Texas man says wife's arrest for trying to frame him with ricin letters like a 'bad dream'

TEXARKANA, Texas — The Texas man whose wife is accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in an attempt to frame him says the experience has been "like a really bad dream."

Nathan Richardson of New Boston, a small town near the Arkansas border, told the Texarkana Gazette (http://bit.ly/15YIvln ) that he's now questioning "everything" about his pregnant wife, even the paternity of her unborn child.

Shannon Richardson was arrested last Friday and charged with mailing a threatening communication to the president. Authorities allege the actress was trying to make it appear the letters were sent by her husband.

Nathan Richardson, a 33-year-old Army veteran who works as a mechanic at the Red River Army Depot, filed for divorce last Thursday. He told the Gazette he contemplated divorce last year but, until a few weeks ago, thought the couple had patched things up.

Richardson said he met his wife through a cousin of hers while he was working overseas. The couple exchanged emails for several months before meeting, he said. They married in October 2011.

"It seemed like a really good connection," Richardson said. "Now I'm just thinking it's all an act, of course. Over time, slowly she turned out to be someone she wasn't."

According to Richardson, his wife claimed to have health problems, but he could never determine what they were.

Shannon Richardson has played bit roles on television and in movies under the name Shannon Guess. She has five children ranging in age from 4 to 19 from other relationships, according to Nathan Richardson's attorney, John Delk.

The government alleges that the 35-year-old woman sent the ricin-laced letters last month to the White House, Bloomberg and the mayor's Washington gun-control group.

Authorities have determined that the letters were mailed from New Boston or nearby Texarkana and postmarked in Shreveport, La. The letters threatened violence against gun-control advocates, investigators said.

According to an FBI affidavit, Shannon Richardson first contacted authorities to implicate her husband in the scheme. But she later failed a polygraph exam, and investigators found numerous inconsistencies in her story, the document alleges.