Reply #9: Here's the FBI press release:

[originalpckelly]

Department of Justice Seal United States Attorney
District of Columbia
News Release

For Immediate Release
October 11, 2006


For further information contact
the U.S. Attorney’s Office
202-514-6933
Connecticut Woman Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Mailing Threats and Poison to Government Officials

Washington, D.C. - A 60-year-old Bridgeport, Connecticut woman, Barbara Joan March, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for mailing threats and poison to numerous government officials in 2005, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, announced today.

March was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Emmet J. Sullivan. On March 1, 2006, she pled guilty to a 14-count information charging her with mailing injurious articles to the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Director and Deputy Director of the FBI, and the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The government's evidence established that on or about April 22, 2005, March mailed 14 threatening letters, each containing either a baked good or a piece of candy laced with rat poison to each of the Supreme Court Justices, the Director and Deputy Director of the FBI, and the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, at addresses in Washington, D.C. Each envelope contained a one-page typewritten letter stating, either "I am" or "We are," followed by "going to kill you. This is poisoned." Each of the letters bore the handwritten signature(s) of the purported sender(s), whose name(s) and return address were typed both in the body of the letter and on the envelopes. Many of the envelopes bore legible postmarks, dated April 22, 2005, in New York, New York.

The purported senders of the letters live throughout the country, including in Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Missouri. The purported senders are associated with March in the following ways: three of the purported senders attended elementary and/or high school with March; seven attended college with her; one is a former co-worker; one lived with her while the two were studying abroad in Spain; one lived with March's brother; and one has the same name as her former husband.

Numerous handwritten documents recovered in searches of March's apartment in Bridgeport, Connecticut, reflect that she engaged in considerable planning in order to prepare and send the letters. One document contains a list, numbered one through fourteen, that includes the first name, and in some cases, the first initial of the last name, and the state of residence of each of the purported senders. Another consisted of an apparent "to do" list that included entries for "type letters," "candy & tape - no fingerprints - plastic gloves," and "r.p."

The letters have undergone multiple scientific analyses at the FBI Lab in Quantico, Virginia. The edible contents of each letter were analyzed chemically and found to contain rat poison, specifically, bromadiolone. Numerous fibers recovered from the tape that was used to seal the envelopes and to affix the baked good or candy to five of the letters were found to be consistent with clothing recovered from March's residence. A typewriter ribbon seized from a typewriter located at a public library in Bridgeport, Connecticut, near March's residence, was found to have been used to prepare the typewriting on five of the letters and envelopes.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor and Acting Assistant Director in Charge Persichini commended the excellent work of the lead investigator in the case, FBI Special Agent Monica Patton. They also commended the numerous FBI agents and laboratory personnel who assisted in the investigation of the case, particularly FBI Special Agent Michael Syrax of the New Haven, Connecticut Field Office. Finally, they commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Reynolds of the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Connecticut, who handled the search warrants and March's removal hearing, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Angela Schmidt, who prosecuted the case.
Washington Field Office Home Page
Press Releases

http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel06/wfo101106.htm