A Scientist's Quiet Life Took a Darker Turn

New Roman">A Scientist's Quiet Life Took a Darker Turn

一位科学家的生活由平静走向黑暗

By Joby Warrick, Marilyn W. Thompson and Nelson Hernandez

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, August 2, 2008; Page A01

 

For most of his career, he was a casting agent's vision of a bench scientist: shy, eccentric, nerdy, soft-spoken. But sometime this spring, with the FBI closing in on him, Bruce E. Ivins's life took a dark turn that frightened his closest friends.

对于布鲁斯·依·埃文斯来说，他的绝大多数人生历程，都是一个标准的科学家：他是一个害羞，有点古怪，乏味，慢声细气的人。但是自从今年春天，FBI开始锁定他，并对他展开调查，他的人生变得黑暗起来，也吓坏了他的亲朋好友。

In March, police officers summoned to a quiet Frederick neighborhood found the 62-year-old microbiologist unconscious in his home. Four months later, he was admitted to a psychiatric clinic after making wild threats against co-workers at the Army research institute where he kept his lab. Then, a week ago, his therapist urgently petitioned a judge for protection from Ivins. She described a man spiraling out of control, making "homicidal threats, actions, plans."

三月，警官们在弗雷德里克一个僻静的住宅搜查，发现这位62岁的微生物学家在自己家中，不省人事。4个月后，他又因为在他工作的部队研究所里，恐吓攻击同事，被送入一家精神科诊所；之后，一个星期前，埃文斯的主治医师向法官紧急申请保护，以防他的攻击。这位医师描述埃文斯是一个反复失去控制的人，经常作出“杀人的威胁，行为和计划。”

His death Tuesday from a drug overdose was followed by a revelation even more jarring to those who knew him: a report that Ivins had been implicated in the 2001 anthrax attacks, one of the FBI's biggest unsolved mysteries and most baffling technical cases. Ivins, a leading expert on anthrax vaccines, was on the verge of being indicted in the case, according to officials familiar with the investigation, and took his life by swallowing a large quantity of acetaminophen.

埃文斯星期二死于药物过量，之后的披露材料，使得那些熟识他的人大跌眼镜：一份报告显示，埃文斯被卷入了2001年的炭疽袭击事件，这也是联邦调查局至今未破的大案之一，也是在技术上最为费解的案件之一。根据熟悉真个调查过程的官员们称，作为炭疽疫苗研究的顶尖专家，埃文斯在此案中差点受到指控，他是服用了大量的醋氨酚止痛药致死的。

The allegations of a possible link to the case known as " Unabomber " dumbfounded friends and co-workers who knew Ivins as a gentle, bighearted family man who raised two children in Frederick, volunteered for community charities and played keyboards for the local Catholic church. His work with the deadly anthrax bacteria was devoted to developing more effective vaccines that could save lives in a future biological attack.

这些关于埃文斯涉及“邮寄炸弹恐怖分子”的指控使得他的朋友们和同事们大为震惊。他们所认识的埃文斯，是一个温和，大度的顾家男人，在弗雷德里克有一个家庭，抚养两个孩子，志愿参加社区慈善活动，在当地的天主教堂弹琴。他的工作是整天面对那些致命的炭疽细菌，他全身心的投入，研究出有效的疫苗，以期在将来的 生化袭击中拯救生命。

"He was passionate about it -- he really cared," said a fellow scientist who co-authored studies with Ivins.

埃文斯的一个科学家同事，与他一起发表研究论文的作者说，“他对工作充满了热情，--他真的很在意（那些工作）。”

 

Yet, slowly over the past two years, FBI investigators began to focus on Ivins under the theory that he had used his knowledge of anthrax bacteria to pull off the nation's deadliest episode of biological terrorism. As a researcher for the Army's main lab for studying bioterror agents, Ivins had easy access to anthrax bacteria, including the specific strain of Bacillus anthracis used in the attacks on media outlets and congressional offices in the fall of 2001. His expertise eventually earned him a front-row seat for the FBI's investigation, as he was called upon to help the bureau with its analysis of the wispy powder used in the attacks.

然而，在过去的两年中，联邦调查局的调查人员慢慢的把视线转到了埃文斯身上，他们认为，埃文斯利用自己的炭疽细菌知识，成功导演了全国的致命生物恐怖袭击事件。作为军队研究生物恐怖袭击的主实验室的一个研究人员，埃文斯很容易接触到炭疽细菌，包括那些炭疽杆菌，即2001年秋，用于袭击媒体出风口，以及国会办公室的特殊菌种。他被联邦调查局叫去分析袭击事件中的细微粉末时，他的专业技能最终为他赢得了联邦调查局这次调查中的头把交椅。

Despite the allegations -- and even after Ivins's apparent plunge into mental illness -- longtime friends and colleagues say it is inconceivable that Ivins could have been a bioterrorist. Many contend that he was driven to depression and suicide because of months of hounding by federal investigators.

