July 8 - July 14, 2012 Discussions

My comment for this week begins with describing the progress I'm making on the overhaul of my book in an attempt to cut at least 150 pages.  The statistics show that I'm on course.  But, more importantly, the book also seems about 1,000% improved and much more of a page-turner thriller.

The comment then leads into a realization that Ivins told Mara Linscott about his KKG burglaries just after the FBI and postal inspectors discovered which mailbox had been used to mail the anthrax letters -- a mailbox just 175 feet from the KKG office in Princeton.  The finding of the mailbox would really have shaken Ivins up, but what was he thinking when he started to tell Mara about his connections to KKG?  And Mara quickly told Pat Fellows.

The mention of the mailbox used for the mailings also reminded me that I've never been able to accept and believe that the anthrax mailer used the same mailbox for BOTH mailings.  I think that Ivins used a mailbox in Franklin Park for the first mailing, but the crude powder couldn't seep through the envelopes so easily, so no trace was left in the mailbox.  The second mailing left spores in the mailbox in Princeton, so the only available evidence says it was the mailbox used for both mailings.  It's a case where the "only available evidence" says one thing, but I really feel that reality is something a bit different.  But, it's just a "feeling" that cannot be proved nor disproved, so I don't mention it in my book.  If I had, it would have been another long explanation that I'd have to cut to get the book down to a "readable" length.

Ed