Weapons, Explosives Found in Doctor’s Yard

Police on Friday pulled high-powered military explosives and a cache of weapons from the yard of Dr. Larry C. Ford, a biomedical researcher who killed himself earlier this week and whose business partner was targeted by a gunman.

Police said they expected to complete the excavation today and will send the six unearthed canisters, along with several dozen vials of suspected chemicals removed from Ford’s home last week, to the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., for analysis.

By Friday night, police had discovered two packages of military-grade C-4 explosives and blasting caps in one canister. Four other canisters contained weapons and ammunition, said Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato.

Officials believe the explosives were being stored rather than used as some sort of booby trap because they lacked the electrical connections that would be needed to set them off. “Unless detonated, it’s not going to blow,” Allevato said.

Investigators also revealed Friday that the sources who led them to dig in Ford’s yard said the canisters contained AIDS-related biomedical research material similar to that found in jars inside Ford’s home last week. But no such material was found in the initial examination, police said, and the containers will not be opened until they arrive in Virginia.

As Ford, 49, was buried Friday in his native Utah, more than 200 of his neighbors remained in an Irvine hotel, at the city’s cost. They had been evacuated from their homes when the excavation began. So far, police said, the investigation has cost about $400,000. Residents are expected to be allowed back to their homes sometime today, police said.

Meanwhile, speculation continued over Ford’s possible links to intelligence agencies and biological weapons.

A lawyer representing the Ford family said that detectives told the doctor’s widow, Diane, that her husband had some involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency.

“She was shocked,” attorney William Bollard said. “What she told me was that Larry is a man of ultimate integrity.”

Diane Ford said that when she began dating Larry Ford 30 years ago, he claimed he had access to classified information, the attorney said. “She thought it was just a line to impress . . . a date,” Bollard said.

Irvine police say they are not aware of any connection between Ford and the CIA.

Allevato said, “We’re interested in this from the state charges of attempted murder” of Ford’s business partner, James Patrick Riley. Ford’s “alleged federal involvement is not really germane to this case at the time. We’re really pursuing the shooter,” Allevato said.

Ford and Riley were partners in the Irvine biomedical firm Biofem, which is developing a female contraceptive suppository designed to retard the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

Riley survived a shooting March 2. Three days later, Ford killed himself.

Police have said they believe the motive for the attempt on Riley’s life was financial. Biofem had been trying to raise money to push development of the contraceptive, and some industry analysts said the company had been struggling. Police have not said how that may be linked to the shooting.

However, company officials said Friday that they had more than $5 million on hand and were planning to proceed with clinical tests of the suppository. They declined to identify the investors, other than to say that they are 45 members of a Connecticut-based venture capital fund.

Meanwhile Friday, more details emerged of Ford’s relationship with key people involved in South Africa’s military.

Several doctors in South Africa said Ford did work on commercial drug products at a military laboratory and advised the country’s defense forces on how to protect personnel against biological and chemical weapons.

Two former military science researchers in South Africa said Friday that at one point, Ford hosted a seminar in lacing everyday items with biological agents.

“He spent the whole day teaching us how to make biological weapons,” said one researcher. “He tried to give us examples of how they work and how to make them and how to use them on ordinary, everyday items.”

The researcher said the techniques turned out to be invalid, and further experiments with the procedures were unsuccessful.

Dr. Neil Knobel, a former military surgeon general in South Africa who had administrative responsibility for the weapons program, described Ford as a brilliant scientist who was knowledgeable about a wide range of fields, including biochemical warfare.

Knobel said Ford was not involved in any biological weapons development.

During the Gulf War, Knobel said, he asked Ford for informal advice on protecting South African forces based in Tel Aviv from biochemical weapons. Ford, he said, sent a fax on LAFOR Laboratories letterhead explaining chemical weapons that Iraq might have.

“He even arranged for antitoxins to be delivered to our personnel in Tel Aviv,” Knobel said, “so he clearly had influence somewhere.”

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Times staff writers H.G. Reza and Dean E. Murphy, researcher Salma Patel and correspondent Louise Roug contributed to this story.