The Bomb Squad Deaths--Unraveling the Mystery : THE KEY SUSPECT: Painting a Portrait

Donnell Morse always hustled. In eight productive years as a television and film makeup artist, he had acquired a reputation as a dependable journeyman. When it came to intricate facial cosmetic work, or the difficult application of beards, he had few peers, co-workers said.

But when producers hired Morse, they also hired his temper.

Fellow makeup artists said Sunday that Morse, the key suspect in the weekend deaths of two Los Angeles police officers, often displayed wild swings in mood.

“He’d be joking with you one moment, and then he’d get very withdrawn,” John Inzerella, outgoing president of the Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Union Local No. 706, said Sunday. “Sometimes, you could tell just by looking at him. He’d have this angry, crazed look on his face.”

Morse, 36, was arrested on suspicion of murder in the deaths Saturday of Detective Arleigh McCree, 46, and Officer Ronald Ball, 43, two veterans of the LAPD’s bomb squad, who died when a pipe bomb exploded in his garage.

Officers had initially gone to Morse’s home Saturday because he was a suspect in a shooting last week in which a makeup artists union official was wounded.

Morse’s brother, Alvin, 34, and sister, Ernestine Enoch, 39, who were present at the home, also were arrested on suspicion of murder in the officers’ deaths.

As Donnell Morse’s co-workers, friends and family learned of his arrest Sunday, they told of a man who dabbled in many fields, but who sometimes had trouble just getting along in his job.

“Among makeup artists, he could do nearly anything,” Inzerella said. “He was what we call a journeyman. But he hurt himself with his attitude.”

As late as a week ago, union officials said, Morse stormed into the local office in North Hollywood to complain about being fined for being behind on his union dues.

“We’re not talking about a heavy fine,” one official said. “It couldn’t have been more than $100 against a guy who makes pretty good money.”

Morse’s outburst came only a few days before the ambush shooting of the local’s business manager. The official, Howard Smit, was wounded in the chest by a single gunshot last Wednesday as he walked to his car from the union’s office.

The assailant, described by witnesses as wearing a dark ski mask, fled after also firing four or five shots at Smit’s wife, Edith, and other union officials. They were unhurt. Smit was treated at the Medical Center of North Hollywood and then transferred to another undisclosed hospital. Inzerella said Sunday that Smit had declined requests to talk about the case.

The explosion in Morse’s garage occurred several hours after police had taken him into custody for questioning in Smit’s shooting. And union officials said that Smit and Morse had previously exchanged heated words about Morse’s conduct. Police said Sunday they were still investigating the Smit shooting and no charges have been filed in that case.

Union officials said Morse, who is black, sometimes complained that he was the victim of racial prejudice. And officials said that in a business in which work often comes day by day, Morse had been having trouble in recent months finding steady employment.

They said his troubles stemmed from his hot-tempered reputation and from at least one fight with a wardrobe man on the set of the television show “Eight Is Enough” in the late 1970s. Morse threw a chair at the wardrobe man and complained later that the man blew cigarette smoke in his face.

But makeup artist Byrd Holland, a close friend of Morse’s, described him as a hard-working, mild-mannered craftsman who rarely “flew off the handle.” Holland said that Morse was a “go-getter” who tried to expand into other areas of the entertainment business.

Like many people in the industry, Holland said, Morse was trying to develop several ideas for screenplays and also claimed to have been involved in at least two film documentaries about South Africa.

“A lot of crew people in the industry write on the side,” Holland said. “Don figured he could do as well as anybody else who does it for a living.”

Morse’s neighbors in the 6800 block of Vanscoy Avenue in North Hollywood said they too knew Morse as a man who did more than simply work on other people’s faces.

Maria Gaio, 39, and her daughter, Tressie Zeimet, 18, who live on the same block, said Morse was an accomplished cook who also enjoyed playing the piano and guitar and had put together an elaborate sound system in his garage.

That garage was heavily damaged by the pipe-bomb blast that killed the two officers.

Just last weekend, Holland said, Morse and his brother, a singer, rented a hall in Van Nuys to display Alvin’s musical talents. Donnell Morse emceed the show, Holland said.

And Morse’s neighbors said he also showed an artistic side.

‘Very Creative’

“He is very creative,” Zeimet said. “He decorated his house with masks from Africa. He made a mural of an African village out of coins.”

Morse’s parents, Ernest and Joella Morse, live in Altamonte Springs, Fla., a northern suburb of Orlando. In a telephone interview Sunday, another sister, Joann, who also lives near Orlando, said the family was distraught and convinced that “my brother has the best heart in the world. He’d never do anything like that (the murders).”