We are all acquainted with W.R. Grace as the corporate killer who has sentenced thousands to asbestos related disease and early death -- and committing fraud and other crimes to cover it all up.

But Revere over at Effect Measure, digs up a little history on Grace. Seems they have an affinity for mass murder:

J. Peter Grace, a scion of the Grace fortunes and company capo after WWII, had an eye for talent. After the war he sprung from prison, hired and employed for thirty years one Otto Ambros, a convicted Nazi war criminal who also had expertise in chemistry, useful for a big chemical company. What was Ambros's chemical specialty? Before and during the war he worked for the German chemical conglomerate I.G. Farben and help develop "Zykon B," the gas used in the Nazi gas chambers. Ambros also gave us the nerve gases Sarin and Tabun. But he was a chemist. Useful fellow.

But, as Revere notes, Grace's crimes are not so bad that Republicans can't see their way to show some mercy by passing asbestos compensation legislation to bail out the poor oppressed company and it's many co-conspriators.

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Labels: Asbestos