Man Arraigned in Arson Threat : Fires: He is charged only with mailing a threatening letter, but sources say he is a suspect in several blazes. Anaheim investigators arrest a juvenile in 700-acre fire.

Authorities reported the first major breaks Monday in their quest to corral the culprits responsible for the devastating string of recent Southern California fires: In Anaheim, investigators arrested a youth on suspicion of arson, while in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors filed charges against a convicted child molester who is accused of sending a letter threatening to set a series of fires.

Anaheim Fire Department officials said they arrested an Anaheim juvenile in connection with a fire that burned 700 acres and damaged two dozen homes near Villa Park. Two other juveniles were questioned. No one was identified. An Anaheim city councilman said the fire “may have been something that got out of hand.”

The arrest, however, was overshadowed by the first court appearance of a man prosecutors say is “Fedbuster”: Thomas Lee Larsen, 43, a Van Nuys resident with a long criminal record whose first arrest was at age 9 for allegedly attempting to set fire to a church.

Larsen has not been charged with arson. But sealed court documents obtained by The Times and sources familiar with the case indicate that he is considered a suspect in several fires that ripped across the region during the past two weeks, taking three lives, destroying more than 1,100 structures, burning more than 200,000 acres and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. At least 36 copies of the letter were sent to various people and law enforcement agencies. The author signed them only as “Fedbuster.”

The author of that letter said he planned to set the fires to retaliate for a government seizure of his property. He demanded apologies from the judge, prosecutor and agents who were involved in a case against him, and added: “If I get no satisfaction by the time we get a real good volatile fire season you’ll really regret it you’ll see.”

In an FBI affidavit filed Monday, federal agents said Larsen had at first denied and later admitted being the author of the Fedbuster letter.

U.S. Atty. Terree A. Bowers, in a brief written statement, stressed that Larsen was not being linked to “any specific fire or act of arson.” At least for now, Bowers added, Larsen would only be charged with mailing threats to damage or destroy by means of fire, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Although officials were declining to comment publicly on Larsen’s possible connection to the recent fires, the documents obtained by The Times reveal that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have concluded that Larsen “clearly and completely matches the profile of a serial arsonist” and that there is probable cause that Larsen has set at least five recent Southern California fires.

The ATF affidavit was filed in support of a search warrant for Larsen’s home and other property.

Among other things, the ATF affidavit states, Larsen owns a 1975 Honda motorcycle and a white Chevrolet van. “Similar vehicles have been seen at two of the . . . arson scenes,” according to the ATF affidavit, which is signed by Special Agent Michael Gleysteen, an arson investigator with the bureau’s Los Angeles office.

The ATF affidavit notes that the Fedbuster letter was reviewed by Dr. Park Deitz, who is described as a “nationally renowned expert in threat-letter assessment.”

After studying the letter, Deitz concluded that “Larsen seeks revenge and retribution and that the letter is not a hoax.”

The affidavit also states that an arson specialist in Washington has studied 12 Southern California fires that appear to have been set by serial arsonists. Those 12 fires were mapped, and the specialist concluded that the center of the activity was a point about 10 miles from Larsen’s Van Nuys home.

The ATF affidavit states that agents believe Larsen may have set fires that burned in Thousand Oaks, Chatsworth, Steckel Park, Ojai and Rancho Palos Verdes. Together, those fires consumed more than 58,000 acres and scores of homes. Investigators are also trying to determine if Larsen may have been responsible for any of eight other fires that were believed to be the work of serial arsonists.

Court records show that Larsen has been arrested at least twice for arson, once at age 9 and in 1976, when he was accused of attempting to set fire to the Sands hotel in Las Vegas. Larsen also has been convicted of counterfeiting, child molestation and an attack with a caustic chemical. Authorities say he is the chief suspect in a string of letters threatening to poison meat and baby food, and that he once mailed a letter to the mother of one of his child victims, threatening revenge.

Larsen appeared briefly in court to be arraigned Monday afternoon. A tall man with graying brown hair, he stood with his head bowed and his hands folded in front of him as U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick ordered him held without bail.

“There are no conditions or combination of conditions that would reasonably assure the safety of the community” if Larsen were released, Eick said, adding that he based his ruling on Larsen’s “lengthy prior criminal record, including crimes of violence and crimes against children, evidence of threats to commit arson and evidence of threats to poison food.”

