Quincy Man Charged With Mailing ‘HA HA’ Powder Letters to Congress Offices Under His Own Name
An FBI affidavit says Matthew Unglesbee used his real name and address as the return address and told agents the white powder was salt.
A 36-year-old Quincy, Illinois, man is charged with mailing letters filled with white powder to the offices of four members of Congress. According to the FBI, the return address on every envelope was his own name and home address.
Matthew Unglesbee was arrested on Oct. 25, 2026, and charged by criminal complaint with false information and hoaxes and with mailing threatening communications, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois said. Magistrate Judge Douglas J. Quivey held his first court appearance on Oct. 26, 2026, and set a detention hearing for Oct. 28, 2026, in Springfield. The allegations have not been proven in court.
The complaint was unsealed on Oct. 26, 2026, and the office said only that it accuses Unglesbee of mailing letters with unknown substances to congressional offices. The sworn affidavit attached to it, filed in case No. 3:26-mj-03110, gives much more.
A tip from a restaurant
On Oct. 16, 2026, an anonymous tipster told the FBI they had overheard Unglesbee in a restaurant saying he had mailed suspicious substances to members of Congress, according to the affidavit by FBI Task Force Officer Charis Hobbs. The tipster gave his full name, address and date of birth.
On Oct. 21, 2026, FBI Chicago personnel, including specialists in weapons of mass destruction, recovered letters from the district offices of three members of Congress in northern Illinois. A staffer at the first office felt powder in the envelope and could hear something inside, and called 911. Hazardous materials teams went to at least two offices. Each envelope held a white granular substance and a handwritten note that read “HA HA,” the affidavit says. On Oct. 23, 2026, agents recovered a fourth envelope from a U.S. senator’s office with a note reading “HAH enjoy the gift.”
All four envelopes were postmarked in Springfield on Oct. 19, 2026, and listed “Matthew Unglesbee” as the sender, at the address the tipster had given. None of the recipients opened them, and preliminary tests at a state laboratory found no chemical or biological toxins, according to the affidavit. The members of Congress are not named.
“Kind of looks like” anthrax
FBI agents interviewed Unglesbee outside his home on Oct. 25, 2026. He admitted mailing the four letters after hearing someone in a restaurant mention news stories about other letters mailed earlier in the month, the affidavit says. He told agents the powder was salt and that he used it because it “kind of looks like” anthrax. He said he was joking but understood the recipients would not know that and could see it as a threat.
He denied any role in the earlier mailings in the news. A search of his room turned up a fifth envelope, empty and unmailed, addressed to one of the same members of Congress at a Washington office, the agent wrote.
