Copyright 1993 Star Tribune
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
October 7, 1993, Metro Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 15A
LENGTH: 517 words
HEADLINE: New clue found in university bombings SOURCE: News Services
DATELINE: Washington, D.C.
BODY:
Federal investigators, acknowledging that they have no viable suspects in a series of university faculty bombings, revealed a new clue Wednesday and offered a $ 1 million reward for information to catch and convict those responsible.
The clue is a telephone call reminder believed to have been written by the bomber around the time of the latest mail bombings in June, after a six-year lapse: "Call Nathan R wed 7 pm." FBI Director Louis Freeh said "Nathan R" may be innocently associated with the culprit and urged him or others with knowledge to relay their information to a special toll-free number (1-800-701-BOMB).
Freeh appeared with Ronald Noble, assistant Treasury secretary for enforcement, and the heads of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau and the chief postal inspector. They formed a task force with the FBI in June to crack the 14 bombings, which have killed one person and injured 23 since 1978.
George Clow, the FBI inspector who heads the Unabom task force - so named because incidents have occurred at universities and on an airliner - declined to explain how the note was unearthed on the ground that doing so could interfere with the investigation. But other sources indicated that the telephone reminder was somehow linked to a letter sent to the New York Times in June discussing the bombings.
It included the initials "FC," which also have been engraved in the bombs that have survived the blasts. The letter was postmarked after the packages containing the bombs were sent but before they exploded.
The letter described "an anarchist group calling ourselves FC" and promised "information about our goals at some future time." Clow said that information has not been forthcoming, leading investigators to fear that the bomber will strike again. They are particularly concerned about November. The bomber has occasionally sent packages around the anniversary dates of earlier bombings, and he has struck twice on Nov. 15.
Noble, on leave from the New York University School of Law, described "the apprehension faculty members and students throughout our country feel about the random bombs that have struck campuses in California, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois and Connecticut."
While declining to discuss other leads investigators are pursuing, Clow released a psychological profile of the bomber drawn up by ATF and FBI experts. It describes the culprit as a white male loner in his late 40s or early 50s, probably an obsessive-compulsive who has difficulties forming personal relationships and is neat and rigid, with a macabre sense of humor. He may appear to be a "nice guy" and not apparently predisposed to violence.
The mail bombs in June that severely injured Charles Epstein, a University of California, San Francisco, geneticist, and David Gelernter, a Yale University computer scientist, bore Sacramento return addresses, as did the letter sent to the Times. But the task force, which operates out of San Francisco and Sacramento, said there was no firm indication that the bomber lived in California.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE: October 11, 1993