Shannon Guess Richardson, 35, admitted to sending ricin-laced letters to NY Mayor Bloomberg and President Barack Obama, though initially she had voluntarily contacted the FBI in an attempt to frame her estranged husband.
Richardson is the mother of five and expecting her first child with the husband she tried to frame. Her other children aged from 4 years to 19 years are from other relations.
Initially, she contacted the FBI on May 30 and informed that her husband had made her send ricin-laced letters to Bloomberg and Obama.
However, her acting was so miserable that FBI agents immediately suspected wrongdoing.
She failed a polygraph test, and there were major inconsistencies in her story. And ultimately she admitted to sending the ricin-laced letters to the President and NY mayor in a bizarre scheme to frame her husband.
Now, she’s charged with threatening the President, bioterrorism and what not. And that’s on top of messing with something as deadly as ricin while still pregnant.
Her husband Nathaniel Richardson is an army veteran who was at work when the letters were mailed, as shown by their timestamps. The FBI also found that when internet searches related to the letters were made from the couple’s laptop and from home, the husband was at work. Syringes and lye used to extract ricin from castor beans also arrived in parcels meant for Shannon Guess Richardson.
The authorities have not charged the husband in anything and have expressed that they have no intention at the moment to charge him with any wrongdoing.
Federal charges against her carry up to 10 years in prison.