CRIME: The Bomb Plot

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At 2:34 p.m. one day last week, one of the most extraordinary extortion plots in criminal history exploded—literally—in Portland's big (twelve stories), crowded Meier & Frank department store. Just after 2 o'clock a woman had thrust through the credit window an envelope addressed to the store's president, Aaron Frank, and left. Inside the envelope was a note warning that in the block-square building were planted two bombs, the first set to explode "by the time you receive this message." As Frank was reading the note on the twelfth floor, an explosion rocked the third floor, shattering windows and injuring a woman with the flying glass. That was only the beginning: the note warned that a second bomb was set to go off before noon the next day. In the meantime, Frank was to pay out $50,000. From 6:30 to 7 that Friday evening, an agent was to stand outside the downtown Imperial Hotel with a carnation in his lapel, and the money in small bills packed in a light-colored suitcase. At 7 he was to enter a certain phone booth and wait. Frank showed the note to the police. At 7:08 p.m. a police agent was in the booth when the phone rang and a voice told him to go to another phone booth. There he found a typed note and a public locker key taped under the seat. In the locker at Portland's Union Station, he found a third note ordering him to hire a Yellow Cab (with no two-way radio) and drive on Highway 99E the 120 miles to Eugene, at 25 m.p.h. When a car behind flashed its lights three times, he was to throw out the suitcase and drive on five miles before turning back. If no headlight flashed, he was to return at 25 m.p.h. via Highway 99W. He followed instructions exactly, his slow-moving cab jamming traffic in the early evening, but no lights flashed. By 5:30 a.m. the cab, its driver still ignorant of the plot, was back in Portland. Aaron Frank and his family remained under guard at their country estate while squads of detectives tried to untangle the extortion attempt. And on Saturday, for the first time in memory, Meier & Frank did not open for business while police meticulously searched the store—without success—for the other bomb.