Contained within one FBI affidavit, the Georgia Ricin Beans Gang -- Frederick Thomas, Samuel Jerry Crump, Dan Roberts and Ray Adams -- are a number of chats conducted between themselves and an FBI informant. Here is a transcript, with some notes, of the more interesting parts.

Sam Jerry Crump: What I'd like to do is make about ten pounds of that ... Give you 2, me 2, Ray (Adams) 2, Dan (Roberts) 2 and somebody else 2. Put it out in different cities at the same time: Washington DC, maybe Newark, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans. Dump that little (unintelligible) ... that's all you gotta do is lay it in the damn road, the cars are gonna spread it.

FBI Informant: Yeah, but what's it take to make it? I haven't got a clue.

Sam Jerry Crump: Just some seed. I got the, got -uh -- one more ingredient, and I'll get it today ...

Another statement concerning ricin from Samuel Jerry Crump:

"Ya got, ya can't let none of it get on your skin. Got to be a closed environment when it's made. No wind. If it gets up your nose there's no cure."

[Ricin is not a contact poison.]

Samuel Jerry Crump also mentioned another toxic substance, probably botulinum toxin:

"That other kind, 1 pound can kill 30 million people ... We need somebody to back us with money so we can make that other shit ... This is worse than anthrax ... That shit's deadly! There ain't no damn, there ain't no cure for it. And it works, I think, in 2 hours."

Finally, on prodding, Ray Adams names the more deadly toxin.

Crump: "Kills about 30 million people at one time, one pound of it. It's caused from dead food."

Ray Adams: "Oh, botulism."

Crump goes onto to roughly describe the ricin recipe originally devised and distributed by Kurt Saxon in his pamphlet, The Weaponeer, back in 1984.

Further along, he goes into details on his plan to disburse it. First the castor powder should be mixed with charcoal to make it black. Presumably so it would be hard to see at night, one guesses.

Later, Sam Jerry Crump makes one astute observation:

"[But] if they find that shit on your computer you're hung."

Crump later mused on "going to Africa" to get "botulism":

"Well, I thought you can't make that botulism (unintelligible) ... got some good backers ... go to Africa, uh, and get some of that to make.

"We'd bring it back over here. Ya don't make it over there. You just get the samples of the stuff out of the soil. It comes from dead animals, from rotten meat. That's where botulism comes from. It's more potent than the stuff (ricin) ... I know somebody can make it."

Ray Adams, another member of the Ricin Beans Gang, alleged to a lab technician at one time, discussed making ricin:

"Well, I've never done it (made ricin) but I have laboratory experience and once you extract that stuff enough just splashin' it on your skin can kill ya. Once it dries, while it's wet, any kind of solvent, like anything, it just takes water solution to soak through your skin. It's highly permeable through the skin. There's no antidote.

"I've handled all kinds of deadly stuff, pesticides and that kind of stuff, so ... "

[To emphasize the level of knowledge on display, it's worth repeating that ricin is not a contact poison.]

The Ricin Beans Gang affidavit is here.

This post was originally published at Dick Destiny blog.