Vienna Man Who Faked Obituary Makes Illegal Ricin Guilty Plea

VIENNA, VA — A Vienna man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to illegally possessing the deadly toxin ricin.

Russell Richardson Vane IV, 42, pleaded guilty to possession of ricin by an unregistered person. Prosecutors say Vane obtained castor beans and extracted ricin toxin from them in his Vienna residence in December 2022 or January 2023. Ricin is a deadly poison and cannot be possessed without legal registration, according to the Public Health Services Act.

Vane, a veteran of the Marine Corps, used his federal workplace computer to search for instructions on extracting ricin from castor beans, prosecutors say. A search of Vane's home found castor beans and a recipe to separate ricin from them, the Associated Press reported. Vane threw out the byproducts and put a sample of the ricin in a test tube in a storage box.

Prosecutors also presented evidence that Vane created a fake obituary for himself and even tried a name change in Fairfax County court. That obituary is no longer posted online.

Authorities were first notified about Vane by the Virginia Kekoas, a militia group that became uneasy about his discussions about explosives, the Washington Post reported. The militia group has anti-government beliefs and believed he was a possible government informant.

Van faces up to five years in prison and will be sentenced on Nov. 7.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.