autopsy will be conducted today at the medical examiner's office in Fairfax County. Sources said it appeared that Schwartz had been stabbed.
"Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said Schwartz was last heard from Friday. Co-workers at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, a government-funded nonprofit agency in Herndon that was created by the General Assembly in 1984, asked neighbors to check on Schwartz when he didn't show up for work Monday and then missed a 1 p.m. meeting.
"Armstrong called Schwartz "one of the smartest people I ever met" and said Schwartz worked at CIT for almost 15 years. Recently he served as executive director of research and development and university relations, helping to administer public grants.
"According to CIT's Web site, Schwartz graduated cum laude from Catholic University and has a doctorate in biophysics from Stanford University. He worked at both Georgetown University and the University of Maryland and contributed chapters to the Nucleic Acid Sequence Database. He also worked on the first national online database of DNA sequence information."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Thanks to Martha Knapp at crimenews2000.com, I was able to find the follow up to this murder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34695-2001Dec12.html
Three Charged In Va. Scientist's
Fatal Stabbing
Suspects Friends of Daughter,
Police Say
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
December 13, 2001
"Three people were charged with murder yesterday in the slashing death of a respected Loudoun County biophysicist in what law enforcement sources say was a particularly vicious killing.
"Loudoun County authorities said the three suspects are friends of the teenage daughter of the slain scientist, Robert M. Schwartz, but would not comment on a motive."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The suspected murderers were caught in record time:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41401-2001Dec13.html
Va. Scientist Was Killed With
Sword
3 Suspects Interested in Occult
and Witchcraft, Friends Say
By Maria Glod and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
December 14, 2001
"The three young friends accused of killing a respected Loudoun County scientist were fascinated with fantasy worlds, witchcraft and the occult, and the slaying had overtones of their fixation, friends and law enforcement sources said yesterday.
"At least one was involved in a self-described coven and dabbled in self-mutilation and drinking blood, those who know him said. The trio's curiosities turned deadly Saturday when they carried out "a planned assassination" using a two-foot sword, a prosecutor said.
"Kyle Hulbert, 18, the purported ringleader of the plot, bounced among foster homes, wore black and spent countless hours in Internet chat rooms. He was known to some as "Demon."
"Katie Inglis, 19, a talented artist who often was teased in high school because she was quiet, abruptly left a Navy basic training camp in Illinois in May. And Michael Pfohl, 21, Inglis's boyfriend, painted his nails dark colors and often spoke of violence.
"Loudoun law enforcement authorities said the three piled into a black Honda Civic on Saturday and drove in the rain up the steep, winding dirt road to Robert M. Schwartz's isolated fieldstone-and-log farmhouse. Authorities are uncertain what exactly went on inside, but they said that Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed repeatedly with the sword and that an "X" was carved in the back of his neck.
"During a hearing yesterday in Loudoun District Court, Commonwealth's Attorney Robert D. Anderson said, "There were statements made that these individuals were involved in the planning, execution and cover-up of this planned assassination."
"County officials will not comment on a motive in the slaying. They said the three suspects are acquainted with Schwartz's younger daughter, Clara. Law enforcement sources said detectives are investigating whether Robert Schwartz may have been killed because he would not allow Clara to associate with the others. Clara Schwartz has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
"Pfohl and Inglis, who were arrested Wednesday in Manassas, were ordered held without bond yesterday and remain at the Leesburg jail. Hulbert, who was arrested Tuesday night at his girlfriend's house in Millersville, Anne Arundel County, is scheduled to be brought to Loudoun on Monday, prosecutors said. All are charged with murder.
"Loudoun Public Defender Bonnie Hoffman, who was appointed to represent Inglis, did not return calls. Prosecutors said they do not know whether Pfohl and Hulbert have hired lawyers. Pfohl's family declined to comment.
"Matt Hulbert, Kyle Hulbert's father, said his son has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. "Kyle has serious, serious mental issues," Matt Hulbert said. "He has been off his medication for three months."
"Investigators are interviewing the suspects and their friends and family members and searching computer records to piece together the connections among Hulbert, Pfohl and Inglis -- and Clara Schwartz. Friends said that Pfohl and Inglis have been dating for years and that the two often hung out with Hulbert. One friend said Hulbert was especially close to Pfohl, calling him "my brother." Inglis and Clara Schwartz graduated from Loudoun Valley High School last year.
"The suspects favored all-black outfits, long black coats and colored hair, neighbors and friends said. None of the three was employed, according to neighbors and court records.
"Fran Broomall, 55, of Woodbridge, who let Hulbert live with him for a few months this year, said Hulbert seemed obsessed with the occult but was not dangerous.
"He was into witchcraft, and some of the people he was running with -- a coven they called it -- would get together and talk about things of that nature," said Broomall. "But Kyle never came across as a person to be afraid of. He didn't go out of his way to look for trouble."
"Hulbert's "coven," it appears, was a ragtag group of young men and women who apparently delved into the mystical. They read books on witchcraft and donned dark outfits. They were obsessed with blood and corresponded in letters and on the Internet about drinking it, according to letters left behind at Broomall's home.
