The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 1

Tonight: Cloudy, cold Tomorrow: Sunny, cold Details on page 20 28 Pages THE C0U FINAL A Gannett Neivspaper Plainfield, New Jersey, Friday, January 7, 1972 Phone 757-4000 H-i-ns Delivered 75c per week 15c olice ocate Tl in bank vaults aiooen MER-NEWS two cities By The Associated Press Police found bombs in banks in New York and Chicago today hours after anonymous warnings to news media that bombs had been planted in nine banks there and in San Francisco as part of a plan to free "political prisoners." Bombs were found and deactivated in safe-deposit boxes at three banks in lower Manhattan branches of the Marine Midland Trust the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. and the First National City Bank. Another bomb was found in the First National Bank in Chicago. "It would have made an effective bomb," said Police Capt. the Marine Midland Bank, said the box where the bomb was found was rented on Jan.

6, 1971, and that records showed it had last been visited on July 13 and July 14. In order to use his box, a customer must identify himself by his signature. He and the guard must use a double set of keys to open the container in which the box is kept. "The box is pulled out and the customer goes off to a cubicle, which has a door and where he can do anything he wants," Neary said. On Aug.

20, 1969, a dynamite bomb demolished offices on the eighth floor of the Marine Midland Building, injuring 18 Kenneth O'Neill after the bomb was removed from the Marine Midland branch at 140 Broadway in New York. Robert Daly, New York's deputy police commissioner, said all three bombs found in that city were active and would have killed anybody in the bank vaults. Each was composed of a clock and battery recharger with a half-pound of smokeless black powder wrapped in a thin layer 'of styrofoam. Handprinted special delivery letters received early today by media in Chicago and San Francisco said bombs had been planted in the banks. An official of one of the banks, the Continental Illinois National Bank of Chicago, said no bomb was found there.

In New York, police were prevented from entering the vault of the Marine Midland branch unti 8:30 a.m., when an automatic time clock allowed its massive door to be opened. Three detectives went in and drilled open one of the 1,166 safe-deposit boxes in the vault to find the bomb. The box was leased to a Charles Christopher Mohr, and police said the same name had been used in Chicago. No further identification was made immediately. New York police said they had been alerted by San Francisco police at midnight.

Philip Neary, a spokesman for It's official: Nixon seeks re-election vS -n, jaJ WWWWWSSfftflSj- Three months later, five people were arrested and charged with that and other bombings in Manhattan. They included Samuel Joseph Melville, who was convicted and later killed when state police put down an inmate revolt in Attica state prison. The letters warning of today's bombs ended: "Remember George Jackson and Sam Melville." Jackson, a black accused of murdering a California prison guard, was killed last August in what authorities said was an attempt to escape from San Quentin Prison. "We are taking this thing very seriously. We are not regarding it as a hoax," said Howard Pier-son, a deputy superintendent of the Chicago police.

Police in each city made plans to be at the banks when the time vaults opened this morning. Special delivery letters, with Chicago postmarks, were received last night at two newspapers and a radio station in the San Francisco area and at two newspapers in Chicago. They gave the bank addresses and in most cases a safety deposit box number where the bombs were said to be located in the three cities. The letter suggested that in the future "the Movement in Amerika" might plant such bombs in buildings to "kidnap" the property "and offer it in exchange for the freedom of our people." According to the letter, the unusual feature of the bombs is a long-range calendar clock timer with a cycle of seven months or 217 days. "Prototype timers were made of low quality cordless electric clocks," the letter said.

"In future bombings they will be highly reliable, nearly silent electronic watches. Similarly the slow-burning powder placed" In these safety deposit boxes would instead be contact plastic explosives," the letter said. Explaining the purpose of the bombs, the letter noted: "Kidnaping people and demanding property or money in exchange for their lives exemplifies the anti-life property values of a sick and brutal society. The Movement in Amerika would do better to kidnap property and offer it in exchange for the freedom of our people." The letter postulated planting a seven-month bomb "in the structure of a building under construction, e.g. the new FBI building in Washington or under the roadway of a highway not yet paved over." Later, the letter said, when construction had well hidden the device, public officials uld be "told who is to be freed in exchange for the exact location of the device." "They would also be told how much time remained on the timer.

