Introducing Cover Up Season 4: The Anthrax Threat

The Conspiracy Tapes

Sony Music

True Crime, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the wake of 9/11, a series of letters laced with a deadly powder called anthrax appeared on the desks of prominent journalists and politicians in New York City and Washington D.C. Five people were killed, and seventeen more were infected. It was the worst case of bioterrorism in American history, setting off a surge of finger pointing, xenophobia, and fear. But what started as an unprecedented case soon turned into an unsettling mystery. Who had sent these letters? And why? On season 4 of Cover Up, we trace the FBI’s costly investigation into the attacks, which was stacked with a seemingly endless series of false leads, damaging leaks, and embarrassing blunders. Through revealing interviews with victims, agents, and suspects, we unpack the case in its messy entirety, all with an eye toward the question that remains today: Did the FBI identify the true killer, or is this case still unresolved? Subscribe now to unlock all shows on The Binge and you’ll be the first to access Cover Up: The Anthrax Threat as soon as it drops on March 1, 2024. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find out more about The Binge and other podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Most of us remember 9-11, the terror, the fear, the sense that nothing and nobody was safe.
0:07.0	But few remember the terrifying attacks that happened in the weeks after, which turned every mailbox in America into a potential weapon of mass destruction and every citizen into a potential target.
0:21.0	In October 2001, a series of letters filled with a deadly powder called anthrax
0:25.3	were dropped into the US mail system.
0:28.0	They were addressed to prominent journalists and politicians in New York City and Washington, D.C.
0:33.0	The anthrax in those letters killed five people.
0:36.0	Seventeen others were infected.
0:38.0	You know, my throat and my glands were huge.
0:41.0	And I thought, oh my God, what the hell is wrong on me.
0:44.4	We're making sure that we connect any dots that we have to find out who's doing this.
0:50.3	It was the worst act of bioterrorism in American history, leading to years of
0:57.5	finger-pointing and anxiety. Not to mention an investigation full of costly
1:01.7	rabbit holes, damaging leaks, and embarrassing blunders.
1:05.0	Think about it. They can lie about me.
1:07.0	Yeah, they can lie about you.
1:08.0	FBI agents were under intense pressure from the government to find the person responsible. But over time, what started as an
1:14.8	unprecedented case turned into an unsettling mystery. Who had sent these anthrax lace letters. And why?
1:23.6	You have to go where the evidence points you.
1:30.0	You can't invent evidence.
1:32.2	I needed to prove I was innocent.
1:34.0	Not that they needed to prove I was guilty,
1:36.0	but I needed to prove I was innocent.
	...

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