Therapist ‘scared to death’ of suspect

FREDERICK, Md. – Bruce E. Ivins, the late microbiologist suspected in the 2001 anthrax attacks, had attempted to poison people as far back as 2000 and his therapist said she was “scared to death” of him, according to court testimony that emerged Saturday.

Social worker Jean Duley testified at a court hearing in Frederick on July 24 in a successful bid for a protective order from Ivins – who five days later committed suicide – that he “actually attempted to murder several other people.”

Ivins, 62, took a fatal dose of acetaminophen, the active drug in Tylenol, as federal authorities monitored his movements and prepared to charge him with the murder of five people who died from anthrax poisoning in the weeks after the September 2001 terror attacks. An audio recording of the court session was obtained by the New York Times and posted on its Web site.

Five people died and 17 others were sickened when anthrax-laced letters began showing up at congressional offices, newsrooms and post offices soon after Sept. 11, 2001.

The therapist’s comments raised new questions about how Ivins kept working at a high security job while behaving so erratically.

“As far back as the year 2000, the respondent has actually attempted to murder several other people, either through poisoning. He is a revenge killer. When he feels that he’s been slighted or has had – especially toward women – he plots and actually tries to carry out revenge killings,” Duley said.

She added that Ivins “has been forensically diagnosed by several top psychiatrists as a sociopathic, homicidal killer. I have that in evidence. And through my working with him, I also believe that to be very true.”

She said that on July 9, Ivins showed up for a group session “extremely agitated, out of control.” She said that when she asked him what was wrong, he said he had obtained a gun and described to the group “a very long and detailed homicidal plan” to kill his co-workers.

Duley said she then called Ivins’ two lawyers and the city police, who went to Ivins’ workplace and had him committed to Frederick Memorial Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

Ivins’ lawyer, Paul F. Kemp, asserted the scientist’s innocence and said he would have proved it at trial. Kemp said his client’s death was the result of the government’s “relentless pressure of accusation and innuendo.”