On the afternoon of September 20, 1978, Brett Kimberlin was arrested by the FBI while wearing this ridiculous costume:
If you only knew Brett Kimberlin from posts I made on this blog before today, you'd guess the FBI agent was investigating Kimberlin's bombing spree in Speedway two weeks prior. Actually, the FBI agent who arrested Kimberlin didn't know about the bombings. He was following up on reports of forged documents being created at a local print shop. When arrested, Kimberlin was walking out of that print shop picking up some fake military IDs he'd had made along with a printed copy of the US Presidential Seal.
Just another day of forgeries for Brett Kimberlin
Brett Kimberlin has a lifelong pattern of forgeries, and his activities that day were part of a pattern which continues today. Kimberlin was using a military base in part of his operation to smuggle drugs into the US. So, he made a fake uniform that was supposed to make him look like a military security guard. He also had fake IDs, badges, and a fake military license plate to complete his identity as a military security operative. An aside: I can't abide lifelong violent recidivist criminal Brett Kimberlin being able to pretend he has some kind of official power; this could be abused to, as Kimberlin often does, deprive people of their rights. Anyway, the FBI agent investigating the fake military IDs and such stopped Kimberlin as he was exiting the print shop to pick up material for some of his latest forgeries. Kimberlin reacted by throwing his fake military IDs in the trash; he tried eating his copy of the presidential seal; and also tried to ditch his car keys by hiding them under a copying machine. Each of these ploys failed, though. Once finally subdued, Kimberlin first tried to convince the two FBI agents on the scene that he was on a secret mission, by telling him he was not allowed to answer their questions about his comical "uniform" costume. After giving up on this lie, Kimberlin then told the FBI agents he could narc on important drug buying clients. The FBI agents weren't interested in making any deal, so they started driving him to the FBI office in Indianapolis.
On the ride into the FBI office, Kimberlin claimed his car - the one whose key he tried to hide under the copier - wasn't his. He then didn't claim he didn't drive the car. His story was that it was someone else's, and he was only using it to drive to the print store, and therefore he had nothing to do with its contents. More on these contents later.
Easily recognized criminal
Kimberlin made it all the way to Indianapolis FBI headquarters without telling the arresting agents his real name, but this ruse failed when he entered the office: he was soon recognized by a different FBI agent at the office. I guess that's a problem for people on prolific lifelong crime sprees.
Contents of the car Brett Kimberlin didn't want to admit to
That day, Brett Kimberlin called the same lawyer he'd been using when he learned he was a suspect in the Julia Scyphers murder. When the lawyer came in, Kimberlin instructed the lawyer to go to the print shop, get Kimberlin's car towed (so no one could find what was in it), and told the lawyer to find $3,500 cash in the car and to withdraw $500 of that for his trouble.
He was too late. The FBI had been busy getting a search warrant that allowed them to open the trunk. The car, of course, had more of Brett's forgeries, but they also found something completely different: Brett's bomb-making materials. In the trunk was a briefcase monogrammed with "BCK" - as in, Brett Coleman Kimberlin. The briefcase had four "Mark Time" brand electronic timers that were identical to the ones used to trigger Kimberlin's time-delay bombs - right down to the hand-done modification to make the timers close circuits instead of open them. Interestingly, the eight timers used in bombs, plus the four in Kimberlin's trunk, plus two more he tried to use to frame a daughter of Julia Scyphers, equal 14 Mark Time brand timers - which was exactly the entire number of Mark Time timers sold in Indianapolis, from 10 days before the bombing, through to the last bombing. It's actually a good thing Brett kept two timers for his failed framing attempt, because they made good evidence to use against him. Anyway, the trunk also had some tools and things Brett used to alter the timers. The trunk also had .445 caliber lead balls of the same type Kimberlin used as shrapnel in some of his bombs. There was also a 6-volt battery like the ones used to trigger the blasting caps in Brett's bombs. Finally, samples from the trunk tested positive for residue of Tovex explosive. In summary, Brett was caught with evidence of most of the parts he ever put into his bombs. And this was all by accident, since he was only caught this way due to tipoffs about forged ID being picked up at the print shop Brett used for some of his forgeries.
Epilogue (for now)
You would probably guess Brett's crime spree was now over, but actually he was let out shortly, and continued committing crimes. One of his worst next acts was to try to frame one of Julia Scyphers' own daughters for Brett's crimes, specifically the murder of Julia Scyphers and the Speedway Bombings. This just shows that justice doesn't get done by itself. It takes careful and thoughtful work from people who care enough. I hope my readers take that to heart.
Note about posting schedule
Before today, I made many of my postings on anniversary dates. This is due to the special significance of the Julia Scyphers murder as well as the bombings, especially the one that maimed Carl D. DeLong in the Speedway High School parking lot. My other posts won't be on an anniversary type schedule, and will not always be in order. Some won't be about the Speedway Bomber history, but rather will be about Brett's continuous, and continuing, attacks and injustices against people who get in his way.
As usual, all the information in this blog post is just drawn from Brett Kimberlin's authorized biography, which I highly recommend to you. As a reminder, in the mid 1990s, Brett was receiving big six-figure payments for this book at the same time he was denying justice to the surviving widow of one of his bombing victims. This disgusting misdeed by Brett must be corrected. Please spread the word.
