Woman Sent Cyanide to Senator, Police Say

New York Times ^ | 8/16/02 | AP

[kattracks]

REAT FALLS, Mont., Aug. 16 (AP) — A woman was charged today with mailing cyanide-tainted soda bottles to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, federal prosecutors said.

The woman, Tashala Hayman, 22, of Vaughn, Mont., mailed two bottles to Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, on Aug. 1, the prosecutors said. They said she prepared another package with a tainted soda bottle to send to Prince William of Britain.

The package to Mr. Kennedy was found Thursday in the Capitol mail system. Tests found sodium cyanide in the bottles, officials said.

Ms. Hayman appeared in Federal District Court today and remained in custody, said a United States attorney, Bill Mercer.

She was arrested on Aug. 8.

In her trailer, the police said, they found the package to Prince William and printouts of the address of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York.

Ms. Hayman faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of mailing a poison with intent to kill or injure.

[11B3]

Poorly planned method of liberal reduction. Prince William? I don't get that one.

[Selara]

Duh...soda bottles in the mail? Never arouse suspicions...duh.

[ladyinred]

Do you think maybe she could be innocent by reason of insanity? Or maybe she has PMS, or PPD? :)

[Dakmar]

She could have taken out Teddy had she used vodka instead if soda.

[Chad Fairbanks]

"Hey Edward? Someone sent us some of that new Almond Coke™... ya want one????"

[piasa]

Wonder why Hillary hasn't announced her 'close call' to everyone? Normally she'd never miss an opportunity to get atention.

[CARepubGal]

Send Teddy Krispy Kremes instead. Lots of donuts. Less pricey than booze. They are legal and will send his cholesterol level through the roof (the PIAPS too the good lord willing).

[doug from upland]

What's the crime?

[Free_at_last_-2001]

What's the crime? - yea good question!

[kms61]

My 2 cents: There's no humor in attempted assassination, no matter who the intended victim is.

[L.N. Smithee]

You've got to be kidding me. What was this dorkette thinking? "I'll send an empty soda bottle to Teddy in the mail, he'll put his lips to it to see if there's anything in a bottle he received from a total stranger in the mail, and he'll die! Ha Ha Haaaaaah!"

Whatever you think of the intelligence of liberals, very few of them are stupid enough to do that. Teddy's too smart for that...now that he's sober.

Tashala Hayman, huh? Doesn't sound like a Great Falls, Montana name. Sounds more like a Compton name or a District of Columbia name. But people who fit that name would be more likely to worship Teddy and Hillary than want to kill them.

[Illbay]

Or maybe you can get his wife to feed him lots of butter and eggs, so he'll die early like many Irish men do...

With apologies to Julianne Malveaux.

[Ann Archy]

Hippie parents.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Or maybe you can get his wife to feed him lots of butter and eggs, so he'll die early like many Irish men do...

What makes you think most Irish men die early? I've always believed the stories alcohol was good for the heart because many Irish men I've known, including in my family have lived into their seventies and eighties.

[FryingPan101]

And, of course, this is all Dubya's fault.

[csvset]

Here's some more info. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a picture of her.

Saturday, August 17, 2002

Vaughn woman charged in poison threat to Sen. Kennedy

Cyanide-laced soda pop also allegedly ready for prince

By KATIE N. JOHANNES
Tribune Staff Writer

---

Authorities charged a Vaughn woman Friday with mailing a cyanide-laced bottle of soda pop to U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in an apparent attempt to poison him.

In a search of Tashala Lynett Hayman's home, Cascade County Sheriff's investigators also found a poisoned pop packaged and addressed to William Prince of Wales.

A note in the package read: "Have a Coke and a smile," federal court documents say.

Hayman, 22, is charged with federal counts of mailing poison with intent to kill or injure another and production of false Social Security cards.

She is the same woman who was arrested last week on charges she stole a credit card number while working for N.E.W., a Great Falls company that takes calls from customers seeking warranty information.

Police allege that Hayman used the number to purchase a 9-mm pistol and clothes.

Authorities have been unable to find a motive for Hayman's alleged actions. She moved into her sparsely furnished mobile home in Vaughn about six months ago, Sheriff John Strandell said. Before that, she lived in Spokane. She's believed to be a California native.

U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer credits an alert Vaughn postmaster for helping investigators track down the poisoned soda addressed to Kennedy.

The postmaster remembered Hayman sending a package to Kennedy on about Aug. 1, documents said. She tried to send the package with no return address. When the postmaster required one, Hayman allegedly wrote her Vaughn address on the package.

Washington D.C. Capitol Police and the U.S. Postal Service tracked down a package addressed to Kennedy in the Capitol mail system that contained two soda bottles that tested positive for cyanide.

In addition to the poisoned soda addressed to Prince William, Sheriff's officers and FBI agents found several suspicious items in Hayman's home, including two open bottles labeled "Sodium Cyanide"; a wine bottle that had apparently been tampered with in an unaddressed package; Internet printouts with addresses of Sen. Edward Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady who's now a U.S. senator from New York; and printouts with information about the British Royal Family.

Also found were lists of names, Social Security numbers and credit card transactions; a note reading: "Order crossbow and gun and Cyanide fox;" several notes addressed to the British Royal Family; and shipping and packaging labels for sodium cyanide.

In Hayman's purse, investigators found a calendar with a note written on it that said: "Prepare the Cyanide Trucks and Cyanide;" a business card for Postal Annex in Spokane, Wash.; and notes about sodium cyanide, sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

The Spokane (Wash.) Regional Drug Task Force called the Cascade County Sheriff's Office to report that a woman using the name Carolyn Smith bought two pounds of sodium cyanide from a chemical company in Texas, according to the federal affidavit.

The woman had the chemical shipped to a mailbox at a commercial mailing service in Spokane. She allegedly had mail forwarded from the mailbox to her Vaughn address.

Officers believe Hayman used Smith as an alias. They found that the forwarding fee paid to the mailing service came from an account in Hayman's name. In her purse, they also found an identification badge with Hayman's photo and the name Carolyn Smith, documents said.

The chemical company denied a request from the same woman to ship 20 more pounds of cyanide after suspecting that the business she claimed to work for did not exist, documents said.

Hayman told investigators she bought two pounds of cyanide for experimentation, and said she had ingested some of the chemical to see what how it would affect her, documents said.

She will appear at a detention hearing in Helena on Wednesday. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Source

[Leisler]

That'll be a whole lot-o-vodka. Teds' got a liver the size of three car garage.

[gortklattu]

Talk about stuuuuuupid!!

[OldFriend]

If we use leftist logic, she could be called a 'freedom fighter'.