ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610140029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
The ailing grandfather charged with a pipe bomb attack that unintentionally killed a toddler 21 years ago was a member of the Ku Klux Klan at the time, authorities say.
Investigators would not discuss Frank Helvestine III's alleged Klan ties but say evidence indicates he was a member.
A connection with the white supremacist organization would support authorities' theory that the 1975 crime was racially motivated. Police have said the pipe bomb was meant for the car's owner, a white woman who was engaged to a black man.
There is no evidence the attack was sanctioned by the Klan, and there were no reported Klan attacks in the area at the time.
Helvestine's son said Friday he was instructed not to comment about the case by his father's attorney, Thomas Blaylock. In an earlier interview, Eric Helvestine said he did not know whether his 75-year-old father took part in any white supremacist activity.
"We still don't know exactly what's going on," he said.
Frank Helvestine is scheduled to appear in Roanoke County Circuit Court on Wednesday for a bond hearing.
Even though Helvestine has not gone to trial, his Oct. 4 indictment on charges of murder, arson and two counts of malicious wounding has relieved one man at the center of the case.
Clarence Keeling is 56 now, but says he remembers the aftermath of the attack like it was yesterday. Keeling was engaged to Ruth Pearman, who owned the car where the bomb was placed. They later married, had two children and divorced in 1986.
"For 21 years, I've been trying to figure out who did it and why they did it," said Keeling - who believes he was a suspect at one time.
The uncertainty made Keeling guarded in his relationships with people.
"There was that fear that something would happen up until the time they arrested" a suspect, Keeling said. "I was cautious of anybody and anything."
The night of May 10, 1975, Keeling and Pearman were dining out with Keeling's brother. When they returned to Pearman's apartment complex on Lancelot Lane about 11 p.m., they were greeted by ambulances and fire trucks.
Pearman's Chevrolet Monte Carlo had been ripped apart by a pipe bomb. Her neighbors Barry Mask, his wife, the couple's 23-month-old daughter and a 14-year-old boy were walking behind the car when it exploded. The Masks' daughter, Carrie Ann, was killed by flying shrapnel. Barry Mask and the teen-ager were burned.
Keeling said he was told the bomb had a 30-foot fuse that was lit from the curb.
Pearman, Keeling and Mask all worked at what was then the Norfolk and Western Railway and knew each other. But Keeling said neither he nor Pearman knew Helvestine, a retired machinist who worked for the railroad 41 years.
"I don't understand the connection between Helvestine and my ex-wife," Keeling said. "I don't know what the objective was. She was not the only white woman dating a black man. But why she was singled out, I don't know."
Investigators do not know why Pearman was targeted either, said Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Skip Burkart, who is prosecuting the case. But they do think it was a racially motivated attack, he said.
Keeling said he remembers that, during the initial inquiry, federal investigators were interested in a report of three white men seen speeding away in a white 1972 Camaro moments before the explosion. The car stood out because it sported an orange stripe on its side.
The first break in the case came several months ago when an informant walked into the Roanoke County Police Department and told investigators that Helvestine was involved in the attack.
The subsequent investigation revealed at least one other person was involved, but that person is now deceased, Burkart said. He has not been named.
A week after the bombing, the Masks moved out of the complex. Three months afterward, the complex manager evicted Pearman, Keeling said.
Pearman declined to talk to a reporter this week.
Keeling, once an accounting clerk for the railroad, is now retired.
Helvestine's arrest was a relief, he said, but it did not dim the memory of Carrie Ann Mask.
"For a child to get killed, that hurt me the most," Keeling said.
Then he repeats the one question that haunts him about the case, the one that may never be answered: "Why [Pearman] or why me?"
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Helvestine. color. KEYWORDS: ROMURby CNB