The school was closed and 481 students and teachers were evacuated while investigators determined whether the letter actually contained anthrax. All of the previous threats have turned out to be hoaxes. Meanwhile, three priests and four staffers at the Queen of the Martyrs Catholic Church in the Buffalo, N.Y., suburb of Cheektowaga were receiving the same treatment after a similarly worded letter arrived at their rectory. Director Joseph Scheidler said none of the staff had been evacuated. FBI officials in Indiana said the letter received at St. Matthew was nearly identical to a phony anthrax threat sent 10 days before to an abortion clinic in Indianapolis and other clinics in four Midwest states.
Anthrax is a disease that usually affects animals, but humans who inhale the spores can be infected.
Though it has been used as a deadly biological weapon, it can be treated with antibiotics. The letters sent to Indianapolis and Chicago had Texas postmarks, while the letter to the New York church was mailed in Illinois. The threatening letters are exactly the kind of anti-abortion violence and intimidation being targeted by the Justice Department's new National Clinic Violence Task Force. Declaring the task force was a response to the wave of recent violence, Reno cited several attacks on abortion doctors and more than 30 incidents at clinics involving putrid butyric acid, bomb and arson threats, and letters claiming to contain deadly biological spores. In addition to gathering evidence, the new task force will help train local law enforcement and abortion providers in attack response and prevention.