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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 aveacty: Gathering bomb shards in Milwaukee: bomber was not through trying. Another bomb jolts Vegas Strip LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A bomb. ex- ploded early yesterday in a parking jot 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 cial burns and a mild concussion. But the 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 in a 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 SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM -- 26 JUNE 1984 NEWSWEEK 11 June 1984 Pg. 38 The Midwest Huntsa Bomber WwW hen she saw the crisp 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—fiashing out like a rocket instead of exploding in a burst of shrapnel—and she suffered only minor fa- 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. 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 Centel 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. 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 press conference in St. Paul on Wednesday, authorities used a model bomb to demonstrate how eas- ily the devices could be set off by a trip wire. it the next bombs used a differ- ént device for detonation—money. At 8 a.m. Thursday, a city worker picking up trash near the museum in teed ah obicet venter Plaza no- an object wraj in paper with a dollar bill sticking out the. end. As she pulled off the money, the object expe worker, Jill Binon, suffered minor burns. The object—a 6-inch piece of steel pipe—shot 25 feet and er in a tree. Nearby, authori- ties found another note attributiny 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 Goiph Wilk deputy inspector of the |, deputy r Milbvautee Police Department. The drama moved to Chicago later Thursday when an attendant at a parking lot at 111 W. Wacker Dr. found 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- coveret at the pipe was another sophisticated bomb packed with ex- plosives and metal objects.: “— guess I'm pretty lucky to have my fi 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 and one found later Friday in the parking lot on Wacker contained the same message 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 packed with a low- e ive ‘and metal objects. Mere de- seribed as ‘‘shotgun bombs” becat one end of the pipe was cay to force the metal to low out the other el Federal experts said capping both ends would create a more jerous bomb because the force of the explo- sion would be concentrated and ithe shrapnel would fly in all directions. Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : ClA-RBP96-00788R000100330001-5