# Kansas lawmakers receive letters containing white powder **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 18, 2023, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711 "2023-06-18T03:34:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/1 "2023-06-18T03:34:58Z")
Don’t know if this belongs in this category. Mods, feel free to move it to a more appropriate location. More than 90 Kansas legislators and other officials have reported receiving envelopes which contained white powder of some kind. One of the letters was sent to AG Kris Kobach. Most (if not all) of the legislators were Republican. Hopefully it’s a hoax, but it’s a damn stupid move by whoever is doing it. > **[Number of letters with 'suspicious white powder' mailed to Kansas...](https://www.kmbc.com/article/dozens-of-letters-with-white-powder-delivered-to-kansas-legislators/44235570)** > > The KBI says the number of letters with suspicious white powder sent to legislators and officials in Kansas has grown to 90. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/2 "2023-06-18T05:29:05Z")
That’s awful. I hope no one gets exposed to those substances. It disgusts me that some criminals are driven to scare or hurt people like that. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/3 "2023-06-18T08:27:16Z")
Frightening. Reminds me of the anthrax scares of 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/4 "2023-06-18T08:45:28Z")
Doesn’t even have to be something dangerous - a letter with “white powder” will have to be investigated and analyzed, cause fear and annoyance, and so forth. Or, you know, it could be deadly. Hoax or not, if whoever did it is caught they will be facing a lot of legal trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/5 "2023-06-18T08:53:02Z")
I can’t open the linked article, probably for reasons related to the data protection regulation that applies in the EU, so not knowing the details of this particular case I will just say that it surprises me that this method of political/social disruption is not used more often. When the first anthrax scares by mail were reported around the time of 9/11 it was widely reported, buildings were evacuated and so on, all for the price of a stamp. I hope this Kansas case does not trigger a wave of copycat events. I also wonder how the police and the security services will try to get the perpetrators: if they are careful it should be hard. Does the article mention whether the white powder is dangerous or just sugar? I believe back in 2001 at least some of the letters were anthrax spores, which is not easy to obtain and really dangerous. I also recall that the attacks stopped without a culprit being found. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/6 "2023-06-18T09:00:12Z")
The crazy letter says, in part, “I send to you a gift from the exclusive Astruc Baruch Collection” [Jean Astruc and Baruch Spinoza both worked on the textual analysis of the Bible](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2058-astruc-jean) and Astruc wrote the first great treatise on syphilis and venereal disease. Spinoza, meanwhile, was a wide-ranging philosopher who was very controversial in his time. What this has to do with mailing white powder to jackasses in Kansas is beyond me. I wish I could read at least some of the mishmash of scripts below the English portion of the letter. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/7 "2023-06-18T09:07:03Z")
May or may not be meant like that, but _Gift_ is German (and vergif Dutch - Spinoza was Dutch) for poison. Conspiranoics sometimes revel in this linguistic or numerical coincidences. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/8 "2023-06-18T10:25:57Z")
I read the Hebrew, HBULSHT, as possibly “the bullshit,” though it could be something else or junk. “Dirac tapkuat tak ka’anal” doesn’t render anything in Google Translate. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/9 "2023-06-18T13:07:33Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I believe back in 2001 at least some of the letters were anthrax spores, which is not easy to obtain and really dangerous. I also recall that the attacks stopped without a culprit being found. Bruce Ivins was a scientist who worked at Fort Detrick, where the spores were believed to have originated. He was the leading suspect when he committed suicide in 2008. > **[Portrait Emerges of Anthrax Suspect’s Troubled Life (Published 2009)](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/us/04anthrax.html)** > > The investigation yielded nothing more than a strong hunch that Dr. Bruce E. Ivins was the perpetrator, a Times examination found. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/10 "2023-06-18T13:40:13Z")
This is an example of the wrong way to send out samples and drum up interest for your mail order cocaine business. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/11 "2023-06-18T13:56:24Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > This is an example of the wrong way to send out samples and drum up interest for your mail order cocaine business. - Especially since they likely didn’t include contact info. How can your prospective customers place an order? ETA: I just realized that when a politician tells constituents to “drop them a line”, they don’t mean writing a letter. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/12 "2023-06-18T20:29:01Z")
Thanks for the link, very interesting. I had not read about this development eight years after the letters. But whether the suspect, Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, was the perpetrator or not, fact is that he stopped sending letters many years before his suicide. That is already an unusual development. Asuming he did send the letters, which despite all the circumstancial evidence is not proven. Now the question will be what the Kansas’ letters contain: harmless powder or anthrax? Any news on that front? In my usual newpapers the incident has not been reported (yet). ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/13 "2023-06-18T23:52:40Z")
Yeah, thanks for that. I knew there was a suspect who either committed suicide or was killed (a conspiracy theory of the time) for those anthrax mailings, but I couldn’t remember the details. Just that he went off a bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/14 "2023-06-19T00:13:15Z")
Preliminary tests show that the substance in non-biological. [Kansas lawmakers sent suspicious white powder told isn’t biologicals (cjonline.com)](https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/government/2023/06/18/kansas-lawmakers-sent-suspicious-white-powder-told-isnt-biologicals/70334126007/) I find it suspicious that the letter makes it look like the senders were trying to disguise themselves…but the envelopes they came in had return addresses from various places. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/15 "2023-06-19T01:46:03Z")
Just because they had return addresses does not mean those addresses were legitimate, or the address of the person who sent them. Two examples: The 2001 Anthrax letters had return addresses, but they were bogus. And the Unabomber in at least a couple cases put the victim’s return address on his bombs. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/16 "2023-06-19T19:11:33Z")
I’m not saying that the addresses will be legit. I’m saying that the addresses were probably meant to lead investigators to left-leaning individuals and groups. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/17 "2023-06-19T19:14:51Z")
That’s my assumption as well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/18 "2023-06-19T19:27:29Z")
I suppose it depends on how smart the perpetrators were. Surely, in the real world, the owners return addresses wouldn’t be a particular target of competent law enforcement, but were the perpetrators smart enough to realize that? If they used their enemies for the return addresses, that might help to pin down the actual perps. Of course, if they were really smart and well-organized, then they would have some target in mind, figure out who that target’s enemies are, and then use those folks for their return addresses. But people smart enough for that don’t usually do things like mailing out white powders to lawmakers. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/19 "2023-06-19T21:28:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course, if they were really smart and well-organized, then they would have some target in mind, figure out who that target’s enemies are, and then use those folks for their return addresses. The linked article stated that one return address was that of a Topeka church, and the sender was a deceased Massachusetts woman. So, ‘smart’ does not appear to be an apt description of these clowns. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711/20 "2023-06-19T22:11:25Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m not saying that the addresses will be legit. I’m saying that the addresses were probably meant to lead investigators to left-leaning individuals and groups. Just watched a television update stating that the return addresses were of various churches. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmakers-receive-letters-containing-white-powder/985711.md?page=2)