Larsen showed no emotion as Eick denied him bail. As he stood to be handcuffed and leave the courtroom, he smiled and nodded at Harvey Levin, a reporter for KCBS-TV. During the past week, Larsen allegedly mailed Levin a letter after seeing the reporter on television. Agents were tracking Larsen at the time, and seized the letter after obtaining a search warrant.

Authorities would not publicly release that letter except to Levin, because it was addressed to him. A copy was shown to The Times, however. The author begins by saying “Here’s your favorite buster,” and says he enjoyed watching the recent fires because “I love seeing everyone crying at lost property.”

The author does not directly admit setting fires but writes at one point: “And by the way I did more than one.”

With a long string of arrests and convictions, Larsen has left a rich history in criminal court files throughout Southern California. Monday, those records and interviews with Larsen’s neighbors produced a portrait of a deeply troubled man who has been repeatedly sent to prison and evaluated by psychiatrist after psychiatrist. Without exception, the medical experts have concluded that Larsen is mentally ill.

His first recorded criminal act occurred at 9 during the alleged attempt to set fire to a church. He was found guilty of assault in that case, records show.

In that incident, which occurred while Larsen was attending Catholic school, “he attempted to set fire to a church, and he hit a woman on the head while kneeling at an altar,” according to court records. “His mother reports that when he is angry at people he becomes very mean and vengeful.”

Los Angeles police arrested Larsen in July, 1971, when he was 21. He was charged with six counts of crimes against children, two counts of kidnaping, three counts of sexual perversion and a single sodomy count. The incidents allegedly involved San Fernando Valley boys ranging in age from 7 to 12, whom he allegedly lured into his van and drove to secluded areas, then disrobed and molested.

Records indicate that Larsen was convicted and sent to the state hospital in Atascadero. While there, he was found to be a passive-aggressive personality with severe paranoia. He also was diagnosed as a pedophile.

Those evaluations have been echoed over the years by a string of psychiatrists who have examined Larsen as he continued to land in prison. Many psychiatrists noted Larsen’s extreme anger at authority figures, and all have recommended that he receive therapy for his disorders.

Larsen occasionally has acknowledged his mental troubles. At Atascadero in the early 1970s, Larsen described his mental state, the first of many long letters that he has sent to judges, prosecutors and others over the years.

“I have come to realize that this has happened to me as I was molested myself at about age 11 and when I was doing these things I didn’t feel at the time what mental harm I was doing to them,” Larsen wrote. “In the past I had a fear of mixing with girls my age and this made me seek out my satisfaction on an inappropriate way. I now have overcome these fears by the therapy I have received. Also, I am able to communicate with other people in way that society accepts, which I wasn’t able to do in the past. . . . I know now that I can have a much happier life than I had in the past. If given a chance I can become a respected member of the community without re-offending.”

Larsen was released from Atascadero in 1975.

Less than a year later, he was arrested in Las Vegas, where authorities accused him of attempting to set fire to the Sands hotel. Larsen, who was picked up with a runaway boy at the time of his arrest in Las Vegas, was not convicted in that case.

In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Larsen was twice found guilty of passing counterfeit money. It was one of those trials, a 1977 case heard by U.S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk, that Larsen allegedly referred to in his Fedbuster letter.

The Fedbuster author accused agents of stealing property from him, including a car that agents later said was equipped with “various implements associated with child molesting, including a mattress, draw curtains, shaving cream and undergarments,” according to an affidavit filed Monday.

The author of the letter maintained that the agents took property that legally belonged to him. He also accused the judge of mistreating him.

“Judge H was very disrespectful and belligerent to me personally,” the letter stated. “Extra damage unless he apologizes.”

In 1987, Larsen was sent to prison again, this time after pleading no contest to charges that he sprayed acid on more than 500 people and cars over a four-month period in 1986. At the time of his sentencing, Larsen was on probation for three counts of lewd contact with a 16-year-old boy.

As he had on previous occasions, Larsen wrote to the judge in the chemical case, attempting to explain his actions.

