Now that's loyalty

Joseph Goldstein has an article in The New York Times about spousal loyalty:

A week ago, Shannon Guess Richardson traveled from her small town in Texas to meet with investigators in Louisiana and accuse her husband of a disturbing crime. Richardson, a pregnant mother of five, said she suspected that her husband, Nathaniel, had mailed three ricin-laced letters to President Obama, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City, and a gun-control lobbyist in Washington. She also offered hard evidence: a book of stamps that microscopic analysis revealed to be the source of the stamps on the three letters.
But the Justice Department now says that it was Richardson herself, an actress with several small television and film credits, who had been arrested and charged with mailing a threatening letter to the President of the United States. A criminal complaint suggested evidence of a frame-up.
If so, it was the second time in two months that a local grudge had spun out of control, and onto the national stage, with ricin-laced letters addressed to the White House.
The case mirrored an episode in April, in which letters laced with the deadly poison were sent to the President, a Mississippi senator and a local Mississippi judge. The Federal Bureau of Investigation quickly arrested Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Mississippi. But the charges were dropped and another man, a rival of Curtis’, was arrested. That man, J. Everett Dutschke, was charged not only with mailing the letters, but also with trying to frame Curtis. The first case may have inspired the second. A computer from the Richardson household revealed Internet searches for the Mississippi ricin case, according to a criminal complaint.
Suspicion shifted to Richardson herself in short order. She told the authorities that she had seen a Post-it note on her husband’s desk in their New Boston, Texas home with several addresses, including those of Bloomberg and the President. She also claimed to have seen containers with what may have been castor beans, which contain ricin.
But when Federal agents approached her husband that day, at an Army depot where he works, he denied involvement and said his wife wanted to end their marriage, according to the complaint. And he offered an accusation of his own: his wife was responsible for the letters.
But when he agreed to let investigators search his car, an agent found twelve castor beans in the trunk, according to the complaint. The next day, 31 May, Richardson took a polygraph examination and admitted that she had taken steps to ensure her husband would be caught— like placing castor beans or ricin powder among his possessions— because she believed he was guilty, the complaint said.
The key to the case, the authorities charged, came when computer forensic analysis showed that the letter to the President and the printing labels for all three letters had been printed shortly after 7 am on 20 May, the day the ricin-laced letters were postmarked. But at that time, Richardson, 33, was already at work, and co-workers said he was not absent from the assembly line, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Richardson confessed that she had mailed the three letters, knowing they contained ricin. But she claimed her husband had typed the letters, which focused on gun rights, and made her print and mail them, according to the complaint.
Richardson’s lawyer, Tonda Curry, did not immediately return a call or an email seeking comment.
Mister Richardson’s lawyer, John Delk, said he did not anticipate that his client would be arrested. He also said they were working with the authorities to prove his innocence, according to The Associated Press. “But until I’m sure they’re not looking at him being involved,” Delk said, “I can’t say much more.”

Rico says now there's a happy marriage...