Bomb trail takes another twist // Ex-chemist in string of coincidences

  Mark Potok

  05/15/1995

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 03A

  (Copyright 1995)

 

  OKLAHOMA CITY - A California chemist-turned-dishwasher swept up in the

  nation's largest manhunt sits in a Phoenix jail today as investigators probe his

  possible links to the Oklahoma City bombing.

 

  Steven Garrett Colbern, 35, was arrested Friday after a scuffle with federal

  agents in a northwest Arizona tourist town on 1994 federal firearms and fugitive

  charges.

 

  Federal officials say Colbern told them he knew Timothy McVeigh, 27, one of

  two men charged in the April 19 explosion, but only by the alias of "Tim Tuttle."

 

  Officials are downplaying the possibility Colbern could be the elusive "John Doe

  No. 2."

 

  "Doe 2" is reported to have been with McVeigh when he rented a truck that

  authorities say was used in the bombing.

 

  "When I looked down at him, I said, `My God, that's John Doe No. 2,' " said

  Anita Armstrong, a fire department lieutenant who witnessed the arrest in

  Oatman, Ariz., a town of 140 people. "He looked like the composite sketch."

 

  Officials said that may not be the case, but they're investigating coincidences:

 

  -- Colbern, described as a quiet, intelligent gun enthusiast who liked to wear

  military fatigues, was anti-government, according to some who knew him in

  Oatman.

 

  "He'd make remarks about how we're losing our freedom, we're going into

  socialism," says Derrell Warren, 56, who manages a hotel in Oatman. "And I did

  hear him make (an admiring) remark about the Third Reich."

 

  -- He also has used the same mail service as McVeigh, says Lynda Willoughby,

  who manages The Mail Room in Kingman, Ariz. But McVeigh used the service

  recently, while Colbern did so years ago, she says.

 

  -- A brown pickup truck was found outside a trailer in Bullhead City, Ariz.,

  where Colbern sometimes lived.

 

  A motorist told officials that when McVeigh was stopped by a trooper shortly

  after the bombing, he saw a brown pickup stop; the driver appeared to look back

  at McVeigh.

 

  -- Colbern is said to have been adept at making bombs of ammonium nitrate

  fertilizer and fuel oil, the same ingredients used in Oklahoma City.

 

  -- One of Colbern's three roommates in Oatman, Dennis Kemp Malzac, 37, was

  arrested Friday in connection with a Feb. 21 explosion at a home outside

  Kingman in Mohave County, Ariz., officials said.

 

  James Zack, chief deputy county attorney, said McVeigh was not connected to

  that blast.

 

  That bomb was made of fertilizer and fuel. Officials say they are looking into the

  explosion as a possible practice run for Oklahoma City.

 

  -- Investigators also say they have a letter from McVeigh addressed to "S.C." --

  possibly Steven Colbern.

 

  The firearms charge against Colbern stems from a July 20 traffic stop in Upland,

  Calif. Police found an assault rifle, two loaded handguns, a silencer, a knife, a

  device to convert weapons to automatics and a home video showing what

  appeared to be an illegal .50-caliber Browning machine gun, according to court

  documents.

 

  During that arrest, Colbern struggled, leading to a charge of battery on a police

  officer, says Richard Maxwell, chief deputy district attorney for San Bernardino

  County.

 

  Authorities searched Colbern's trailer before dawn Saturday, finding firearms, lab

  parts linked to the manufacture of an illegal drug -- methamphetamine -- and belt

  ammunition for a machine gun.

 

  Both McVeigh and the other suspect charged in the bombing, Terry Nichols, 40,

  were said to have been fascinated with weapons, as were the Michigan civilian

  militia groups both were interested in.

 

  Colbern, who had a chemistry degree from the University of California at Los

  Angeles, apparently had drifted between Arizona and California after holding a

  chemist's job in Los Angeles. When he was arrested, he was working as a

  dishwasher and cook at an Oatman restaurant and bar.

 

  Contributing: Jonathan T. Lovitt in California

  PHOTO,b/w,By Jack Piercy,AP; PHOTO,b/w,FBI via AP