Leavitt’s mother: son innocent

Denise Cardinal

Friday, Feb. 20, 1998 | 10:15 a.m.

William Leavitt may have been arrested with a man known as a white supremacist, and the charges may lead the word into thinking he possessed deadly anthrax for some evil purpose, but his mother in Las Vegas is appalled at such thoughts and associations directed toward her son.

During a telephone interview Thursday, Mary "Betty" Leavitt said her son is not a white supremacist or a man who would think for a moment about killing anyone or inflicting biological terrorism.

Her son, a former Mormom bishop, is just the opposite, she said, a family man very concerned about global safety. She recalled his concern for life even as a small child, when he would bring injured animals home and care for them.

"My son's very concerned with the world situation," she told the SUN.

Because of what's happened, Betty Leavitt, 79, herself is suddenly coming under a microscope. FBI agents told the SUN that its interview with her was being recorded. She was also unable to get groceries Thursday because of the media circus at her home near downtown Las Vegas.

William Leavitt, arrested by the FBI Wednesday on charges that he, along with Larry Wayne Harris, possessed an amount of anthrax "for use as a weapon."

Leavitt, 47, lives with his mother half the week in Las Vegas, where he owns and operates AAA Fire Protection Corp., a fire extinguisher business with clients that include Nevada Power Co. and Clark County.

"Every night before we go to bed, or he leaves in the morning for work, he asks if we can have a prayer together," Betty Leavitt said. "And he will always make part of his prayer to please let us have peace in the world. He prays, 'Let there be no death and no harm to come to anyone.'"

The rest of the time William Leavitt lives in Logandale, Nev. -- a small rural village about 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas -- with his wife and two of his three children. His oldest daughter is away at college.

A long-time Las Vegas resident and registered Republican, Leavitt graduated from high school in 1968 -- the same year his father died from heart problems. An only child, Leavitt was a straight-A student at Valley High School, his mother said.

Leavitt's lifelong hobby and passion, according to his mother and acquaintances, is medical research. Though he never received a degree from his college days at the University of Southern California, Leavitt did run the heart and lung machine at Kaiser Permanente hospital and always wanted to go to medical school.

Leavitt turned to alternative medicine in his studies. According to his attorney, Lamond Mills, Leavitt was trying to find cures for Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS and Hepatitis B at a lab he owns in Logandale.

George Brookman, his fire-protection business landlord for about 20 years, said Leavitt talked often to him about tests he was performing on different techniques, including one involving a cleansing process for the blood.

But some of the laboratory testing laws in the United States didn't always allow Leavitt to properly experiment with the processes, Brookman said, so Leavitt went to Mexico to do some tests.

Leavitt is also associated with the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, Mills said, where more tests on some of his processes are being tested.

Leavitt was arrested in front of The Royal Center of Advanced Medicine, 2501 N. Green Valley Parkway in Henderson. The center is run by Dr. Daniel Fuller Royal.

A Las Vegas osteopathic and homeopathic physician, Royal said Thursday that he first met Leavitt last summer through a mutual friend.

Since last September, the two men have been researching ways to help people with immune deficiencies, Royal told the SUN. He said they last met about a week ago, when Leavitt had just returned from a trip to Germany.

Royal said he has no idea why Leavitt and Harris came to his office Wednesday night. Royal said he had never met Harris.

"I have no idea what they were planning or doing because anybody who is here after hours needs to have my permission," Royal said, adding that he may have given Leavitt a key at one time.

But it's not just medical research that Leavitt was interested in, his mother said.

"He felt that he could possibly come up with something to help to alleviate the threat of the germ warfare," she said. "That's what he was interested in. Of course we all know that they're using anthrax in germ warfare and he felt with his technology he perfected, then maybe this will work against the anthrax."

William Leavitt and Ronald Rockwell appeared on a local talk-radio show last week hosted by Lou Epton. On the show, Rockwell was introduced as the man who developed equipment to kill viruses. Leavitt told Epton that that equipment was at a lab and that they were testing its abilities. Mills has referred to Rockwell as the man who tipped off the FBI about the anthrax possession.

"We've been testing through a number of research foundations in a number of different areas," said Leavitt, who talked about how he "was actually contacted because of my background to do some clinical testing" though he never mentioned who contacted him.

Further mystery remains in Leavitt's tie to the black Mercedes-Benz, which was impounded Wednesday night by the FBI. Leavitt and Harris are charged with transporting the anthrax in the trunk of the Mercedes.

Though the car is registered under the name Gary Gerwien (a.k.a. Gary Mark Gerwin and Gary Griffen) from California, records show that Gerwien signed a power of attorney form to Leavitt on Feb. 2, 1996 -- one week before Gerwien died.

Brookman said he didn't know of Leavitt owning a Mercedes.

Leavitt's mother said that her son never talked to her about Harris and that she suspects foul play.

"He (Leavitt) trusts people too much," she said. "I think there's been some misrepresentation on behalf of the people he was working with and possibly some double crossing. But Bill likes to believe in what people say."

SUN REPORTERS Valerie Miller, Art Nadler and Cathy Scott contributed to this story.