“In a nutshell, I just wanted to throw as many monkey wrenches into those proverbial wheels as possible,” he wrote. “The spraying did that by attracting the attention of many police agencies,” Larsen said in the letter.

He added that he had not intended to harm anyone and that the victims only “happened to be in the way.”

Larsen was sentenced to six years in state prison.

That sentence did not thwart his propensity to strike out, other court records indicate. In 1989, while in prison, he again was convicted of a crime, this time for threatening the mother of a boy he allegedly had molested.

A psychiatrist who examined Larsen as part of that case concluded that he was suffering from a “major mental disorder” and advised that Larsen would continue to suffer from it unless given treatment. The psychiatrist recommended that Larsen receive probation and be forced to attend outpatient therapy.

Larsen’s father, in a 1988 interview with authorities, acknowledged that his son appeared deeply disturbed. Ernest Larsen described his son as “always very vindictive” and driven by a need “to get even.”

Thomas Larsen “refused to spend a penny of his own money,” his father said, adding that his son was “very compulsive about his room and washed his hands before entering the room at all times, but would not wash his hands before eating.”

The mother of one boy whom Larsen molested desperately urged the judge to keep Larsen in prison.

“I know that Mr. Larsen is mentally disturbed, but he is also a very dangerous, vindictive and devious individual, as his past record shows,” the woman wrote. “The mental and emotional hell this man has put my son, myself and my family and friends through for over four years is indescribable.”

She said her son was so traumatized by Larsen that he is unable to have a close relationship with men. “He says he is afraid that the person will turn out like Tom and lie to him again.

“My son will, in all probability continue for the rest of his life to be tormented by this experience,” she wrote.

The search for the author of the Fedbuster letter began in early September, shortly after copies of the letter were mailed, but documents filed in connection with Larsen’s arrest suggest that the probe was stepped up in late October, after the first fires erupted in Southern California.

Authorities have identified 36 people or agencies who received the seven-page letter, although the author of the letter to reporter Levin said about 100 copies were mailed.

The Fedbuster letter was mailed anonymously and did not have a return address. But the author left a number of clues, which authorities say eventually led them to Larsen.

Specifically, the author identified the agents, prosecutors and judge involved in one case by the first initials of their last name. From the letter, it was clear that the U.S. attorney at the time was a woman with a last name beginning with the letter O.

Andrea Ordin was the only U.S. attorney in Los Angeles ever to fit that description. That gave investigators a time frame because Ordin was in that post from 1977 to 1981.

From there, investigators narrowed the list of suspects further by concentrating on the judge. Only three U.S. district judges were on the Los Angeles bench from 1977 to 1981 who had a last name that began with H--Terry J. Hatter, Irving Hill and Hauk.

By then focusing only on cases where the prosecutors’ and agents’ names began with the initials identified in the letter, Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory W. Jessner concluded that the letter writer had to be Larsen.

Agents put Larsen under surveillance last week, following him in an effort to build their case against him. They did not contact Larsen until Sunday morning, when they first began questioning him. That questioning went on for several hours, and Larsen was then arrested.

In the Van Nuys neighborhood where Larsen lives with his parents, neighbors were stunned by the news of his sudden notoriety. Agents spent much of the day Sunday carting materials from the Van Nuys house, a small brick home with bars on the windows and a satellite dish on the roof.

Larsen’s parents seemed upset and confused by the reporters who descended on their home Monday morning.

“I don’t know anything. I don’t want anything,” said Ernest Larsen. “I have to take my wife to the doctor. There’s been so much.”

Neighbors milled about in the street in front of the Larsen home Monday morning, describing Thomas Larsen as a quiet, awkward man who generally avoids contact. They said he did not appear to have many friends, and was a loner who spent long periods of time driving out into the hills and looking at stars through his telescopes.

“Every time we went over there, he’d go into his bedroom,” said Mike Armendariz, who did some plumbing work on the house in recent months. “He didn’t really carry on long conversations with us. . . . I’ve never seen no friends at all, just him and his mother and his father.”

Another resident, Keith Doner, agreed. Larsen, he said, “was the neighbor that lived across the street that nobody knew.”

Times staff writers Penelope McMillan, Tina Daunt, Matt Lait, Jeff Brazil, Timothy Williams, Len Hall and Eric Malnic contributed to this report.