At 02:42 p -0400 04/22/2010, Marc Bossiere didst inscribe upon an 
electronic papyrus:

>Well I knew it was plain text, but my problem then is I could really 
>use the rules it follows so
>that I can write a script to extract (reliably) the basic email 
>format without all the other
>garbage, such as:
>From: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Date: April 22, 2010
>Subject: Sample email
>Then the body of the mail here

What about a program designed to convert mail formats, like 
emailchemy? (I think that's what it's called.)