Ronald (Ron) Kaufman Bank Warning Note from 1972

Disclaimer (October 28, 2013): This article was written not long after I finally tracked down news articles about this bombing plot and perpetrator. I have been looking for details about this for decades, and the miracle of Google finally came through.

However, the articles from 1972 were riddled with errors and inaccuracies, that I was not able to refute until recently (October, 2013). Now armed with more information, including court documents, I can say that any relation between Ron Kaufman and the Weathermen was coincidental. I have no doubt that their members and he crossed paths in the New Left of the day, but it does not look like he was an actual “member” at any time.

My book length project blog for this is the Time Bomber Book blog, which I update when I can as I work on the manuscript.

PVT James Edward Jensen aka Ronald Kaufman

UPDATE:  This post and those related to this case are "spoilers" now.  I am writing a book about this while keeping the bomber a bit of a mystery in the early chapters, staying in theme with how the plot unfolded in real life in 1972.

Below is page one from the 1972 Kaufman safety-deposti box bomb warning note to news writers and anchors, from Walter Cronkite to The Seed.  The one below was sent to the Chicago Daily News.

Prototype Bombs In Symbolic Banks

During July 1971 nine unusual prototype bombs were planted in different banks across the country.  These bombs were placed in safety deposit boxes in the vaults of the banks listed below.  Enclosed is one key to one of these boxes.

* [Key No. 305637 to Box No. 47440 in First National Bank of Chicago, attached with clear tape]

New York City
First National City Bank - 107 William St.
Box No. 6160  Key No. ____
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. - 40 Wall St.
Box No. 215  Key No. 59
Marine Midland Grace Trust Co. of N.Y. - 140 Broadway
Box No. 1716  Key No. 372

Chicago
Continental Illinois National Bank - 231 S. La Salle St.
Box No. E-396 Key No. E-396
The First National Bank of Chicago - 1 First National Plaza
Box No. 47440  Key No. 305637
The Northern Trust Company - 50 S. La Salle St.
Box No. 7936  Key No. 2002

San Francisco
Bank of America - Market - New Montgomery
Box No. 1508  Key No. R537
Crocker-Citizens National Bank - 1 Montgomery St.
Box No. 2511  Key No. ____
Wells Fargo Bank - Market - Montgomery
Box No. 3114  Key No. 3114

This is proving an interesting research project.  With every day comes more information that seemed lost just the day before.

More to come.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Why Can't My City Be More Like My County?

(Warning: Video has bad language!)

Related story at Freedom Bunker.

"Why can't the city be more like the county?"

I asked that question of a City Councilman just a few months ago.  Councilman Marshall W. Stair was representing an insurance company as their lawyer, and after we wrapped everything up, he gave me his City Council business card and asked if there was anything my little community needed in the way of city services.  I replied, "Why can't you do less?"

Just off the top of my head, trash service came to mind.  Out in the county one has a choice between competing trash companies.  The county does not even try to pick up your trash.  Waste Management will pick up your trash every week, for a fee, and they are from Texas!  If you like, you can take it to a county run trash collection center (limited to one pickup truck load per day).  Sure, I would be happier of the county got out of the trash business all together, but at least I should have a choice in whose truck is coming by to empty the can, and one of those choices should include me.

When I was flying in the National Guard here, one of my fellow Officers owned a trash collection business in Chattanooga.  Sounded pretty easy to setup.  Just one truck, that was not outrageously expensive.  I forgot how many people he hired.  He ended up selling his business to a competing company, for what sounded like a decent profit too.  There is paperwork, of course.  Even a hot dog cart here required three licenses and a periodical health inspection certificate, so I am not sure what number to multiply four by to cover taking away things people don't want anymore, vs. giving them something they do want.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, I attended the same church as a woman who owned AAA Trash, a very successful company that competed with BFI and Waste Management.  Her firm was there long before I arrived, and I am sure it is still there. It appeared to do nothing but grow.

