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Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 8 - Bio-Attack - Full Episode — Transcript

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0:05in a small town in oregon in 1984
0:09the first biological attack was launched
0:12against the united states
0:14for over a decade the details of this
0:17nearly catastrophic event were withheld
0:20from the public
0:22this is how forensic science unearthed
0:25the biological trail
0:29[Music]
0:55this small town in oregon is called the
0:58dales and is perched high above the
1:00columbia river about 80 miles due east
1:03of portland
1:05it seems like you've driven back in the
1:0650s
1:08and it seems in the physical appearance
1:10it seems frozen frozen in time in that
1:12way
1:14dave and sandy lutkins are among the 11
1:17000 residents who find the dales the
1:19perfect place to raise a family
1:22a half an hour or an hour from skiing a
1:24lot of water sports a lot of hiking
1:27it has pretty decent schools we have
1:29pretty low crime
1:32on september 25 1984
1:35david and sandy both became violently
1:37ill with cramps diarrhea and vomiting
1:40their dehydration caused delirium
1:44but i've never felt that bad in my life
1:46the room was spinning and you just
1:48didn't care about anything well let's
1:50put it this way i would never want to be
1:51that sick again
1:52when david and his wife went to the
1:54hospital they weren't the only ones
1:56seriously ill
1:58and then suddenly there were so many
2:00people we had people laying on the floor
2:02we had people leaning up against the
2:04wall
2:05there were people in the lobby
2:07they all had the same symptoms
2:11microbiologists identified the cause
2:14salmonella
2:17salmonella is a bacteria commonly found
2:19in eggs meat poultry unpasteurized milk
2:22water and an animal feces especially
2:25that of reptiles
2:28it is rarely fatal
2:29but sometimes death occurs in infants
2:32and the elderly
2:35ten days after the first outbreak a
2:37second wave hit
2:40the number of patients exploded from
2:42dozens to hundreds every hospital bed
2:45was filled
2:49by the time dave lutkins emerged from
2:51four days of delirium
2:53he encountered a disaster
2:55lutkins owned a small restaurant 13 of
2:58his employees were sick along with
3:00hundreds of his customers
3:03we had virtually no business i mean it
3:04just disappeared
3:07it was tough i mean that was
3:10i was in the process of building another
3:12facility in hood river and
3:16i was going to have it all paid for and
3:18opening up debt-free and it didn't work
3:20out that way
3:22but what was the source of the outbreak
3:25food handlers who don't properly wash
3:28their hands after using the bathroom
3:30sometimes transmits salmonella
3:35but hundreds of people were sick
3:37and they hadn't eaten in the same
3:39restaurant or even the same restaurant
3:41chain
3:43tests of the water supply revealed
3:45nothing
3:47the centers for disease control in
3:49atlanta georgia was asked to investigate
3:52whether it was some type of accidental
3:54outbreak
3:56or
3:57was it intentional
3:59[Music]
4:03solving the riddle of the salmonella
4:05outbreak in oregon is the job of
4:07epidemiologists
4:08scientists who study how disease moves
4:11through large populations
4:14they seem to be unrelated events
4:16complicated things greatly it was almost
4:19like doing multiple simultaneous
4:22investigations
4:24there seemed to be no common link among
4:27the hundreds of residents who had gotten
4:29sick
4:31dave and sandy ludkins both remembered
4:34eating a salad in their restaurant
4:36before getting ill
4:38i think we were too sick to worry that
4:40much about it at that time
4:42it was later that we started you know
4:44wondering if it was gonna
4:45close us down
4:48hundreds of their customers and most of
4:50their employees became ill too
4:54at the county health department nurse
4:56diane kerr contacted everyone who fell
4:58ill and discovered they had all eaten a
5:02salad from one of ten local restaurants
5:06most of the people seem to have eaten
5:07potato salad
5:09at another restaurant most of the people
5:11seem to have eaten
5:13a green salad
5:14and so what was going on they looked at
5:17common suppliers of food they looked you
5:19know where did everybody get their
5:20lettuce where did everybody get this
5:22where'd everybody get that we couldn't
5:24find one source of
5:26cucumbers or lettuce or
5:28meat or of anything that that would
5:30explain all those restaurants being
5:31contaminated at once
5:36dr michael skeels runs the laboratory
5:38that processed samples from the dale
5:40salmonella outbreak
5:43microbiologists discovered that all of
