Recently, the US mail service in Marina del Rey, California, caught a mail order poison shipment, before it got out to the public. The lethal dose of sodium-cyanide was disguised as a sample dose of a popular health supplement. It was a small plastic package attached to a brochure.

We can thank a passerby, who saw the 50 year old woman stuffing envelopes from packages marked poison on them. Sheriff Sherman Block of Los Angeles County, said they caught all the envelopes at the Los Angeles County location, but the alleged perpetrator, Kathryn Schoonover I believe, was from Santa Barbara, in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. Could she have mailed some packets from other locations already?

She did look caucasian, bald or with a shaved head, if the picture shown by the media was correct. She did not look to be arabic, but we can only hope that Islamic terrorists don't copy her tactics. We can never know, how many people would have died, had her letters of death been mailed successfully ( or if she had been smart enough to stuff the envelopes at home ). Supposedly, her targets were not high profile people, but selected at random and the addresses were from coast to coast.

Could Islamic terrorists mail a more volatile chemical, that worked simply upon the opening of an envelope?

It is a sad commentary on the state of the world, but I would recommend throwing out any sample packages that you recieve in the mail, instead of trying them.

There may be one good thing to come out of this. With folks throwing out samples and not trying them, the companies may quit sending them. This could reduce the amount of junk mail we recieve!

- Bongo ( I wonder if she poisoned candy on Halloween? )