Israel Agrees to Extradite Man Sought in Letter-Bomb Killing

Israel agreed Friday to extradite an American-Israeli wanted in the United States for the 1980 letter-bomb killing of a Manhattan Beach computer firm employee in a business dispute.

Justice Minister David Libai signed the extradition order after receiving assurances that Robert Manning would not be given the death penalty if found guilty by an American court, a spokeswoman said. Officials said Manning would be extradited within the month.

Manning, 39, and his wife, Rochelle, 51, are wanted for the murder in 1980 of Patricia Wilkerson, employed by a computer firm in Manhattan Beach.

U.S. authorities have also named the Mannings as the prime suspects in the 1985 bombing death of Arab-American activist Alex Odeh in Santa Ana.

Odeh was killed when he walked into the Santa Ana office of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and tripped a bomb, one day after he had appeared in a television interview in support of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Even with Manning’s pending extradition, some authorities believe that he may not be tried in the United States in the Odeh killing under the terms of the U.S.-Israeli extradition agreement, since he is to be extradited only in the Wilkerson case.

“That is an unknown,” Sami Odeh, an Orange realtor and the brother of the victim, said in an interview Friday. “I would like to see him stand trial for the murder of Alex, but whether he will or not, we don’t know. All I want is for justice to be served.”

Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined comment Friday on the case and on the question of whether Manning could be tried in the Odeh murder.

An Israeli court jailed the Mannings in March, 1991, seven months after the United States asked Israel to turn them over.