was he hiding in plain sight? and could it happen again? >> this is something that could be taken out of a lab, put in an envelope, dropped in a mailbox, and people would die. >> robert stevens the first to die. >> natural cause or my husband's death certificate said homicide. >> originally from england, the '70s, stevens and his wife moved to florida. he worked for america media incorporated, a tabloid publisher. >> no one could say they didn't like him. it's full of life, he loved everybody. >> in early october, 2001, stevens has what seems like the flu. two days later, slurred speech and a trip to the hospital. >> it's anthrax. now i get shivers. and then she said, the cdc the fbi, and the president has been informed. i was in shock. >> robert stevens dies the next day. anthrax had shut down his vital organs. >> he was just the perfect person to me. and i miss him. my heart is still not in one piece yet. >> labwork reveals the anthrax that killed stevens called the a strain. >> it was a lab strain. it was not out there in the wild. >> david wilman, a pulgtser prize-winning investigative reporter is the author of a recent book on the anthrax attacks. >> the fact this is a laboratory strain told him this is a bioterrorism event. >> a week later, anthrax-filled letters start showing up at major news organizations in new york. >> anthrax -- another infection. this time at nbc news in rockefeller plaza. >> the attack letters have a chilling message, death to america, death to israel. allah is great. >> i was a postal inspector team leader in the case. >> he helped lead the investigation from your early days. >> instant reaction at the time? >> instant reaction -- looks like an al qaeda event, it's a fall lon follow on attack. that's where my head but. >> three days after the nbc letter, capitol hill. >> the letter is addressed to tom daschle. it's open. the white powder spills out. >> we don't know how many people came in contact with the letter. there were 40 people in my office at the time. >> a preliminary testing says it's anthrax. it was game on. >> i was covering the hill back then, and i can tell you, it felt surreal. congress and the supreme court shut down, and mail delivery to the white house was cut off. all three branches of government. >> you can't overstate the drama, the shock and awe power of that event. >> a massive multi-agency investigation called amerithrax goes to full force. another anthrax letter addressed to senator patrick leahy of vermont found unopened. >> no one thought, whoa, any letter in congress has to come through the brentwood mail handling facility just a few blocks away in northeast washington. so none of the postal worker were given the benefit of immediate nasal swabs or preemptive doses of an antibiotic. >> two poes sal workers, joseph curseen and thomas morris jr. will die. >> letters but we couldn't prove, you know, where it was -- where it originated from. >> the fbi's ed montooth now retired would become lead agent. >> was it coming from al qaeda, was it coming from a foreign government. was it home grown issue? >> whoever mailed the anthrax had covered his tracks. >> hoping for a partial fingerprint at a minimum or some sort of dna. we had none of that. we had absolutely none. >> the anthrax powder offered hints after being examined by one of the pentagon's experts on biological weapons. a scientist named bruce ivans. >> there was no one who is more experienced at growing, purifying, and handling, preparing anthrax spores at ft. dietrich than bruce ivans. >> ivans reported his findings, extremely pure, extremely high concentration. these are not garage spores. in other words, the work of a pro. >> it would be somebody that would be working with this first -- you know, for some reason. may it be research or vaccinations or advancement of some sort of scientific project. >> hints also in the wording -- allah is great. would a real jihadi mix arabic and english? >> the specialists in the fbi conclude in their profile within a couple of months' period of time they thought it was a domestic actor, not a foreign actor. >> the fbi thought the killer might be hiding in plain sight, so the fed sent this e-mail to the american society of microbiologists asking its members, scientists, for help. it is very likely that one or more of you know this individual someone with legitimate access to dangerous germs and a high degree of technical knowledge. someone whose personality might be described as standoffish. out of 42,000 members, there is one response. >> i just thought, oh, no. i might actually know the person. >> nancy haigwood, a microbiologist with a hunch. >> i also had conviction that i really needed to call the fbi. >> murder by mail. >> this was certainly murder by mail.er ds use super models, metamucil uses super hard working psyllium fiber, which gels to remove unsexy waste and reduce cholesterol. taking psyllium fiber won't make you a model but you should feel a little more super. metamucil. down with cholesterol. is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. foyou know, the onessorption who do such a super job, they're backed by the superguarantee®? 