尽管有这些指控，而且后期埃文斯明显患有精神疾病，但是，那些他的老朋友，同事们，都不能接受埃文斯是个生物袭击恐怖分子的判定。许多人争辩说，他之所以被逼成忧郁症并自杀都是因为联邦调查者几个月来的压力逼迫。

"He just looked worried, depressed, anxious, way turned into himself," recalled W. Russell Byrne, an infectious-disease specialist who last saw Ivins on a recent Sunday at St. John the Evangelist, the Roman Catholic church in Frederick to which they both belonged. "It would be overstating it to say he looked like a guy who was being led to his execution, but it's not far off."

W．路赛尔·拜恩是一个传染病学专家，他最后一次看见埃文斯是最近的一个星期天，在弗雷德里克的一个圣约翰福音教堂，他们都属于这个罗马天主教教堂。拜恩回忆说，“他看起来显得心事重重，忧郁，焦虑，，他想做回他自己，如果说他像是一个即将被判死刑的人，有点言过其实，但是，（实际情况）也差不了多少。”

Added another co-worker: "Almost everybody . . . believes that he had absolutely nothing to do with Amerithrax."

另外一个同事补充说，“几乎所有人都相信他，他绝对不会和“美国炭疽事件”有关。”

 

Ivins was born in 1946, the youngest of three sons who grew up in Lebanon, Ohio. His father owned a drugstore and was active in the local Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce, while his mother stayed at home and volunteered in her sons' PTAs, according to his eldest brother. The family went regularly to Lebanon Presbyterian Church.

据埃文斯的长兄称，埃文斯1946年在俄亥俄州，莱巴嫩出生，是三兄弟中最小的一个。他的父亲经营一家药店，在当地的扶轮社以及商会中表现活跃，他的母亲闲赋在家，并为儿子们在家长教师联谊会中做志愿者。他们一家定期去莱巴嫩的长老会教堂。

"He was a bookworm," said Tom Ivins, 72, of Middletown, Ohio, who said he had been estranged from his youngest brother for two decades. "He liked things like science."

他的哥哥，72岁的汤姆·埃文斯，住在俄亥俄的middle市，他说，他已经和这个最小的弟弟疏远了20多年了，“埃文斯是个书虫，他喜欢科学之类的东西。”

The 1964 yearbook from Lebanon High School shows a thin-faced young man with oversize, dark-rimmed glasses and a raft of extracurricular activities under his name: National Honor Society. Science fair. Current events club. The scholarship team all four years. He ran on the track and cross-country teams, worked on the yearbook and school newspaper, and was in the school choir and the junior and senior class plays.

从莱巴嫩中学1964年的年报中可以看到，埃文斯是一个脸部瘦瘦的年轻人，戴一副大大的，黑框眼镜。在他的名字下面，有很多他参加过的课外活动，美国全国名誉学会，科学展览会，时事俱乐部，4年的学术研究会。他参加了田径越野队，为年报和校报工作，参加了校合唱团，并且担任初中部和高中部的键盘手。

Ivins entered the University of Cincinnati that fall and earned three degrees there: a B.S. with honors in 1968 and master's and doctoral degrees in microbiology in 1971 and 1976, respectively. His dissertation focused on different aspects of toxicity in disease-causing bacteria

埃文斯1964年秋天进入辛辛那提大学，并分别在那里取得了3个学位：1968年有毕业论文的学士学位，1971年微生物硕士学位和1976年的微生物学博士学位。他的毕业论文主题是致病细菌在不同方面的毒性。

When he applied to Fort Detrick in the late 1980s, he had "an impressive résumé," said John Ezzell, a former top scientist there who was part of a hiring committee that selected Ivins to work on the human anthrax vaccine. "We thought he worked out really well. He was a critical part of our vaccine studies." Ezzell said Ivins participated in numerous animal experiments testing how the vaccine protected against various types of anthrax exposure.

约翰·埃塞尔，前任资深科学家，当时是招聘委员会的成员之一，回忆说，当埃文斯在20世纪80年代申请到底特里克堡工作的时候，他有一份“令人印象很深的简历”，他们录取他参加人类炭疽疫苗的研究工作。埃塞尔说，“我们认为他真的干的很不错，他曾是我们疫苗研究的中坚力量。”埃文斯参加了大量的动物实验，以测试疫苗对于已知不同种类炭疽病菌的保护作用。

Ezzell considered Ivins a friend and said they sometimes shared hotel rooms when they traveled to professional conferences. "Most of the time, he was very happy and outgoing," he said. "He did good work. He was very conscientious, and he worked long hours to get the work done."

