Bomb Suspect’s Aim: ‘Smiley Face’

Accused pipe bomber Luke J. Helder may have had a strategy in his selection of mailboxes, if his remarks to a sheriff’s deputy shortly after his arrest are to be taken seriously.

Helder said his choice of targets, when plotted on a map, would depict a “smiley face,” the ubiquitous symbol of happiness popularized during the 1970s.

Helder, who is due in U.S. District Court today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was arrested Tuesday on a northern Nevada freeway after his father alerted the FBI that his son might have planted the pipe bombs found in mailboxes in five states.

Six of the bombs exploded, each one causing an injury, none life-threatening.

Helder admitted to planting 18 bombs, 10 of which were not set to detonate, according to FBI agents. Another six bombs were discovered in his vehicle.

When stopped, Helder held a shotgun to his head before throwing the weapon out of the window of his car and surrendering to authorities.

After he was captured, Helder casually “told my deputy that, when he was finished, he wanted to make a smiley face,” said Pershing County Sheriff Ron Skinner.

“I don’t have any idea if he was serious or not.

“I’ve been looking at those maps that show where the bombing locations were, to see if any pattern was developing, and I’m not sure there was one,” Skinner said.

At best, Skinner said, a circular cluster of mailbox targets in northwestern Illinois and eastern Iowa, and another cluster in Nebraska, could be construed as eyes.

But if Helder intended to add the smile, by leaving single bombs in Texas and Colorado, he was heading in the wrong direction--west--to finish an arc.

Helder, 21, remained under suicide watch Thursday.

“I’m sure they’re observing him more than the average inmate,” said Dave Romeo of the U.S. marshal’s office in Reno, which will transport him to Cedar Rapids.

Rich Murphy, an assistant U.S. attorney in Cedar Rapids, said Helder was scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court there this afternoon, at which time attorney representation and other procedural matters will be discussed.

Helder, a junior at the University of Wisconsin at Stout, in Menomonie, faces two federal charges in Iowa: using an explosive device to cause personal injury and using such a device to destroy mailboxes.

If convicted of both charges, he would face 37 years to life in prison.

Helder faces similar charges in Chicago and Omaha.

On Thursday, Helder’s parents visited him at the Reno jail.

After speaking to his son behind a glass partition for 30 minutes, Cameron Helder told reporters, “We are here to see our son in his hour of need.

“We told him we love him. I feel a lot better after speaking to him.”