"Self-mutilation was common, and Broomall said Hulbert often had fresh cuts.
"The leader of the coven, who asked not to be identified, said that Pfohl and Inglis were not members but shared their interests. She said the coven is peaceful.
"Hulbert sometimes carried weapons. He was arrested Oct. 8 at Potomac Mills Mall on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, court records say. Broomall said the weapon was a foot-long knife, adding that police also confiscated his "throwing cards" -- a set of sharp-edged metal weapons.
"Law enforcement sources said scores of knives and an altar were found during a search of the home Pfohl and Inglis shared in Haymarket. Inglis, who used to live with her parents in a rural part of Loudoun, was shy, former classmates said. They said she excelled in art class and often read fantasy novels.
"In January, Inglis reported to the Naval Recruit Training Command center in Great Lakes, Ill., Navy officials said. She had been training to work in aviation but left May 28. Her discharge is pending.
"Inglis's parents could not be reached for comment, but John Kerkham, a friend and neighbor who spoke last night to Inglis's father, Robert, said he was distraught and baffled by the arrest. "She was the last girl in the world I would have thought would be involved in this, though I think she might have been easily led," Kerkham said.
"On Friday, Hulbert appeared in Prince William County General District Court and pleaded guilty to trespassing -- the October concealed-weapons charge was dropped -- and was released on the condition that he perform 25 hours of community service and stay on good behavior.
"The next day, police said, he and his friends drove to Schwartz's house."
Staff writers Rosalind S. Helderman,
Fredrick Kunkle, Manuel
Roig-Franzia and Peter Whoriskey
contributed to this report.
The first thing I thought of as I read the story of these three suspects and this grizzly murder was Mary Caitrin Mahoney. Died July 6, 1997.
"Ms. Mahoney was a former intern working for Bill Clinton. In the pre-trial publicity surrounding Paul Jones' lawsuit, and mere days after Newsweek's Mike Isikoff had dropped hints that a former White House staffer was going to go public with her story of sexual harassment at the White House, gunmen entered the Starbuck's coffee house in Georgetown while the crew was cleaning up after closing. Mary's two associates were taken to a room and executed. Mary had five bullets in her.
"No money was taken. Isikoff's former White House staffer never appears and the Georgetown police steadfastly refuse to comment on this heinous killing - a killing the police say is extraordinary since they never have even one shooting in this area, much less three people executed in the same place on the same night and nothing taken."
Killer Caught:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/march99/cooper18.htm
Police Say Starbucks Suspect Described Killings
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
March 18, 1999
"Carl Derek Havord Cooper told investigators that he shot the manager of a Starbucks coffee shop in July 1997 because she refused to give him the keys to a safe that held more than $10,000 in cash.
"He demanded the keys, but Mary Caitrin Mahoney said no, according to Cooper's account. He fired a warning shot into the ceiling. Mahoney ran into the hall. Cooper caught her and wrestled her for the keys. She resisted, and he shot her dead.
"Cooper said he then turned and shot two remaining Starbucks workers. When one moaned, still alive, the gunman shot him twice more in the head. Without grabbing any money, Cooper hurried from the Wisconsin Avenue NW store, raced across town, ditched his guns and washed the blood from his clothes.
"The details come from a D.C. police affidavit unsealed yesterday in D.C. Superior Court, where Cooper was ordered held without bond in the slayings of the three employees. Cooper waived his right to silence and gave, in writing, a detailed account of the killings, according to the affidavit.
"In court, Cooper clasped his hands behind his back and said nothing. His court appointed attorney, Steven R. Kiersh, told Hearing Commissioner Pamela Young Diaz that Cooper will not say more without a lawyer present. Cooper's account emerged during two days of intensive questioning at Prince George's County police headquarters.
"We ask that no one in any case make any attempt to speak with Mr. Cooper outside my presence," Kiersh said yesterday. Prosecutor Kenneth L. Wainstein's request that hair and blood samples be taken from Cooper will be honored by the defense without objection.
"The unsealed affidavit opens a window into a murder case that for 20 months was one of the city's ugliest mysteries. Signed by Lt. Brian Reed McAllister, who heads the special investigations squad at D.C. homicide, the document indicates that Cooper left a few clues early and talked up a storm once in custody.
"Cooper, 29, told investigators that he spent about a month planning to rob the Starbucks at 1810 Wisconsin Ave. NW, just north of Georgetown. A prosecution witness, identified in the affidavit only as a "close friend" of Cooper's, told police that Cooper invited him to participate in the robbery.
"The witness said that he agreed to take part but that Cooper never followed up and did not take him along, an account that police said Cooper verified during hours of questioning. Cooper acted alone and fired two guns during the slayings, police said, a .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver and a .380-caliber pistol."
"A Starbucks supervisor found the bodies the next morning. McAllister said the details provided by Cooper match evidence from the crime scene. Police found a bullet in the ceiling and 10 shell casings, and the shooting pattern that Cooper described is consistent with the autopsy results, McAllister reported."
