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

DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994                   TAG: 9412140025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWARK, N.J.                                LENGTH: Medium

REPEAT BOMBER SUSPECTED IN KILLING OF N.J. AD EXECUTIVE

Thomas J. Mosser, 50, was killed Saturday in his kitchen in suburban North Caldwell when he opened a small package addressed to him and delivered by the Postal Service, FBI agent Barry Mawn said.

No motive had been determined, but the FBI believes Mosser's death is linked to what it code-names the ``Unabom'' series of mail bombs sent to university professors and executives of airlines and computer companies in the United States, Mawn said.

``The components of the bomb, its construction, make us believe the bombs are linked,'' Mawn said. He would not elaborate on the makeup of the bomb that killed Mosser but said it was ``extremely powerful.''

He said he did not know where the package originated.

The FBI believes the person who has been making and sending the bombs is a white male in his 30s or 40s with a high school education. Mawn would not elaborate on how the FBI came up with the composite.

The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information in the bombings.

Mosser's wife, Susan, received the package Friday but her husband did not open it until Saturday, Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said. Susan Mosser did not have to sign for the package, he said.

She described the package as small, neatly wrapped and white. Mawn said it was the size of a videotape.

Thomas Mosser lived with his wife and two children, ages 13 years old and 15 months. They were all home at the time of the blast, along with a neighbor's child. None of them was injured.

Mosser recently was promoted to general manager and executive vice president at Young & Rubicam Inc. in New York. Mawn did not know if Mosser's accounts had any relationship to any of the bomber's previous targets.

There is no evidence that Mosser was involved in organized crime or was a witness in a criminal trial, or of any threats against him or his family, Mawn said.

The first ``Unabom'' package bombs were mailed in 1978, Mawn said.

The other death linked to the series occurred on Dec. 11, 1985, when a package exploded as Hugh Scrutton picked it up near his Sacramento, Calif., computer rental store.

Targets of other bombs have included a geneticist at the University of California-San Francisco and a computer scientist at Yale.

Keywords:
FATALITY