Police Defuse Arsenal of Dead ‘Survivalist’

Police bomb squad experts Wednesday removed about 50 rifles, 20 handguns, 100 pounds of potentially explosive powder and assorted ammunition from the North Hollywood home of a man they termed a “survivalist” who died last week.

After the landlord and a county official found the material about 1:30 p.m., they called Los Angeles police to the house of Charles Resetar, in the 11500 block of Victory Boulevard. The cache included at least one rocket shell and booklets titled “How to Kill.” Resetar, 61, died of a heart attack March 5.

Police, who placed the rifles, a box of handguns and a practice bomb on the driveway about 5:45 p.m., declined to identify most of the items, but the county official said one of them was a rocket launcher.

Many Are Duds

Most of the devices were found to be duds, police said, but the powder, found in the garage, had the potential to explode if mixed with other ingredients, Lt. William Heins said. Resetar may not have broken any laws by possessing the arsenal, Heins said.

“He had a pretty good idea of what is legal and what is illegal,” he said. “He probably was a survivalist.”

One of the characteristics of survivalists--people who believe the social order is crumbling and that they will have to fend for themselves to survive--is that they know how to acquire and keep weapons within the bounds of the law, Heins said.

Although at least two of the rifles might be fully automatic, which would be illegal, Heins said police could not be sure until they test-fired them. The bomb squad placed shells and other boxes of material inside a bomb disposal bucket.

The arsenal was discovered after the landlord, Al Checco, opened the house for Cornell Cleveland, a deputy public administrator for the county who was there to begin estate proceedings. The two men said they thought at first that the weapons were part of a collection and carried some of them, including three hand grenades that turned out to be disarmed, to the front porch.

Alarming Literature

But their thinking changed when they found “terrorist literature” and detonators among the clutter, Checco said.

“I found six booklets, volumes one to six, titled, ‘How to Kill,’ ” Checco said. “When we saw that, we thought we had better call police.”

Police closed Victory Boulevard between Beck and Farmdale avenues and evacuated residents from adjoining houses. At 4:15 p.m., police took cover and electronically set off a shell’s detonator.

Checco and neighbors said they never had a hint that Resetar, who had lived in the house for about seven years, had amassed an arsenal. “He was always so sweet and warm,” said Checco, who lives in Studio City.

The three-bedroom house was filled with newspapers, boxes, radios and magazines, Checco said.

Cleveland said his records showed that Resetar worked as a machine operator for Castle Precision Industries on Lankershim Boulevard.