"Cooper, the son of a church deacon, lived with his wife and 4-year-old son in the 1200 block of Gallatin Street NE. He was arrested March 1 by Prince George's police, who charged him with attempted murder in the 1996 shooting in a Hyattsville park of Officer Bruce Howard, then off-duty.
"District police got a break in the case after "America's Most Wanted" repeated an episode about the unsolved Starbucks case. A woman called with a tip, saying she was dating a man who knew Cooper. The man had told her that Cooper admitted being the Starbucks killer."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
No physical evidence:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/april99/cooper27.htm
"Mr. Cooper: "Everything else is like a dream. . . . I just started shooting."
"During the hearing, Cooper's attorney, Steve Kiersh, questioned Cooper's lengthy interrogation by county police and said authorities have no physical evidence linking him to the scene."
Mr. Cooper's newspaper photo:
However, during this long investigation, there was a strange twist:
16 Oct 1999
The Washington Post Company
Cheryl W. Thompson, Washington
Post Staff Writer
Starbucks Informant Faults Police
She Says Officers Fail to Protect
Her
"The 30-year-old mother was lounging in her apartment with her boyfriend when a story flashed on the television: three people found slain execution-style inside a Starbucks coffee shop near Georgetown.
"As the couple watched the story unfold that July Fourth weekend in 1997, the woman's boyfriend had his own story to tell. He knew who committed the grisly crime, he told her. And she knew the killer, too, he said. A mutual friend.
"A year passed before she revealed the details of the conversation to anyone. Now she wishes she had kept it to herself.
"I didn't believe him at first," the woman said in an interview with The Washington Post. "I went a whole year without saying anything because I didn't want to get caught up in it."
"The woman was key to a break in the case that had stumped D.C. police and the FBI for 20 months, sources familiar with the investigation said. With her help, Carl Derek Cooper, 29, was arrested in March and charged with three counts of first-degree felony murder while armed in connection with the slayings of Starbucks employees Mary Caitrin Mahoney, 25, Emory Evans, 25, and Aaron David Goodrich, 18.
"In August, Cooper was indicted on 48 counts of federal racketeering in a host of crimes, including the Starbucks slayings. Cooper is in jail awaiting trial.
"She did a lot to help the case," said a source familiar with the investigation.
"Now, the woman who became a police informant said her life is in danger, and she blames D.C. police and the FBI. Although the FBI has offered to relocate her if "things got bad," she said, D.C. police have abandoned her.
"Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey won't return her telephone calls, she said. A veteran detective who headed the Starbucks investigation promised to change her identity and hasn't.
"I want them to give us [her family] the protection they promised us," she said. "I risked my life, and now they won't even call me back."
"Several sources said the woman is concerned more about collecting the $100,000 reward, which can be awarded only after someone is convicted of the killings. She denied the accusation. She has received more than $1,000 from the police department's confidential fund used to pay informants, sources said."
"Another informant, Eric Butera, was killed in a robbery after a failed attempt to make an undercover drug buy to elicit information for police in the Starbucks case.
"Butera's mother, Terry, filed a $115 million lawsuit against the D.C. police department in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleging the department didn't take appropriate steps to protect him.
"The woman said she met Cooper several years ago through her boyfriend, with whom she is no longer involved. The three of them hung out at the boyfriend's grandparents' home playing Nintendo video games and selling crack cocaine and PCP, she said.
"The woman acknowledged that she has been arrested "many times" for drugs and once for armed robbery, a case later dismissed, she said. She also said she was convicted in 1993 in Maryland for riding in a stolen car that contained a disassembled gun and was sentenced to six months in prison.
"The day after she called "America's Most Wanted," two D.C. police officers came to her house. They questioned her and were convinced she could assist them. A few weeks later, they attached a listening device to her, gave her marked money and dropped her off a few blocks from the house of her boyfriend's sister near Howard University. Her assignment was to buy an ounce of cocaine and get as much information as she could about Cooper, she said.
"She said she later identified Cooper through a mug shot.
"The woman's mother said that since Cooper's arrest, she has received anonymous phone calls asking about her daughter's whereabouts.
"I called the detective, and he told me it wasn't anything I should worry about," the mother said. "But no one usually calls my house looking for her, and if they do, they don't use her street name.
"I'm truly sorry I told her to" go to the police, the mother said. "I really am."
Starbucks murder informant killed
"WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 [1997] (UPI) -- Three men were arrested Friday for allegedly killing an informant who was helping police solve the July slaying of three employees at a Georgetown Starbucks coffee shop. Police describe the informant (Saturday) as a cocaine user, and say he was attacked by several men who robbed and fatally beat him Thursday night."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
http://www.newsmax.com/archive/print.shtml?a=2000/1/23/05955
January 23, 2000
Starbucks 'Killer' Recants, New Questions Emerge in Intern's Death
"When Carl Derek Cooper confessed last March to the July 1997 slayings of one-time Clinton intern Mary Caity Mahoney and two other workers at a Washington, D.C., Starbucks, suspicions of a White House connection quickly evaporated.
"But a funny thing happened on the way to Cooper's trial. He recanted his confession, the primary piece of evidence police had linking him to the crime.