埃塞尔认为埃文斯是一个朋友。他说，在外出参加专业学术会议时，他们俩有时会住在同一个宾馆房间。“绝大多数时候，他是十分快乐开朗的，他的工作很棒，他谨慎，尽责，他经常为了完成任务长时间的工作。”

Ezzell said the experiments did not involve anthrax in its dried form, the type found in the letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) that was so finely ground it could immediately become airborne. Ivins worked with small teams of scientists; their findings had global significance in the field of anthrax studies and were later used by opponents of a mandatory vaccination program instituted by the Pentagon that has been highly controversial.

埃塞尔说，这些实验并不涉及干燥状态的炭疽病菌，这也是在给当时的参议院多数党领袖托马斯·达斯科尔的信中发现的类型，它们很细微，能够立即通过风力 传播。埃文斯和几个小组的科学家们工作，他们的发现在世界炭疽研究领域处于领先地位，而这些成果后来被五角大楼用于遭人反对的强制免疫计划，此举颇受争议。

Meryl Nass, a physician and leader in the vaccine opposition movement, met Ivins at a conference in the early 1990s, and they talked regularly over the next decade. She said Ivins told her he had a chronic blood disorder and feared that it might be linked to the anthrax vaccine booster shots he had to take to work in the Fort Detrick laboratory.

玛丽尔·奈斯是一名反对免疫计划运动的政治领袖，在上世纪90年代初遇到了埃文斯，他们在之后的10年里定期会谈。她说，埃文斯告诉她，他患有慢性的血液紊乱症，怀疑可能和他在底特里克堡实验室工作中，不得不长期大剂量注射炭疽疫苗有关。

"He had some issues with work," Nass said in an interview.

奈斯在一次采访中称，“埃文斯对工作有些意见”。

Ivins eventually would be awarded the Defense Department's highest honor for civilian performance for helping to resurrect a controversial vaccine that could protect against anthrax. At a March 2003 ceremony, Ivins described the award, which he received along with several colleagues, as unexpected. "Awards are nice. But the real satisfaction is knowing the vaccine is back on-line," he told a military publication.

埃文斯最终得到了国防部给予平民的最高荣誉，表彰由于他的帮助使得一种受争议的疫苗复活，以防治炭疽病菌。2003年3月的授奖仪式上，埃文斯和几个同事一同接受了表彰，他形容这个表彰是意想不到的，他告诉一个军方出版社“嘉奖真好，不过，真正令人满意的是，是得知疫苗在网上受到支持。”

After the anthrax mailings in October 2001, the Fort Detrick labs went into a frenetic response, testing suspicious mail and packages virtually round-the-clock. Ivins was part of a team that analyzed the handwritten letter sent to Daschle, packed with Bacillus anthracis spores that matched the primary strain used in Fort Detrick research.

2001年10月炭疽邮件事件以后，底特里克堡实验室进入疯狂状态，测试可疑邮件，包裹，几乎24小时连续工作。埃文斯的小组负责分析交送给达斯科尔的书信，而邮件随附的炭疽杆菌孢子和底特里克堡主要研究的种类正好吻合。

In early 2002, without notifying his supervisors, Ivins began sampling areas in the Detrick lab space that he believed might be contaminated with anthrax. He took unauthorized samples from the lab containment areas and later acknowledged to Army officials that he had violated protocol.

2002年初，在没有通知督导的情况下，埃文斯开始在底特里克堡实验室内取样，他相信那些地方可能已经被炭疽病菌污染。他未经授权将试样拿出实验室容器，然后通知军方官员，他违背了条例。

Ivins's odd behavīor was detailed in an Army investigation of the matter, but he did not surface as a potential suspect in the mailings case. "He was not on my radar," said a Senate source whose office was briefed on the FBI's progress.

军方的一个调查报告中详细描述了埃文斯的奇怪举动，但是他当时并不是邮件案中的嫌疑人。一名当时得到联邦调查局通知的参议员说，“他不在我的搜索雷达上。”

In fact, in early June 2003, when the FBI drained a pond in rural Maryland in search of clues to the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks, Ivins was one of the Red Cross volunteers who brought investigators coffee and donuts. Investigators, however, singled him out and asked him to leave "because he was somebody involved in the investigation," said Byrne, Ivins's former colleague and fellow parishioner.