5:45the victims had the same strain of
5:48salmonella one that was exceptionally
5:51rare
5:52it was dulcitol negative which means it
5:55didn't biochemically break down a sugar
5:57called dulcetal and that's only the case
5:59for two percent of salmonellas of this
6:01type
6:02this salmonella had another odd
6:05characteristic
6:06unlike most bacteria this one was not
6:09resistant to antibiotics
6:14when all the cases were tallied there
6:16had been 751
6:18cases of salmonella poisoning
6:2310
6:24were restaurant workers
6:27and these people became ill before
6:29outbreaks among
6:31the outbreak was noticed among customers
6:34nevertheless
6:35two months after the outbreak the state
6:38of oregon reported that poor hygiene of
6:41restaurant workers and
6:43cross-contamination were the most likely
6:45causes of the outbreak
6:48in other words
6:49they didn't know
6:52the oregon health department
6:53basically hung us out and said well it
6:55was
6:56dirty employees it was you know it was
6:58unsafe practices unsafe handling the
7:00food officials found no salmonella in
7:04dave lutkin's restaurant but they did
7:06find traces of it in some of the other
7:08restaurants
7:10if you've worked in public health long
7:12enough you'll figure out that lots of
7:13times you really can't pinpoint where
7:15things front come from the health
7:16officials said this is the best we can
7:18tell you it wasn't a very satisfying
7:20explanation for them or for the public
7:22or for the press
7:24but at that time there was no other
7:25explanation
7:29local officials now began to suspect a
7:32religious cult outside of town
7:35the rajnishi's
7:38as the rajnishi's expanded their
7:40compound there had been growing tension
7:43between cult leaders and local
7:45politicians
7:47just a year earlier one of the cult's
7:50leaders
7:51sheila hinted at potential violence
7:56she said quote we are here in oregon to
7:59stay at whatever the cost
8:02if that means some blood is spilled
8:05then this is the price we are prepared
8:08to pay
8:11a guru from india bhagwan shri rashnesh
8:14started the farming commune in 1981.
8:19after two years and 30 million dollars
8:22the 64 000 acre organic farming and
8:25meditation compound had its own post
8:28office school hospital and shopping mall
8:32with housing for over a thousand
8:34followers
8:36they're doctors and lawyers and
8:37accountants who've given up everything
8:39to drive tractors and plant potatoes and
8:42and have you know daily chance
8:46as he drove through the compound each
8:48day in one of his 80 rolls-royce
8:50automobiles the guru preached the
8:53benefits of meditation and free love
8:57published reports say that the bhagwan
9:00claimed to have had more sex partners
9:03than anyone in history
9:06in 1982 the rajnishis took over the
9:08nearby town of antelope
9:11and with it the majority of seats on the
9:13city council and school board which
9:15horrified long-time residents of the
9:18small town
9:20before the outbreak the rajnishi's had
9:23set their sights on control of the
9:25larger town of the dales and had put up
9:28their own slate of candidates running in
9:31the november election
9:34in the absence of a scientific
9:36explanation some thought the rashnesses
9:39might have intentionally poisoned the
9:42community in some way
9:45so there was suspicion but there was no
9:47evidence why would they do this and
9:51the other thought was was maybe there
9:52was somebody some hot head trying to
9:55incriminate the raj niche
9:58one year later
9:59the rajnishi's behavior grew even more
10:02bizarre revealing evidence that would
10:06eventually solve the mystery
10:13since health officials could not find
10:15the source of the salmonella outbreak in
10:17the dales oregon
10:19suspicion among local officials
10:21continued to be
10:22the rosh nishis a religious cult living
10:25on a farm outside of town
10:34leaders of the cult and town officials
10:37were often at odds
10:39the cult was founded by bhagwan sri
10:42rajneesh
10:43but today today operations were run by
10:46his associate
10:48ma anand sheila
10:50they met each other's needs sheila
10:52provided for him whatever he wanted you
10:55want 60 rules for isis we'll get you 60
10:57rolls royces you want a new disciple
10:59tonight we'll get you new disciples you
11:01want to fly in a jet we'll get you to
11:03what you know whatever to make you happy
11:05and and the trade-off was that the black
11:07one would say okay
11:09you're number one you're in control you
11:11take care of all the details i don't
11:13care how you do it
11:14the raj nishis were becoming paranoid
11:17for many reasons
11:20they were being investigated for
