Crime tile

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Tennessee prisoner has been indicted for sending threatening letters that falsely claimed they contained anthrax to the governor, the secretary of state and the district attorney's office in Nashville.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release today that 32-year-old Branden Frady, of Johnson City, was a prisoner at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville last September when he sent out six threatening letters.

Four of the letters contained a white powder that he claimed was anthrax. The letters also made explicit death threats against the public officials, such as, "I will kill you" and "Here is some anthrax."

Prosecutors said the letters disrupted government operations and exhausted resources of the law enforcement, which evacuated the offices of the Nashville district attorney's office and closed nearby buildings.