Emails Reveal Anthrax Scientist's Delusions

'Split personality' Ivins was being 'eaten alive inside'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 7, 2008 2:25 AM CDT
Emails Reveal Anthrax Scientist's Delusions
Scientist Bruce Ivins participates in an award ceremony in 2003.   (AP Photo/U.S.Army)

Dozens of emails released by the FBI reveal that scientist Bruce Ivins was losing his grip on reality long before the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, the New York Times reports.  The Army scientist and anthrax suspect, who committed suicide last month, wrote to a colleague in 2000 that he was having "incredible paranoid, delusional thoughts" and was being "eaten alive inside."

Ivins also wrote ditties to himself about his two personalities and went on "mindless drives" to mail anonymous gifts and letters, court documents show. A psychiatry professor who examined the documents said Ivins clearly displayed psychotic tendencies and questioned how he was allowed to work in a top-security government biodefense lab for so long. (More Bruce Ivins stories.)

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