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February 13, 1990, Tuesday

SECTION: NEWS; Ed. 1,2,3,4,5; Pg. A-4

LENGTH: 294 words

HEADLINE: Materials tied to Bomb probe seized by FBI

SOURCE: AP

BODY:

FBI agents seized items that could be used to make a pipe Bomb such as those that killed a federal judge and civil-rights lawyer during a search of property owned by a man convicted 18 years ago of possessing a similar bomb, a newspaper reported today.

The Atlanta Constitution quoted federal sources it did not identify as saying laboratory tests are pending to establish whether the items found on the property of Walter Moody Jr. match the two bombs that exploded in December.

The bombs sent through the mail killed U.S. Circuit Court Judge Robert Vance in Alabama and lawyer Robert Robinson of Savannah, Ga. Two other bombs were intercepted.

Investigators confiscated 2 1/2 -inch pipe, six-penny nails, rubber bands, alarm wire, flashlight bulbs, bolts, paper clips, gunpowder-packed bullets and welding machinery -- all similar to items used to make the mail bombs, the newspaper said.

Also seized were adhesives, brown paper, labels, tape and "old" string, the paper reported. Similar materials -- particularly a unique string that has not been manufactured for about seven years -- were used on the packages in which the four bombs were mailed.

The Constitution reported that agents seized the following:

o Seventeen 25-cent "flag over Yosemite" postage stamps in the pocketbook of Susan McBride, who lives with Moody. That stamp was used on all four package bombs.

o Highlighted newspaper clippings about the FBI's investigation of Robert Wayne O'Ferrell, an Enterprise, Ala., junk-store owner whose home and business were searched last month and who has been questioned repeatedly.

o Two typewriters that were examined on the scene and determined not to match the ones used by "Americans for a Competent Federal Judicial System."