Man arrested in alleged plot convicted before of illegally obtaining plague

Thursday, Feb. 19, 1998 | 1:16 a.m.

"He has a record of doing very strange things," Verna Linehan, 50, said of Larry Wayne Harris, who lives a few houses away from her in this city of 35,000 people about 30 miles southeast of Columbus.

"He scares me, especially for his racist remarks and because he's been involved in some far-right groups. He and his wife are very quiet and strange," she said.

Harris, convicted April 22 of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Columbus for illegally obtaining bubonic plague bacteria through the mail, was arrested along with another man near Las Vegas Wednesday night.

Authorities say the men may have been about to test the agent at a medical center in nearby Henderson.

Another neighbor, Don Carpenter, 69, said Harris and his wife have been good neighbors. He said Harris has always been kind to him whenever he talks to him while doing yardwork.

"I wouldn't say anything bad about him. He strikes me as being a normal person," Carpenter said. "This really surprises me. That's really terrible."

Harris was arrested in May 1995 after a Rockville, Md., laboratory sent three vials of the freeze-dried, inactive bacteria to his home. The bubonic plague killed one-fourth of the European population in the 1300s but now can be treated with antibiotics.

Even after pleading guilty to the charge, he maintained he did nothing wrong. He said he wanted the bacteria for research for his book, "Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America."

Harris promoted the 131-page book in November 1996 - after his indictment but before he was sentenced - at an expo at the state fairgrounds designed to help people protect themselves from germ warfare.

He told people gathered around his booth that they should take antibiotics to protect themselves against bubonic plague, which he said could be spread at any time, killing millions.

Authorities said Harris misrepresented his circumstances when he ordered the bacteria from American Type Culture Collection. The wire fraud charges were based on telephone calls and faxes he sent to the laboratory.

"I am a scientist. I am absolutely of no harm to anyone. I never, never intended to hurt anyone," he said then.

He was sentenced to 18 months' probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

Federal probation officer Rick Lenhart refused to comment on Harris' arrest because the matter is subject to an ongoing investigation.

Harris has been linked to the Aryan Nation and is a former member of National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group based in West Virginia, said Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center.