What choice do we have in the city?  They put out a bid and one big company wins, then they pick up all the trash until time to recompete the contract.  How do the wife and I pay for it?  Out of the various taxes we pay as city dwellers, on top of the taxes we pay as county dwellers.  We really have no idea exactly how much we are paying for that "service", since the cost is hidden in our already high taxes.  The notion that if the government does not pick up your trash, nobody will, is pure rubbish.

The next item I mentioned was the police force.  There are two towns in this county, and only one of them has its own cops.  Mine.  I used to live in the other one, Farragut, TN, and they rely on the Sheriff's department, the same one that ALL of us pay for anyway because we are all county residents too who pay county taxes.  By the way, there is plenty of county that is not in any town or city and the Sheriff's department covers them just fine too.

Mr. Stair's position was that people who choose to live in a city expect more services than people who live outside of cities.  Which is all well and good, but I had to ask, "So what services are the city providing that the county doesn't?"  Neither of us could think of anything in particular.  The government library system is a county operation, as is the school system.  The way the government school system became a county-only operation is worthy of another column.

Of course, there are more laws to break in the city than there are in the county.  Someone I interviewed recently mentioned the "mask ordinance" (19-062 Wearing Mask/Hood/Disguise $114.50 fine), which happens to be the same fine as for evading arrest, having an unprotected hole/pond/quarry, or discharging a firearm.  A 17 year old environmental protestor ran afoul of the mask ordinance last month.  And, to go along with those extra laws, the city has extra courts like, Traffic Court Plus!  I suppose it is just like Google Plus, just more expensive.

No roosters allowed!

If you want to raise your own chickens, Knoxville has a license for that.  The application is only 13 pages long, so that is over two pages per bird if you go to the six hen limit.  Hens only, no roosters, and permission costs $75.  Okay, the county is pretty jack-booted about that one too.  You have to be in an agricultural zoned area to raise chickens in the county.  A couple of years ago they debated "allowing" residential zone residents permission to raise chickens, but I haven't found where the measure passed.

So how about it Knoxville, how about a little Anarchy?

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Ronald (Ron) Kaufman: Just the Facts

Disclaimer (October 28, 2013): This article was written not long after I finally tracked down news articles about this bombing plot and perpetrator. I have been looking for details about this for decades, and the miracle of Google finally came through.

However, the articles from 1972 were riddled with errors and inaccuracies, that I was not able to refute until recently (October, 2013). Now armed with more information, including court documents, I can say that any relation between Ron Kaufman and the Weathermen was coincidental. I have no doubt that their members and he crossed paths in the New Left of the day, but it does not look like he was an actual “member” at any time.

My book length project blog for this is the Time Bomber Book blog, which I update when I can as I work on the manuscript.

The complicated basics of confessed bank bomber Ronald Kaufman

Date of Birth: 5 February 1938
Place of Birth: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Raised: Bayside, WI
Parents: George Kaufman (Russian immigrant; President, Cream City Glass Company 2803 S. 13th Street, Milwaukee, died 1969); Sonia (Cogan) Kaufman
Uncle: Allergist Dr. Leo Cogan
Education: 1955, Riverside High School
1961, Bachelor's Psychology, University of Wisconsin - Madison
1962 Master's Psychology, Stanford
1966 PhD, Stanford
Aliases:
Christopher Charles Mohr (alias used to rent safety-deposit boxes)
Christopher Curtis Mohr (alias used to rent safety-deposit boxes)
James Edward Jensen (born May 20, 1946 at Kentfield, Marin County, Mo, alias for second Army enlistment)
Charles E. Owens (Identity he used with the SDS)
Thomas Roy Gifford (Name he married Martha Leicester with and was using while living in San Francisco up until capture)

Nicknames: Abbie's Jewish Mama/Momma; Captain Gentle

Military Service: US Army 1956-1958, SP-4, Anti-Aircraft Missile Fire Controlman (under his given name)
US Army 1971, PVT, Basic Training and Advanced Infantry Training (Ft. Polk, LA) under the alias James Edward Jensen (Enlisted 10 AUG 1971 in St. Louis, MO, failed to report to Ft. Jackson, SC 8 JAN 1972)

