Blast Probe Turns to 3 Gun Dealers : Oklahoma City: Wisconsin family that may have had contact with McVeigh is subpoenaed. Evidence emerges that bomb was made up of 20 plastic drums of explosive.

Three members of a family involved in gun dealing have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury investigating the Oklahoma City bombing, federal authorities said Friday, as investigators turned up new evidence on how the massive explosion occurred.

Subpoenas have been issued demanding grand jury appearances next Tuesday by Ed Paulsen, the owner of a military supply store in Antigo, Wis., his wife, Linda, and his son David, all licensed gun dealers.

The Paulsens drew investigators’ interest because a crumpled business card of David Paulsen was found in the police car in which the only suspect charged in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was taken to a county jail. The suspect, Timothy J. McVeigh, was stopped within 90 minutes of the blast near Perry, Okla., because his car did not have a license plate.

In other developments Friday:

* An attorney representing James D. Nichols said in Milan, Mich., that she expects federal prosecutors to seek a formal indictment against her client within a few days, possibly linking him to the Oklahoma City bombing. He is now being held as a material witness.

* Sources familiar with the investigation said that the bomb, which exploded at 9:02 a.m. CDT April 19, appears to have been set off by hand rather than ignited by a timing device.

Confirming published reports, the sources said that the bomb was made up of 20 plastic drums filled with upward of 200 pounds each of an explosive mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, and were linked by high-explosive detonator cord containing PETN, a chemical that was found on McVeigh’s clothing.

The detonator cord was described by a government source as so powerful that it is used in military operations to slice through bridge supports.

The Oklahoma City explosion, analysis indicated, was touched off by a non-electric blasting cap and a safety fuse that was hand lit and burned at a fixed rate, allowing the bombers to escape while the fuse burned toward the cap, the detonator cord and the ammonium nitrate mixture.

Investigators also have determined that shards of blue plastic found in the bombed ruins of the federal building appear to match 55-gallon plastic drums seized last weekend at the Kansas home of Terry L. Nichols, James Nichols’ younger brother, who is also being held as a material witness.

Federal authorities said they believe that 4,800 pounds of explosive mixture was contained in 20 such drums, hidden in a 24-foot rental truck.

But officials said that they had not yet determined whether the match was precise enough to tell them that the drums used in the explosion were from the same manufacturer’s lot as those found at Terry Nichols’ home. In court testimony Thursday, an FBI agent portrayed Terry Nichols as having been in frequent contact with McVeigh in the days before the bombing.

*

In Oklahoma City, the effort to remove the bodies of about 90 victims from the wreckage of the building was set back when a slab of concrete broke loose and slid into an area that has become known as “the pit.” The Social Security office and a day-care center--as well as other debris from the federal building--fell into the pit when the bomb was set off.

Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hansen said that a firefighter and an FBI agent suffered minor injuries. With search teams fearful that parts of the remaining structure could collapse again, Hansen was not certain when the work in the area, where crews expect to find many of the remaining bodies, would be resumed.

By the end of the day, the confirmed death toll had reached 118, including 15 children, and searchers continued digging in other parts of the wreckage, with motion detectors set up to warn of shifts in the rubble.

The site was visited Friday morning by a number of people from Waco, Tex., near the site of the Branch Davidian compound that was destroyed in a fiery confrontation with federal authorities on April 19, 1993, two years to the day before of the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh is known to have been agitated by the way the federal government handled what had been a nearly two-month standoff at Waco, which ended with the loss of 86 lives.

*

The Waco residents said that they came out of sympathy for the Oklahoma City community. Bringing three flower-covered crosses to the bombing site, Amber King, of Waco, said, “we all have a common bond now, and it’s terrible that it had to happen like this.”

In Santa Monica, police questioned an Oklahoma man on Friday evening who had been detained for investigation of auto theft. Initial reports said the man resembled sketches of the “John Doe No. 2” fugitive.

But late Friday night, Police Chief James Butts Jr. said there was “no evidence other than a strong resemblance to ‘John Doe 2’ that would connect him with the bombing.” He said the man, who was not identified, was charged with suspected auto theft and giving false information to a policeman.

The subpoena of the Paulsens was confirmed by Ed Paulsen’s sister, Sally. She said that her brother did not know McVeigh or the Nichols brothers and had had no dealings with them. But investigators are trying to determine whether the father and son may have supplied explosives to the suspected bombers.

As for David Paulsen, she said: “A million people have his card. He gives it out at every (gun) show he goes to, like a lawyer’s card.”

Speaking on the back steps of the two-story brick house in Leyden Township, a western suburb of Chicago where David Paulsen lives, she said that the FBI first appeared at her 22-year-old nephew’s home on Sunday and questioned him for several hours.

She said that Ed and Linda Paulsen then drove down from their home in north-central Wisconsin and agents questioned the elder Paulsen too.

Referring to David Paulsen, she said: “He’s not capable of something as horrible as the Oklahoma bombing.”

She said that he holds a steady job as a car dealer and once sold military surplus on weekends as a second job--an activity in which Terry Nichols also has been involved, according to Nichols’ lawyer.

