Copyright 1994 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd.
The Herald (Glasgow)
December 13, 1994
SECTION: Pg. 7
LENGTH: 587 words
HEADLINE: Death sent by US mail as mystery bomber strikes again
BYLINE: Donna De La Cruz
BODY:
New Jersey, Monday
AN ANARCHIST known as Unabomber mailed the bomb that killed an advertising executive from California, US authorities told a news conference today.
The FBI laboratory in Washington determined that the bomb had a return address and postmark from San Francisco, which were being reconstructed and evaluated.
Evidence links Saturday's killing of Thomas Mosser, an executive for the firm Young & Rubicam, to 14 other explosions over 16 years, but the identity of the bomber and the reason Mosser was targeted remain a mystery.
The FBI is offering a $ 1m reward for information.
The neatly-wrapped package about the size of a videotape and addressed to Mosser arrived on Friday at his mansion in North Caldwell. He was about to take his wife, Susan, and their two children out to buy a Christmas tree when he opened it.
The powerful explosion killed him, blew a hole in the kitchen counter, and filled their house with smoke.
Mrs Mosser screamed at the sight of her husband's bloodied body. Their 13-year -old daughter ran to neighbours for help. Their 15-month-old daughter and a neighbour's visiting child were also present, but were unhurt.
Since 1978, the serial bomber has killed one other person and injured 23 more. Mosser, 50, was the first victim who did not work at a university or in the computer or airline industries, according to the FBI.
"The components of the bomb, its construction, make us believe the bombs are linked," said FBI agent Barry Mawn. He would not elaborate on the make-up of the bomb that killed Mosser but said it was "extremely powerful".
One clue linking the attacks is that as many as 11 of the bombs had components stamped with the initials "FC", according to a member of the investigating team.
A letter to the New York Times last year, believed to be from the bomber, identified "FC" as an anarchist group.
However the Times reported today that investigators had concluded that "FC" represented an obscene phrase denigrating computers.
Mawn did not know whether Mosser's accounts had any links to the bomber's previous targets. However in the two weeks before the bomb was sent, computer giants Xerox and Digital Equipment hired Young & Rubicam. Mosser had also had numerous contacts with airlines and the airline industry.
Another reason Mosser might have been targeted is because he was mentioned recently in a New York Times report.
At least three of the other victims, including two last year, were featured in Times stories describing them as leaders in their fields.
When the FBI developed a profile of the bomber several years ago, it said the killer was probably a white man in his 30s or 40s who has a high school education, a grudge against high technology, and takes great pride in building bombs.
"Letters delivered in conjunction with two of the bombs were intelligently written and neatly typed," the profile said.
The bombs have been constructed with hard-to-trace household items: nails, screws, towels, fishing line, glue, string, hand-made switches, a barometer, metal, pipes, gunpowder, and batteries.
The first bombs in the case -- called "Unabom" because early bombings targeted universities and airlines -- were mailed in 1978. The last bombings linked to the "Unabom" suspect were 18 months ago.
1 "He is very good at what he does, unfortunately," Mawn said of the elusive suspect. "And the bomb blows up a lot of evidence. We don't have a lot to go on."--AP.