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"well, we could sleep in the same bed, but it just doesn't work." yeah, nine out of ten couples disagree on the firmness they want in a mattress. i sleep on the couch. with our bed, the sleep number setting represents the firmness that you like on your half of the mattress. there's no debate, because you can have it your way and i'll have it mine. so we save a lot of marriages. at the sleep better together sale, save $400 to $800 on our newest, most innovative bed sets. only at the sleep number store where queen mattresses start at just $699. when the anthrax letters hit in october of 2001, nancy haigwood is an up and coming scientist in seattle, specializing in hiv. a few months after the attack, january, 2002, the fbi e-mails the american society of microbiology's members. fbi profilers believe it's very likely that one or more of you know this individual. >> in my mind, it was as though something clicked. >> who did you think of? >> bruce ivans. >> bruce ivans, a scientist at usamrid, the research institute for infectious diseases, ft. dietrich, maryland. this is the pentagon's main lab for studying biological weapons, for detecting vaccines. ivans is an expert on anthrax and in fact he's supposedly helping federal agents. >> in january of 2002, he's in the thick of it. >> what the feds do not see is the hidden side of bruce ivans, e-mails where he says i've been eaten alive by paranoid delusional thoughts. >> bruce ivans led a double life. >> psychiatrists will later describe ivans as a secretive, paranoid, resentful, and rage-filled man. >> he's a guy who had a definite dark side to him that no one else knew about. >> i met bruce in chapel hill, north carolina. >> it was the mid '70s, nancy haigwood was a graduate student at the university of north carolina. bruce ivan was there too. ivans asked incessantly about her sorority, kappa kappa gamma. he seems obsessed. >> every time i talked to him, he mentioned it. i said, bruce, that's enough. >> as their careers took shape over the years, ivans kept in touch. shortly after the anthrax attacks, wille e-mails these photos of himself with what he calls the now infamous strain of am tla amthrax. >> he wans his colleagues to know he's doing important work. >> one detail leaks out. >> he says he was working in the containment lab and he wasn't wearing gloves. that's a biosafety hazard, we don't do that. to me that's a sign, i'm immune. >> haigwood distrusted ivans for years beginning with a 1979 incident in grad school when her lab notebook, all herda at a, went missing. >> it's absolutely critical and it's your only copy. >> disappeared. >> disappeared. i came in, it wasn't there. i panicked. >> the next day, an anonymous letter telling her the notebook was in mailbox. >> so i called the police, we got the notebook back. >> how would you characterize it? a very mean prank. >> it's a cruel joke, i would say. and i thought, oh, the only person that would do something like this this odd might be bruce. >> why you, though? >> you know, it's funny, because i felt like i was one of the few people that was friendly to bruce. >> three years later, 1982, haigwood with her phd. was working in suburban washington. by coincidence, she live in the name neighborhood where bruce ivans had just moved from. one morning, haigwood walked out to find her house vandalized. >> the sidewalk, the fence, and the car were sprayed with red spray paint. >> even after she whitewashed it, you could see, kappa kappa gamma. >> because of the kappa connection, i thought of bruce ivans. >> five months later, the letter to the editor of the local "frederick news post" on a response of the use of hazing at colleges. as a member of kappa kappa gamma, they're incensed at the vitriolic attacks of hazing. it makes loyalty and the weeding out process. signed, nancy haigwood. there was just one problem. >> i didn't write this letter. >> do you believe in hazing? >> certainly not. >> after calling the newspaper to disavow the letter, she called ivans. >> i said this can only be you and you have to stop. what did he say? he said he didn't do it. but, of course, then i knew he was lying. >> did you think he was obsessed with you? >> clearly he was obsessed with me. yes. >> four years later, 1987, ivans filled out a medical history form at usamrid, asked about memory change, trouble with decisions, hallucinations, improbable beliefs, anxiety. ivans put a question mark. >> there was no follow-up, no point did the army ever evaluate his mental fitness to handle anthrax. the approach was just to defer to his status as a phd. scientist as a trustworthy individual in their estimation. >> everybody knows that he wouldn't harm a flea. >> nancy haigwood isn't so sure. the stolen notebook, the vandalism, and the phony letter to the editor, it's enough for her to contact the fbi. >> i just thought, i just need to tell these people and they need to look into this. >> that there was a creepy side to bruce ivans? >> yes. a deceptive side. >> but for the next 4 1/2 years, her tip is low priority. >> we didn't know how to put it in any context. we had nothing to bring it together with. so at that time, it sort of was tabled, if you will. >> a few months later, the fbi is making some progress. the anthrax letters all within the same postmark are traced back to a mailbox here in princeton, new jersey. it's contaminated with spores. but why here? across the street from an ivy league university? did the killer use the travel agency? ripped from one of the real estate companies? or eat at the red onion delicatessen? >> all that was documented was the mailbox with spores is 10 nassau street. >> no one paid attention to a small office a few doors down, the office for a sorority, kappa kappa gamma. taste. ♪ delicious pringles multigrain. with a variety of flavors, multigrain pops with pringles. yeah, i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. 