Police closed the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, August 16 after the library received a letter that included a threat of anthrax contamination. The Independence Examiner reported that some 70 visitors and staff were quarantined for about an hour while officials investigated the threat, which apparently was a hoax.
The letter was written in a foreign language, and the staff member who opened it found another employee to translate it. That employee discovered the anthrax threat, police said. The fire department was called to the library at about 3:20 p.m. Police closed the building, quarantining everyone inside, and blockaded the parking lots.
Robert Boyer, an agent with the Postal Inspection Service, said no obvious traces of the deadly bacteria, which is generally transferred in a powdery substance, were found on the letter. It was sent to an FBI laboratory for further examination.
Posted August 30, 1999.