11:22possible immigration fraud
11:24and there was growing internal conflict
11:27between sheila and other commune leaders
11:30nonsense
11:31you better believe me i'm a tigress
11:34she and her group
11:37were in a power struggle with
11:39another group which we always kind of
11:41called the hollywood faction they were
11:43rich members of the cult headed up by a
11:45lady who was the ex-wife of a hollywood
11:47producer they had money
11:50they had access to rajneesh
11:53and
11:55sheila and her group were very paranoid
11:58about these people
12:00the struggle was for control of the guru
12:02the cult and its finances
12:06former cult members told of plans to
12:10assassinate several local politicians
12:13rival cult members a united states
12:15attorney and journalist les zeits in
12:18retaliation for some investigative
12:20pieces he had written about the group in
12:23the local newspaper
12:25to be told that you're on a hit list and
12:28for a group that
12:29i believe is the time they were capable
12:31of that they're just purely evil folks
12:32by that time uh it was really quite a
12:35chilling chilling way to start the day
12:38one year after the salmonella outbreak
12:40without warning
12:42sheila and the head of the rashnesh
12:44medical clinic a nurse named puja fled
12:47to europe
12:49rajneesh disowned them
12:52they had turned it into a passive
12:55concentration camp
13:00prosecutors heard that puja had been
13:02experimenting with biological poisons at
13:05the clinic including
13:08salmonella
13:11but there was no hard evidence
13:14with the increasing scrutiny the bhagwan
13:17stepped up the level of personal
13:19security
13:20[Music]
13:22there were times when he would move from
13:24one end of the town to the other where
13:27he would be in a bulletproof limousine
13:30he would have a lead suv with armed
13:32guards in it he would have a trailing
13:36suv with arm guards and then he'd have a
13:38jet ranger helicopter in the air
13:41[Applause]
13:42we felt we could be confronted by a 45
13:46person private army with fully automatic
13:48weapons
13:49in october of 1985
13:52a federal grand jury issued a 35-page
13:54indictment charging the bhagwan with
13:57lying on his visa application and
13:59arranging sham marriages so his
14:02followers could remain in the united
14:04states
14:06when officials planned to search the
14:08compound they asked epidemiologist dr
14:11mike skeels to come along because of
14:14fears of biological retaliation and as
14:17we were going up that road i was
14:19thinking you know for a microbiologist
14:21this is going to be a pretty interesting
14:22day
14:23no shots were fired
14:27in the commune's licensed medical center
14:30skills found samples of various bacteria
14:33standard testing material for a small
14:35clinic
14:37one of these vials contains salmonella
14:39typhy muriel
14:40and
14:41i remember at the time thinking well
14:43they told me to look for salmonella if i
14:44find any i'm supposed to seize it as
14:46evidence well there it is so i'll seize
14:48it
14:48but i wasn't thinking at all that this
14:50was related
14:51to the outbreak
14:53shortly after the raid
14:55rashnesh left on one of his private jets
14:58he was arrested in north carolina on the
15:00immigration charges
15:03meanwhile the cdc tested the salmonella
15:06found in the commune's lab using a
15:08technique called plasmid profiling
15:12plasmids are sections of free-floating
15:15genetic material outside the bacterial
15:18chromosome
15:20bacteria can exchange plasmids allowing
15:23a colony to genetically adapt
15:26and you would then use the size of the
15:28plasmid and
15:30some other characteristics of it to see
15:32whether it matched the plasmids from
15:33other bacteria mostly the size and so if
15:37you found that you had the same plasmid
15:39type you could assume that these were
15:41related or similar strains
15:44the salmonella from the rashnesses
15:46clinic had a plasmid profile similar to
15:50the organism from the
15:52dales
15:54and it could be killed by all
15:56antibiotics just like the strain used in
15:59the epidemic
16:01that really was a smoking gun that
16:03showed us that the isolate that
16:06i found in their clinic and the isolates
16:08that we were getting from the people in
16:10this outbreak really were the same
16:12bacterial strain
16:14the question remained
16:16why
16:17would the rashnesses poison the
16:19residents of this small town
16:25inside the rashnishi commune
16:28investigators found evidence connecting
16:30the group to the mass salmonella
16:32poisonings
16:34and they discovered other bizarre
16:36activities
16:38sheila had installed surveillance
16:41devices everywhere in the commune