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[♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. anthrax is odorless, tasteless, and the fatal dose is so small you can't even see it. so to protect against terrorists and rogue nations, sign ties at usamrid, the army's biodefense lab worked on vaccines. and it's here that federal investigators turn for help, to the hot suites with the world's deadliest germs. >> we're going to need these people in the community to help us analyze our materials. >> but the scientists with the expertise to solve the crime may also have the expertise to commit it. >> we did an expedited background check on them and said if you wan to work on our evidence, we need you to do this. >> bruce ivans seems to pass though they'll question the results. >> a set of three questions, do you know who did this? were you involved in it? or did you provide the anthrax that was use in the mailings? >> one of usamrid's anthrax specialist, ivans holds two patents on what he hopes would be a new genetically engineered vaccine. >> the bringing on-line of the next generation anthrax vaccine would have opinion the ultimate validation of his scientific expertise. >> colleagues say ivans is hard-working and dedicated. he volunteers for the red cross, others describe him as socially awkward, craving acceptance. he's the guy who writes clever poems for the office parties. he juggles. >> and there's the expression that took hold among colleagues and friends. yeah, he's odd, he's quirky, but it's bruce being bruce. >> but he's not just quirky. in e-mails he writes about two bruces. i'm a little dream self, short and stout. i'm the other half of bruce when he lets me out. when i get all steamed up, i don't pout, i push bruce aside, then i'm free to run about. >> if he becomes offended and believes an concludes they've done him wrong in some way, he will go after them. >> from the beginning, ivans implicates current and former colleagues. >> and said you need to investigate this person because he has the skill, he has the ability, he has access to everything he needs to do this. and oh by the way, he happens to live up in the area where the mailbox was used for the mailing. >> the tips from ivans go nowhere. but the investigation focuses on a former usamrid scientist named steven hatfield who worked here in the 1990s, eight people flagged hatfield to the fbi. >> i want to look my fellow americans directly in the eye and declare to them, i am not the anthrax killer! >> his resume, hatfield claims a working knowledge of the america's former biological weapons programs. the fbi says a witness reports hatfield claimed to have prepare and used anthrax as a weapon in the late 1970s while studying in southern africa. >> i have never, ever worked with anthrax in my life. >> the suspicion is filled by hatfield's job at saic. he works on biologic weapons defense. one with the anthrax sent through the mail has power point presentations about a single letter being sent to government agencies and news agencies. >> that was very interesting to us, right, that it is what happened. it's training for doctors and medics on how to handle biological threats. >> it became a challenge for us to sort out why are they here? are they legitimately for the -- for the biopreparedness, the preparednd work, or is it something more nefarious. >> raising the stakes, he had pripgs for cipro, the drug of choice to treat anthrax. >> it's fair for us to be looking at him. >> reporters are also looking at hatfield. when federal agents search his apartment, the press choppers in thanks to leaks from inside the investigation. >> they were quite, i think, anxious to get that word out to demonstrate that we're on top of this. >> but investigators find nothing that connects hatfield to the crime. so, a few weeks later, the fbi comes back with bloodhounds hoping to find the scent of anthrax on hatfield 11 months after the crime. >> sure, why not. let's give it a shot, right? >> we didn't have much going at the time. >> we were struggling, right? >> two problems with the bloodhounds, first, they can be unreliable. one with tinker bell got an innocent man in california charged with serial rape. >> tinker bell got the wrong guy. she was brought to maryland and she was alerting on and fingering steven hatfield as the anthrax killer. >> second, the blood hound search was leaked to the media, yo quoting a source, "newsweek" says the dogs bounded up to him. the dogs went crazy. everything the dogs pointed to including a lake the fbi drained looking for evidence turns up empty. >> at some point, it didn't add up and it backed off. >> turning up the heat, john ashcroft outs him to the media. >> mr. hatfield is a person of interest to the department of justice. >> hatfield is put under 24-hour surveillance and will be under the government's sights for several years. >> if i'm a subject of interest, i'm a human being. >> with his career in ruins, hatfield sues the department of justice for the press leaks. >> the government will pay him $6 million and acknowledge for years they were focused on an innocent man. >> they're in a rough place. if the fbi does not have me as a person of interest, then what does it have? 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(phone ringing) chase sapphire preferred, this is julie in springfield. i'm don lemon, here are your headlines at this hour. ron paul won the straw poll. the conservatives in washington gave paul the solid victory over the party rivals. 37% of the votes, herman cain finished with 23% and rick santorum came in third with 16%. in syria today, more violent anti-government protests. more than 50,000 people turned out in a rally in northeastern syria after the assassination of an opposition leader. they were calling for the overthrown president. two people were killed and the security forces cracked down on the protest. the pro football world is mourning a legend tonight. al davis has died. davis began coaching the raiders in 1963 and took ownership of the team beginning in 1966. raiders won three super bowls under his leadership. no cause of death has been released but davis was in declining health recently. he was 82 years old. those are the headlines, i'm don lemon. cnn presents death by mail, the anthrax letters, continues now. >> f