事实上，2003年6月初，联邦调查局在马里兰农场抽干水塘，并试图找寻炭疽袭击的犯罪线索时，埃文斯是一名红十字志愿者，负责向调查人员提供咖啡和油炸圈饼。然而，调查员们将他单独叫出来，并让他离开，埃文斯的前同事，同一教区的居民拜恩说，“因为他是被调查对象之一”。

Outside the lab, Ivins's neighbors, friends and pastor say, he played the piano every Sunday at what he jokingly called "the hippie Mass" in the school hall at St. John the Evangelist. He played keyboards in a Celtic band and founded the Frederick Jugglers.

在实验室之外，埃文斯的邻居们，朋友们，教区牧师都说，他每个星期天都去圣约翰福音教区的学校礼堂弹钢琴，他戏称那是“嬉皮士弥撒”；他弹奏凯尔特人曲调，并组成了“弗雷德里克杂耍者”乐队。

Robert and Bonnie Duggan, who live six houses away from Ivins's family -- his wife, Diane, and their daughter and son -- recalled that they once asked to borrow his chainsaw to cut down trees along their back fence. Ivins insisted on cutting down the trees for them.

罗伯特和伯尼·达根的家离埃文斯的家相隔6栋房子，他们回忆说，埃文斯和妻子达尼，儿女一起。一次，罗伯特他们要借电锯砍掉后面围墙的树，但是埃文斯坚持亲自帮助他们砍掉了树。

Over the past two years, many who knew him saw the effects of accumulating pressure as the anthrax investigation veered toward him. "He would tell stories about how he would come home and everything he owned would be in piles," said a Fort Detrick employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because workers there had been instructed not to talk with reporters. The employee said his files, lab samples and equipment were frequently seized by authorities.

在过去的两年多里，许多认识他的人看到，当炭疽事件调查的方向转向他之后，不断在他身上聚集的压力对他产生的影响。因为规定，工作人员不可以和记者谈论，所以一位匿名的工人说：“他要汇报他的行踪，他所有的东西都要记录在案，他的文件，实验样品，以及实验设备经常被当局夺走。

He was finding it harder and harder to work and was planning to retire in September. But even as his troubles mounted and his mood darkened, "a lot of people cared about him," Byrne said. "He is not Timothy McVeigh. He's not the Unabomber."

他发现工作越来越困难，计划在9月份退休。但是，随着麻烦不断的压来，他的情绪也一天天变坏。拜恩说，“很多人都很关心他，他不是麦克维尔，他不是邮件炸弹恐怖分子。”

Still, by spring, Ivins's life seemed to be falling apart. Police were first called to his house on March 19, when he was discovered unconscious and briefly admitted to a hospital. On July 10, they encountered Ivins again, this time after a counselor called from Fort Detrick to report that the scientist was a danger to himself, and was ranting about weapons and making death threats. He went peacefully with police to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted to a psychiatric ward.

到了春天，埃文斯的生活更加糟糕。在3月19日警察第一次到了他的住所，发现他已经不省人事，并把他直接送到了医院。7月10日，警察又一次逮捕了埃文斯，这次是一名底特里克堡的顾问报警称，埃文斯对他进行威胁，口出狂言要用武器杀死他。埃文斯平静的和警察走进了弗雷德里克纪念医院，并被转入了精神病区。

He was later released voluntarily, but his erratic behavīor prompted his therapist, Jean C. Duley, to seek a protective order. Duley wrote that Ivins "has a history dating to his graduate days of homicidal threats, actions, plans, threats & actions toward therapists." She quoted his psychiatrist, Dr. David Irwin, as calling him "homicidal, sociopathic, with clear intentions." Irwin could not be reached for comment.

后来他平静的出院，但是他的不寻常举动促使他的主治医师让·杜蕾寻求一个保护令。杜蕾写道，埃文斯“他有杀人的威胁，行为，计划的历史可以追溯到他学校毕业后，他还有针对治疗医生的杀人威胁和行为。”她援引了埃文斯精神病科医生，大卫·埃尔文的说法，称埃文斯是一个“具有明显的杀人，仇视社会的心理倾向”，而并没有联系到埃尔文就此发表言论。

Early Sunday, police were again summoned to Ivins's house and found him unconscious on the bathroom floor. They took him to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where he died two days later.

星期天早晨，警察又一次搜查埃文斯的住所，发现他倒在浴室地板上，毫无知觉。他们把他送进了弗雷德里克纪念医院，埃文斯两天后在那里去世。

That same day, the court dismissed Duley's case. A clerk explained the reason in a brief, handwritten note: "Respondent deceased."

同一天，法庭撤销了杜蕾的案件。一名书记官在原因里简要的解释，写道，“被告死亡。”

 

 

Staff writers Aaron Davis, Amy Goldstein and Josh White and researchers Julie Tate and Meg Smith contributed to this report.