Police Trail One Woman In Bombing of the CFIA

Cambridge police claim to have a young woman under surveillance as the primary suspect in the bombing early Wednesday morning of the Center for International Affairs.

In two days, the investigators have given conflicting progress reports on the case. On Wednesday, Sgt. James A. Roscoe, who is heading the Cambridge police investigation, said that identification had been made of two women.

Yesterday, however, Roscoe said that only one woman had been identified but that "we don't believe it's just women alone." He explained that "this seemed to be a very sophisticated bomb [which] women wouldn't be able to build." He also said, "It could be a national organization."

Power of Suggestion

Before signing an anti-crime bill yesterday in Washington, President Nixon referred to the CFIA bombing and suggested that the FBI enter the probe.

However, Ralph Rampton, assistant director of the FBI's Boston bureau, said after Nixon's remarks that no FBI personnel are directly involved in the case. Rampton said the FBI is working only in a liaison capacity, offering local authorities use of FBI laboratories and identification facilities, and coverage of out-of-state leads. This has been going on since before Nixon's statement, he added.

Fragments of the demolished desk of Col. Donald Bletz, a CFIA associate, have been sent to Washington where the FBI is processing a partial fingerprint found on one of the fragments. FBI labs are also analyzing fragments of the cast-iron pipe used to construct the bomb. There is speculation the Fragments are similar to fragments of material used in other Massachusetts bombings.

Herring in the Face

Back in Cambridge, Roscoe said that the Proud Eagle Tribe, a women's revolutionary group which sent letters to newspapers yesterday claiming responsibility for the bombing, was a "red herring thrown in front of our face to throw us off the track. We're going on a different angle altogether." Roscoe would not comment on the different angle.

Telephone

On Tuesday afternoon, a CFIA librarian saw two suspicious-looking girls. After they left, she found a small metal box which she thought might have contained a bomb. Through the intercom, she tried to phone CFIA secretary Lawrence S. Finkelstein. The message passed through three secretaries and the "small metal box" part of the message never reached him.

The current suspect is neither of the two women whom the librarian saw, Roscoe said. "She [the librarian] was very vague on her description, so I'm not at all concerned with it. I am finished talking to her," he said.

Cambridge police have traced their primary suspect on a description that a CFIA professor furnished yesterday. According to police, the professor, who does not want to be identified, saw the woman "asking questions and more or less looking the place over" on two occasions.

Artist Draws Composite

A Cambridge police artist made a composite drawing of the suspect, based on the professor's evidence.

The police described the woman as a white female, 22-to 25-years-old, 5' 2" tall, 130 pounds, with a heavy build and long, dark brown hair. She wore a bandana, dark-rimmed glasses, and a red and black plaid shirt.

Roscoe said that today another CFIA

professor will describe to the Cambridge police artist a suspicious-looking woman whom he saw before the bombing. If the two composite drawings are similar, and if the two professors can identify the woman from demonstration photographs, then police will arrest her, Roscoe said.

Charges

He said that if police make an arrest, the charge will be "malicious bombing," or "conspiracy to a malicious bombing," which carries respectively penalties of 20 years and 10 years in state prison.

Overall, Roscoe said, "we have a good chance of solving it, same as we did with the Weathermen a year ago." Shortly after a Weathermen raid last October. police made several arrests which were followed by court convictions.