
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 26, 1993                   TAG: 9306260034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW HAVEN, CONN.                                LENGTH: Medium

FBI: MAIL-BOMB CASES LINKED

Mail bombs that maimed professors at Yale and the University of California this week were linked Friday to a dozen similar attacks since 1978, most at universities and high-tech companies, the FBI said.

The FBI examined fragments of the most recent bombs and believe the attacks are tied to the "Unabom" case, covering a dozen unsolved mail bombings that killed one person and injured 21 since 1978.

"The forensic experts believe . . . that the maker or makers of each of these 14 explosive devices are the same person or persons," Milt Ahlerich, special agent in charge of the FBI in Connecticut, told reporters.

He wouldn't comment on a motive but said international terrorism was "not at the top of the list." No threats or demands were made in any of the 14 bombings, Ahlerich said.

Most of the 14 bombings involved universities or high-tech companies. The investigation's name comes from "university bomber."

The FBI urged universities to be on the alert for suspicious packages, including ones that appear to have excessive postage or bogus return addresses.

A bomb that severely injured Yale computer scientist David Gelernter, 38, on Thursday was contained inside a package, Ahlerich said. The package was addressed to Gelernter and investigators believe it was sent from the West Coast through the mail.

Gelernter was in guarded condition Friday with wounds to the abdomen, chest, face and hands, Yale-New Haven Hospital said. Dr. Stephen Cohn, director of the trauma center at the hospital, said Gelernter underwent six hours of surgery and would probably need additional hand surgery.

On Tuesday, a geneticist at the University of California-San Francisco, Dr. Charles Epstein, 59, lost several fingers when a mailed package bomb exploded at his home.

Epstein, the head of the medical genetics division at UC-San Francisco, was in fair condition at Marin General Hospital. He also suffered burns, cuts and injuries to his chest, abdomen and face when he opened the package in his kitchen in Tiburon, north of San Francisco.

"We established today the New Haven bomb is similar to the Tiburon bomb, and those two, we believe, are connected to Unabom," said Rick Smith, an FBI spokesman in San Francisco.

The nature of the attacks and the similar high-tech backgrounds of the victims helped establish a link, Smith said. Security was strengthened at Yale and the UC-San Francisco campus, along with other schools and at high-tech companies.

by CNB