Posted on 03/14/2008 2:56:45 PM PDT by Deo volente
LAS VEGAS -- The central figure in a hotel ricin scare last month has emerged from a coma, FBI agents said Friday...
...While he has become cognizant, federal agents said, Von Bergendorff is still in critical condition. Police are questioning him at the hospital, trying to determine why he had so much of the poison.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox5vegas.com ...
risin beans...
I’ve heard ricin always kills and there’s no antidote.
What’s with the stuff?
I bet he was going to try a little extortion on a casino but didn’t have enough skill to carry it off.
Glad he survived. I think.
Here’s something about his brother, Erich. I knew about the cousin, Thomas Tholen, but not the brother.
LAS VEGAS (AP) Nearly a month after Roger Bergendorff slipped into a comatose state with possible exposure to the deadly toxic ricin, his brother says he is talking again.
Erich Bergendorff says hospital officials told him they were able to communicate with his brother, Roger, and tell him that his dog had to be euthanized after the Humane Society found her starving and without water in his motel room.
Roger Bergendorff is in critical condition and has been hospitalized since Valentine’s Day. Authorities found several vials of ricin in his Las Vegas extended stay motel room.
Authorities say they are questioning the 57-year-old, who friends and family describe as an unemployed graphic artist and a recovering alcoholic. They say he was not suicidal.
His brother says he is receiving dialysis for failing kidneys, and might still be on a ventilator to help him breathe.
http://www.kxmb.com/News/219290.asp
That guy in “Psycho” was an amateur. ;’)
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks for the ping, I do hope he talks.
You’re welcome. :)
A new Zatarain’s product: Red Beans and Ricin!
...only to discover he's now infected with hepatitis....
Lots of new info here.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=8018139
A link to the PDF of the search warrants is contained in the story.
The search warrant, sworn out at 3:30 am Feb 27 has a bunch of interesting stuff:
Apparently, Bergendorff was making ricin in his room. The warrant references 5 beakers, 4 rock tumblers, and 6 hot plates. Not one, but four ricin recipe books were found.
With the info from the warrant, the screwy timeline with the police not finding the ricin when they were in the room getting the guns makes a little more sense now. The hotel called the cops about the guns on the 26th when the mgr went in to evict Bergendorff. They responded at 10 PM. They apparently didnt have a search warrant for anything other than what they were called to the hotel for, the guns.
They probably didn’t miss the ricin at all. They probably saw it, but because ricin isn’t recognizable by itself, so they couldn’t say they found “ricin” on the 26th. They certainly did see the hot plates and beakers and anarchist literaturebut none of thats illegal on its own. So they had to petition for a search warrant specifically authorizing them to seize the stuff—all based on probable cause from what they could see out in the open. That took 5 hours to get done. Reasonable, considering it’s all got to be written up legally, the judge has to be contacted, etc.
The time of the search warrant affidavit is 3:30 am on the 27th. So all this stuff was going on pretty much at the same time—late night of Feb 26.
Interestingly, there is nothing in the search warrant about the cousin, Tholen, finding the ricin and bringing it to the hotel manager.
Eroteme, thanks for the ping and the explanation of the time line (re the warrant). Makes sense of some of this. Will keep checking back...(not home much today).
wow!
Thank you for the info.
Thank you for reading the PDF files, that helps fill in some of the missing facts.
“Interestingly, there is nothing in the search warrant about the cousin, Tholen, finding the ricin and bringing it to the hotel manager.”
Thanks for the ping. That is interesting! I wonder if anything will come out this week concerning the ‘interviews’?
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