Extortion By Virus

The butler apparently did do it. It seems that Emanuel Nicolescu, a former butler for Anne Bass, devised a very unusual extortion scheme that sounds like something from a Sci Fi movie. Maybe one of the many incarnations of the classic DOA.

 

In the real life version, Nicolescu allegedly injected Mrs. Bass with a “deadly virus” and told her that unless she forked over $8.5 million she would die. Seems the money was for the “antidote.” Of course, Mrs. Bass didn’t know that viruses don’t have antidotes and her butler likely didn’t have the expertise or equipment to grow and isolate “deadly viruses.” Fortunately, Nicolescu and his partners in crime got nervous and fled the scene, only to be later captured. Of course, Mrs. Bass survived without the “antidote.”

Can you think of anything more sinister than this? I can.

The Schmidt HIV Case

In 1994, Dr. Richard Schmidt, under the guise of delivering healthcare, injected his girlfriend with blood taken from one of his HIV-infected patients. Six months later she was diagnosed with AIDS and went to the police. Sifting through Schmidt’s records, investigators discovered that he had drawn blood from one of his AIDS patients on the same night that he had injected the victim. This was critical since the AIDS virus can only survive a few hours outside the human body.

The main problem facing investigators was that the HIV virus mutates often so making a match between the virus taken from the unsuspecting source patient with that found in the victim could be problematic. Either could have mutated to the point that no conclusive match would be possible. Samples were then taken from 32 other HIV-infected individuals in the area. Testing revealed that the samples taken from the patient source and the victim ex-girlfriend matched almost exactly, while the others did not, proving that no major HIV viral mutation had occurred in the immediate population. Schmidt was convicted of second-degree attempted-murder and sentenced to 50 years.