Evening star., 1950-04-18
Love Triangle Seen
AS Motive in Airline
Bombing Attempt.
Continued From First Page. )

l. CO..
Grant ran to the ticket counter
and screamed:
Don't let that plane take off!
just put a bag on it full of
gasoline!"
At the same moment a baggage
handler loading the plane on the
field dropped heavy suitcase. It
exploded and flames flared up,
singeing the mans eyebrows and
hair.
The baggageman, Harold May
er, quickly extinguiShed the flames
and tossed the suitcase out on the
ground. He opened it and found
an alarm clock wired to ignite a
box of matches, which in turn
would explode several gallons of
gasoline contained in sections of
an inner tube. Only a small por-
tion of the gasoline was ignited,
however, and no one else was
injured.
Detective Ned G. LogSdon, who
arrested Grant, said the former
aviation engineer told him he was
$4,000 in debt. He quoted Grant
as saying he planned to collect
$25.000 in insurance taken out at
the airport on his wife and two
children.
Detective R. B. McCreadie said
Mrs. Grant told him most of the
debts were incurred in connection
with paternity suit involving her
husband in New York several years
ago.
"The last few weeks he's been
very nice to me" Mr.. McCreadie
quoted Mrs. Grant. Last week |
he told me to buy a new dress
wondered why he was being so
nice. guess this must be the
answer"
Miss Suomela, the lieutenant |
said, told him she met Grant three
years ago. shortly after arriving
here from New York. She said
Grant told her he was separated
from his wife and that his mar
riage had been childless.
Loaned Him Money.
For some time, 1t. Ream quoted
her, he has been telling her he
was getting a divorce. Yesterday,
she added, he told her was the
day he was to appear in court to
make a final divorce settlement.
1t. Ream said the stewardess
had frequently loaned Grant
money and allowed him use of her
car.
Grant during the war was an
engineer for Douglas Aircraft
Corp, specializing in DC-6s.
After the war he went to American
Airlines in New York to super
wise DC-6 operations and came
here in 1947 as resident engineer
for American Airlines. He left
American in 1948 and for the last
II months had been employed as a
laboratory technician at Aire-
search Manufacturing Co., near
the airport.
I'm a sick man." Detective
Logsdon quoted Grant II just
lost my nerve. My wife and my
youngsters-it's not their fault.
I'm glad it turned out this way.
No one was hurt"
The Grants were married eight
years ago. Their daughter, Marie,
is 6 and their son, Robert, is S.
Capt. Ray Pinker, head of the
Los Angeles police crime labora-
tory, said the bomb was cleverly
constructed.
There's a clock inside it," he
said. 1T is connected to bat
teries and a high-resistance
bridge. At a set time the clock
would have turned on the cur
rent and an ordinary book of
paper matches would have been
ignited. The bag in which the
mechanism was contained was
crammed with innertube sections
filled with high octane gasoline.
The matches and the gas would
have done the trick-set fire fam
ing in the rear cargo hold"
Thirteen passengers and a crew
OF three were board the plane
when the bomb was discovered. !
They were transferred-all ex-
cept Mrs. Grant and the children
to another plane. Mrs. Grant /!
was going to visit relatives in San
Diego. She said her husband
told her he planned to follow in
a later plane.
The plot recalled the tragedy
September 9 when a Canadian
Pacific airliner with % aboard ex-
ploded in the air 40 miles from
Quebec. j. Albert Quay is under
sentence of death for planting a !
time bomb on the Canadian plane
to kill his wife in love triangle
and to collect her insurance.
Grant is held on investigation
of attempted murder.
Mrs. Grant said her husband is
a "Worry-bug." but added:
I'm not vengeful woman, but
I can't describe just how I feel
now. I want to talk to john
The children told reporters they
were disappointed because they
didn't get the plane ride.
Bobby, who was 5 yesterday,
said, 1T was supposed to be a
birthday present for me-"