How The FBI Botched the 2001 Anthrax Scare (Part 1)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, everyone. It's still behind the bastards. Part two of our episodes on how the FBI and the media created a monster by repeatedly accusing the wrong people of terrorism. And we're talking. We talked the last episode with our guest, Courtney Kosak. about Richard Jewell and the Olympic Park bombing. And in these next two episodes, we're going to be talking about the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States that killed like five people and freaked the whole country the fuck out. You know, these happened right in the wake of 9-11. If you're on the younger side of things, I don't think this is as famous. But basically, right after 9-11, a bunch of people, including guys like Tom Daschle, some people in government, started receiving letters that had white powder in them.
Several people got sick and died, mostly folks who were just... happened to be in and around the mail rooms and stuff where the letters were being opened, and they never found who did it. But they had a suspect for several years, and that suspect is a guy who is a bastard, I think, by my standards, but is also, again, not the bad guy of this story. And we're gonna spend this episode talking about his life and times, because again, he's a fascinating person. um and i think there's a lot like on his own we probably could do a bastards episode but the thing he's best known for is being wrongly accused of being the anthrax male guy and it just felt like i don't know it seems weird to do an episode about how much this guy sucks but also he's fine here like this wasn't his fault he was done dirty um so we're just talking about like
how both of these, in both of these terrorist attacks, the same fucked up thing happened, thanks to the FBI and the media being the kinds of organs that they are. Is Steve our protagonist this time? Steve is – and this is going to be more of a traditional bastards episode, this one, and then in part three, whenever we record that, we'll get to the actual anthrax attack and what happened to him. But we have to talk about Steve Hatfield because who he is and the kind of life he leads are what makes him into the suspect for this terrorist attack, right? And like is why people are – is why people in the FBI and the media become so convinced that it was him. And he is a he's a perfect candidate for bastards like his backstory is insane.
He's told a bunch of different versions of his life, many of which can't be true. Independent reporting has repeatedly shown that like different things he said about his resume and his CV could not have happened that way. So there's a lot of really fun untangling and record correcting to do. So anyway, let's let's talk about Steve J. Hatfield. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. A new true crime podcast from Tenderfoot TV in the city of Mons in Belgium.
What was the context of the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S.?
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So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Dani Shapiro. We were in the car, like a rolling stone came on, and he said, there's a line in there about your mother. And I said, what? What I would do if I didn't feel like I was being accepted is choose an identity that other people can't have. I knew something had happened to me in the middle of the night, but I couldn't hold on to what had happened.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–3:06
2
What was the context of the 2001 anthrax attacks in the U.S.?
3:06–6:48
3
Who is Steven Hatfill and what is his background?
6:48–9:08
4
What led to Steven Hatfill being wrongly accused?
9:08–1:11:23
5
What experiences did Hatfill have in Rhodesia?
1:11:23–1:11:56