More ricin found in Hatboro; neighbors say suspect was unassuming

A secret stash of additional ricin, left over from a 19-year-old Hatboro resident's alleged plot to kill a man dating his ex-girlfriend, was found beneath a gas manhole cover in town Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.

About 24 hours after police arrested Nicholas Helman at the Eleanor Court apartment he shares with his mother on Byberry Road, authorities retrieved the hidden supply of the toxin, according to Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler.

Heckler said the ricin was found "tucked away" under the manhole.

He did not say how much ricin was found or how authorities came to learn it was there.

Heckler said authorities believed it to be the last of the ricin, which they have accused Helman of applying to a scratch-and-sniff birthday card that he subsequently delivered to the family mailbox of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.

Helman, who was charged with attempted murder Wednesday, was described Thursday by neighbors as a quiet, unassuming presence - someone they saw as unlikely to attempt such a Hollywood-worthy murder plot.

Helman occasionally wore a Boy Scouts uniform, neighbors said, smoked by himself in his garage, and canoodled on his front stoop with his girlfriend.

Beyond that, they said, he attracted little attention until Wednesday night, when an armada of local and federal police officers surrounded the Byberry Road complex, searching for the baby-faced young man.

Some experts say ricin's reputation exceeds its lethal history, but Wednesday's police response showed that they took Helman's alleged threats seriously.

"He knew what he was doing," Heckler said.

Lab tests, Heckler added, indicated that the ricin - which police believe Helman made from castor beans - was particularly potent.

Eleanor Court residents said Thursday that, while many families in the complex socialize as their young children play in the courtyard, Helman and his mother - who have lived there for years - kept to themselves.

The younger Helman never said much more than hello to others, said Scott Schouldis, 32.

"He's probably the guy you go through 12 years of school with and don't remember him," Schouldis said.

John Patrick, 24, who lives across the courtyard from Helman, said that last summer he'd spot Helman on the stoop with his girlfriend. The two would passionately cuddle and kiss, Patrick said, and Patrick thought Helman "seemed a lot younger" than 19, though Patrick admitted they never had a long conversation.

Attempts to reach Helman's family members, former classmates, and coworkers at a Warrington Target store were unsuccessful.

Some experts say ricin - which is banned by international treaties and can be deadly when ingested - has an outsized reputation.

While a Texas woman pleaded guilty last year to mailing ricin-laced letters to President Obama and Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, only one person is known to have been killed by ricin, according to Charles P. Blair, a professor at George Mason University who focuses on terrorism.

That occurred in 1978, Blair said, when Bulgarian dissident Gorgi Markov was assassinated in London via injection.

Raymond Zilinskas, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, said most people can detect ricin before they ingest it.

"Nobody is going to open an envelope and say 'Oh, powder? I'm going to eat this. Let me inhale some of this,' " Zilinskas said.

Blair, citing ricin's popularity in movies and television shows, said ricin was "like an actor or a singer that has no talent but somehow catches the limelight."

Still, Heckler insisted that the card could have been lethal and that authorities were "extremely concerned" about the leftovers "getting out into the wide world."

Helman's apartment remained condemned Thursday; a sign on the door said it was "unsafe for human occupancy."

Helman remained in Bucks County Prison without bail.

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