Inmates questioned over rigged envelopes

CARSON CITY, Nev. – Federal and state investigators puzzled over a motive and questioned Nevada prison inmates Friday after at least 15 governors were sent envelopes that, when opened, caused a match to flare.

Special Agent Todd Palmer in Las Vegas said the FBI was working with the U.S. Postal Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to investigate the envelopes.

So far none of the envelopes that have been opened contained any writings, but all bore a return address from Nevada’s maximum-security Ely State Prison.

Some letters were intercepted by state officials after warnings were issued about the suspicious mailings. They will be turned over unopened to federal investigators for lab analysis, Palmer said.

Most letters went to Western governors. Eleven were sent to Republicans and four were mailed to Democrats.

“It’s too early to associate a motive with what it is they’re trying to do,” Palmer said.

“Several letters have been received that haven’t been opened, so we’re not sure what message they’re trying to send.”

“Maybe one has a letter,” he said.

Palmer indicated more letters may surface, and the FBI was aware of “fewer than 20.”

“We don’t know how many are out there. We’ll just wait and see,” he said.

The rigged envelopes were sent to the governors of Montana, Idaho, Nebraska, Washington, Utah, Texas, Oregon, New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Hawaii, Arizona, Vermont and Nevada. Another such letter went to Nevada Corrections Director Jackie Crawford.

There were no reports of injuries from the letters that began arriving Thursday.

In Montana, the envelope prompted the evacuation of part of the state Capitol, and a bomb squad was summoned to handle the envelope in Utah.

Wyoming’s state mail processing center, located outside the Capitol grounds in Cheyenne, was evacuated while a specially designed robot removed a suspicious letter Friday. Workers returned later.

A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts governor’s office said federal authorities considered the mailings a domestic terrorist attack.

Glen Whorton, assistant director for the Nevada Corrections Department, said two Ely State Prison inmates were questioned Thursday because one or the other was listed as the sender on the letter-size envelopes.

On Friday, Whorton said other convicts also were being questioned.

Whorton said authorities aren’t sure whether the two inmates, whom he declined to identify, sent the envelopes or if their names and inmate numbers were put on the envelopes by someone else – in or outside the prison.

“We’re doing a complete investigation. We’re not assuming the names on the envelopes are simply the end of the matter,” he said. “Investigators are not just talking to the two inmates.”

While the letters could have been sent from anywhere, Whorton added, “We’re obviously focusing on Ely as the point of origin. The investigators are out there today.”

Whorton said a clerical worker opened the envelope sent to Crawford’s Carson City office, and was surprised but not hurt when a match lit as she pulled out a blank piece of paper.

“Nobody was injured. It’s very small. It was just a letter, set up so that a match or a match head flares when you open it,” he said.

“It’s not dangerous, but it’s certainly frightening to get something like this in the mail,” he said.

Whorton said the envelope didn’t look unusual, so it wouldn’t have been checked or opened before leaving the Ely prison – if that’s where it came from – or when it arrived at Crawford’s office.

“There was no bulk to it, no external indication that there was something odd there,” he said.

Whorton said letters leaving Nevada prisons aren’t opened unless there’s something unusual, such as a bulky envelope or an inadequate return address. All incoming mail at Nevada prisons is opened by staffers, but not read, before being delivered to inmates.