As James Edward Jensen

Civilian Employment:
1967/1968, Research Project Associate as a field worker to study stress on the aged, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago
1974 - 1984, Maintenance Supervisor in an unnamed nursing/convalescent home, Los Angeles, CA
1984 - 1986 (when captured), Building Manager, The World Affairs Council, San Francisco, CA

Addresses:
3035 N. Farwell Avenue, Milwaukee, WI (boyhood home)
560 West Arlington Place, Chicago, IL Address used under Mohr aliases for safety deposit boxes, Decemnber 1970. Passed himself off as a Physicist from Boston.  Building manager Dan Madori said Mohr's references were impeccable.  "Mohr" introduced a part-time roommate to Madori as a Southern Illinois U., Carbondale student, turned out to be a UI Chicago Circle Campus student.  Madori refused to identify the roommate further in any interviews.
From the Washington Post, 16 Jan, 1972, p. A3 - The Alumni Records Office at the University of Wisconsin confirmed last week that Charles J. Mohr, of New York City, was an undergraduate there at the same time as Kaufman in the late 1950s. But Mohr died on April 17, 1960, of injuries suffered in the ring during'an NCAA collegiate boxing tournament.
Also, there was a real writer named Charles Mohr who died in 1989.  Kaufman listed "writer" as the occupation of his Mohr identity when renting safety-deposit boxes.
1314 Poe Street, Berkeley, CA (Forwarding address, 1971)

Spouse: Married in California under the Gifford alias in Jan or Feb 1985 to Martha Leicester (Kaufman never revealed to her his true identity, or that he was a fugitive).

A social security number for the Gifford identity was issued in 1970.  The real Thomas Roy Gifford died in 1945, at the age of 13 months.

Social Security Numbers: 398-XX-XXXX (the FBI broadcasted that in the 1970s, the San Francisco Chronicle repeated it, but I will not.).
389-34-8220 issued between 1953 and 1954 in Wisconsin
398-XX-XXXX issued between 1953 and 1954 in Wisconsin
398-34-3220 issued between 1954 and 1955 in Wisconsin
572-58-1398 issued in California
572-98-4495 issued in California

Social Work: 1964, Participated Freedom Summer voter registration drives in Mississippi

Hobbies: Students for a Democratic Society conventions1966 (Clear Lake, IA), 1967, 1968 (Ann Arbor, MI), 1970 (Chicago); Housed Abbie Hoffman during the 1968 Democratic National Convention; Purchased and supplied bull horn for Yippies at 1968 Democratic National Convention; Urged Yippies to get communicate with "Greasers" (New Left synonym for "umpmen" from lumpen-proletariat"); Talked Hoffman out of doing things too outlandish; Attended a 1960s Pentagon protest; Built time bombs and placed them in banks.

Bank Bombing: 12:45 AM 7 September 1971, Safety-deposit box #1508 Bank of America, corner of Market and Montgomery, San Francisco, CA. (premature explosion) That box was rented 16 January, 1971 and the other two in San Francisco listed below were also rented that month.  Final visit to the BoA box was July 16, 1971, the same day he visited a Chicago bank box.

Additional Time Bombs Planted: Safety-deposit box #2511 Crocker-Citizens National Bank, 1 Montgomery, SF, CA
Safety-deposit box #3114 Wells-Fargo National Bank, 44 Montgomery, SF, CA

(Chicago boxes rented December, 1970 while an SDS convention was held in that city)
Continental Illinois National Bank, Chicago, IL
First National Bank of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Northern Trust Co., Chicago, IL

(New York boxes were rented January, 1971, same as San Francisco boxes)
First National City Bank, New York, NY
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., New York, NY
Marine Midland Bank, New York, NY

Lawyers: John Philipsborn and Leonard Weineglass.

Ronald Kaufman Wanted Poster (buy an original at FBImostwanted.US)

Captured: 15 July 1986, a police officer aquatinted with Martha Leicester recognized Kaufman from the April 1986 edition of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (online archives only go back to the 1990s).  At a 17 July 1986 hearing, it was revealed by his lawyer John Philipsborn that Kaufman had been "testing the waters" for a surrender for three years.

