Copyright 1994 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
December 15, 1994, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 6; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk
LENGTH: 503 words
HEADLINE: Investigators Find a Name From Bomb
BYLINE: By JOHN MARKOFF, Special to The New York Times
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 14
BODY:
Looking for new leads in their search for a serial bomber who mailed the package that killed an advertising executive on Saturday in New Jersey, Federal investigators today released the name on the return address on the envelope.
Jim R. Freeman, the F.B.I. official in charge of the task force investigating the so-called Unabom case, said that the name, H. C. Wickel, was supposedly that of someone from the economics department at San Francisco State University here. But there is no evidence that such a person has ever been associated with the economics department or with the university either as a professor, staff member or student, he said.
Officials at San Francisco State said they were referring all calls relating to the bomb case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The package that Thomas J. Mosser, a Young & Rubicam executive, opened in his kitchen last Saturday was mailed on Dec. 3 from San Francisco. F.B.I. agents believe it was mailed by the same person responsible for 14 other bombs over the past 16 years that killed two people and injured 22 others. The bomber has so far managed to avoid leaving even the most basic clues about his identity.
Mr. Freeman, who is also the agent in charge of the San Francisco office of the bureau, said forensics investigators had managed to reconstruct the address, which he said had been typed on a mailing label affixed to the outside of the package containing the bomb. He would not say whether the address had been printed by a computer or a typewriter.
Mr. Freeman said that Federal investigators had contacted several families in the Bay Area with the last name Wickel, but there did not appear to be any connection to the serial bomber.
Thwarted in solving the case through conventional police techniques, investigators appealed again today to the public for help, particularly with tips about the name Wickel.
"The Unabom suspect has eluded capture for 16 years," Mr. Freeman said. "Usually, the suspect will talk to someone and that will lead to that person being brought to light."
Mr. Freeman also said that investigators would like to talk to anyone in the Bay Area who had recently mailed a package for a temporary house guest. The toll-free number of the Unabom task force hotline is (800) 701-2662.
There have been 3,100 phone calls to the Federal task force since Saturday's attack. Of those 40 percent have been tips about individuals who look similar to the suspect in the drawing released by the investigators. Another 40 percent are from individuals who have theories about the serial bomber and 20 percent offer pieces of information about the case.
Today, Mr. Freeman reaffirmed the task force's belief that the bomber was a lone individual and not a group. Last year, in a letter to The New York Times, the serial bomber wrote that he was a member of an anarchist group known as "FC."
"A group of that nature would want to get some message out to the public and that has not happened," Mr. Freeman said.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Donna Read, a chemist with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, displaying a letter bomb at a news conference yesterday in San Francisco, where officials are looking for leads in the Unabom case. (Associated Press)