Bombing Deaths of Officers Probed for Terrorism Link

Investigators have raised the possibility that a bomb explosion that killed two Los Angeles police officers in North Hollywood might be linked to terrorism, according to court documents.

Donald Lee Morse, 38, of North Hollywood, is charged with murder in the deaths of Detective Arleigh McCree, then commander of the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad, and Officer Ronald Ball. They died trying to defuse one of two pipe bombs found in Morse’s garage Feb. 8, 1986.

Police searches of Morse’s home found equipment used to make bombs, such as tape, electrical wire and gunpowder, and a copy of the “Anarchist’s Cookbook,” a manual on bomb making, according to testimony at Morse’s preliminary hearing last year.

But the possibility of terrorism had not been raised expressly until LAPD Detective Marvin Engquist obtained a search warrant Sept. 22 this year in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

In his application for the warrant, Engquist wrote that the presence of the book and two pipe bombs were “indicative of terrorists.”

“Any such terrorist connection may possibly result in communications to sources of receiving bomb ingredients, advice or conspiracy with other such terrorist groups and individuals,” Engquist wrote.

The warrant sought authority to search telephone company records to identify the holders of more than 200 unlisted telephone numbers that purportedly were dialed from Morse’s home before the explosion. The warrant application said the phone numbers could be used “to trace the bomb-making ingredients or sources to sell or buy bombs or any terrorist connections.”

Engquist, in an interview Friday, would not comment on the case nor disclose the outcome of telephone record searches conducted Sept. 23 and Oct. 1.

The prosecutor, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris, said, “The evidence I will be able to produce in court will have nothing to do with the terroristic aspect, other than the very possession of such a bomb.”

Norris characterized Morse, a film and television makeup artist, as an experienced maker of sophisticated bombs who communicated with organizations believed to have communist connections. But introducing evidence of terrorist conspiracies is difficult because members of suspected subversive groups rarely admit illegal activities, he said.

Morse’s attorney, Pierpont M. Laidley, said there is no evidence that Morse is a terrorist.

Laidley, who has suggested that someone else planted the bombs in Morse’s garage, said authorities are raising the terrorism question to stir public resentment as a prelude to seeking the death penalty for Morse. Norris countered that prosecutors decided last year not to seek the death penalty in the Morse case and have not changed their minds.

Morse’s trial, which had been set to begin next Wednesday in San Fernando Superior Court, was postponed Friday to Oct. 23.