Plea Bargain: 28 April 1987, plead guilty in exchange for a nine year prison sentence.

Sentencing: July, 1987 sentenced to nine years in prison.

Released:  16 April 1991, prisoner number 80927-011

Mentions in media since release:
1995(?), ROUGH DRAFT

ISSUE #1 03 (41 5) 665-0351 APRIL 1 995 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CACOPHONY SOCIETY

Cacophony Comments 

The search for... hummm... supreme truth continues. Luther Blissitt (link by me) has announced his April 1st plan to place blocks of dry ice wrapped up in wet newspapers on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train just before it enters the Trans-Bay tube. 

Not to be outdone, Ronald Kaufman has implanted a soft hardware device which is wired to go off in July. 

For those with plans for poetic terrorism on a global scale, the Nuclear Winter issue of The Blab contains detailed instructions on how to construct a nuclear bomb which is small enough to fit into the trunk of a Japanese car. To get a copy this informative and humor-filled publication, send $1 cash to The Blab, 3073 Rio Bonita St, Indialantic, FL 32903.

(additional info as I discover it)

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

The Ronald (Ron) Kaufman Manifesto

Disclaimer (October 28, 2013): This article was written not long after I finally tracked down news articles about this bombing plot and perpetrator. I have been looking for details about this for decades, and the miracle of Google finally came through.

However, the articles from 1972 were riddled with errors and inaccuracies, that I was not able to refute until recently (October, 2013). Now armed with more information, including court documents, I can say that any relation between Ron Kaufman and the Weathermen was coincidental. I have no doubt that their members and he crossed paths in the New Left of the day, but it does not look like he was an actual “member” at any time.

My book length project blog for this is the Time Bomber Book blog, which I update when I can as I work on the manuscript.

From several January 1972 newspaper reports, I have pieced together this as the Ronald Kaufman Manifesto.  From other reporting at the time, Kaufman was against the violence of the 'ant-war' movement of his time, at least he was against certain factions within the movement. Note that he is not against all violence, he just does not like kidnapping people and holding them for ransom.  He does not like bombing inhabited buildings either, he just wants to make new construction unusable until his demands are met.  (All linking mine):

"Kidnaping people and demanding property (or money) in exchange for their lives exemplifies the anti-life property value of our 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.”

"… kidnap a luxury hotel, a corporate office building or a superhighway and demand the release of political prisoners as ransom."

“What makes these demonstration time bombs unusual are the long range tuners in them. Clock timers used in time bombs typically have a cycle of 12 hours and can therefore only be set up to 12 hours in advance. The timers used in this demonstration bombing have a cycle of 7 months or 217 days.”

"could easily be embedded in the structure of a building under construction (e.g., the new FBI building in Washington) or under the roadbed of a highway not yet paved over. In 3 or 4 months continued construction would make the device virtually undetectable. The authorities and the public would then 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."

Should "the power structure" refuse to go along, the letters concluded,

"they would then have the option of sitting around for months waiting for some portion of one of their empty toys to blow up. Who will want to vacation in that hotel, meet in that boardroom or drive on that super highway for the next few months?"

He ended his letters with:

“Free all political prisoners - Remember George Jackson and Sam Melville.”

Note that 217 days is over 8.9 months, rather than 7 months as the quote states.  The seven month number is repeated in almost all of the January 1972 news articles of the incident.  Sorry, 271 days is 8.9 months, 217 days is indeed 7 months and change.
This was all done years before electronic watches with alarms that could be set months or years in advance.  Today we have cell phones that can be programmed to turn them selves on and sound an alarm, or trip a relay, to set off a bomb.

It seems like Dr. Kaufman is under the same impression that many of the Left continue to have, that some banker in some branch has the power to tell the bureaucracy what to do.  In the world according to the then 33 year-old PhD holder, blowing up a janitor in the middle of the night will sure show those "power structure" types!  And unless everybody does exactly what he says, the poor little rich boy from suburban Milwaukee will send you a letter too, informing you that the gates to your subdivision have been mined and will go off any day now unless you let more like him out of the slammer.