In case the authorities should claim not to believe that Please turn to Page 16 AP Wirephoto Diana Alexander, 20, a University of Texas coed, has been taking skiing instruction from Skip Merry of the Purgatory ski area near Durango, Colo. Miss Alexander, blind since birth, is quick to learn and had mastered the mountain in her fourth day of instruction with Merry. "I actually thought that learning to water ski was a bit harder," Diana said. "You have to learn how to laugh at yourself when you fall because everyone is going to fall eventually," said the courageous miss. CONCORD, N.

H. (AP) President Nixon officially announced today he will seek re-election, telling New Hampshire campaign workers that he will allow his name to stay on the ballot for the state's March 7 presidential primary. Nixon said he was seeking reelection because "I want to complete the work we have begun His announcement came in a letter from the Western White House to former Gov. Lane Dwinnell who heads the group of supporters that placed Nixon's name on the ballot Monday. Nixon noted in the letter that it was in New Hampshire he began his campaign for president four years ago.

He said he has "tried to be true to the trust" expressed by New Hampshire voters at that time. "We have made significant beginnings in these past three years," the letter said. "I want to complete the work that we have begun and therefore I shall be a candidate for renomination and re-election." Issue for 1972: 2 Ameriixis Four years ago, American cities were being torn by burning and looting, and the Kerner Commission was forecasting "two societies, one black, one white separate and unequal." Today, despite four years of relative calm in the streets, the nation is indeed divided into two societies isolated from one another and indifferent to one another. In five articles, Jack W. Germond of The Gannett Newspapers' Washington Bureau reports on "An Issue for 1972: Two Americas." AP Wirephoto William Plechaty, auditor of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company in Chicago, indicates the spot in the bank's vault where a safety deposit box was removed early today.

The security box was one of those mentioned in a letter indicating where a bomb had been placed. Wn Central cm, quietly raise fares enn North Jersey shore can still get tickets at the lower rates if they buy them at Penn Station in Newark rather than at stations in Monmouth and Ocean Counties which are under the jurisdiction of the Jersey Central. The Jersey Central has about 12,000 daily commuters and the Penn Central has 22,000 daily commuters, including those who ride the main line and will not be immediately affected by the higher fares. fares by 20 per cent on its main line, which links Newark with Union, Somerset and Hunterdon counties, and 10 per cent of its shore line service. The Penn Central was granted a 10 per cent hike on its New York and Long Branch line.

The state approved a 10 per cent increase for the Penn Central's main line after the railroad asked for 20 per cent. Because the Penn Central increases will not take effect until Monday commuters from the TRENTON (A() The Jersey Central Railroad and the Penn Central railroad are quietly putting fare increases into effect for some of their commuter service. The Jersey Central put the increases into effect on Jan. 3 on both its main line and seashore service. The Penn Central will raise the fares on its New York and Long Branch line starting next Monday.

However, fares increases on the Penn Central main line between Trenton and Newark have been temporarily blocked. A spokesman for the State Commuter Operating Agency said the main line fare hikes were awaiting a ruling by a federal judge in Philadelphia as to whether the main line is under the jurisdiction of the Penn Central railroad or is part of Amtrak, the national passenger railroad corporation. All the fare increases were approved by the Commuter Operating Agency last August. But they were not implemented because of the wage-price freeze by the Nixon Administration. Spokesmen for the railroads said the increases are now taking effect because the Federal Price Commission has held that they are all within the national guidelines.

Both railroads are putting the increases into effect without a formal announcement. The Jersey Central increased Jobless rolls rise near to 9-year high WASHINGTON (AP) The nation's unemployment edged up to 6.1 per cent last month, just below a nine-year high reached a year earlier, the government said today. At the same time, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said the average rate of unemployment for all of last year was 5.9 per cent, up from 4.9 per cent in 1970 and 3.5 per cent in 1969. The bureau said the 5.9 per cent jobless rate for 1971 was the highest in 10 years. The rate hit 6.7 per cent in 1961.

