What Happened to Dr. Bruce Ivins? Netflix’s ‘Anthrax Attacks’ Doc Revisits the Anthrax Letters Case

One week after the September 11 attacks, the already distressed American public was rocked by a new terrifying threat—people were being killed via the mail. Now, a new Netflix documentary, The Anthrax Attacks, takes a closer look at the 2001 anthrax attacks, which came in the form of threatening letters containing deadly anthrax spores.

Over the course of several weeks in September and October 2001, threatening letters that referenced 9/11 and contained deadly anthrax spores were sent to news media outlets and offices of U.S. senators. At least 22 people developed anthrax infections, and five people died from anthrax inhalations, including two employees of the Brentwood mail facility in Washington, D.C.

Though initially believed to be a foreign terrorist attack connected to the al-Qaeda September 11 attacks, authorities determined that the sophisticated equipment needed for the strain of anthrax used meant the perpetrator likely was a U.S. scientist. The FBI investigation that followed dragged on for nearly a decade. Eventually, a man was named responsible: Dr. Bruce Ivins, who is played by Clark Gregg in the Netflix documentary, in reenactments using statements from Ivins’ real emails and interviews with the FBI.

Who is Bruce Ivins from Netflix’s The Anthrax Attacks?

Dr. Bruce Ivins is the suspected perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed at least five people. Ivins was formerly a senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Maryland.

Portrayed by Marvel alum Clark Gregg in The Anthrax Attacks documentary, Ivins was not initially a serious suspect in the FBI’s investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks. For the first several years of the investigation, he was a collaborator with FBI agents, helping them to identify the specific strain of anthrax powder detected on the envelopes sent. He also, along with his colleagues, worked to identify real threats of anthrax vs. a number of hoaxes that were sent out after the initial attacks.  And, beyond that, he began working on research for a new anthrax vaccine, with less severe side effects.

For years, the FBI’s primary suspect was bioweapons expert Steven Hatfill. Despite his claims of innocence and lack of concrete evidence, Hatfill was placed under extreme surveillance by the FBI and was hounded and harassed by the media. (After Hatfill was exonerated, he sued the bureau for violating his constitutional rights and for violating the Privacy Act. The case was settled in 2008 with the Department of Justice paying Hatfill $5.8 million.) It wasn’t until a new lead investigator, Vince Lisi, was assigned to the case in 2006, that the FBI made Ivins its main suspect.

According to the Netflix documentary, Ivins had initially been cleared of suspicion years before, when he, along with all of his colleagues, submitted an anthrax sample for analysis, and it was not a match with the anthrax strain used in the attack. However, also according to the documentary, Ivins submitted two samples, because he used the wrong test tube for his first submission. When the first submission was re-checked, it was apparently a match.

More than that, using now more advanced technology, investigators concluded that the anthrax spores used in the attacks were created in a flask that Bruce Ivins had used for his experiments. Ivins became the primary suspect, and his house was searched under a warrant by the FBI. Agent Lisi says in the documentary that while they didn’t find the evidence they had hoped to find in this search, another FBI agent later found a book about coded messages in Ivins trash—linking him to the coded messages found in the letters.

The FBI also dug up more dirt on Ivins, including his unhealthy preoccupation with his alma matter’s sorority, troubling emails he sent to a female colleague, and his tendency to hack into friends’ emails to read messages about himself. They also got him to admit to a friend, who was secretly wearing a wire, that he had blackout bouts of depression and rage, in which he didn’t remember what he did. When she asked if he sent the anthrax letters, he replied “I can’t recall doing anything like that.”

Where is Bruce Ivins now?

Ivins died on July 29, 2008, of an overdose of acetaminophen (Tylenol) combined with alcohol. His death was ruled a suicide. One week after his death, the Department of Justice announced in a news conference that Ivins was likely the sole perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks. The investigation was officially closed in February 2010.

However, though Ivins is the official suspect in the attack, the FBI did not need to provide direct evidence of his guilt, now that he is dead. Many of his former colleagues, including Henry S. Heine, maintain that it would be impossible for Ivins to have created the anthrax spores used in the attacks without detection, and pointed to the fact that many people had access to the flask that was genetically linked to the attack.

The FBI contends that “rarely does science alone solve an investigation.” Some remain doubtful that Ivins was the right suspect, and have called on the FBI to reopen the case. But after over a decade, and with no repeat attacks, that doesn’t seem very likely. For now, the case is closed.