Toxin Suspect's Lawyer: His Wife Supports Him

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- The lawyer for a Lake in the Hills man accused of possessing a deadly toxin is raising questions about the government's case.

Weapons found in the home, the FBI says. Empty vials of tetrodotoxin.

Plus, authorities say, 35-year-old Edward Bachner was the beneficiary of his wife's $5 million life insurance policy.

Authorities say Bachner tried to find a hit-man three years ago. The intended target, the government says: Bachner's wife.

But Bachner's lawyer Jim Marcus says if the government thought Bachner's wife was at risk, why didn't somebody tell her?

"The gist of that investigation was an impossible assassination attempt against his wife, but she was never even notified of the fact that there was such a plot by him. So clearly they could not have taken that too seriously, otherwise she would've been notified."

Marcus says Bachner has a clean record and has the support of his wife and parents.

Bachner is being held without bail.

Marcus says his client played the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons.

Will that have anything to do with his defense?

Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing, fantasy game whose roots go back more than 30 years.

Besides being played safely and harmlessly by millions, it has also been linked by some to controversy - allegedly to murder and suicide.

35-year-old Edward Bachner, who allegedly pretended to be a Dr. Edmund Backer so he could order vials of tetrodotoxin, played Dungeons and Dragons, says his attorney Jim Marcus.

"Many people - millions of people participate in Dungeons and Dragons. I don't want to go into the specific defenses that are available, but certainly he did participate in Dungeons and Dragons, and I don't really want to comment beyond that."

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