Ricin - a kooks tour

George Smith is a senior fellow at GlobalSecurity.org, a defense affairs think tank and public information group. At Dick Destiny, he blogs his way through chemical, biological, and nuclear terror hysteria, often by way of the contents of neighbourhood hardware stores.

He has done a round up of the suprisingly numerous kooks, freaks, retards and losers who have been deluded into thinking that by pounding some castor oils seeds up in acetone you have death and destruction in the palm of your hand... and ended up doing some very impressive terms in prison.

Well worth reading for a good chortle at The Register - essential reading (for those who can) on the Met Terrorist Squad.

Favourites have to be ...

Lesbians Astrid Tepatti and Ebony Woods (both 21) of Imperial County, California, who in 2004 engaged in a plot to kill the former's husband an ex Marine. They hired a hit man for $10,000 to stab him to death. The attempt failed. Tepatti also attempted to shoot her ex-husband while he slept on the sofa with a gun equipped with homemade silencer made from a potato. She missed. Both drugged him with Valium and tranquilizers. He was made sleepy. And they were found with a recipe for ricin, downloaded from a white supremacist site, and a bag of powder which was allegedly the toxin. They lodged a plea agreement of guilty to attempted murder in 2004 but were not charged on possession of ricin.

More fascinating details at the San Diego Press and NBC San Diego - they pleaded not guilty first time in court.