A Texas couple at the center of the investigation into ricin-tainted letters sent to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are reportedly trading accusations back and forth. CBS News said Nathan Richardson told investigators his wife, Shannon, is attempting to frame him for the mailings. Meanwhile, Shannon Richardson allegedly told family members she believed her husband was trying to poison her and had a “racist” anger towards the president.
The letters were sent late last month to Obama, Bloomberg, and Mark Glaze, the director of the gun control group co-founded by Bloomberg. No one was seriously injured by the letters, which blasted gun control efforts. The FBI reportedly began focusing on Nathan Richardson after Shannon Richardson contacted law enforcement and said she saw “strange material” in their refrigerator and ricin-related searches on their home computer.
Nathan Richardson, who works at a local army depot, was questioned last Thursday. Shannon Richardson, an actress with bit parts in television shows and movies on her resume, was taken by investigators to a local courthouse near the couple’s home in New Boston, Tex. on Friday. According to news station KSLA, the FBI concluded a search of the Richardsons’ house Saturday after shutting down a nearby street for much of the day.
The New York Post spoke with Branden Guess, Shannon Richardson’s 19-year-old son from a previous marriage, who said his mother told him she believed Nathan was trying to poison her.
“She thought he was injecting it into her food and drinks,” Guess said of the ricin his mother found in the home.
Shannon Richardson told the Post she “didn’t do anything” and said any claim she was involved in sending the letters was “absolutely not true.”
“He’s racist and hates Obama. Everyone knows that,” she said of her husband.
The FBI has not identified any suspects in the case. On Monday morning, a FBI spokesperson told TPM there have been no arrests and no one has been taken into custody. In April, a case involving ricin-laced letters sent to Obama, a Mississippi judge, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) also involved an alleged setup that resulted in the FBI releasing their initial suspect in the mailings.
