Teaching Material, Doll Found in Two ‘Bombs’

A suspicious parcel thought to contain a bomb and addressed to “the principal of the biggest black school” Wednesday was found to contain educational material, authorities said.

“We classified it as a suspicious package. We have since then been able to open it . . . . It contained harmless sex- and drug-education material,” police Maj. Marvin Minor said.

Police officers took the padded parcel, about the size of a shoe box, to a remote area near the Mississippi River, where they were joined by a bomb specialist team from Pine Bluff, Ark. Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, FBI and U.S. Marshals Service also were on hand.

The specialists determined about 7 p.m. that the package carried education material. Minor would not say if the package would be delivered to a Greenville school.

“It is still in the hands of the postmaster. I don’t know what their disposition will be,” he said. “It is really improperly addressed.”

Also Wednesday, authorities in Charlotte, N.C., removed a package from the porch of state District Judge Bill Constangy’s home and destroyed it, later discovering it held only a doll, police said. An X-ray had disclosed electrical and mechanical connections, presumably inside the doll, officials said.

Authorities were investigating whether the incidents are related to a spate of mail or package bombs directed against judges, courts, attorneys and civil rights organizations in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Maryland.

Three of those bombs exploded, killing a federal judge in a Birmingham, Ala., suburb on Dec. 16 and a black civil rights attorney in Savannah, Ga., on Dec. 18. In the third incident, a Hagerstown, Md., judge was wounded last week.

An FBI-led investigation has concentrated on possible racial motives for the killings in Georgia and Alabama.

The package found by a Greenville postal worker Wednesday morning was addressed to “the principal of the biggest black school,” postal employee Helen Wallace said. Greenville’s public school system is mostly black.

Wallace and letter carrier Billy Polsen, 47, said the parcel was postmarked Washington, D.C., and had no return address, except the name “Rev. Bubba.”