11.10.11
The ricin recipe keeps on giving
I’ve commented on the durability of the poison recipes from the neo-Nazi survivalist extremist right in the United States.
Starting in books, the recipe is now on handwritten papers copied from digital copies, passed down through the years.
And they all serve as tickets to prison and personal ruin in a certain very unique and queer American demographic.
The ricin recipe is self-destructive flypaper for militia members, “sovereign citizens,” agonizingly excessive ammo and gun hoarders, raging anti-Semites, alleged defenders of the sanctity of the Constitution, Gadsden flag fliers, gold and silver bugs, pro-lifers and tax resisters.
As must-have lore, the Saxon ricin recipe and its derivatives have seemingly penetrated into every nook and cranny of the violent white power far right in this country. It speaks directly to an ineradicable crazy white man’s compulsion/obsession ( one held by an always surprising number of people) with having an arsenal for striking back at the government and locals they despise.
It arguably marks a singular and unpleasant flaw in our threadbare national character, one surely not held by the majority but always visible upon closer inspection.
In another manner of speaking, now there’s always some nut sitting at the table, in a quiet rage, convinced he’s a patriot defending against evil and collecting stuff that comforts him in this lonely task.
And if the ricin recipe could have been copyrighted in the way of best-sellers, it would have made the owner a great deal of money.
From Alaska, earlier in the week, a story eclipsed by the Georgia Ricin Beans Gang:
Mary Ann Morgan, the Kenai Peninsula “sovereign citizen” militia member arrested at the Canadian border in October after trying to enter the country with a handgun, also possessed bomb-making documents and instructions on how to make the poison ricin and carry concealed weapons, according to federal court documents filed Friday in Fairbanks …
The documents [found in Morgan’s pickup] included the following:
• A note, apparently in Morgan’s handwriting, with detailed directions on how to build pipe bombs.
• Information downloaded from the Internet on ricin, a deadly toxin derived from castor beans.
• A “plethora of information” on the possession and use of firearms.
• A list of common household poisons and a reference to a “poisonous plants database.” …
Morgan is associated with Fairbanks militia leader Schaefer Cox, currently jailed with others on federal weapons and murder conspiracy charges.
And on the Ricin Beans Gang yesterday:
The assassination of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney was part of the terrorist plot hatched by four North Georgia men, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in a bond hearing for the accused. (Both are African-American and Democrat.)
The four men accused of planning to bomb federal buildings, disperse the toxin ricin in major U.S. cities, and assassinate federal judges and prosecutors pleaded not guilty at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Gainesville.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney said law enforcement officers seized 52 weapons and 30,000 rounds of ammunition from [Ricin Beans Gang member Dan Thomas’] home. The weapons included assault rifles, shotguns, pistols with extended magazines and revolvers, and “sniper round” bullets and “sub-sonic??? ammunition designed to be used with silencers, he said. McBurney did not say where the guns and ammunition were kept in the home.
But defense attorney Jeff Ertel countered that Thomas is an avid gun collector and hunter. He said all of the weapons were legally owned, a point McBurney conceded.
It’s quite a legal arsenal/gun collection but probably not all that remarkable in heartland red state America.