"And if that wasn't enough to set off a fresh round of frenzied speculation, now a new investigation suggests Mahoney could have been an extremely inconvenient witness in the Monica Lewinsky case.
"I swear on my father's grave and my son's life that I didn't do Starbucks," Cooper told the FBI shortly after he admitted his guilt to local police, according to courtroom testimony reported by the Washington Post last week.
"Now it emerges that Cooper told police several different stories about the Starbucks murders, once blaming an acquaintance for the killings, another time claiming he was merely a lookout.
"But after 54 hours of questioning, Cooper's lawyer says he buckled.
"No matter how many times Mr. Cooper denied his involvement, they kept pressuring him. They kept pressuring him until they got what they wanted," attorney Steven Kirsch told U.S. District Court Judge Joyce Hens Green, according to Thursday's Washington Times. Kirsch wants Green to rule the confession inadmissible at trial on the grounds it was coerced.
"The motive in the Starbucks massacre was supposedly robbery, though none of the $10,000 cash on hand was taken even after Mahoney and her two co-workers were felled by a fusillade of bullets. Casting further doubt on the robbery theory: five of the 10 shots fired hit the former Clinton intern, including an execution bullet fired into the back of her head.
"The same week Cooper recanted, new information emerged about Mahoney's background and her possible ties to the Monica Lewinsky case.
"Author David M. Hoffman, who spent a year investigating Mahoney's murder, tells Globe Magazine's Tom Kuncl that the Starbucks massacre came just three days after Monica told Clinton she was going to tell her parents about their relationship.
"According to Monica, Clinton reacted angrily, telling her, "It's a crime to threaten the president."
"Hoffman's claim is corroborated by the "Starr Report."
"Monica took the threat seriously," Hoffman told Globe, "telling Linda Tripp that she feared for both their lives if her affair with Clinton ever became public."
"I don't want to wind up like Caity Mahoney," Monica is rumored to have told friends.
"The Tripp tapes
amply document Monica's fears for her own physical safety, featuring
no fewer than four exchanges where
the Clinton girlfriend voices sentiments such as:
"I would not cross these people for fear of my life."
"Hoffman claims to have uncovered new details about Mary Mahoney's time at the White House, which, if true, suggest the White House alum could have played a key role in the Clinton sex scandal despite her own homosexuality:
"For many months, Mary, an outspoken lesbian and good-hearted den mother for other young White House interns, had been listening to tearful stories from them about alleged sexual passes made at them by Bill Clinton. She'd begun to tell others she planned to do something to help them."
"Also, reports Hoffman, "a blockbuster piece of gossip swirling through Washington [at the time of Mahoney's death] was based on a columnist's blind item that a former White House intern whose name began with the letter M was about to reveal news of a sexual relationship with Bill Clinton."
"Was it Mahoney, Clinton damage controllers no doubt wondered?
"Meanwhile, the
fuse had been lit on another White House sex bombshell just two days
before the Starbucks killings.
That's when cyberscribe Matt Drudge first reported that Clinton had put
the moves on a then-unnamed White House volunteer.
"It would be three more weeks till the world knew her name: Kathleen Wiley. But by early July 1997 White House damage controllers knew they had a serious intern problem on their hands.
"Carl Derek Cooper is scheduled to go on trial for Mary Caity Mahoney's murder on April 10."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
http://www.newsmax.com/archive/print.shtml?a=2000/2/16/101742
February 16, 2000
Monicagate Lawyer Representing Accused Starbucks Shooter
"The lawyer representing the accused killer of former White House intern Mary Caity Mahoney played a key role in the Monica Lewinsky case, NewsMax.com has learned.
"The case of Carl Derek Cooper, who was indicted last March in the July 1997 gangland-style slaying of Mahoney and two co-workers as they closed up a Washington, D.C., Starbucks coffee shop, has been assigned to Washington attorney Francis D. Carter.
"A receptionist in Carter's office confirmed to NewsMax.com that Francis D. Carter is indeed the Frank Carter who became famous in January 1998 as Monica Lewinsky's first lawyer. Carter is Cooper's co-counsel in the Starbucks case, along with D.C. area lawyer Steven Kiersch.
"In December 1997 White House fixer Vernon Jordan enlisted Carter to help Lewinsky respond to a subpoena in the Paula Jones case. Jordan had personally cleared Carter with the president, according to Michael Isikoff's book "Uncovering Clinton":
"Three years before Lewinsky's name became a household word, Mary Caity Mahoney worked as an intern in the Clinton White House. Reportedly, several of her colleagues confided in her about incidents of sexual harassment by the president, a situation which she had vowed to remedy.
"Just days before the Starbucks killings, Lewinsky informed Clinton that she was going to tell her parents about their relationship. "It's a crime to threaten the president," Clinton angrily responded, according to the Starr Report.
"Last week Attorney General Janet Reno took the extraordinary step of seeking the death penalty for Cooper, even though Washington, D.C., currently has no capital punishment statute on its books. The last execution in the District took place in 1957.
