08 Nov 2010
Photo: AP
As America's pre-eminent designer of biological weaponry between 1951 and 1969, he numbered in his deadly arsenal such microscopic agents as anthrax and smallpox. He even tried to harness plague – the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century.
Following the Nixon administration's decision to scrap the development programme, Patrick devoted himself to what became known as "bio-defences", working as an adviser to the American government and as a private consultant.
Hargreaves may have been anxious - FergusonWhen the deputy head of the Soviet biowarfare programme defected to the United States in the early 1990s, Patrick was brought in by the CIA to lead his debriefing. Patrick was dismayed to learn that in 1972, when the Americans had abandoned their research, the Russians had started to expand theirs. Where the United States had produced one metric ton of dried anthrax annually, the Soviets had been turning out 4,500 tons.
In 1994 he went to Iraq as leader of a United Nations team of weapons inspectors, trying to penetrate Saddam Hussein's top secret biological weapons programme.
Patrick believed in the feasibility of biological warfare "without a shadow of a doubt", noting that a single gallon of concentrated anthrax contained enough spores to kill every person on the planet.
He also drew attention to the ease with which such weaponry could be transported, pointing out that he had carried aerosols of simulated anthrax undetected through 50 airport checkpoints over a period of 15 years.
Patrick's extrovert manner and gallows humour marked him out in a profession characterised by dourness. His business card bore a skull and crossbones, and his letterhead a drawing of the Grim Reaper, the figure's scythe labelled "Biological Warfare" and his outstretched arm sowing germs.
William Capers Patrick III was born on July 24 1926 at Ridgeland, South Carolina, the only child of a produce broker. After wartime service in the US Army he studied at the University of South Carolina and the University of Tennessee, earning a master's degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry in 1949.
After working briefly as a researcher for a solvents firm, he moved to the biological warfare laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
He helped turn naturally occurring germs into dangerous weapons; among these was Q fever, which was meant to cripple the enemy with chills, coughing, headaches, hallucinations and high fevers. On the one occasion when he came down with such a fever himself, he dismissed it as an occupational hazard.
By 1965 Patrick was in charge of some 80 scientists, engineers and technicians trying to turn bacteria, fungi, viruses and microbial toxins into "products" intended to kill and incapacitate. When the laboratories were closed in 1972, he remained at Fort Detrick with the US Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Retiring from federal service in 1986, he formed his own consultancy, Biothreats Assessment, and worked for government agencies including the CIA, FBI and US Secret Service as well as for his former employers at Fort Detrick.
Convinced of the increasing danger of biological attacks, Patrick believed that much of the civilised world remained ignorant of the dangers and devoted himself to rectifying this. As well as lecturing to military, medical and government personnel, he appeared regularly on mainstream television and on the History and Discovery channels.
Bill Patrick, who died on October 1, is survived by his wife and two sons from an earlier marriage.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8118320/Bill-Patrick.html
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