The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) - Fear quickly turned to anger in North Shore towns targeted in an apparent anthrax hoax in which envelopes containing an unidentified white powder were mailed to 11 police departments.
“They should feel the wrath of the public. They shouldn’t put people in jeopardy like this,” Saugus Police Lt. Stephen Sweezey said.
Three of the envelopes tested negative for anthrax and do not appear dangerous. The Department of Public Health’s laboratory planned to test the remaining envelopes and announce the results Thursday.
“There is no credible threat associated with these letters,” DPH lab director Ralph Timperi said. “This appears to be one of many hoaxes that have been perpetrated.”
Police departments in Hamilton, Saugus, Danvers, Peabody, Salem, Middleton, Topsfield, Marblehead, Wenham, Lynn, and Lynnfield received the letters between 11:39 a.m. and 3 p.m. Wednesday, all addressed to the chief and all with postmarks from North Reading.
The FBI is investigating and federal charges are possible because the envelopes were mailed.
The person or persons responsible also could be prosecuted under a new anti-terrorism bill passed Tuesday by the state Legislature. Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift is expected to sign it into law this week.
The hoax would be a misdemeanor under current state law, but would become a felony, punishable by up to five years in jail and a fine up to $5,000.
“I believe somebody’s playing on the fears of the public at this time of the year,” Sweezey said.
Each envelope contained a note with the words “Black September.”
Black September is the name of the Palestinian terrorist group that murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches during the 1972 Munich Olympics in an incident that began 30 years ago Thursday.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, anthrax letters were sent to U.S. senators, media outlets, and elsewhere. Five people died from exposure to the anthrax. No arrests have been made, despite a $2.5 million reward.
Since last September, according to Timperi, the state lab in Boston’s Jamaica Plain section has tested about 3,000 suspicious-powder samples, none of which has turned out to be anthrax.