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Suspect Faces Life Sentence
in Anthrax Letter Scare

A Tennessee man faces possible life imprisonment after he was arrested for leaving a letter that claimed to contain the deadly anthrax bacteria in the book drop of the Madison branch of the Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County May 15.

Madison resident Joseph M. Calvert, 35, could also be fined as much as $250,000 for allegedly leaving the letter taped inside a book about Adolf Hitler. Though a lab analysis of the letter revealed no toxic materials, Calvert has been charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and was arraigned before a federal magistrate May 25.

WSM Radio News quoted FBI Special Agent Doug Riggen as saying that it was unknown whether Calvert is responsible for similar anthrax scares in the Nashville area at an abortion clinic and a Southern Baptist Convention building.

Posted May 31, 1999.

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