Posted on 09/10/2004 5:19:35 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Federal and state investigators questioned Nevada prison inmates Friday about suspicious letters - rigged with a match to flare when the envelope was opened - that were sent from the prison to several governors.
At least 11 state leaders and Nevada's corrections director received such letters Thursday or Friday. In three letters, the match flared, but no one has been hurt.
Some of the letters were intercepted during screening or because of an alert issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The letters apparently did not contain writings, but each bore a return address from Nevada's maximum-security Ely State Prison.
One of two Ely inmates was listed as the sender, but authorities aren't sure if either inmate was involved, said Glen Whorton, assistant director for the Nevada Corrections Department.
He would not identify the inmates being questioned or details of their crimes. The investigation is focusing on Ely as the origin of the letters, though they are not excluding other places, he said.
"We're not assuming the names on the envelopes are simply the end of the matter," Whorton said. "Investigators are not just talking to the two inmates."
The letter sent to the Carson City office of Nevada Corrections Director Jackie Crawford contained blank paper and the match, which lit as the paper was pulled out.
Whorton said the envelope didn't look unusual, so it wouldn't have been checked or opened before leaving the Ely prison - if that's where it came from.
"There was no bulk to it, no external indication that there was something odd there," he said of the letter sent to Crawford's office.
Letters also were sent to governors in Montana, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Utah. In some cases, the letters were intercepted in the mail stream before arriving at the governor's office.
The Montana Capitol was partly evacuated Thursday when the match burned the letter opened there, but it did not cause further damage.
Whorton said letters leaving Nevada prisons aren't opened unless there's something unusual, such as a bulky envelope or an inadequate return address. All incoming mail at Nevada prisons is opened by staffers, but not read, before being delivered to inmates.
Wow, I know a guy who works there. Guess I'll give him a ring.
5 of the 6 governors who got these letters are Republicans. Sounds awful suspicious to me.
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