back to article Anthrax 'rogue scientist' also Wikipedia cult member

Bruce Ivins, the deceased US government bioscientist accused of perpetrating the infamous 2001 anthrax mailings, was also a closet member of the online cult known as Wikipedia. Under the name Jimmyflathead, Ivins spent several years obsessively editing Wikipedia's article on the American college sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. A …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Jimbo's real intention?

    Maybe Jimbo was hoping that Anthrax Man had stalked a specific Kappa Kappa Ko-ed, whom the God-King could then reach out to in a "gentle" and "loving" way, administering his famous "wiki grief therapy". Too bad for him, the Checkuser trace was stale.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just a quick question

    What's with that handwriting? I see he always rights uppercase (no biggy computer users often do), but he writes the first letter in a larger capital than the rest. odd, what's that about? Why does he not write small letters in lower case?

    And the FBI letters, I don't understand, he writes the 'E' differently in the letter but consistently BETWEEN letters??? See the 'death to israel death to america' parts.

    http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/102301.htm

    WTF? Are they the same letter? If I size it, all the inconsistencies are the same. If you see what I mean. The letters are consistent in having the same inconsistencies.... odd.

    Just like the last little bits tied up.

  3. Hugh_Pym
    Paris Hilton

    Worlds dullest wiki page

    I was expecting some good stuff from a page about sorority girls regularly edited by a psychopath holding a grudge.

    Paris, no prizes.

  4. Dave
    Black Helicopters

    @AC - FBI Letters

    Just had a look at those letters in your link. The Second and Third Letters look to be identical writing - In fact they look to be the same letter. Spacings are same, Funny letter E in Israel, Rewritten A in Allah, Heavy A in DeAth to America. I'm guessing that letter 3 is a blow-up of letter 2, as the text is identical, that or Anthrax guy traced the writing from another source for both letters. (Here, little Jimmy, write me a letter and I'll give you five bucks.)

    The only problem (with the theory of the FBI publishing the same letter twice) is the rip on the left side of letter 3 (although it is following a fold that can be seen clearly in letters 2 & 3), and what I presume to be the background on the right hand side, implying different sized writing or paper. Colour differences could also be explained by re-photographing letter 2 for a better picture (Under a light bulb [brown tint in #2] or under a fluorescent light [green tint on envelope to Sen. Leahy])

    It's a simple mix-up of the pictures. No doubt there was an extra pic on the camera of the real letter 3.

  5. Thomas

    @AC

    "I see he always rights uppercase (no biggy computer users often do), but he writes the first letter in a larger capital than the rest. odd, what's that about?"

    It's something that home dot matrix printers (at least the Star ones, I think also the Epson FX types) used to do in the 80s as one of their built-in fonts — you know, in plain text mode where you'd just send them ASCII and they'd put it on the page, left to right, top to bottom. It was a lot faster and easier to manage than actual graphics output, and sometimes got you better looking characters as the methods for getting into graphics mode weren't universal and sometimes having your printer support the popular ones (usually FX compatibility) left it rescaling (usually upscaling) graphics for print-out.

    Anyway, I reckon either it's something with a typographical root somewhere or he just cribbed it from that. As a lab scientist I'm sure he dealt with enough dot matrix printouts in his day.

    But seriously, who writes in uppercase?

  6. Nicholas Ettel
    Coat

    But seriously, who writes in uppercase?

    I write in all uppercase. My capitals are a lot cleaner than my "normal handwriting."

    shit... did I just implicate myself?

    My coat? The white lab coat, obviously.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Uppercase

    I write in uppercase. It is the only way I can be sure that other people can read it. Because it's all in uppercase I make the letters that would normally be in uppercase larger than the rest so as to have them stand out.

    I know a good dozen people who also write all in uppercase and the majority of them do the same thing with respect to initial capitals.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Pfftt!

    Have you ever read a police thriller? Criminals write in block letters because supposedly it makes identifying them through calligraphy impossible.

    HTH

  9. J
    Paris Hilton

    "a women's sorority"

    Hey, Jimbo... Is there any other type, eh?

  10. theotherone

    yeah i remember anthrax

    rubbish band, early 90s

  11. ratfox
    Happy

    Re: "a women's sorority"

    Actually, it's not even a women's sorority, it's a women's fraternity... No, seriously, go check it up!

    Apparently, Jimbo cannot read his own encyclopedia...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @theotherone

    Late 2001 called... It wants its joke back.

    (yes, yes, I know...)

  13. n
    IT Angle

    how convenient?

    sure he killed himself...............just like Dr David Kelly killed himself........."..now get back to making us those chemical weapons, PENCILNECK!"

This topic is closed for new posts.