"In doing so Reno overruled local United States Attorney Wilma Lewis, making the Starbucks massacre one of the few cases in which Reno has pushed for capital punishment over the objections of a local federal prosecutor.
"Reno's decision
to seek Cooper's execution drew criticism from area officials,
including D.C.'s congressional
delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton -- who complained that
the Attorney General was ignoring
the clear wishes of area residents and their elected representatives.
"The case against Cooper is believed to be weak, resting primarily on a confession that was obtained by police after 54 hours of interrogation, which Cooper recanted shortly thereafter.
"Prosecutors are expected to argue that Cooper's motive in the Starbucks killing was robbery, yet Mahoney was shot execution style with the key to the safe in her hand. The safe reportedly held $10,000 -- none of which was taken.
"Another legal link between Monicagate and the Starbucks massacre emerged last week, when D.C. criminal defense lawyer William Martin spoke out in support of Reno's decision to seek Cooper's execution. Martin also has Monicagate ties -- as the lawyer for Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, who was under investigation by the OIC in 1998."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hmmm..I wonder if this is the same William "Billy" Martin who stepped in and became the lawyer for Chandra Levy's parents? I believe it is....tight-knit little club out there.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"[T]he Starbucks massacre [of former Clinton intern Mary Caity Mahoney] came just three days after Monica told Clinton she was going to tell her parents about their relationship. According to Monica, Clinton reacted angrily, telling her, 'It's a crime to threaten the President.' 'I don't want to wind up like Caity Mahoney,' Monica is rumored to have told friends."
-- From "Starbucks 'Killer' Recants, New Questions Emerge in Intern's Death" as posted on NewsMax.com.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Death Penalty Sought
9 February 2000
Washington, DC.:
"Myra Teeger was having breakfast yesterday at the McDonald's in Southeast Washington where 3 employees were slain in 1995. But she could hardly eat, wondering why the death penalty being sought in a triple killing in a coffee shop near Georgetown had not been sought in the McDonald's case.
"On Monday, Attorney General Janet Reno decided she would seek the death penalty for Carl Derek Cooper, 30, the man accused in the 1997 Starbucks killings. Apparently nothing about the McDonald's slayings had caused her killer instincts to flare up this way.
"Teeger, a housekeeper and a regular McDonald's customer who was a friend of the slain employees, wanted to know why.
"If anybody ought never see the light of day again, it's the man who killed Miss Lillian," she said, referring to Lillian Jackson, the McDonald's manager. "She was the nicest person you'd ever want to meet."
"Kenneth J. Marshall was convicted and sentenced to 80 years to life in prison. He had herded four employees into a basement freezer, tied their hands behind their backs, put a plastic bag over the head of one and then shot 3 employees at point-blank range.
"How is Miss Lillian's murder and the murder of the other 2 people who were with her any less horrible than what happened to the 3 people at Starbucks?" Teeger asked.
"Justice Department officials have said the Starbucks case had many factors that made it cry out for the maximum punishment, "including the brutality of the act, its planning and apparent robbery motive and the number of victims."
(source: Washington Post)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Junkies, big reward money, recanted confession. Some airtight case. Brutal murders at a McDonald's get the killer life, but this recanted confessor in the Starbuck's killings is looking at the chair.
I brought this up because there's something smelly about the murder of that biologist, Dr. Robert M. Schwartz in Virginia. Three teen-adults, all mimicking the two killers at Columbine with their long trench coats, all apparently into witchcraft, occultism and self-mutilation, now arrested as suspects.
One of the accused killers father says his son is extremely mentally ill. So how come he's not in treatment or a hospital? Oh, that's right -- dad said he quit his medication three months before this brutal murder and I guess it was okay to let him walk the streets?
"Katie Inglis, 19, a talented artist who often was teased in high school because she was quiet," abruptly left a Navy basic training camp in Illinois in May. Why did she abruptly leave basic training? Why would a shy girl enter military training, then abruptly drop out and join up with wackos and execute an innocent man? Perhaps it will come out in her trial - unless deals are cut all the way around and then there will be no discovery or anything else.
As far as the murder of Dr. Schwartz, a big question comes to mind: Why him? Early on in this investigation after the arrests of these three teen-adults, the police say the motive might have been because Dr. Schwartz would not let his daughter associate with these other disturbed individuals. What parent in their right mind would want their daughter hanging out with socially dysfunctional teen-adults? But, would three teen-adults really hack this man to death in his own home just to get even for something so trivial?
If they were on drugs as in the Manson slaughters, sure, it's possible.
If they were on psychotropic drugs like all these school children killers
(See https://devvy.com/zabel_20001010.html), sure it's possible.
However, I could find no reference to drugs in any news article. I don't have access to the police reports either. I can only say that there's something not right about this quick arrest unless the three accused left so much evidence with their names on it, the police would have to have been blind not to follow the trail to their front doors. How convenient.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Moving on to December 14th and the death of microbiologist, Set Van Nguyen.
