An Illinois man who mailed four letters containing a white powder to the Chicago-area district offices of three members of Congress — with his own name and home address written on the envelopes as the return address — has been charged by the FBI after telling agents the powder was just salt that "kind of looks like" anthrax. Three of the letters carried a handwritten note reading "HA HA." A fourth read, "HAH enjoy the gift."
The accused is Matthew Unglesbee, 36, of Quincy, Illinois. Federal authorities arrested him at his home on Sunday, October 25, after executing a federal search warrant, and the criminal complaint against him was unsealed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He is charged with two federal counts: false information and hoaxes, and mailing threatening communications. Each count carries up to five years in federal prison.
According to the FBI's court filing, all four envelopes were postmarked in Springfield, Illinois, on October 19, with handwritten addresses and Unglesbee's name and home address in the return-address section — a detail that matched the address listed for him in government records. Each envelope contained a white granular substance. Testing found the substance was not harmful or toxic, and no one was injured by any of the letters.
The letters went to the district offices of three Chicago-area Democrats: Rep. Jan Schakowsky in Skokie, who received suspicious mail twice within a week; Rep. Mike Quigley in Chicago; and Rep. Brad Schneider in Lincolnshire. One letter, received at a district office on October 21, had the white substance spilling out of the still-unopened envelope. Staff followed the warning guidance circulated by the House Sergeant at Arms, left the envelopes unopened and called authorities; offices were evacuated as a precaution while hazmat teams, the FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police responded.
The FBI says the case broke open from two directions. An anonymous tipster contacted the bureau on October 16 after hearing Unglesbee talk about mailing suspicious substances to lawmakers, and the return address on the envelopes pointed agents straight to his door. Interviewed at his home on Sunday, Unglesbee admitted he mailed the four letters, the FBI says, explaining that he had heard someone in a restaurant discussing news reports about similar mailings sent to lawmakers, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He told agents the substance was salt, which he said "kind of looks like" anthrax, and admitted he knew people would perceive the letters as dangerous — acknowledging that recipients could call in hazmat teams over fears of an anthrax attack. A search of his home turned up a fifth, empty envelope addressed to another member of Congress's Washington, D.C., office. He denied any involvement in the earlier suspicious mailings.
Federal officials were blunt. "The use of the mail to threaten others, including the mailing of threatening substances, will not be tolerated," said U.S. Attorney Gregory M. Gilmore. "These threats will be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law." Ryan Presley, the FBI's Special Agent in Charge in Springfield, said mailing unknown substances to congressional offices "creates fear and disrupts the public institutions vital to our democracy," and vowed the bureau would keep "identifying and holding accountable those whose actions threaten to intimidate public officials." The case was investigated by the FBI Springfield Field Office's Joint Terrorism Task Force, with help from the FBI's Chicago office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Quincy police and Illinois state and local task force officers.
The members targeted condemned the mailings. Quigley, whose staff isolated the letter, contacted authorities and evacuated his Chicago office, called the contents "threatening, intimidating language... obviously directed toward Democrats," and said: "Political violence has no place in a democracy, and efforts to scare or intimidate the public in the lead-up to an election must be resoundingly condemned." Schakowsky said the incident "will by no means deter me and my team from continuing our work and prioritizing the needs of Illinois' 9th Congressional District." Schneider, whose Lincolnshire staff closed their mailbox and alerted local police and the Capitol Police, said those responsible "must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The charges land eight days before the November 3 midterm elections, in the middle of a separate, still-unsolved wave of suspicious letters sent to members of Congress and election officials across the country in recent weeks — a wave that has already forced evacuations, including at the Illinois State Board of Elections, and that the FBI continues to investigate. Unglesbee has denied sending any of those letters. He made his initial appearance on Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas J. Quivey, who scheduled a detention hearing for Wednesday, October 28, at the federal courthouse in Springfield. The complaint against him is an accusation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty; no lawyer for him has yet been identified.
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