Taking a break this week from Louisiana and its bush-league scandals, perhaps it is time for a tale of which only the best of conspiracy theorists could conceive. Imagine, eleven microbiologists dead over the span of just five months.
Each individual on the list was the foremost in his field of either developing weapons-grade biological plagues, figuring out how to stop millions from dying of those plagues, or leading the world in expertise on the theory of bioterrorism.
In the words of Canadian journalist Alanna Mitchell, "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."
Despite the news focus on the "War on Terror," no U.S. newspaper has covered what the Toronto Globe And Mail has spent months investigating - a series of deaths so coincidental that they almost seem part of a deliberate plot. So much so, that The Louisiana Weekly wishes to share this unusual series of events.
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. Remarkably, however, nowhere on his body was there a sign of a attack or of any form of physical assault.
A mere 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 Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks. He specialized in potential mass plagues such as HIV, Ebola, and influenza.
The microbiologist had just purchased tickets to take his son to Graceland the next day. That night, police discovered the doctor's rental car abandoned on a bridge outside of 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.
Five days later, the world-renowned 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 MI6, the British Intelligence Agency, concluded that the scientist died of a stroke. Dr. Pasechnik had defected to the United Kingdom in 1989 after playing a crucial role in Russian biowarfare program. His research led to the discovery of 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 Leesburg, VA. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and several of her fellow pagans were under suspicion in the murder case. Dr. Schwartz was an expert in DNA sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms, and worked at the Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon, VA.
Four days later, Nguyen Van Set, 44, was killed in an accident in his laboratory in Geelong, Australia. 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 with modification, could affect smallpox.
Then in February, the Russian microbiologist Victor Korshunov, 56, one of the world's leading authorities on intestinal bacteria of children was bashed over the head near his home in Moscow. Five days later, the body of the British microbiologist Ian Langford, 40, was discovered near his home in Norwich, England, naked from the waist down and wedged under a chair. He was an expert on environmental risks and disease.
Two weeks later, two prominent microbiologists died in San Francisco. Tanya Holzmayer, 46, a Russian who immigrated to the U.S. in 1989, focused her research on the part of the human molecular structure that medicine could best affect. She was killed by fellow microbiologist Guyang (Matthew) Huang, 38, who shot her seven times when she opened the door to receive a pizza delivery. He then reportedly shot himself.
The final two deaths came one day after the other in March. David Wynn Williams, a respected astrobiologist with the British Antarctic Survey, died in a freak road accident near his home in Cambridge, England. He studied the habits of microbes that might survive in outer space, important in the delivery of viruses transatmospherically. He was hit by a car while jogging.
The following day, Steven Mostow, 63, known in medical circles 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.
"Statistically, what are the chances?" a prominent North American microbiologist told the Globe and Mail.
The recently deceased individuals are amongst the highest caliber of the 20,000 microbiological researchers in the world. That the best and brightest would die in such a short period following September 11th when one of the stated objectives of Osama Bin Laden was bacteriological warfare should bring pause, if not fear.
These incidents could amount to the greatest case of coincidental tragedy in human scientific history, yet they remind the authors of a line from an old movie: a Southern sheriff stands over a clearly murdered man and mutters, "Worst case of suicide I've ever seen."
Has our government been doing the same thing?
'Is Tamiflu A Prescription For Survival?'
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