Another Twist in Case of Dead Anthrax Suspect (demands cremation, no urn)

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

FREDERICK, Md. — Six weeks after Bruce E. Ivins killed himself, the cremated remains of Mr. Ivins, the Army scientist and anthrax suspect, are stored at a funeral home here, awaiting the outcome of an unusual probate court proceeding.

In a will he wrote last year, a few months before the Federal Bureau of Investigation focused the anthrax letters investigation on him, Dr. Ivins wrote of his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. But fearing that his wife, Diane, and their two children might not honor the request, he came up with a novel way to enforce his demand: threatening to make a bequest to an organization he knew his wife opposed, Planned Parenthood.

“If my remains are not cremated and my ashes are not scattered or spread on the ground, I give to Planned Parenthood of Maryland” $50,000, Dr. Ivins wrote in the will. Court records value the estate at $143,000.

... The reason for Dr. Ivins’s concern that his wishes might not be followed is unclear.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/us/13anthrax.html?hp

[Muttocracy]

1. now that is bizarre. nt

[bitchkitty]

2. Obviously there was a trust issue there -

if he didn't think that she would honor his last wishes. This is a sad, wierd story.

[lutherj]

3. Maybe the law varies from state to state, but I thought that a spouse would

automatically retain possession of the estate. I'm also surprised that a medical researcher of his age would have an estate valued at no more than $143,000.

[LiberalHeart]

4. Maybe that was after taking out the legal fees that were paid.

[EFerrari]

5. He had to spend a lot of money defending himself against the vultures

at the FBI. The article said he spent more than $100k on legal fees.

[happyslug]

11. The $143.000 may be his estate, the rest may be marital property

i.e. his and his wife's, which by law in most states became his wife's at his death, no matter what the will says. As such NOT part of his "estate" but now her sole property by action of law. Thus the only thing he has to address in his will is his property and thus the limited extent of his estate.

Furthermore when a person writes a will it is generally written, "to my Spouse everything, but if my spouse should predecease then...". Thus most wills are NOT aimed at spouses but children or other heirs. Thus the clause may NOT be aimed at his wife but any other person who may be his heir at the time of his death. The exact reason is unknown to us and hard to speculate on since he is NOT here and he has been under a lot of pressure in recent years.

From what I can see Maryland has retained the entirety property concept so that everything obtain during the marriage is marital property and on his death became his wife's. The $143,000 must represent items that were his before the marriage or his be operation of law (i.e. inherited from his parents during his marriage instead of earned during the marriage or some other way obtained during the marriage but stayed his private property NOT marital property).

[Ian David]

13. If he was hired by the Bush administration, he probably had a cocaine habit. n/t

[LeftyMom]

6. My understanding is that he and his family were/are very traditional Catholics

The church now permits cremation but it's frowned upon, and they only started allowing it very recently, so culture hasn't really adjusted. So if he wanted cremation and knew that his wife was very Catholic and likely to be hesitant, that would explain this provision in his will.

That said, they must have had a damned odd relationship if he felt he had to strongarm her into honoring his last wishes.

[EFerrari]

8. I'm not a shrink but from reading his descriptions,

it sounds as though the massive stress he was under tipped him over into low level paranoia at times.

It also sounds as if his doc had him on meds that made him feel worse, not better, at times. The meds negotiation is just an ongoing part of life and sometimes, the doctor gets it wrong and then it's weeks before you regain your balance.

That poor family.

[Turbineguy]

16. Cremation is accepted

scattering ashes is not. Some sort of interment of ashes is required.

[grahamhgreen]

7. Yeah, the planned parenthood guy anthraxed the liberal senators...

[Newsjock]

9. We have a winner!

Give that DUer a prize.

[glinda]

19. Yes

Some connection to Pro-Life possibly here.

[Winston.]

10. Thanks for cutting through the BS...

People get their narrative from the mainstream media, and make their "enlighten" comments based on that, when it's all BS !

[judasdisney]

12. Another innocent "suspect" dead -- all in a day's work for Robert Mueller

[Ian David]

14. Senator Chinstrap Daschle was a Liberal? n/t

[Festivito]

15. There are two Dems who could have stopped the Patriot Act.

They got the Anthrax. Either it would kill them putting newbies in place, or it would leave and indelible scare.

Today's asinine Republican would consider Joe Lieberman a liberal, let alone Daschle.

[Ian David]

18. Well, yes... but that just means Chinstrap wasn't stupid. Doesn't make him Liberal. n/t

[tom_paine]

17. In Bush World, Goebbels v2.0, he was just to the Left of Joe Stalin

Ivins is almost certainly innocent. He is clearly a Bushie Patsy.

If I was to believe the Bushies claim of "the corpse did it", I would have to, in order to be consistent, now believe everyone the Nazis said was "shot while trying to escape" ACTUALLY WAS TRYING TO ESCAPE.

If what the Bushies say about the corpse is true, then what the Nazis were saying about all their corpses MUST therefore have also been true.

And not just because Bushie (which is the Bush Loyalists' OWN NAME for THEMSELVES as reveal in e-mails during the US Attorney's Scandal) sounds exactly like Nazi, which it does.

But for this reason:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

And this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

And many MANY MORE...