Stay tuned for more, including a post on Kaufman's basic information as reported over the years, along with all of his aliases and congressional testimony naming him.

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ

Ronald (Ron) Kaufman: The Bomb Throwing Left

Disclaimer (October 28, 2013): This article was written not long after I finally tracked down news articles about this bombing plot and perpetrator. I have been looking for details about this for decades, and the miracle of Google finally came through.

However, the articles from 1972 were riddled with errors and inaccuracies, that I was not able to refute until recently (October, 2013). Now armed with more information, including court documents, I can say that any relation between Ron Kaufman and the Weathermen was coincidental. I have no doubt that their members and he crossed paths in the New Left of the day, but it does not look like he was an actual “member” at any time.

My book length project blog for this is the Time Bomber Book blog, which I update when I can as I work on the manuscript.

Ronald Kaufman's FBI media alert card.

I'm working on a story about one of the 1970s Weathermen (Weatherperson) bombers, Ronald Kaufman.  In this space I will be posting some elements of it as a series.

The original of the card to the left is available on eBay, from some news organization.  Click the link if you are interested.

My column today has a long introduction of sorts, more of a story about how researching stories like this can become more difficult than you think.

At this point, after reading every article about Ronald Kaufman that I could find, I must conclude that this Ronald Kaufman was no Anarcho-Capitalist.  No, he was the other variety of Anarchist, the Marxist sort.

I wish I could find a copy of his "manifesto," the one I heard a WMAQ-TV news anchor read in 1972.  I cannot remember if it was Walter Jacobson or Floyd Kalber, and the references I've been able to find only reference a hand-printed copy of the manifesto sent to that station, as well as others:

Within the letters notifying the authorities of the explosive devices, he claimed to represent the "Movement in Amerika" and the missives ended "Remember George Jackson and Sam Melville." The letters were sent to the Chicago Daily News, Chicago Today, Chicago Sun-Times, The Seed, WMAQ-TV (Chicago), San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeley Tribe, and KSAN-TV (San Francisco).

The Chicago Daily News letter wound up as material for a Mike Royko column, where Royko berated the suburban crybaby for his "revolutionary" nonsense, and urged him to do something useful for the downtrodden, like ringing a bell at Christmas.  Unfortunately, I cannot find that January 1972 article, but I did find this, a 1986 column where Royko references the older article with detail.

However, as far as I can find at this point, not even a full (proper) transcript is available online, much less a digital image.  In the next post, I will have my best efforts at reconstructing his manifesto.

Another interesting aspect of researching this story, I ran across the name of another radical, Joseph Edwin Schock.  I remembered his name from when my schoolmates and I would look at wanted posters in the Post Office.  Schock stood out because there was someone in town who bore an uncanny resemblance to the man.  I'd seen him at the Dairy Queen several times.  My schoolmates thought I was telling a yarn, until several of us were at the Dairy Queen when the local was there.

As it turns out, it was unlikely that the 1970s arsonist (he allegedly torched up a couple dozen vehicles at a National Guard armory) and Marine Veteran was in our town, he was hiding out in Canada and eventually was given political asylum in France.  The Lew Pumphrey article from 1976 is very well done, and all the facts stand the test of time.  If you Google "Joseph Edwin Schock" you find one guy by that name, and he is living in France, running a business.

What about Ronald Kaufman?  There are plenty of other people by that name, and over the course of three decades, three have been released from the federal prison system.  The one released in the 1980s can be ruled out, since bomber Kaufman was sentenced in 1987 and was denied parole in 1990.  That leaves two, one who was released in 1991, and another in 2003.

Puzzle solved on when he was released.  The Bureau of Prisons lists current ages of those released, do the confessed bomber Kaufman would be this one:

Name                               Register #    Age-Race-Sex    Release Date    Location
RONALD KAUFMAN  80927-011    75-White-M       04-16-1991    RELEASED

The following UPI story was a little confusing:

Stay tuned for more!

Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