This 2003 photo provided by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases shows Bruce E. Ivins participating in an awards ceremony.” (Wikipedia)

By SHARON K. GILBERT
August 4, 2008

ACCORDING to media reports, Dr. Bruce Ivins committed suicide on July 29, 2008 by intentionally ingesting an overdose of Tylenol mixed with codeine. A whirlwind of spin surrounds this story, with the eye of this storm centering on a woman named Jean Carol Duley, a counselor who may be the very same Jean Carol Duley still listed as a student at Hood College in July 2007. Is it likely the military (who runs Fort Detrick, where Ivins worked) would permit him to meet with any counselor who had only recently graduated? Nope, you can bet that persons with Ivins high clearance would never have been allowed to interact with civilians in a closed-door, ‘therapy’ session.

During her meeting(s) with Ivins, kept notes (or so we’re told — and of course all of this assumes Duley really did meet with Ivins and not a ‘stand-in’). A copy of one such note has appeared at the online site, The Smoking Gun. This handwritten note can be viewed at here, but the content is this (note that the content is transcribed verbatim from Duley’s handwritten note, complete with misspelling of her own professional title ‘theripist’:

client has a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats, actions, plans, threats & actions toward theripist. Dr. David Irwin his psychiatrist called him homicidal, sociopathic with clear intentions will testify with other details FBI involved, currently under investigation & will be charged with 5 capital murders. I have been subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury August 1, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

On July 24, 2008, Duley allegedly filed a complaint against Ivins with the Frederick County District Court. In the complaint, Duley claims that on July 9th, Ivins had harassed and stalked her, and that Ivins “had committed” (her words) to “FMH” (presumably Frederick Memorial Hospital) and subsequently transferred to Sheppard-Pratt Hospital for psychiatric care on July 10 and July 11. She then claims that Ivins signed himself out of Sheppard-Pratt, despite a pending commitment hearing. Duley does not list her home or work addresses, filling in ‘confidential’ in the appropriate boxes, despite asking for a restraining order that would keep Ivins 50 feet or more away at all times.

Ok, let’s dissect this document. We have a woman who is a recent graduate at the very least, who claims to have counseled a high-profile, longterm microbiologist who works for the military on anthrax projects. This woman claims this same high-profile scientist divulged secret plans to wipe out his fellow workers. Duley claims the scientist then began to harass her and stalk her, and that she feared for her life enough to swear out a complaint (note the date of the complaint is fifteen days after the activity began). Let’s not forget, Duley is a ‘social worker’ not a physician, psychologist, or psychiatrist. She is a recently graduated social worker! A little digging, shows Duley to be no stranger to local police, having been listed as ‘defendant’ in no less than eight cases in the state of Maryland, including at least one DUI and a drug charge back in 1992. She is also listed a plaintiff in two cases, one described as domestic. I don’t wish to rush headlong into conjecture, but the very notion that Ivins would have engaged in ‘counseling’ with this woman stretches credulity! It’s doubtful that Duley would have passed a background check!

Now that we’re warmed up, let us dive into the note revealed at The Smoking Gun. Several items here catch my eye:

1. Duley claims that the “client has a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats, actions, plans, threats & actions toward theripist.” — How would she know this? Did she have unprecedented access to government documents? It’s unlikely that Ivins would have told her this. Note again, that Duley couldn’t even spell therapist correctly.

2. “Dr. David Irwin his psychiatrist called him homicidal, sociopathic with clear intentions…” (presumably this Dr. Irwin). I did a search for Dr. David Irwin and found a psychiatrist who graduated 42 years ago and did a residency at Walter Reed. Today, this Dr. Irwin practices at Shady Grove Psychiatric Group in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Now, if Ivins was truly under Irwin’s care, why would Ivins spill his guts to a low-level social worker? And how would this same social worker know about Irwin’s diagnosis without access to Ivins’ medical records (an event that should have tripped the government’s radar).

3. “…will testify with other details FBI involved, currently under investigation & will be charged with 5 capital murders.” — Say what? How does Ms. Duley know what the FBI is up to? And if she did know, then why didn’t she call the FBI rather than file a complaint with the District Court of Maryland?

4. “I have been subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury August 1, 2008 in Washington, D.C.” — This one line conveniently sets up a major defense for the ‘suicide’ theory. A cursory reading might lead one to believe Ivins panicked, and that he believed all the guts he’d spilled to Ms. Duley were about to indict him for 5 murders.

Pardon me if my head spins a bit, and I pause to keep from retching up my lunch! How is the American public buying this load of black-ops manure? In the meantime, Ms. Duley has gone underground. I ask ‘why’, since the man who had threatened her is now deceased. She should be all over the public airwaves as a national heroine! Social worker unravels Anthrax Mystery!

Instead, she’s gone to ground.

