Santa Cruz Sentinel
Sunday Morning, May 2, 1971
By WALLY TRABING
Sentinel Staff Writer
A cast iron pipe-bomb exploded at the rear of Bank of America's West Side Branch early Saturday morning, shattering plate glass windows and peppering the interior with shrapnel holes.
No one was injured. Damage was estimated at about $10,000.
About 1:14 a.m. the thundering blast startled residents in the Mission, King and Toledo street area from their sleep, breaking windows in some houses. There was a momentary belief by some that an earthquake had hit the area.
Main damage to the bank at 1640 Mission St., across the street from Bay View Elementary School, was to the rear glass-wall entrance.
There was no structural damage of any significance, according to Don Homer, branch manager.
About 20 holes in the celing and interior walls could be conuted where part of the bomb and other material carried by the explosion had hit.
It was the 35th assault in 15 months on the bank's properties by arsonists and bombers. Bank of America has nearly 1,000 branches in California.
Detective Sgt. Dan Fite of the Santa Cruz Police Department said the bomb was probably a cast iron pipe, about four inches in diameter and perhaps 18 inches long.
Generally the bomb is made by drilling a hole into the pipe, inserting the explosive material and then inserting a fuse.
Evidence that a pipe was used was plainly indicated in an aluminum door sash where the bomb was placed.
Thread marks of one piece of pipe were imprinted into the aluminum where it had struck with tremendous force. It left an imprint which looked like fossil marks on a rock.
Fite said that a piece of shrapnal from the bomb passed through the building, shot through the front glass door and was found across the street in the Bay View schoolyard about 26 yards from the nearest classroom building.
Another bomb fragment flew across a lot behind the bank and into the home of Margaret Deveney, 129 Toleto St., penetrating into the bathroom.
Concussion from the blast knocked out the front living room window and a side bedroom window, awakening her daughter, Shona, 17, who rushed to the phone and called police. Her brother, Craig, 11, also awakened thinking it was an earthquake.
Windows were reported cracked or broken at the Andrew Demos home, 137 Toledo, and the Charles Kohout home, 133 Toledo.
John Brook, 11, 1407 King St., also was awakened by the blast and thought another 'quake had struck. A man who said he lived on Seaside Street was awakened by the blast.
Some of the blasted material was shot through the ceiling and on up throught the roof.
Fite said evidence indicated that the bomb was placed under a wooden box, probably open-ended facing the rear of the bank.
One fragment severed the top of an office plant and a guard rope used to direct customers during rush hours.
Also concussion from the main blast forced several sections of wallboard against the studs so hard that the tops of the nails pushed out through the paint and finish.
Bank Manager Homer, who has been at the branch since February, said he already had accumulated "battle scars" from his last assigned bank, in San Jose at Second and San Carlos streets across from San Jose State College.
He said that bank had sustained damage from bricks thrown through the windows.
Homer said that police had been keeping an eye on the local Bank of America branches since the new rash of bombings had begun last week and that a patrol car had passed by five minutes before the blast.
He said some of the drapes were damaged.
"We will be open for business as usual Monday," said Homer.
"There seems to be no thinking behind all this. Maybe it's because of the name 'America' in our title that is significant; I don't know."
Last Thursday night a black powder bomb shattered 20 windows in the Bank of America's Montegello branch in Los Angeles.
In the last five weeks there have been five other bombings of bank branches in Berkeley, Oakland, Mill Valley and Sausalito.
The 18 bombings and 17 arson attempts through set fires or firebombs began in February, 1970, when the Isla Vista branch was burned in the Santa Barbara area.
Letters claiming credit for some of the bombings have been written by persons identifying themselves as youthful radicals saying they singled out the bank as a target because it symbolizes "capitalistic exploitation of the little man."
In Santa Cruz, however, the reason remains a complete mystery.
Shortly after the bombing a girl called UCSC campus radio KRUZ and a man called San Jose acid rock station KSJO-FM, crediting the explosion to the "People's Revolutionary Army," the same group which claimed to have caused the $500,000 fire at UCSC last month.
Steve Cox, on duty at the campus radio station, called the Sentinel about 2 a.m. to ask if there had been a bombing. Police said they would contact Cox as well as Steve Klass at KSJO to see if the calls had been tape recorded.
Both callers said the bombing was in protest to the Vietnam war, according to detective Sgt. Robert Ashley.
(end)