“From what I can tell, nobody who actually knows the man seems to believe he did it, with the exception of his brother, who appears to have been estranged from the family for like 25 years.”
‘Blindsided’ By Suicide
This year, the plan had been for Charles to see Bruce at home in Fredrick, Md., in August. Then the suicide happened. Charles and his son were shocked. Charles said they were “blindsided” by it.
While Charles had been vaguely aware that his brother was depressed and that the anthrax investigation was weighing on him, he didn’t understand how much. He figured it came with the territory.
“I knew that he and just about everyone at Fort Detrick was under a microscope after” the anthrax attacks, he said. “He never did give me any details about what was going on, but I am sure he was being investigated.”
Charles said Bruce just told his older brother that the FBI had questioned him.
“He was feeling pretty depressed over the investigation,” Charles said. “Of course, who wouldn’t? So, I felt like a brother. He needed some support, so I was going to fly up there and be an objective listener.”
Charles had already rehearsed what he was going to say. “I was going to have a little tough-love chat with him about different things,” he said. “You know, one brother to another. Basically, sometimes you need someone in the family to say, ‘Straighten up, feel better and don’t let it knock you down.’”
Charles never got the chance to have that conversation. His brother killed himself just weeks before their annual holiday was set to begin. But even after his brother’s suicide, Charles said it was hard for him to accept the idea that his brother could have been behind the anthrax mailings. “I just can’t imagine that, ever.”
A Look At The Evidence
But it became clear that Charles had never actually seen the evidence against his brother or read the affidavits accompanying the FBI’s search warrants. And as he read the evidence for the first time, wordlessly handing pages to his wife Nita, pointing out passages, darkness crept into his expression.
After several minutes of reading, he looked ashen. “I’m stunned now, I am just totally stunned,” he said.
He picked up the affidavits and straightened them on the table before him. Then he sank into himself and put his face in his hands. “The evidence that you showed me today has really gotten me.” He thought for a moment. “It threw me for a loop, really did, really just flabbergasted me.”
As Charles and his wife read the affidavits, they appeared to fill in the blanks — the way only people who knew Bruce could do. They read the poems he wrote about feeling like he was two people, instead of just one. They read about Bruce sending packages to someone with a fictitious return address. They winced. They seemed to know who Bruce was sending packages to, even though the name on the affidavit was redacted. Then Charles sighed.
“It’s just tough for me to deal with, that’s all. Just tough for me to deal with,” he said.
Asked if it seemed like the brother he knew, Charles said, “No, it does not, that’s the part that just stuns me.”
Did things in the affidavit seemed to ring true? Did others seem hollow or false? Charles shook his head.
“I’m not going to go there,” he said. “I don’t know what to think. It’s difficult.”
Asked if he thought it was possible that the FBI was right, Charles said, “Ah, well, it is always possible the FBI is right.”
Charles emphasized that he didn’t necessarily think the FBI was right this time about his brother. But he didn’t rule it out either.
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Aug. 10, 2008
Charles Ivins Says Brother’s Suicide ‘Blindsided’ Him.....”
Bruce Ivins grew up in the City of Lebanon in Warren County.
People who work and live there say they were tipped off that Ivins was part of an FBI investigation. They say FBI agents spent several days in the Warren County community in the Spring asking many questions about Ivins.
Downtown business owner Mike McMurray said, “We didn’t really know what it was so when this news came out it was like, uh oh.”
McMurray also owns the house Ivins grew up in.
“I remember the FBI asking if there was anything in the house unusual,” McMurray added, “I’d say what do you mean, unusual? They said, I can’t say.”
Ivins brother Tom lives in Middletown, about 10 miles from Lebanon. He hasn’t talked to Bruce in 20 years, and said nothing to defend his brother.
“It was his own fault, I thought,” said Tom Ivins. “What he did, he screwed himself up. He got involved with the wrong people.”
Tom Ivins said the FBI asked him a lot of questions too.
“They talked to me about my personal history, relationship with my two brothers,” said Ivins.
Bruce Ivins graduated from Lebanon High School in 1964. His brother describes Bruce as smart. Bruce was involved in a long list of activities including Honor Society, Track, Choir and Science Fair.
The people who run the Warren County History Center in Lebanon say FBI agents spent hours in their library looking for records of Ivins’ family history.
Downtown business owners say agents also stopped in Heritage House Gifts and spent some time in the basement. This is the same building where Ivins’ father ran a drug store years ago. Bruce worked in the store until going to college.
The store owner says agents left her store with nothing.
“There’s a lot of history to the building but who would have guessed this would have been the history,” said Laura Ferguson.
Tom Ivins says his brother probably didn’t work alone.
He’s confident that if others were involved, the FBI will be after them too.”