Dr. Nguyen was a microbiologist who had worked at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's animal diseases facility in Geelong, Australia for 15 years. You would think someone in that type of high-risk environment would take every precaution to know where he/she was going. However, news reports make it appear it was an accident:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0112/12/national/national104.html
Scientist Dies in Lab Airlock
"A microbiologist killed at CSIRO's animal diseases facility in Geelong had logged 15 years' experience with the unit, police said today.
"Victoria Police said Set Van Nguyen, 44, appeared to have died yesterday morning after entering an airlock into a storage laboratory filled with nitrogen.
"His body was found when his wife became worried after he failed to return from work.
"Releasing his name today, police said Mr Nguyen had worked for CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) as a microbiologist for 15 years.
"He was killed after entering a low temperature storage area where biological samples were kept.
"Police said he did not know the room was full of deadly gas which had leaked from a liquid nitrogen cooling system.
"Unable to breathe, he collapsed and died.
"Safety authorities are still investigating.
"Mr Nguyen's death brings Victoria's workplace death toll to 29 this year."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Victoria isn't Podunk. 29 work related deaths in one year in an entire province in Australia doesn't seem very high to me, although I wish it were none.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We have five deaths: One in Miami (US), one in TN (US), one in Britain (UK), one in VA (US) and one in Australia (AU). What did they have in common?
All were microbiologists, all highly educated.
All were involved in extremely complicated medical research.
Did any of them know each other? I don't know.
Was Kathy Nguyen related to Dr. Nguyen? The e-mail above on page one implies that this was the case. I don't think so. She was 61, he was 44. She apparently lost her only child to an auto accident and was divorced. Also, according to a very sweet tribute to her, Asian Week had this to day:
Nov. 8 - Nov. 15, 2001
"Kathy T. Nguyen. Do you know her? 61 years old. A Vietnamese immigrant who entered the country in San Diego on May 4, 1975. A refugee. Known relatives all killed in Vietnam. Later, she moved to New York. Alone in theBronx. Maybe a Yankee fan.
"They knew about her coming from Vietnam alone, marrying here. Divorcing. Having a son who died in a car accident. Some knew she had worked at a clothing store for five years, then the hospital job as a basement stockroom worker for another ten years. They knew she stayed home a lot.
"Nothing in her house. Nothing at work. Nothing in her mail. Nothing anywhere," said a nothing, anonymous "senior law enforcement official" to The New York Times."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dr. Nguyen was married. Kathy Nguyen was divorced. She immigrated from Viet Nam. I don't know if Dr. Nguyen was a native of Australia or whether he immigrated from someplace else. There does not appear to be any connection between these two people except Ms. Nguyen worked in storeroom and Dr. Nguyen died in a sample storeroom. However, there is always a slim possibility that they could be related. During the fall of Saigon and other cities during the collapse of Viet Nam, many families became separated.
I believe that Kathy Nguyen died independently of any relationship to the man in Australia with the same name. Nguyen is a common Asian name. Think about it: Lab tests failed to find any traces of anthrax in her little one-bedroom apartment or the hospital storeroom where she worked. She lived alone. How was she infected? Quite a bit of anthrax spores were found only on her clothing. She inhaled the stuff, large doses of it:
http://latelinenews.com/ll/english/1101579.shtml
"[LatelineNews: 2001-11-8] NEW YORK - Authorities believe a hospital worker who died of anthrax inhaled a large quantity of the deadly spores, and they are using her subway card to trace her steps during the last two weeks of her life in hopes of finding the source."
"Nguyen used the subway to commute from her home to her job in the stockroom at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. Sweeps of both the outpatient facility and her apartment found no traces of anthrax. The hospital was cleaned and reopened on Tuesday."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
She died from pulmonary anthrax. She worked at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital. Both her apartment and the hospital were found to be free of any anthrax. This could only mean that possibly somehow, maybe going to or from work, she sniffed a deadly dose of anthrax spores which floated down onto her clothes like soft snowflakes.
Could someone have stuck something in her face accidently on the subway? Maybe. But then, why was no one else infected? Could someone have bumped into her on the way into her apartment which caused her to inhale a load of spores? I don't think the timing would be right and besides, according to reports, no anthrax was found in her apartment, only on her clothes. Which clothes and how long was she wearing them? Only the police and hospital know at this time.
Still, there's the burning question: How and why was a lethal dose of anthrax spores was administered to this innocent woman?
As I said, there appears to be no connection between Kathy Nguyen and Set Van Nguyen, other than their last names. This is a big coincidence, but only someone who is going to do a real investigation is going to find the answers.
I believe that Dr. Nguyen, and this is just my opinion and pure speculation, was the wrong hit. Why do I say that? I think the key to this mystery lies in what all these scientists were working on - some common thread. Dr. Nguyen walks into an airlock storage room that contains samples (of what?) that just happens to get filled with a deadly gas? Who turned on the gas? How many other people at his facility (colleagues) also had occasion to go to that airlock storeroom? If this storeroom was an airlock room, I think it's safe to assume it wasn't filled with computer paper.
Dr. Nguyen was not a key figure at this installation. Who is?
"....Dr Ron Jackson and Dr Ian Ramshaw, accidentally created an astonishingly virulent strain of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox, among laboratory mice. They realised that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed."
