U.S. Indicts Israeli Pair in Bomb Death

A federal grand jury indicted an Israeli couple Thursday in the bombing death of a Manhattan Beach secretary in 1980.

Like the charges filed two weeks ago of conspiracy and mailing an explosive device, the indictment alleges that Rochelle and Robert Manning sent a bomb by mail which killed Patricia M. Wilkerson. Each faces life in prison if convicted.

Rochelle Manning, 48, is in custody in Los Angeles. Robert Manning, 36, is a fugitive in Israel. Federal authorities have identified him as a prime suspect in the 1985 bombing death in Santa Ana of Arab-American activist Alex M. Odeh.

The two-paragraph indictment alleges that the couple were “aided and abetted by each other.” U.S. postal inspectors have said they believe the crime stemmed from a business motive.

“An indictment is an allegation and nothing more. It has no legal significance,” said Samuel A. Abady, Robert Manning’s New York lawyer.

“The fact of the indictment may be good PR for the government in its quest to destroy the voice of Jewish activism, but legally, it is meaningless,” Abady said.

Robert Manning is a member of the Jewish Defense League. A spokesman for the group in Los Angeles could not be reached for comment.

Group Offers Money

But the head of the Jewish Defense Organization, a militant Jewish group that split from the JDL, said Thursday that it would offer money for the Mannings’ defense.

“The JDO is willing to get (Rochell Manning) a lawyer,” said JDO president Mordechai Levy of New York. “The JDO is willing to help.”

Levy, echoing Abady, suggested that federal agents are trying to put pressure on Robert Manning for other incidents, such as the Odeh death and three other violent crimes that year on the East Coast.

“These are not common criminals,” Levy said. These are political activists who have the same right to a fair trial as anyone else.”

The short indictment and brief news release from federal prosecutors shed no light on a key mystery in the case, that of motive. Law enforcement officials involved in the initial investigation said they knew of no evidence of political motivation.

The bomb was addressed to Brenda Crouthamel of Prowest Computers in Manhattan Beach. Wilkerson, a secretary, opened the package.

Federal officials said fingerprints from both Rochelle and Robert Manning were found on the package containing the bomb.