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It seems the mystery deepens today with new reports, saying that as well as the Ricin discovered there were also firearms and an "anarchist type textbook", found in that hotel room.
Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Police found the firearms and books on Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel called police upon discovering weapons, he said, without elaborating.
The only legal use for ricin is cancer research. A pinprick is enough to kill and according to police Deputy Chief Kathy Suey, "the manufacture of ricin is a crime."
Once again, this case is not being investigated as a terrorism type case, just a criminal investigation at this point, but the more they find out, the deeper the mystery into why this man had Ricin, what was his purpose in manufacturing it and what were his ultimate plans?
Hat tip to Michelle Malkin, we also see the man has been identified as Roger Von Bergendorff. The police did not identify the man but a Homeland Security internal document obtained by the Review-Journal, lists that as his name.
A statement from the Nevada Office of the Military states that 19 soldiers and airmen from the Nevada National Guard's 92nd Civil Support Team assisted Las Vegas police in the ricin investigation Thursday night. The team also assisted the Clark County Fire Department's hazardous materials team in the decontamination of the scene.
Source: By Susan Duclos via Wake Up America blog.
Posted March 2nd, 2008 by Armen Hareyan
Roger Bergendorff and Ricin
Could it be Roger Bergendorff was simply curious? Many average, normal people have read the 'Anarchist's Cookbook' out of a desire to learn more about some term, in this case 'ricin,' that appears in the news with very little concrete detail. Gone are the days when you could go to an encyclopedia and read how to make black gunpowder or a mine or a deadfall -- Just out of curiosity. Political correctness has taken its toll, and the media now minister to the brain-dead, or at least the uncurious.
Incidentally, the subject's surname is 'Bergendorff,' not 'von Bergendorff' or 'van Bergendorff.' Lots of people go by their first and last name only. Roger Bergendorff may not have used his middle name,'Von,' because people would assume his last name to be 'Von...'
The news reports jump at the fact Bergendorff's motel room contained 'firearms.' My guess is 'firearms' meant one handgun and a smaller backup handgun, not a national guard arsenal. I'm not a criminal, cop, secret agent man or left-wing terrorist, but there are parts of my nearest metropolis where I wouldn't venture in the daytime, let alone stay overnight, without at least a revolver near at hand. A motel called 'Extended Stay' outside the main drag of Las Vegas sounds like one of them.
'The only legal use for ricin is cancer research' is likewise irrelevant. People are curious. 'A pinprick is enough to kill' is grossly misleading. An amount of professional lab-grade ricin the size of a pin head (not a pin prick) is enough to kill, that is true. However, labs capable of producing such purity would be found only deep within the CIA or the successor to the former Soviet KGB. Anything an amateur could conjure up from the 'Anarchist's Cookbook' would probably take a lump the size of a sugar cube or maybe even a measuring cup to produce the same result. The fact ricin has been ruled illegal is also a red herring. Many laws are enacted out of panic and irrational fears. The truth is ricin has been rejected by many chemical warfare laboratories as impractical for military (or terrorist) use. It has to be injected into an individual under carefully controlled conditions. It rapidly loses its potency when exposed to air. Ricin has been employed successfully only once or twice since its discovery some 30 years ago. Both times were by agents of the Soviet government. So much for terrorism. (Some two million Americans die *each year* because of legally and correctly prescribed drugs approved by the FDA, to put things into perspective -- far, far more than by firearms.)
OK, the facts? A small quantity of ricin was found in Bergendorff's hotel room along with a copy of the 'Anarchist's Cookbook' earmarked to the article on how to make it. No indication of whether or not the subject's hospitalization was at all related (he'd had a previous heart attack, after all, and therefore could be expected to develop heart failure). After reading the AP wire story, my guess is Mr. Bergendorff was hoping to produce a failsafe suicide capsule. His personal life and career were one failure after another; his health was on the decline; he had no wife, significant other or children. Apparently the only other being in his lonely life was an aging dog with health problems of its own. Just the kind no one wants to adopt and the Humane Society is forced to exterminate in droves (I'd honestly be more curious to learn if anyone has taken the trouble to rescue that pet from certain peril so it could greet him and be needed if he ever comes out of his coma).
Despite what Bergendorff's younger brother says, what normal man would not consider suicide as a means of bailing out from an unacceptable scenario? My two dollars' worth.