Experts say ricin easy to make

OXFORD, Miss. -- The ricin mailed to the president and a U.S. senator is relatively easy to make but generally can't be used to target a large number of people, experts say.

A Mississippi man, Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, has been charged with mailing letters laced with the naturally occurring toxin to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

Authorities say he sent a third threatening letter to a Mississippi judge, though that letter is still being tested for the presence of ricin. Curtis has denied making the ricin and mailing the letters.

The FBI has not yet revealed details about how the ricin was made or how lethal it may have been. It was in a powdered form inside the envelopes, but the FBI said no one has been sickened by it so far.

More than a dozen officials, some wearing hazardous materials suits, were searching the home yesterday where Curtis was arrested in Corinth, Miss.

FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden would not say if authorities have found ricin or materials used to make it in Curtis' home, and officials have not provided details about how Curtis may have either obtained or made the ricin, which is extracted from widely available castor beans.

Family and acquaintances have described Curtis as a caring father and enthusiastic musician who struggled for years with mental illness and pursued a conspiracy theory to its farthest reaches.

He claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy to sell body parts on the black market while he was working at a Mississippi hospital and tried for years to publicize it. That hospital confirmed he worked there but denied a conspiracy, saying it does not receive payment for donated organs, which are immediately transported to recipients by another agency.