Allegation: Ivins's 1983 Letter as Former Colleague
On the morning of November 30, 1982, Nancy Haigwood walked out of her Gaithersburg, MD, townhome to find "KKG" carefully spray painted on her fence, sidewalk, and the rear window of her fiancé's car. Haigwood, a member of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, had moved in only a few months earlier. Her address, she claimed, had not been published.
At the time, Bruce Ivins, a USAMRIID scientist, lived just a block away. Haigwood had known Ivins, an acquaintance, through their recent postgraduate studies at the University of North Carolina. He was an unusual, officious kind of guy who, according to Haigwood, had shown a specific interest in her ΚΚΓ membership. She was sure that Ivins was the vandal and confronted him during a chance encounter soon afterward. He denied it.
Months later, a "Nancy L. Haigwood" wrote the following letter to the editor of The Frederick News-Post. The letter, published May 9, 1983, was in response to a buried AP story in the paper about a University of Montana frat member* who had floated a dead kitten in a block of ice in a punch bowl. Despite the fact that the article did not mention fraternity hazing, the letter defended the practice.
It seems that every time I read an article in the News-Post about college fraternities or sororities, the tone of the article is decidedly negative. "Frat member floats kitten in punch" (April 15, 1983) continues that unfortunate tradition.
As a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, one of our nation's oldest and most prestigious college sororities, I am continually dismayed by attempts of the media and other outsiders to disparage the Greek System. I am especially incensed at vitriolic attacks on our practices of "hazing," which non-Greeks fail to realize serve numerous valuable functions that I would like to briefly enumerate.
First of all, hazing strengthens the mettle of pledges by preparing them for the many trials they will surely face in later life. Secondly, hazing builds loyalty to the pledge class and to the overall organization. Last but not least, hazing is the final stage of the all-important weeding-out process.
Charges that actives are to blame for accidental injuries which sometimes occur during pledge hazing are totally without foundation. No active ever forces any pledge or initiate to do anything in a sorority or fraternity—an individual is free to depledge at any time.
Charges that hazing and other related activities are detrimental to the academic performance of pledges obviously come from individuals who don't realize that the primary education in a college or university environment doesn't come from reading a book or sitting in a classroom, but rather from dynamically interacting with one's peers.
No one ever hears non-Greeks laud the accomplishments of those within the ranks, yet the proud Halls of American History are lined with men and women who were members of college fraternities and sororities. No matter what the press may say about us, I'm still proud to be in a sorority, proud to be counted among our country's very best.
NANCY L. HAIGWOOD
10265 Ridgeline Drive, Gaithersburg
Haigwood maintains that she never wrote the letter and believes that Ivins did. If true, the letter's author would have been a 37-year-old, male, USAMRIID scientist who had just published data about plasmid-mediated toxin production in Bacillus anthracis and the enhanced culture of the bacterium.
During the last few years, as jimmyflathead at Wikipedia, Ivins showed an interest in ΚΚΓ hazing by attempting to contribute information about the subject (see previous post here).
* God only knows where that creep is now.
Primary source: Microbiologist says she was stalked by Ivins. See also the FBI's Amerithrax search warrants for more information about Ivins's alleged online activity.
Public domain photograph of Daschle "anthrax" letter from Wikipedia.
