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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 SPECIAL EDITION -- NEWSWEEK 11 June 1984 Pg. 38 TERRORISM -- The Midwest Huntsa Bomber W hen she saw thecrisp dollar bill on the ground in the Milwaukee Civic Cen- ter Plaza last week, Jill Binon, 22, quite logically bent to pick it up. The bill was attached to a paper bag wrapped around a cylindrical object—and turned out to be the cruel bait for a pipe bomb. Binon was lucky. The bomb misfired—flashing out like a rocket instead of exploding in a burst of shrapnel—and she suffered only minor fa- cial burns and a mild concussion. But the bomber was not through trying. Hours later police found a second bomb near The Milwaukee Journal building. Soon after, two more were found in Chicago, one in a downtown parking lot and another ina stairwell of the Standard Oil Building. In- cluding devices recently discovered in Wis- consin and Minnesota, that brought the total to 18 pipe bombs found across the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER 2 Another bomb jolts Vegas Strip Associated Press LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A bomb. ex- ploded early yesterday in a parking lot on the Las Vegas Strip, police said, as a hotel strike entered its third month with growing dissension among thousands of pickets. Officers said that the explosion, the latest in a series of bombings, occurred at 2:15 am. in the valet parking area near the front of the ; ee is Gathering bomb shards in Milwaukee: A ‘spineless’ loner? Midwest in one week, and it was only by luck that nobody had been seriously hurt. Several of the bombs came with notes signed by the “North Central Gay Strike | Force Against Public and Police Oppres- sion,” an unknown group. Some gay leaders | speculated that the bombs may be the work of antigay elements, though police pointed out that none of the cities where bombs have been discovered has experienced any recent gay-rights debates or dis- turbances. In La Crosse, Wis., where six bombs were found, Police Chief William Reynolds said he was convinced that all of the devices were the product of one “spineless” loner. The loner apparently wanted to cause pain. Spraying metal screws when ex- ploded, the bombs were designed to hurt people rather than property. One of the La Crosse bombs, discovered be- fore it exploded, was planted at the bottom of a slide in a children’s playground. The police worried that more explosions seemed likely. Some notes indicated that the bomber also planned to strike random- ly in Iowa, Michigan and Indiana. As in- vestigators studied evidence confirming that the bombs were all made by one per- son, local authorities grew concerned that serious injuries would occur unless they turned up some solid leads soon. Last week there were still no witnesses—or suspects. STEVE PYLE—AP June 1984 Pg. 5 Frontier Hotel. Two cars were dam- aged, but no injuries were reported. . "Minutes after the explosion, a call- er-told an operator at Cente] Tele- phone Co. that he had blown up the ‘Frontier and that entertainers Sieg- fried and Roy would be the next targets, police said. The popular illu- sionists resumed their show at the Frontier on Thursday night while 100 strikers chanted and threatened to reveal the pair’s trade secrets. The explosion was the latest in a series of bombings since the strike began April 1. In April a bomb caused $20,000 damage to a swimming pool at the MGM Grand Hotel. On Sunday a bomb detonated at the Tropicana Hotel, damaging nine cars. Also, a rash of-smoke and stink bombs was set off during the Memorial Day holi- day. ‘ 26 JUNE 1984 21 BOMBS... Continued six more bombs were discovered in St. Cloud, Minn. The first was found by a security guard in a shopping center, and a search of public areas turned up five more pipe bombs. St. Cloud police also found notes men- tioning the “gay strike force.” At a press conference in St. Paul on Wednesday, authorities used a miodel bomb to demonstrate how eas- ily the devices could be set off by a trip wire. But the next bombs used a differ- ént device for detonation—money. At 8 a.m. Thursday, a city worker icking up trash near the museum in ilwaukee’s Civic Center Plaza no- ticed an object wrapped in paper with a dollar bill sticking out the. end. As she pulled off the money, the object exploded. : The worker, Jill Binon, suffered minor burns. The object—a 6-inch piece of steel pipe—shot 25 feet and embedded in a tree. Nearby, authori- ties found another note attributing the bomb to “the gay strike force. Two more bombs baited with money were discovered on Thursday and Friday by police. “OBVIOUSLY, IN my opinion, these bombs are all the work of some deranged person,” said Ru-. dolph Will, deputy inspector of the Milwaukee Police Department. The drama moved to Chicago later Thursday when anh attendant at a parking lot at 111 W. Wacker Dr.: ‘ound a 6-inch piece of pipe with a battery taped to it. about 11:30 a.m. He picked it up and tossed it aside, thinking it was trash. But after he told his boss about the battery, police were called and dis- covered that the pipe was another sophisticated bomb packed with ex- plosives and metal objects.: “I guess I’m pretty lucky to have my fingers left,” said the attendant, David Hanson, 20. ; A ‘similar bomb was discovered about 1 a.m. Friday in the stairwell between the 53d and 54th floors: of the Standard Oil Building at 200:E. Randolph St. A note found near the Standard Oil bomb and one found later Friday in the parking lot :on Wacker contained the same messdge as earlier notes. LIKE THE Milwaukee dollar-bill bombs, the devices in Chicago were set to be detonated if a clip were removed to complete the electrical circuit. The Chicago bombs were packed with a low-grade explosive ‘and metal objects. They were de- scribed as ‘‘shotgun bombs” because one end of the pipe was capped to force the metal to blow out the other end, Federal experts said capping both ends would create a more dangerous bomb because the force of the explo- sion would be concentrated and ‘the shrapnel would fly in all directions. 76 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5