WHAT A HEEL: Puff(er) Daddy
Using the alias Dr. Edmund Backer of EB Strategic Research, a suburban Chicago husband purchased enough puffer fish venom to kill nearly 100 people. Edward F. Bachner IV, who wanted to collect $20 million on the life insurance policy he had taken out on his wife Rebecca, pleaded guilty to trying to kill her, WBBM-TV (Channel 2, Chicago) reports:
[Biochemical manufacturing firm Biotium] sent Bachner four shipments of tetrodotoxin to a Post Office box he used, totaling at least 64 mg in all.
He also ordered a fifth shipment for 98 mg of the poison from a second biotech firm, Ascent Scientific, which he received by claiming his name was “Dr. Backer” and wanted the tetrodotoxin for “marine antitoxin research purposes.”
Tetrodotoxin has a fatality rate of 50 to 60 percent, and has no known antidote. The Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety says 1 to 2 mg can of the poison can be lethal, and victims usually die within six hours of ingesting the substance.
Scientific researchers are legally allowed to purchase the poison, but must obtain special registration from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before trying to buy 100 mg or more.
Authorities had dropped a 2006 investigation of Bachner in a murder for hire plot for lack of evidence.
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