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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Eight Faculty Members Receive Mail Threats
Threatening letters lined with razor blades were delivered to eight Harvard faculty this week. Two of the packages were delivered as recently as Wednesday afternoon. A radical animal rights group calling itself "The Justice Department" is thought to be responsible. Six recipients of the razor blade-laced letters are involved in primate studies at Harvard's animal research facility in Southborough, Mass. Two other envelopes were received by Harvard employees at Beth Israel hospital and the Harvard Medical School. No one was injured. According to Harvard University Police Det. Sgt. Richard Mederos, the razor blades were secured to the inside back panels of white, business-sized envelopes bearing Las Vegas postmarks but no return addresses. Mederos says the blades were positioned in such a way that anyone ripping open the envelopes by hand could have been seriously hurt. The envelopes also contained notes threatening violence against the recipients should they continue their work in animal research beyond an "autumn of 2000" deadline. The delivery of the envelopes was preceded last weekend by a warning to Harvard officials that the razors were en route to 83 researchers nationwide, including 12 Harvard faculty, according to the Harvard Medical School. The intended Harvard targets were given advance warning about the mailings, and instructed to notify campus police if any suspicious packages actually arrived. Campus police say 8 of the threats have surfaced so far. Only two Harvard faculty actually opened the razored envelopes. "It's unfortunate that they've taken a civil debate on the role of animals in research and escalated it to violence," said Harvard Medical School Public Relations Director Don Gibbons. This is an active criminal case, under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Postal Service, and Harvard University Campus Police. Authorities are asking Harvard faculty and staff to watch for suspicious letters and packages, particularly those bearing Las Vegas postmarks and/or without return addresses. Suspicious mail should be reported immediately to Det. Sgt. Richard Mederos of the Harvard Police at (617) 496-3220.
Copyright 1999 President and Fellows of Harvard College |