Harris Had Been Giving Inoculations

A micro-biologist whom authorities wrongly suspected was carrying deadly anthrax had been administering a vaccine he said would protect people from biological agents, a police officer said.

Larry Wayne Harris was “inoculating people in Ohio with a chemical compound and telling them it would protect them,” Columbus police Officer Rick Adrian told the Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland in Saturday’s editions. “Some were taking weekly shots.”

Harris, 46, of Lancaster, Ohio, and William Leavitt Jr., 47, of Nevada, also a microbiologist, were arrested Wednesday near Las Vegas and charged with conspiracy to possess and possession of a biological agent for use as a weapon.

The FBI on Saturday announced that the substance was a harmless form of anthrax used in animal vaccines, and Leavitt was released. Harris was still being held because of a possible parole violation.

It is not the first time Harris has been suspected of possessing deadly substances.

Harris pleaded guilty in 1995 to wire fraud for obtaining three vials of freeze-dried bubonic plague bacteria through the mail. He was given 18 months of probation.

He said at the time he merely wanted the bacteria for research on his self-published book, “Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America.”

Harris obtained the virus while working for a laboratory that was permitted to receive the bacteria. He was not, however.

On Wednesday, authorities seized what they had believed to be material grade anthrax, potent enough to kill thousands of people.

Adrian said he has kept on eye on Harris for two years.

Harris was concerned about an attack from Iraq, and recent tensions there with the United States may have “pushed his buttons,” Adrian said.

“He gets agitated when talking about Iraq and his right eye twitches,” Adrian said. “He’s been playing around with different compounds, but anthrax is No. 1. He’s messed around with the ebola virus, too.”

It was unclear how long the inoculations were offered, what the shots contained or whether anyone became sick because of them.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national watchdog group that monitors extremist groups, told the New York Times that Harris traveled around the country, “meeting with extremist anti-government groups and inoculating them against anthrax.”

“He talks like he wants to come up with a vaccine, but then he has connections to these groups who are not Boy Scouts,” Adrian said. “What does his true heart say? I don’t know.”