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Cicero man admits he was the mystery mailer who sent 21 fake anthrax letters over 15 years
John O'Brien December 12, 2014 at 3:48 PM
UTICA, N.Y. -- A Cicero man admitted today that he sent nearly two dozen mailings filled with white powder and a deadly threat between 1997 and 2012.
Brian D. Norton, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court to conveying false information threatening injury or death.
He admitted sending 21 letters containing what he falsely claimed was anthrax or ricin to people, schools and organizations starting in 1997.
His arrest in June was the result of a 17-year investigation by FBI agents.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd scheduled sentencing for April 10. Norton faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Norton appears to have no employment history, doesn't have a driver's license and when he was arrested in June was living with his father, who's in his 80s, according to court records.
Bishop Ludden High School received the first mailing in 1997, and got four more over the next 13 years. LeMoyne College received three of the letters.
Norton graduated from Bishop Ludden and attended LeMoyne for two years.
The letters claimed the white powder was anthrax or ricin and that it would kill anyone who came in contact with it, according to the FBI. But the powder was always a nontoxic material, such as baby powder or detergent.
"The paper and other materials you are holding in your hands have been thoroughly contaminated with anthrax spores," one letter said, in all capital letters. "Hopefully you and those around you will soon die a slooow painful death from anthrax."
Eight months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, Norton mailed a newspaper clipping about the attacks to LeMoyne with white powder and a claim that it contained anthrax.
"Praise Allah for Sept. 11," he wrote on an alumni donation card, according to court papers. "You are next."
The FBI began focusing on Norton in 2010 after finding a latent fingerprint on the sticky side of a decorative sticker on an envelope sent to Bishop Ludden. "Holiday Cheer," the sticker read.
In December 2011, the agents found a second latent fingerprint on the inside of a greeting card that was among the anthrax hoax mailings, according to affidavit by FBI Special Agent Daniel Capone.
Agents matched the fingerprints to Norton, apparently through fingerprints taken when he was arrested in 1976 on an aggravated harassment charge in Syracuse, according to court papers.
In 2013, Capone searched the trash in front of Norton's home and found recycled newspapers that contained handwriting similar to the writing on the hoax letters, the affidavit said. One page contained disparaging writings about one of the victims of the mailings, Capone wrote.
In 2012, the FBI reached out to the public for help and offered a $10,000 reward for information about the sender.
Here's a list of the people and organizations Norton targeted with his letters starting in 1997, according to Capone's affidavit:
Bishop Ludden Junior-Senior High School (five letters)
LeMoyne College (three letters)
FBI headquarters
CIA headquarters
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms headquarters
International Association of Police
U.S. Sen. John McCain
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Association of the U.S. Army
Marine Corps League
U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle
Television personality 1 (not identified in court papers)
Television personality 2 (not identified)
A local Syracuse business (not identified)
U.S. Navy/UDT SEAL Museum
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2...#incart_m-rpt-2
Cicero man admits he was the mystery mailer who sent 21 fake anthrax letters over 15 years
John O'Brien December 12, 2014 at 3:48 PM
UTICA, N.Y. -- A Cicero man admitted today that he sent nearly two dozen mailings filled with white powder and a deadly threat between 1997 and 2012.
Brian D. Norton, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court to conveying false information threatening injury or death.
He admitted sending 21 letters containing what he falsely claimed was anthrax or ricin to people, schools and organizations starting in 1997.
His arrest in June was the result of a 17-year investigation by FBI agents.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd scheduled sentencing for April 10. Norton faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Norton appears to have no employment history, doesn't have a driver's license and when he was arrested in June was living with his father, who's in his 80s, according to court records.
Bishop Ludden High School received the first mailing in 1997, and got four more over the next 13 years. LeMoyne College received three of the letters.
Norton graduated from Bishop Ludden and attended LeMoyne for two years.
The letters claimed the white powder was anthrax or ricin and that it would kill anyone who came in contact with it, according to the FBI. But the powder was always a nontoxic material, such as baby powder or detergent.
"The paper and other materials you are holding in your hands have been thoroughly contaminated with anthrax spores," one letter said, in all capital letters. "Hopefully you and those around you will soon die a slooow painful death from anthrax."
Eight months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, Norton mailed a newspaper clipping about the attacks to LeMoyne with white powder and a claim that it contained anthrax.
"Praise Allah for Sept. 11," he wrote on an alumni donation card, according to court papers. "You are next."
The FBI began focusing on Norton in 2010 after finding a latent fingerprint on the sticky side of a decorative sticker on an envelope sent to Bishop Ludden. "Holiday Cheer," the sticker read.
In December 2011, the agents found a second latent fingerprint on the inside of a greeting card that was among the anthrax hoax mailings, according to affidavit by FBI Special Agent Daniel Capone.
Agents matched the fingerprints to Norton, apparently through fingerprints taken when he was arrested in 1976 on an aggravated harassment charge in Syracuse, according to court papers.
In 2013, Capone searched the trash in front of Norton's home and found recycled newspapers that contained handwriting similar to the writing on the hoax letters, the affidavit said. One page contained disparaging writings about one of the victims of the mailings, Capone wrote.
In 2012, the FBI reached out to the public for help and offered a $10,000 reward for information about the sender.
Here's a list of the people and organizations Norton targeted with his letters starting in 1997, according to Capone's affidavit:
Bishop Ludden Junior-Senior High School (five letters)
LeMoyne College (three letters)
FBI headquarters
CIA headquarters
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms headquarters
International Association of Police
U.S. Sen. John McCain
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Association of the U.S. Army
Marine Corps League
U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle
Television personality 1 (not identified in court papers)
Television personality 2 (not identified)
A local Syracuse business (not identified)
U.S. Navy/UDT SEAL Museum
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2...#incart_m-rpt-2