Professor Ian Ramshaw
Division of Cell Biology
John Curtain School of Medicine
Research
GPO Box 334 Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: +61 6 249 3623
Fax: +61 6 247 8921
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Ranshaw was working on something that could conceivably end the multi-billion dollar AIDs business:
http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/scripts98/9826/vaccscpt.htm
"Narration: In Australia today, aggressive treatment with drugs is preserving health and prolonging life for people with HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It's beginning to look as if it can be managed as a chronic condition, not necessarily fatal, similar to diabetes. But that assumes someone has access to world's best care. In many parts of the globe treatments are so costly that people must go without or, as sometimes happens, sell their land to buy just a few months' supply of pills."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dr. Ian Ranshaw was right in the thick of making AIDS a "manageable condition" instead of the multi-billion dollar cash cow that it has become because it's fatal. This is not good news for the population reduction crowd or the pharmaceutical industry which reaps billions from AIDs and other dieases. Remember: There's no money in the cure, only the treatment.
And:
The John Curtin School of Medical
Research
Vaccine Immunology Group
Leader: Professor Ian Ramshaw.
"There is an urgent need for an HIV/AIDS vaccine for developing countries. More than 16 million people have died of AIDS, more than 34 million people are living with HIV and nearly all will die of AIDS within the next two decades.
"Although other measures have slowed the spread of AIDS only an AIDS vaccine can end the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
"This year the US National Institutes of Health awarded a $30 million contract to a consortium of Australian researchers to develop and trial an HIV/AIDS vaccine. This is the largest grant yet given to an Australian research team from an international agency.
"The members of the consortium include the John Curtin School of Medical Research, the University of Melbourne, the University of New South Wales, the University of Newcastle and the CSIRO. The HIV/AIDS vaccine approach involves both prime boost immunisation with DNA and recombinant fowlpoxvirus vectors with the co expression of immune-enhancing cytokine genes.
"It is gratifying that both technologies used in this novel vaccine approach were developed from fundamental research carried out at the JCSMR over the last decade. Although these vaccine strategies lead to unprecedented levels of immunity there is still a need to develop new approaches to cover the genetic diversity seen with HIV, this area will be a major focus of our future research."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The U.S. is funding research in Australia. Your excise tax dollars at work while your family goes without. Did you notice that the U.S. National Institutes of Health is referred to as an "international agency?" The new world disorder at work. BTW, Professor Ramshaw is also a Doctor of Science.
What about Dr. Ranshaw's partner, Dr. Ron Jackson? What was he working on?
Glycosylation of Myxoma Virus Virulence Factors
"The Leporipoxviruses (which includes myxoma virus) are unique among animal viruses in that they encoded at least one enzyme, alpha 2,3-sialyltransferase (v-ST3Gal I) which modifies the carbohydrate moiety of viral expressed glycoproteins. The terminal sialylated structures produced by the viral enzyme include ligands for the both the siglecs (sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like [I-type] animal lectins) and selectins (C-type animal lectins) involved with cell adhesion events. We are interested in the ability of natural and asialylated viral glycoproteins to interact with these cell receptors both in vitro and in vivo using viral gene knockouts, and how these influence the development of inflammatory and immune responses in the rabbit."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Animals are used for experiments before people. Nguyen worked at the same facility as Drs. Ranshaw and Jackson. He was not a primary mover and shaker at that facility. Dr. Nguyen's colleagues were high-profile:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0105/17/world/world3.html
May 17, 2001
Mutant bacteria biowars threaten apocalypse now
"Genetic engineers already have it within their grasp to devise a lethal bio-weapon for terrorists and rogue states, the British science publication Nature warns this week.
"Small changes in the DNA of well-known bacteria and viruses could turn these agents into mass killers, the journal says.
"The publication echoes warnings by a pair of Australian scientists, Dr Ron Jackson and Dr Ian Ramshaw, who accidentally created an astonishingly virulent strain of mousepox, a cousin of smallpox, among laboratory mice.
"They realised that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed. They decided to publish their findings in January to draw attention to the potential misuse of biotechnology.
"Nature warns: "Making subtle genetic alterations to existing pathogens to increase their virulence or durability in the environment, or to make them harder to detect or to treat with drugs, is within the limits of today's technology.
"With the decoding of a pathogen's entire genome now commonplace, and transgenic techniques advancing all the time, some researchers believe that the sinister potential of biology can no longer be ignored."
"Biowarfare - use of germs or viruses such as anthrax or smallpox - has long been considered by military strategists. However, the risk has increased thanks to advances in knowledge about how genes work, new techniques for moving pieces of DNA around, and the relative ease with which a rogue organisation could build or hire a lab to build such a weapon.
"Scientists interviewed by Nature ruled out, for the time being, the ability to build new, artificial agents from a set of component parts.
"A far simpler way would be to tweak the performance of an existing bacteria to make it more resistant to antibiotics, they said.
"The genetic sequences of bacteria such as tuberculosis, cholera, leprosy and the plague are already in the public domain - as is that of a food poisoning bug, Staphylococcus aureus, that is already becoming resistant to antibiotics.
