Advertisement

Mail-Bomb Suspect Arrested in Hollywood : * Crime: Filming of a movie is interrupted as the fugitive is seized in a hotel lobby. He was talking to postal officials in Alaska.

Share via
From Associated Press

Thirty postal inspectors descended on a Hollywood hotel lobby Friday night to arrest an Alaska fugitive wanted in a mail-bombing case.

Jim Bordenet, a Seattle-based spokesman for the postal inspectors, said agents interrupted the filming of a movie to arrest Craig Gustafson as he talked on a phone in the Roosevelt Hotel lobby.

He said Gustafson was talking with postal inspectors in Anchorage, who kept him on the line for 30 minutes while the call was traced.

Advertisement

“We followed a series of phone calls, including the last one, which he initiated himself,” Bordenet said. “We were able to keep him occupied long enough for us to catch up with him.”

Guard Jorge Escobar said hotel security was not advised of the fugitive’s arrest.

“We thought it was part of the film,” Escobar said. The movie being shot was “Money Man,” with Dennis Hopper and Wesley Snipes, security guard Luis DeVera said.

Gustafson was sought in connection with a mail bombing last year that killed an Anchorage man and maimed his wife. The bomb was sent in apparent revenge to a witness who testified when Gustafson’s brother was convicted of murder.

Advertisement

Anchorage postal inspectors had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Gustafson’s arrest since his disappearance March 29. He is expected to appear Monday before a federal magistrate, who will rule on sending Gustafson back to Alaska.

Gustafson was indicted Tuesday by an Anchorage federal grand jury on charges stemming from the mail bombing last year that killed David Kerr and maimed his wife.

Craig Gustafson, his brother Douglas, sister Peggy Gustafson Barnett and Raymond D. Cheely Jr. face one count each of mailing a lethal bomb and using a bomb to commit a violent crime. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison or death.

Advertisement
Advertisement