The Mirage Man

Willman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Los Angeles Times reporting on the anthrax attacks, here provides a highly detailed account of the federal government's investigation of the series of letters laced with deadly anthrax spores that were sent out just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The contents of the letters killed five people and injured many more. After years of focusing the investigation on a scientist who was eventually cleared of all charges, the FBI, Willman believes, finally got its man. But the chief suspect, Bruce Ivins, a government anthrax expert who worked for the U.S. Army in Maryland, committed suicide before he was brought to trial. Willman presents a strong case of circumstantial evidence that Ivins was indeed the anthrax killer. But, he concedes, some doubt remains. More important, the book reveals serious shortcomings in the nation's law enforcement and national security bureaucracy.