Katherine Smith sold IDs to five of the hijackers was "smothered with gasoline and "firebombed" in her car one day before she was scheduled to testify. Source: Kansas
City Star, 02/16/02 FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash said authorities were trying to determine what caused the car to burn. The gas tank did not explode and the car was only slightly dented from the crash. "Her death was not the result of the crash itself," said THP Capt. Jimmy Erwin. "Her death was by other means." (March 6th 2002) Source : http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_news/article/0,1426,MCA_437_1016243,00.html As investigative journalist Wayne Madsen (->) reported in an article at counterpunch, Katherine Smith mysterious death was examined at the same institute who examined Don C Wiley (->), the MicroBiologist, who died under strange circumstances in 2001. (Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html
) And "...in yet another strange twist, on March 14 (2002), a bomb and two smaller explosive devices were found at the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center, which houses the morgue and Medical Examiner's Office that conducted Wiley's autopsy. Dr. O.C, Smith, the medical examiner, told Memphis' Commercial Appeal, "We have done several high-profile cases from Dr. Wiley to Katherine Smith (a Department of Motor Vehicles employee mysteriously found burned to death in her car after being charged in a federal probe with conspiracy to obtain fraudulent drivers' licenses for men of Middle East origin) but there has been no indication that we offended anyone . . . we just don't know if we were the attended target or not." Two of the five men, connected with the Katherine Smith case and fraudulent licenses had been Khaled Odtllah and Sakhera Hammad (Denko Mechanical->). When Hammad was arrested, investigators found a visitor's pass for the World Trade Center, dated Sept. 5, 2001, in his wallet. He told authorities he was a plumber who worked on the center's sprinkler system.
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Unknown O.C. Smith Attacker
Attempted Murder
Data From: Memphis P.D., TBI & ATF
(AMW: 6/22/02)
Police in Memphis, Tennessee are hunting for the man who viciously assaulted the Shelby County Medical Examiner.
On June 1, 2002, Memphis police say Dr. O.C. Smith, the Shelby County Medical Examiner, was attacked. Detectives say Smith left his office shortly after 10:00 pm. As Dr. Smith exited the building, police say a man ambushed him, throwing some kind of chemical in his face, which burned Smith's skin and temporarily blinded him. Police say Dr. Smith was beaten and thrown down a nearby stairwell. Police say the attacker then wrapped Dr. Smith in barbed wire and chained him to a window gate. Detectives say before the attacker fled the scene, he placed a bomb on Dr. Smith's chest. Dr. Smith stood motionless for more than two hours before a patrol officer found him. The bomb squad was notified and they were able to safely remove the device. Smith was treated for his injuries and is currently under 24-hour police protection. Police say three letters threatening Dr. Smith were sent to three different people in Memphis in April 2001. Police say the reason for the threats stems from Dr. Smith's testimony in a clemency hearing for a convicted cop killer, Philip Workman. In March 2002, police discovered a bomb outside of Dr. Smith's office. Detectives say the man who attacked Dr. Smith is the same person who wrote the letters and planted the bomb in March.
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Don C. Wiley, Harvard's John L. Loeb Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and one of the most distinguished structural biologists of his generation, died recently at the age of 57.
Wiley was reported missing Nov. 16 by the Memphis, Tenn., police after his rental car was found on a bridge over the Mississippi River. He was in Memphis attending a meeting of the board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Wiley's body was recovered from the river on Dec. 20.