Las Vegas ricin suspect says he’s ‘not a criminal’

A loner who long had struggled financially, Roger Bergendorff told investigators that he found making ricin an “exotic idea.”

So he researched the deadly toxin online. He bought “The Anarchists Cookbook.” He ordered castor bean seeds -- ricin comes from the processed beans’ waste -- apparently posing as a fictitious customer: “Roger’s Patio and Garden.”

He donned a mask and gloves, mashed the beans with acetone, dried out the oil and stored the light-colored powder in a polypropylene container.

According to a six-page federal complaint released Wednesday, Bergendorff fell ill while keeping a “crude” form of the poison at the Extended Stay America hotel in Las Vegas, where he lived with his cats and German shepherd.

After Bergendorff was hospitalized in February with symptoms of congestive heart failure, authorities searched Room 3700 and found syringes, a beaker, beans, a weapons cache and four grams of ricin.

Bergendorff faces three federal charges -- possession of a biological toxin and two weapons counts -- that could send him to prison for up to 30 years.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy A. Leen ruled Wednesday that Bergendorff, 57, will remain in federal custody; his case is expected to go before a grand jury in the next few days.

Bergendorff appeared in court in a wheelchair, wearing green pants, socks and a white T-shirt. A hefty man with graying hair, Bergendorff mostly stared at the ground, chin in hand, his brow furrowed.

His public defender asked that Bergendorff -- who suffers from depression and anxiety and has no criminal record -- be supervised in a halfway house and have his mental health evaluated.

“I’m not a criminal. I’m not a robber. I’m not a thief. I’m not a rapist. I’m not a child molester. . . . It’s not in my blood,” Bergendorff told the judge.

Bergendorff, a graphic artist, had no apparent link to terrorism, and there has been no indication of a broader plot or co-conspirators, said Gregory A. Brower, the U.S. attorney for Nevada.

Bergendorff told authorities he had made the lethal powder while living in three states -- including California -- for little reason other than “he experimented with a lots of things, even counterfeiting.”

He thought about using it to harm people who angered him, he told investigators, but never carried out such plans.

Ricin -- whose only legal use is for cancer research -- can cause vomiting, diarrhea, fluid in the lungs and respiratory or organ failure, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The toxin’s cloak-and-dagger reputation stems in part from the death of a Bulgarian writer who was stabbed in 1978 with an umbrella that injected the poison.

Bergendorff spent much of his life in Orange and San Diego counties, where former neighbors have described him as standoffish and troubled.

He told investigators that he first made ricin in the late 1990s while living in San Diego. In 2002, while living in Reno, Bergendorff purchased castor bean seeds through the mail from a Michigan company, authorities said. He had them sent to his address but used a fake business name “knowing that such purchase could potentially arouse suspicions,” court papers said.

Bergendorff made a crude form of ricin in Reno and possibly in Riverton, Utah, he told authorities. He was “basically indigent” when he moved to the Salt Lake City suburb in early 2005, his cousin Thomas Tholen said.

Bergendorff lived in Tholen’s unfinished basement and earned money delivering pizzas, but didn’t pay rent and ran up the phone bill using Internet service, neighbors there said.

Bergendorff allegedly told Tholen that ricin would be easy to make. According to court documents, he once showed his cousin a vial or beaker containing powder that Tholen thought was the toxin.

“Although he did not witness the production,” court papers said, “Tholen believes that Bergendorff produced this ricin in his basement in Utah.”

Tholen, a 54-year-old retired art teacher, was indicted this month in Salt Lake City for allegedly failing to tell authorities about the toxin.

Bergendorff moved out in spring 2006, and bounced around until ending up at the Extended Stay America.

Authorities were first called to his room Feb. 26. There they found two .25-caliber semiautomatic pistols, a .22-caliber Ruger rifle, a .22-caliber Browning pistol and two silencers that Bergendorff said he made “because they were fun,” according to court papers.

They also discovered “The Anarchists Cookbook,” with a page about ricin marked.

Two days later, Tholen found beans, hypodermic needles and two containers of powder in the room. Tests confirmed that the substance was ricin.

Tholen also gave investigators documents described as Bergendorff’s will, in which he mentioned “valuables” in three storage units in West Jordan, Utah. In locker M21, authorities discovered respirators, gloves and chemicals “that could be used in the production of ricin,” court papers said, and a mortar tested positive for the lethal powder.

Authorities also found a drawing of “an injection delivery device” disguised as a pen. When investigators asked him about it, Bergendorff said it was “sick stuff.”

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ashley.powers@latimes.com

Times researcher Stuart Glascock in Seattle contributed to this report.