This is an article from Saturday,May 4 2002 edition of the Globe and Mail
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Eleven Scientists' deaths are under the microscope
By ALANNA MITCHELL, SIMON COOPER AND CAROLYN ABRAHAM
COMPILED BY ALANNA MITCHELL
Saturday, May 4, 2002
It's a tale only the best conspiracy theorist could dream
up.
Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of
just five months. Some of them world leaders in developing
weapons-grade biological plagues. Others the best in
figuring out how to stop millions from dying because of
biological weapons. Still others, experts in the theory of
bioterrorism.
Throw in a few Russian defectors, a few nervy U.S. biotech
companies, a deranged assassin or two, a bit of Elvis, a
couple of Satanists, a subtle hint of espionage, a big whack
of imagination, and the plot is complete, if a bit
reminiscent of James Bond.
The first three died in the space of just over a week in
November. Benito Que, 52, was an expert in infectious
diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School.
Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on Nov.
12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot.
Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a
beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke.
Just four days after Dr. Que fell unconscious came the
mysterious disappearance of Don Wiley, 57, one of the
foremost microbiologists in the United States. Dr. Wiley, of
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University,
was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral
attacks such as the classic doomsday plagues of HIV, ebola
and influenza.
He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the
following day. Police found his rental car on a bridge
outside Memphis, Tenn. His body was later found in the
Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a
dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge.
Just five days after that, the world-class microbiologist
and high-profile Russian defector Valdimir Pasechnik, 64,
fell dead. The pathologist who did the autopsy, and who also
happened to be associated with Britain's spy agency,
concluded he died of a stroke.
Dr. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989,
played a huge role in Russian biowarfare and helped to
figure out how to modify cruise missiles to deliver the
agents of mass biological destruction.
The next two deaths came four days apart in December. Robert
Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police
believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His
daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess,
and several of her fellow pagans have been charged.
Dr. Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic
micro-organisms, who worked at the Center for Innovative
Technology in Herndon, Va.
Four days later, Nguyen Van Set, 44, died at work in
Geelong, Australia, in a laboratory accident. He entered an
airlocked storage lab and died from exposure to nitrogen.
Other scientists at the animal diseases facility of the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
had just come to fame for discovering a virulent strain of
mousepox, which could be modified to affect smallpox.
Then in February, the Russian microbiologist Victor
Korshunov, 56, an expert in intestinal bacteria of children
around the world, was bashed over the head near his home in
Moscow. Five days later the British microbiologist Ian
Langford, 40, was found dead in his home near Norwich,
England, naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair.
He was an expert in environmental risks and disease.
Two weeks later, two prominent microbiologists died in San
Francisco. Tanya Holzmayer, 46, a Russian who moved to the
U.S. in 1989, focused on the part of the human molecular
structure that could be affected best by medicine.
She was killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew)
Huang, 38, who shot her seven times when she opened the door
to a pizza delivery. Then he shot himself.
The final two deaths came one day after the other in March.
David Wynn-Williams, 55, a respected astrobiologist with the
British Antarctic Survey, who studied the habits of microbes
that might survive in outer space, died in a freak road
accident near his home in Cambridge, England. He was hit by
a car while he was jogging.
The following day, Steven Mostow, 63, known as Dr. Flu for
his expertise in treating influenza, and a noted expert in
bioterrorism, died when the airplane he was piloting crashed
near Denver.
So what does any of it mean?
"Statistically, what are the chances?" wondered a prominent
North American microbiologist reached last night at an
international meeting of infectious-disease specialists in
Chicago.
Janet Shoemaker, director of public and scientific affairs
of the American Society for Microbiology in Washington,
D.C., pointed out yesterday that there are about 20,000
academic researchers in microbiology in the U.S. Still, not
all of these are of the elevated calibre of those recently
deceased.
She had a chilling, final thought. When microbiologists die
in a lab, there's a way of taking note of the deaths and
adding them up. When they die in freakish accidents outside
the lab, nobody keeps track.
Suspicious deaths
The sudden and suspicious deaths of 11 of the world's
leading microbiologists.
Who they were:
1. Nov. 12, 2001:
Benito Que was said to have been beaten in a Miami parking
lot and died later.
2. Nov. 16, 2001:
Don C. Wiley went missing. Was found Dec. 20. Investigators
said he got dizzy on a Memphis bridge and fell to his death
in a river.
3. Nov. 21, 2001:
Vladimir Pasechnik, former high-level Russian microbiologist
who defected in 1989 to the U.K. apparently died from a
stroke.
4. Dec. 10, 2001:
Robert M. Schwartz was stabbed to death in Leesberg, Va.
Three Satanists have been arrested.
5. Dec. 14, 2001:
Nguyen Van Set died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in
his lab in Geelong, Australia.
6. Feb. 9, 2002:
Victor Korshunov had his head bashed in near his home in
Moscow.
7. Feb. 14, 2002:
Ian Langford was found partially naked and wedged under a
chair in Norwich, England.
8. 9. Feb. 28, 2002:
San Francisco resident Tanya Holzmayer was killed by a
microbiologist colleague, Guyang Huang, who shot her as she
took delivery of a pizza and then apparently shot himself.
10. March 24, 2002:
David Wynn-Williams died in a road accident near his home in
Cambridge, England.
11. March 25, 2002:
Steven Mostow of the Colorado Health Sciences Centre, killed
in a plane he was flying near Denver.
Maria
Greg
OVE alone is eternal and unconquerable.
I had just finished reading this, and I nearly croaked!
I did get them, and passed them on to Maria ... and just got a bunch of research from her that I passed on to you!
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