"By identifying the genes from Staphylococcus aureus that make the bug resistant, and inserting them into the other bacteria, a scientist could make a killer for which there would be scant defence."
"Dr Willem Stemmer, chief scientist with Maxygen, a California pharmaceutical research firm, used one of these techniques to explore how resistance genes work, Nature reports.
"He created a strain of the common intestinal bug Escherichia coli that was 32,000 times more resistant to the antibiotic cefotaxime than conventional strains. He destroyed the superbug in response to the American Society for Microbiology's concerns about potential misuse.
"It's time for biologists to begin asking what means we have to keep the technology from being used in subverted ways," said Harvard University molecular biologist Professor Matthew Meselson, who has often spoken of the dangers of biowarfare.
Agence France-Presse
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Could it have been that Dr. Ian Ranshaw was supposed to be walking into that airlock instead of the unkown Dr. Nguyen? Or, as in the case with the other four microbiologists, did he find out something and share that information? I don't have an answer to either question, but my money says it was Dr. Ranshaw who was the target, not Dr. Nguyen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Another question that the American people should be asking themselves is this: Does it bother you that the United States Government is involved with human testing? What, you say?
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/1520.html
The US Code -
Title 50, Chapter 32, Section 1520:
"Use of human subjects for testing of chemical or biological agents by the Department of Defense; accounting to Congressional committees with respect to experiments and studies; notification of local civilian officials."
"(a) Not later than thirty days after final approval within the Department of Defense of plans for any experiment or study to be conducted by the Department of Defense, whether directly or under contract, involving the use of human subjects for the testing of chemical or biological agents, the Secretary of Defense shall supply the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives with a full accounting of such plans for such experiment or study, and such experiment or study may then be conducted only after the expiration of the thirty-day period beginning on the date such accounting is received by such committees."
"(b) (1) The Secretary of Defense may not conduct any test or experiment involving the use of any chemical or biological agent on civilian populations unless local civilian officials in the area in which the test or experiment is to be conducted are notified in advance of such test or experiment, and such test or experiment may then be conducted only after the expiration of the thirty-day period beginning on the date of such notification."
"(2) Paragraph (1) shall apply to tests and experiments conducted by Department of Defense personnel and tests and experiments conducted on behalf of the Department of Defense by contractors."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The U.S. Government not only experimented on Americans without their permission, agencies like the CIA fed unsuspecting people LSD in their drinks in bars:
https://devvy.com/mcveigh4_20010625.html - Available on Devvy's Archives CD
I wrote about Americans being used as human guinea pigs on my web site. You can view the Final Report from the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments at:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There is also a curious item I ran across regarding deceased former Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, applying for a patent on an HIV blood-line:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a539b0b6e44.htm
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Final Questions
Could Dr. Pasechnik have been a hit for his defection? Not likely, too much time had gone by.
Did any of these microbiologists know each other? I don't know.
Government funded contracts? Probably not the Dr. Pasechnik case as he owned his company in the UK, although they may have been getting money from the British government.
The facility in Australia where Dr. Set Van Nguyen worked, along with Drs. Ron Jackson and Ian Ramshaw, was being unconstitutionally funded by HHS from the people's treasury..
Dr. Benito Que worked at the Miami Medical School. It's just about a given that they receive unconstitutional funding from the public treasury.
Dr. Don Wiley worked at Harvard and again, it's just about a given that Harvard receives unconstitutional funding from the public treasury.
Dr. Robert M. Schwartz worked at the Virginia Biotechnology Association located at James Madison University (http://www.jmu.edu/orgs/biotech/). No doubt they also receive unconstitutional funding from the public treasury.
Marital problems? Drug Problems, gambling? Nothing that I could find, but I'm sure the detectives working all five cases would be looking into their personal backgrounds.
What did all these people have in common? All of them worked in the highly specialized fields of DNA, anthrax, smallpox, plagues (bio-terror agents) and immune system research. Also, big money makers for pharmecutical companies: Herpes, TB, and anything and everything related to those fields. This is about as heavy as it gets in these particular scientific fields.
All five die within a 33 day period. Three in the USA, one in the UK and one in AU. All deaths appear to be either accidental, possible suicide or an outright violent murder. One case (Schwartz) now has three suspects in custody and they appear to be wackos.
I could write a book on this story if I had the funds to perform as a real investigative journalist. I don't and I really don't have the time because of my commitments to other areas. But, I guarantee you: there is something very, very bad going on regarding scientists who are working in the scientific areas of the most deadliest diseases, fevers and agents known at this time. Bio- terrorism is a hot subject today worldwide.
Some may think these five deaths are just coincidence. I don't.
There are those out there who think the death of Dr. Wiley (I guess they don't know about the other four) is something to yuk it up about while they poke fun at conspiracy theorists on their assinine web sites.
All these dead people have family and loved ones who are now grieving. I guarantee you that if these ukkers read Eustance Mullins' book, Murder by Injection, about the pharmecutical industry and Dr. Len Horowitz's fine books on Ebola and other killers, they would not be laughing at all.