16:44every pay phone in the town was tapped
16:47and almost every building this is the
16:50largest incident of wiretapping in the
16:52history of the united states
16:54they wired this whole town
16:55they were illegal interceptions there
16:57were thousands of them they had banks of
16:59tape recorders running all the time
17:02it's indescribable
17:05[Music]
17:06most rashinishi's didn't know they were
17:08being monitored
17:10it was kept quiet by sheila and her
17:13inner circle which held their meetings
17:15on her round bed a bookcase concealed a
17:19metal door opening onto a tunnel or in
17:22secret rooms
17:23complete with escape tunnels
17:27the fbi also found a number of manuals
17:31for making bombs and
17:34doing dirty tricks and they found a
17:36number of articles about bioterrorism or
17:38biowarfare
17:40the salmonella was the weapon chosen for
17:42a power struggle but not an internal one
17:47did i understand you correctly yesterday
17:49when you said that you were in fact now
17:52going to attempt to take over wasco
17:53county that's correct you understood
17:55right
17:57when the rajinishis put up their own
17:59candidates to run for election for the
18:01local county commission they wanted to
18:03make sure their candidates won
18:07to do that they wanted to make the local
18:09voters sick enough so they couldn't get
18:11to the polling places to vote
18:14the russian issues would have enough
18:16people in antelope and other nearby
18:18places that they would all vote 100
18:21turnout among the russian issues enough
18:23that they would
18:24install their own candidates on the
18:26county commission
18:29but why had the outbreak happened in
18:31september
18:33informants say it was a rehearsal
18:37and it wasn't their first
18:39at sheila's direction
18:41the rajnishi's took off their red robes
18:44and put on regular clothing and went
18:47through the town with spray containers
18:50filled with salmonella
18:53in august their first experiment was
18:56spraying the door handles in the county
18:58courthouse and produce in the local
19:01supermarkets
19:02[Music]
19:04but no one got sick
19:09their second experiment in september was
19:12to spray salmonella on salad bars in 10
19:15local restaurants
19:17which worked
19:18contaminating over 700 residents
19:27just before election day the rajnishi's
19:30made plans to contaminate the city's
19:34water supply
19:35apparently they were unsuccessful
19:38there was evidence that someone had
19:40gotten to the reservoir for the city of
19:42the dallas and gotten into it but no
19:45evidence that they actually ever
19:46contaminated
19:48all of the rajonishi candidates lost in
19:51the november elections
19:54armed with the forensic biological
19:56evidence sheila and puja were extradited
19:59from europe and charged with tampering
20:01with consumer products
20:04they both pled guilty served less than
20:07three years in federal prison were
20:09released and fled to switzerland before
20:12state charges could be filed
20:15last we knew sheila was in europe
20:17running at
20:18the equivalent of a nursing home which
20:20is sort of chilling to think about
20:22turning grandma over to sheila in her
20:24final days
20:28there was no proof rashnesh himself ever
20:30knew anything about the salmonella plot
20:33he pleaded guilty to immigration
20:35violations was deported and died in
20:38india in 1990
20:41most of the restaurants targeted in the
20:44attack never recovered from the economic
20:46blow
20:47and went out of business
20:50that's what happened to dave lutkin's
20:52restaurant
20:54we never regained the position we had in
20:56the community
20:57afterwards i had people that would tell
20:59me that you know i know it wasn't your
21:00fault but i just can't eat there anymore
21:04he now runs a catering service
21:07[Music]
21:08the scientists who investigated the
21:10outbreak wrote a paper about it
21:13but the centers for disease control
21:16asked that it not be published fearing
21:19copycat crimes
21:24in 1997
21:2613 years after the outbreak when
21:28bioterrorism had become a growing
21:31concern
21:32the paper was finally published in the
21:34journal of the american medical
21:36association
21:38evidence discovered in the rashneshi's
21:40health clinic revealed
21:42they had even more potent biological
21:45weapons in their possession
21:47had they been used
21:49the results would have been catastrophic
21:53neither the epidemiology alone
21:55nor a criminal investigation alone would
21:58have would have cracked this it took
21:59both to put it together
22:02[Music]
22:19so
22:20[Music]
22:27[Music]
22:36you

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