Now, let’s look at another news item that is connected, but isn’t getting much air play:

Emergent BioSolutions announced in late July that it had sought and won a government contract to produce anthrax vaccines. For those who don’t know, Dr. Bruce E. Ivins had spent his life’s work trying to determine the precise methodology behind anthrax infection, specifically looking for the toxin that killed. He isolated this very toxin, the Lethal Factor, in 1988 and built upon that work to find a vaccine that would protect animals and humans alike. Ivins co-owned two patents for the anthrax vaccine which Emergent BioSolutions will now sell to us all. Media heads are claiming this provided Ivins with a motive for the 2001 anthrax attacks; that he would reap a huge financial windfall from vaccine sales. Wrong. Ivins worked for the government, and as such his income was limited to no more than $150,000/year profit from any research. Like academics conducting research under government grants, Ivins was a captive scientist.

There are rumors afloat across the internet that Ivins had been helping VaxGen (later purchased by Emergent BioSolutions) to perfect the vaccine for human trials. Is it possible Dr. Ivins knew too much?

Conveniently dead, Bruce Ivins, a family man and church-goer, is being blamed for a vast array of evils. The ‘evidence’ gathered by the FBI is paltry at best, and their investigation surfaced only after the court settlement with Dr. Steven Hatfill. Coincidence?

As for social worker in absentia, Ms. Duley, well she is likely to remain underground for now. Maybe she’s practicing under a new name somewhere as a ‘theripist’.

12 Comments



  1. Maybe you would be interested in taking a look at the circumstances surrounding BioPort’s acquisition of both the State of Michigan lab (and the anthrax vaccine held by them) and, later, their acquisition of Antex Biologics of Gaithersburg, MD. Emergent BioSolutions used the former Antex location as their Maryland headquarters now.

  2. Another Vince Fostercide! When will we quit putting up with this?

  3. Some other interesting tidbits I’ve been finding recently…add “anthrax” to any of the following as a google query. Make note that a lot of this was known in Dec 2001. Don’t forget to ask why the US is developing weapons-grade anthrax in violation of international treaties.

    Battelle. West Jefferson. Dugway.

    For bonus points…it takes at least 2 and usually 4 days to die from an overdose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Police showed up at 1:15 AM July 27 to find Ivins unresponsive. He died July 29.

    Why would a *scientist*, a supposedly intelligent person, choose such an awful way to kick the bucket..? Does anyone know what his autopsy results are..?

    Why would a registered Democrat send anthrax to Democratic leaders?


  4. Author

    From what I’ve read, no autopsy was performed. Odd, huh? You’d think that the death of man who works for USAMRIID (especially one who suddenly dies from Tylenol (let’s not forget the Tylenol murders of 1982 — see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Chicago_Tylenol_murders) would warrant an autopsy.


  5. Miss Duley’s profession seems to change from minute to minute. So far from what I’ve read she’s a nurse, physchotheripist, psychiatrist, psychologist, and even a solcail worker. So which is it?

  6. Jean Duley is a recent graduate (2007) of Hood College with a four year social science degree. That makes her a ‘solcail’ worker. No offense about the typo, I couldn’t resist, since Duley can’t even spell ‘theripist’ or ‘tetisfy’. More specifically, since she started working with Comprehensive Counseling Associates, her designation is a BSW, CSC-AD. That means that she is a Certified Supervised Counselor-Alcohol and Drug with the state of Maryland. In plain english, she is an entry level trainee in addiction counseling, and must complete two years of experience under the supervision of a Certified Counselor to qualify for the next level of certification.

    For a note of interest, she also was under supervised probation from April 24 til July 23, 2008 for a dui she got on Dec 23, 2007. That means she was under house arrest (with permission to go directly to and from work) until the day before she filed for a ‘peace order’ against Ivins. Might explain why she waited more than a week after Ivins got out of the Shepard Pratt psychiatric facility before entering non-adversarial hearsay evidence against him.

    This “documented court evidence” has been quoted by the media ever since. She is the only one, btw, that has accused Ivins of being a sociopathic, homicidal revenge killer, in spite of her false claim that Dr. Irwin was Ivin’s psychiatrist. Dr. Irwin is a forensic psychiatrist probably hired by the FBI who had never met Ivins when she quoted his evaluation. Irwin’s evaluation was solely based on a review of Ivins’ prescription history and other superficial medical info, not any real medical history. At least that is what the FBI told Duley, no one seems to be able to verify Dr. Irwin’s diagnosis, and Duley isn’t talking, either. With the FBI’s track record, I sure wouldn’t want to be in either pair of shoes.

  7. I must correct myself. She was sentenced on April 24, 2008, to 90 days house arrest, but the judge back-dated the start to April 17, 2008. That would make her release date, July 16, 2008 or thereabouts. Sorry.


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