Magazine Founder Seized Again--This Time in Bomb Parts Case

The founder of Los Angeles-based Entrepreneur magazine, Chase Revel, was arrested Thursday for the second time in eight days--this time on suspicion of possessing materials with the intention of making pipe bombs, the district attorney’s office said.

Revel, 49, was free on $4,000 bail from his arrest last week on suspicion of being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, forgery and perjury, when authorities raided his Pacific Palisades house Thursday morning.

Larry Rooker, a district attorney’s office investigator, said a warrant authorized a search for bombs and bomb parts.

Rooker said authorities found “everything there necessary to make finished bombs.”

“But there was not one completely assembled,” Rooker said.

Continuing Probe

He said authorities are interested in Revel as part of “an ongoing investigation” but declined to be more specific.

Revel’s bail was reset at $60,000 pending an appearance in Municipal Court on Aug. 28.

In 1973, Revel began the forerunner of Entrepreneur magazine, which instructs readers on how to become success stories. He subsequently wrote books, such as “184 Businesses Anyone Can Start and Make a Lot of Money,” and told interviewers that he had made millions with many businesses.

But in 1982, Chase Revel Inc., which published the magazine, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law.

According to an attorney for Entrepreneur Inc., which now owns the magazine, a bankruptcy judge barred Revel in 1984 from participating in company affairs. Revel’s only connection with the company, said the lawyer, Ronald J. Grant, is as a non-voting stockholder.

Palimony Suit

Revel was named last month in a palimony suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Kristin Barrett-Whitney, who alleged, among other things, that he had been convicted 20 years ago of two bank robberies and three attempted bank robberies in Houston and Las Vegas under his given name, John Leonard Burke.

Revel has not filed a formal answer to the suit and has not commented on the double-identity assertion. However, he has denied other claims by Barrett-Whitney that he abused her. He has said she was his housekeeper.

Rooker said he had confirmed that Revel and Burke are the same person.