OTHERWISE MOST statistics for December were either unchanged or slighly worse when compared with the month before. The 6:1 per cent over-all jobless rate was up slightly from November's 6.0 per cent and October's" 5.8 per cent. It was just below the 6.2 per cent rate for December 1970, when the jobless figure peaked at a nine-year high. The jobless rate for non-whites jumped sharply from 9.3 per cent in November to 10.3 per cent- last month. At the same time the rate for whites fell from 5.7 per cent in November to 5.4 per month last month.

There was no change in the rate for adult men, at 4.4 per cent or for adult women at 5.8 per cent, but the rate for teenagers of both sexes edged up from 17.0 per cent in November to 17.5 per cent in December. THE NATION'S TOTAL civilian work force, which showed a sharp gain, in November, was little changed in December. In real numbers the total force tumbled from 85 million in November to 84.9 million in December. Adjusted for seasonal variations, the government figured the civilian work force at 85.2 million in November and 85.3 million in December. The total number of persons holding jobs also was little changed, at 80.2 million in real numbers and 80.1 million seasonally adjusted.

The number of job seekers was 4.7 million in actual numbers, or 5.2 million seasonally adjusted. Dimellen crash fatal Shotgun wielder hijacks jet; goal believed Africa tical maps of America's east coast and northeast Africa. MacAllister said at the time the request was made there was no plane at the airport that could make the flight. All flight operations were shut down at the airport and police set up roadblocks to keep arriving passengers away from the airport. The red, white and silver 727 was taking on 9,000 gallons of fuel from two fuel trucks, MacAllister said, when the request came for a larger plane to take the hijackers to Africa.

DUNELLEN A Piscataway man in his late 60s died when a meat truck and the car he was driving collided at W. Fourth and Walnut Streets at 10:30 a.m. today. Police have identified the dead man, but they're withholding his name until they notify his family of his death. He was dead on arrival at Raritan Valley Hospital.

"Somebody went through a stop street, but we don't know who it was yet," said police. The meat truck belonged to a Newark firm that deals with Dunellen businesses. Police didn't have the truck driver's name yet. The truck driver apparently wasn't injured, police said. The Plainfield Humane Society is holding a German Shepherd dog that, was riding in the car.

"The dog wasn't hurt," said a humane society spokesman, "he was just shook up." fw.l, NPtl life'" Pft-' vlti TAMPA, Fla. (AP) A Pacific Southwest Airlines jet was hijacked from Los Angeles to Tampa today by a shotgun-armed man and a woman with a baby and then took off suddenly for an unknown destination. The Boeing 727, refueled for the second time, sat on the ground for more than two hours while the FBI considered the hijackers' request for a larger aircraft capable of flying to Africa. Aboard wilh the hijackers were 10 PSA employes ordered to stay on board after 134 passengers were ordered off the plane at a refueling stop in Los Angeles. Observers at Tampa International Airport said the aircraft took off in a northerly direction and then turned east.

As it lifted off the runway, two FBI agents carrying rifles in cases could be seen sitting in a field a few hundred yards away. Paul MacAllister, assistant director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, said the hijackers had demanded a plane to take them to Africa, aeronau- inside THE COURIER-NEWS Bridge Classified Comics Editorials Family Money Obituaries Sports Television 21-26 27 18 5-8 14, 15 20 9-11 12 MUSKIE SUPPORTED COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The Ohio United Auto Workers has endorsed Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, of Maine, for the Democratic nomination for president. AP Wirephoto Lewis F.

Powell 64-year-old lawyer from Richmond, puts on a robe before being sworn in today as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. His wife, Josephine, is at left. Assisting Powell is Hansford Harrison, robing attendant. William H. Rehnquist also took his seat on the court.

CASHWOP.S: $750 See page 28.