Calif. Women Accused of Poison Plot

[GalvestonDuck]

After the first attempt, I would have had them locked up -- separately -- and then changed the beneficiary on my life insurance policy!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... son_plot_1

Calif. Women Accused of Poison Plot

By SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer

SAN DIEGO - A Marine's wife and another woman were arrested with the deadly poison ricin, and authorities said the pair planned to kill the husband to get insurance money.

No terrorism was involved, the FBI said.

Authorities said Astrid K. Tepatti and Ebony Wood, both 21, were lovers who used a recipe obtained on the Internet to cook up a small amount of the poison out of castor beans.

Highway patrol officers said they found the ricin in a bag in a car the two women were riding in Sunday near Winterhaven, about 150 miles east of San Diego.

The officers also found a pistol, a handwritten recipe for the poison and a container of castor beans, and authorities said the women were wearing clothing — with sales tags still attached — they had shoplifted from a department store.

Tepatti and Wood were being held in a federal detention center in San Diego on charges of attempted murder. It was not immediately clear whether they had lawyers. Tepatti's husband is a Marine at Camp Pendleton, authorities said.

Authorities said it was not the first effort to kill Tepatti's husband. Earlier Sunday, they said, Tepatti, with Wood's help, fired a handgun equipped with a potato silencer at him but he was not hurt.

In late 2003, according to the FBI, Tepatti conspired with Wood to kill him by luring him to the beach and stabbing him in the neck.

FBI agent Jan Caldwell said Thursday the case has no connection to the discovery in October of a package of ricin at a South Carolina post office. The FBI offered a $100,000 reward for information in that case.

When inhaled or ingested, ricin can trigger fever, cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness and low blood pressure within eight hours. Death can come 36 to 72 hours after exposure. There is no antidote.

[coriolis]

A potato silencer? How's that work?
I would have been outta there after the first attempt. I ain't gonna stick around if they're out to get me. Anyone got a safe house?

[streetsoldier]

Tomatoes work better...all one has to do is cram the barrel into the skin of the fruit/veggie and fire away.

Only good for one shot, but...

I learned about this one in the STL MPD Academy.