Worker Plants Bombs at Homes

A disgruntled shipyard worker who believed that the state Industrial Accident Commission was cheating him of his disability compensation sought vengeance by planting bombs at the homes of Los Angeles commissioners. William J. Ward used 50 sticks of dynamite to make a number of bombs. Though most of them were duds, one did explode -- at the Bedford Drive home of Herman Hover, a former Broadway dancer who owned the chic Hollywood nightclub Ciro’s, and whose brother-in-law was a commissioner. No one was injured in that explosion in Beverly Hills, but it shattered the windows of nearby homes. Ward was caught planting another bomb at a home on Rodeo Drive. He was convicted of attempted murder four months later.