“He’s innocent,” Sally Paulsen said of her nephew. “He’s a good kid. This is a living hell. We’ve never been in any trouble, any of us. We’re very quiet people. We stick to ourselves.”

The hearing Friday in Milan, Mich., was to determine whether James Nichols, 41, who lives in the small community of Decker in northeastern Michigan, should remain in custody.

He and his brother Terry, 40, have been charged with conspiring to manufacture explosive devices, charges unrelated to the Oklahoma City bombing. Federal authorities have linked them to McVeigh, who developed a friendship with Terry Nichols when both served in the Army at Ft. Riley, Kan., and with James Nichols, with whom McVeigh once lived in Michigan.

*

Miriam Siefer, chief federal public defender who is representing James Nichols, told reporters after an abbreviated hearing that she expects prosecutors to withdraw the warrant holding him as a material witness, if he is indicted on other charges.

Discussing the possibility of an indictment, Siefer said prosecutors “intend to present some allegations from outside the state.” She declined to elaborate.

James Nichols remained in custody at the federal penitentiary in Milan, where he has been held for the last week.

The hearing was adjourned by U.S. Magistrate Lynn Hooe until Tuesday so James Nichols can decide whether he wants to replace Siefer with a private defense attorney, Robert Elsey, who has been retained by a group of Nichols’ friends who call themselves the Sanilac (County) Concerned Citizens for Justice.

No testimony was heard at the detention hearing, which had been called to give the government an opportunity to explain why Nichols should continue to be held as a material witness.

Hooe took under advisement a motion by Siefer asking for her client’s release because he has not been charged with a crime of violence. Siefer said: “No one stood at risk by the detonation of explosives on Mr. Nichols’ farm except Mr. Nichols and his friends.” Witnesses have said that the Nichols brothers and McVeigh set off small explosives on James Nichols’ farm in Michigan.

However, Assistant U.S. Atty. Allen Gerschel responded: “You have to look at the character of the charge (conspiracy to manufacture explosives). This most assuredly is a crime of violence.”

The magistrate also took under advisement an offer by James Nichols’ father, Robert Nichols, a Michigan resident, to serve as “custodian” of his son if he is released. Robert Nichols told reporters that he has not visited his son in prison, nor has he asked to visit him.

“So I’ve been pretty much in the dark” about his activities, the father said.

James Nichols, who wore a gray prison shirt and trousers and blue canvas shoes, looked drawn and exhausted during the hearing. He said only a few words.

When the judge asked if he understood that he would remain in custody at least until next Tuesday’s hearing, Nichols responded: “Yes sir, I understand I have to go ahead with it. . . . I will go along with it.”

As investigators tried to piece together the recent activities of the Nichols brothers and McVeigh, FBI agents converged on two motels where McVeigh had lived recently in Kingman, Ariz. Authorities have said that they believe that the bombing, the most deadly terrorist attack in U.S. history, was planned in Kingman.

The desert town near the borders of California and Nevada has become such a center of investigative activity that the FBI temporarily moved its San Diego field office chief, John Walsh, to oversee activities there.

At the motels, the owners said that agents were combing registration and telephone records and collecting physical evidence.

McVeigh stayed for 12 consecutive nights and checked out of the Imperial motel, on old U.S. Route 66, sometime between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. on April 12, according to Helmut Hofer, the proprietor.

*

Hofer said that McVeigh asked for a discount given active-duty military personnel and paid his bill in cash. A check of the motel’s records, he said, found no long-distance calls placed by McVeigh.

“He came in here and said, ‘I’m in the military,’ and can I give him a discount,” Hofer said. “He claimed to still be active in the military.”

McVeigh, a Persian Gulf War veteran, left active duty in the Army on Dec. 31, 1991.

McVeigh rarely used his car, which Hofer described as a dilapidated lime-green Pontiac sedan.

Just across the street, agents on Friday continued to examine another motel room rented by McVeigh.

“Always paid in cash,” said Fred Paulson, co-owner of the Hilltop motel, where McVeigh arrived on Feb. 12 and checked out on Feb. 17. “He was never a problem. No noise. No drinking. He took a nonsmoking room.”

*

Paulson said that records at the motel show no trace of long-distance calls by McVeigh, adding that the FBI is paying the motel’s $24.10-a-night rate until they finish their examination of Room 119.

In another development in Kingman, the owner of a mail-drop business told The Times on Friday that half or more of the mail McVeigh has received since renting a box in May, 1993, was addressed to “T. Tuttle.”

That is important to investigators trying to reconstruct McVeigh’s dealings because a classified ad, placed in August, 1993, in a weapons enthusiasts’ publication circulated in Arizona, advertised the mail-order sale of military-style flare launchers.

The advertisement, which The Times and others wrote about on Friday--instructs prospective buyers to send “money orders only” to box No. 206 at the Kingman mail drop--the same box number still being rented by McVeigh, according to the owner of the private mail center, Lynda Willoughby.

In an interview, Willougby said that McVeigh continues to get mail there, much of it addressed to “T. Tuttle.”

Times staff writers Robert L. Jackson in Milan, Mich., David Willman in Washington and Stephen Braun in Leydon, Ill., contributed to this story.