Mail threats linked to Wis. post office

MILWAUKEE -- A person suspected of mailing threatening letters to Milwaukee-area financial firms is apparently the same person who sent at least two dud pipe bombs that ended up at companies in Chicago and Kansas City, a postal investigator said.

The suspect, who identified himself in some of the letters as "The Bishop," sent 15 letters, including one with a Milwaukee postmark, across the country starting in May 2005, said David Colen, acting assistant inspector of the Chicago division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

At least three Milwaukee-area companies received letters in October 2005 and March 2006 and investigators are trying to authenticate a fourth, Colen said. He declined to name the firms but said they conduct financial business.

"We are holding several things close to the vest," Colen said. "What we are doing is looking to engage the public in locating this individual."

Many of the details in the letters already have been released, including references to heaven and hell and threats made to recipients if their stock did not move by $6.66. The number '666' is associated with Satan. The author also used phrases like "Bang you're dead" and "Tic-toc."

About half of the letters and the two pipe bombs were mailed from the post office in suburban Rolling Meadows, Ill., Colen said.

Investigators have talked with several people who were at the post office on Jan. 26, the day the packages were mailed, but officials are still looking for two others, he said.

The packages went to two companies, one in Kansas City and the other in Denver. Postal inspectors said one bomb went to American Century Investments' midtown Kansas City mail facility, a few blocks from the company's national headquarters. The other was sent to Janus Small-Cap in Denver at the address of Janus Capital Group. It was forwarded to a company in a Chicago high-rise that Colen has said has a relationship with the company in Denver.

A $100,000 reward has been offered.