By Annie Sweeney, Chicago Tribune –
CHICAGO — Five years after his arrest for mailing two inoperable pipe bombs and letters laced with violent threats to investment firms, John Tomkins testified Thursday at his trial and told a federal jury that he did it and that he was sorry.
Tomkins, who is representing himself, called himself to the witness stand and answered a series of prepared questions from an attorney who was acting as his standby counsel.
Tomkins said he mailed the letters after he saw that stocks he had invested in were not bringing the return he expected. The letters, he said, were meant to force firm executives to help boost stock values of two companies in which Tomkins, a Dubuque, Iowa, machinist, had invested. He said he wanted to draw attention to the problem and also to make money.
Tomkins did not deny sending two pipe bombs — but he refused to call them “destructive” and insisted that he purposefully designed the pipe bombs in a way that would prevent them from exploding.
“There was no power source,” he insisted. “ … These things were not designed to function as a destructive device.”
During his opening statement Wednesday, Tomkins promised the jury that he was going to take full responsibility for what he did.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Pope, who cross-examined Tomkins on Thursday, quizzed Tomkins about why he repeatedly concealed his identity during the two-year letter bomb plot if he wanted to take responsibility.
Pope also focused on Tomkins’ decision to mail the letters, asking him: “When you don’t get what you want, you’ll take actions to make sure you get what you want?”
