FBI Seeking Link Between Tax Protester, Pipe Bombs

The FBI is looking into possible links between pipe bombs found near a federal building in Laguna Niguel and the leader of an anti-tax splinter group of the Posse Comitatus who is charged with making death threats in Nevada, government sources said Wednesday.

Although no definite connection has been established, the FBI is investigating whether radical tax protester William P. Gale was involved in any way with the bombs found March 2 near the Chet Holifield Building, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified.

Seven pipe bombs--two of them containing live explosive charges--were discovered that day in a vacant field across from the federal building, which is also called the Ziggurat, Orange County sheriff’s spokesmen said at the time.

Members of the Orange County Hazardous Devices Squad, who spent more than six hours examining the bombs, determined that only two of them were live. Those bombs were safely destroyed.

The other five bombs had been detonated some time before their discovery by firefighters, who were called to the scene because of a small fire in the vacant field, a Fire Department spokesman said.

No one was injured in the incident, and no group has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the bombs. The sources said investigators have little to go on.

FBI officials in Las Vegas confirmed, however, that their office is involved in the investigation of the Laguna Niguel incident.

Gale and six associates were arrested last October on charges that they made death threats against Internal Revenue Service Agents in Nevada.

The charges stemmed from a series of incidents over the two previous years in which various agents in Nevada received documents called “constructive notices” from an anti-tax spinoff group of the Posse Comitatus known as the Committee of the States, Richard Pocker, assistant U.S. attorney in Las Vegas, said at the time.

The notices allegedly warned that the agents would receive a “maximum sentence” if they did not desist from tax-collecting efforts.

Gale, who likes to be called “Reverend,” won notoriety in 1983 when a series of his sermons were broadcast by a small radio station in Kansas. The sermons were part of what Gale called the “National Identity Broadcast” and consisted largely of racial attacks on Jews and other minority groups.

Gale was arrested at his rural home in Mariposa County in California last Oct. 23. He has since been released from federal custody. His trial date has not yet been set.

Las Vegas FBI officials said Wednesday that the main case against Gale is being handled by the IRS.

“But we are aware of the bombs that were allegedly placed in (Orange County) at a federal building. Beyond that I can’t say anything,” said Patrick Foran, Las Vegas FBI assistant special agent in charge. “We basically have information from our offices there in Los Angeles, but beyond that I really can’t comment as to what we’re doing.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday reported that unnamed government sources in Las Vegas said, “One theory is that the Ku Klux Klan did this in retaliation for the jailing of William Gale, founder of the Committee of the States, and others.”

FBI officials in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman would say only that the bombing investigation is continuing.

“We’re aware of an apparent bombing attempt at the Chet Holifield federal building at Laguna Niguel, Calif., on March 2, 1987, and do have the matter under investigation,” said Fred Reagan, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles. “We’re unable to comment further at this time, except to acknowledge that we are coordinating with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.”

Lt. Richard Olson, sheriff’s spokesman, said: “We are certainly aware of the attempted bombing, but all we can say at this point is that we are cooperating on an investigation with the FBI.”

A device that looked like a “pipe bomb” caused a flurry of police activity Wednesday night after a California Highway Patrol officer on a motorcycle spotted the capped pipe near the intersection of the southbound Costa Mesa and Santa Ana freeways. Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Abbott said the pipe was about six inches long and capped at both ends, thus resembling a bomb.

But after the county Hazardous Devices Squad arrived at the scene about 9 p.m., its members found the pipe had no explosive material, Abbott said. He said it couldn’t be determined if the pipe was a joke, an attempt to frighten people or just a fluke piece of pipe that fell by the freeway.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.