THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2007
NEWS
CRIME
5A
Man suspected of mailing pipe bombs
Jeremv Portie/ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY MIKE ROBINSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal agents investigate a storage unit at the Penn Place apartments in Dubuque, Iowa, on Wednesday. The units are believed to have been used by Iowa machinist John P. Tomkins, 42, who is believed to be an alleged mail bomber. Tomkins is suspected of sending dud pipe bombs and threatening letters to companies in Denver and Kansas City and signing the messages "The Bishop."
CHICAGO — A former parttime Iowa letter carrier was arrested and charged Wednesday with mailing pipe bombs and threatening letters to investment firms and others to terrify them into forcing up stock prices.
John P. Tomkins, 42, of Dubuque, Iowa, a family man with a job as a machinist, was accused of being the source of letters signed "The Bishop" that threatened to kill those who received them, their families and neighbors unless shares in Navarre Corp. and 3COM Corp. moved higher.
He is charged with one count of mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort and one count of possession of an unregistered explosive device. Officials said the pipe bombs would have exploded had just one wire been connected. His federal defender, Rose Lindsay, declined to comment.
"Just think, it could be as simple as mailing a package, just like the Unibomber used to do it," said one of 16 letters that were mailed out to executives of investment firms and other companies.
The Bishop remarked on how easy it was for Washington sniper Boyd Malvo to attack his victims ad for the kidnapping of children as will, adding: "When you stop and think about how easy (it is) to kill somebody it is almost scary."
tomkins, a husky man with a mo of dark hair and a mustache, appared briefly Wednesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sidney I Schenker. When asked if he understood his right to remain silent and I be represented by an attorney, he sai "yes" to both.
Scenkier ordered Tomkins held in custody pending a hearing Monday afternoon on whether he should be released on bond. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark E. Schneider said the government wants him locked up pending trial as a risk of flight and dangt to the community.
"Tat's a very serious matter to frighten people and try to affect the stockmarket," U.S. Attorney Patrick
J. Fitzgerald told a news conference in Chicago.
Tomkins was arrested on his way to a Dubuque manufacturing plant Wednesday morning and federal agents began to search his home and
a storage facility that he used. Officials say he left the Postal Service as a one-day-a-week, fill in letter carrier last year.
Authorities said they searched for months for the identity of The Bishop. They said the turning point
"That's a very serious matter to frighten people and try to affect the stock market."
The other was addressed to a person at American Century in Kansas City. Each package contained a letter that said: "BANG!! YOU'RE
PATRICK J. FITZGERALD U.S. Attorney
came when Securities and Exchange Commission experts pointed Tomkins because of his ownership of a combination of stocks and options in two small companies.
The pipe bombs were mailed in January from a post office in Rolling Meadows in Chicago's northwest suburbs. One went to a person at the investment firm of Janus Small Cap
DEAD."
"There is enough gun-powder and steel shot in that tube to kill anyone in a 10-foot radius when it goes off," the letters said.
that could be used in the pipe bomb with his own credit card, officials said.
And when one executive received a threatening letter with a photo of his home taken from a car, agents were able to identify the make and model of the car — a 1993 Chevrolet Lumina four-door.
of the auto's interior showing in the photo matched Tomkins' car.
Tomkins owns the same make and model and experts said the sliver
ATM records put Tomkins near the place where threatening letters were sent, officials said. They said bank records place Tomkins at a Kissimmee, Fla., location when threatening letters may have been mailed from there.
Officials cited records showing Tomkins acquired shares of 3COM Corp. shortly before the first threatening letters were mailed.
A letter sent in May 2005 said shares in the Marlborough, Mass-based company would have to rise by $6.66 by the end of October.
Exactly why the letters were signed "The Bishop" was not clear, authorities said. One theory was that Tomkins was inspired by a Charles Bronson movie, "The Mechanic," in which Bronson played an Arthur Bishop.
One prominent line was, "Bang, you're dead." But federal officials indicated they had no evidence to suggest that the movie inspired Tomkins.
VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS
Lack of evidence puzzles investigators on campus
BY KRISTEN GELINEAU ASSOCIATED PRESS
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The massacre inside a chained-shut Norris Hall went on for nine minutes as Seung-Hui Cho fired off 170 rounds, killing 30 people before shooting himself in the head, police revealed Wednesday. But they said investigators still don't know why Cho launched the bloody attack on his fellow students at Virginia Tech.
"We talk about possible motives and theories and whatnot, but we don't have any evidence to suggest anything," said State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty.
He said investigators had searched computer files, cell phone
records and e-mails, and had compiled 500 pieces of evidence from Norris Hall alone.
Yet so far, nothing indicated a motive or close link between the 23-year-old loner and his
was the first victim.
It is not known how Cho got in.
Witnesses place Cho outside West Ambler Johnston shortly before 7:15 a.m., when he fired the two shots that killed Hilscher and 22-year-old senior Ryan Clark, a resident assistant at the dorm, Flaherty said.
Police searched Hilscher's e-mails and phone records looking for a link. While Flaherty would not discuss exactly what police found, he said neither Cho's nor Hilscher's records have revealed a connection.
"We talk about possible motives and theories and whatnot, but we don't have any evidence to suggest anything."
In addition to the 170 rounds Cho fired inside Norris, investigators found unused ammunition in the building, though Flaherty was unsure how much was left.
COL. W. STEVEN FLAHERTY State Police Superintendent
victims, Flaherty said.
Two hours before Cho chained shut three public entrances to Norris Hall and started his rampage there, he gunned down his first two victims in a dormitory across campus. In between, a package was mailed to NBC containing Cho's videotaped tirade and written manifesto about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs."
Flahery, who is overseeing the investigative team looking at the shootings, said police have been unable to answer one of the case's most vexing questions: Why the spree began at the West Ambler Johnston dormitory, and why 18-year-old freshman Emily Hilscher
Flaherty cautioned that it could be months before the case is closed. The investigation will begin slowing down as authorities examine evidence, he said.
Flaherty
said they found no link between Cho and Clark, who was also killed at the dorm where he was a resident assistant. Nor do investigators know why Cho, an English major, selected Norris Hall — a building that is home primarily to engineering offices.
Frustrating their effort is the fact that Cho revealed himself to so few people. Even family members have said they rarely heard him speak.
"I guess the thing that is most startling to me, I say startling, surprising, is a young man who's 23 years old, that's been here for a while, that seemed to not know anybody," Flaherty said.
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