[4] Robert Stevens was a newspaper photo editor for Sun, owned by American Media, until he was hospitalized on October 2, 2001.

[10] After an investigation was conducted by the FBI, it was revealed that Stevens had come into contact with anthrax through the letter that was mailed to him at American Media in Boca Raton, Florida.

[11] In addition, an envelope containing anthrax was opened in what was once the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

[9] During their investigation, the FBI concluded that Bruce Edwards Ivins, a microbiologist for the United States Army, had mailed the deadly letters.

[13] In the lawsuit, Maureen Stevens claimed "that the government was negligent in failing to stop someone from working at an Army infectious disease lab from creating weapons-grade anthrax used in letters that killed five people and sickened 17 others.

"[13] Ten years after filing the lawsuit, Maureen Stevens settled with the United States government for US$2.5 million.

Because they came immediately following 9/11, investigators believed that Al Qaeda was also somehow responsible for the anthrax attacks — only this time, they were using biological weapons.

[16] Another thing that makes the death of Robert Stevens important is that at the time it was very rare for anthrax to be in the form of white powder.

Then, by cleaning those same machines, the anthrax spores spread even farther and onto other mail causing twenty two other people to become sick; five of whom died.