The FBI needs help with this:

Sure looks like a motor brake linkage that I have seen on crane hoist motors that have external solenoids. Randy

Following a preliminary investigation of the case by a multi-agency law enforcement task force, many questions remain. Specifically, information is sought about any aspect of the triple-banded metal collar that was locked around Wells' neck and about the lock that kept it in place.

On behalf of the task force, the FBI requests the public to carefully scrutinize the pictured photographs of these objects. By clicking on the photos, they can be enlarged to see fine details. If you have any information at all about the devices, please immediately call the toll-free number 1-866-219-2008.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

-- "it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" snipped-for-privacy@interlog.com Info for manufacturers:

It does seem to be an item that was converted from an industrial use to the lock function. The coiled wire around the form in the center groove is very sinister. Probably designed to defeat removal.

The lock part itself does seem quite home-made by looking at the chain drilling and hacksawing to form the cutout that allows access to the four counterbored screw heads. The slot for the combination number is also pretty rough but somebody took the time to smooth off the edges and round them over a bit.

The numbered paper tags are either very carefully hand drawn or done by some kind of graphics program. The maker cared enough to dribble clear epoxy on them to see that they stayed in place. If they were hand lettered the person had quite a sense of art by putting the tiny equal signs on each side to delineate the numbers. Rapidograph?

The paint finish is a puzzler though. It's machine gray which matches the rest of the item but the match is so- so where the part that was home-made (looks like a piece of angle stock) clamps over the factory built part come together. It's not clear that the coat of paint that was added wasn't further weathered given the missing screw and the rust on the upper right portion of the lock part.

If not then it was probably sprayed on after assembly but the numbered tags were masked off with a piece of tape to keep them clean. On second viewing I think the missing screw is out because he could not get all four to line up at once.

I don't understand the green-painted tab that seems to have moved between the two pictures, in one it is retracted and in the other it was extended out. If this was a brake assembly as another poster suggested then the tab might be the remanents of the actuator arm, cut off short. The row of double rivets in the half circle arms does imply some need for structural rigidity and that fits with the brake idea. I don't understand how the friction material would have been attached though.

There does seem to be some redunancy between the numbered screws and the combination-like numbers shown in the window. I wonder if one is supposed to change the numbers with a screwdriver via the screws?

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

Some kind of pipe/hose quick diconnect? It would help if there was a scale.

-Carl

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The lock appears to me to be a part of a cheap bicycle chain lock. The style with a four number combination. I have not seen them for years, but they were popular 20+ years ago. Years back, when I was in school, we would "pick" these locks and switch them to different bicycles in the bike rack. Good for a chuckle when the owner of the bike appeared and did not know how to open "their" lock! Greg

For the round steel part, think "human neck."

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

The first picture looks like a pipe clamp to thread the pipes together , or some old mining machinery . The second looks like 4 keys and a combo for on and off .

Surely the FBI would know about such things and wouldn't be asking the public for help. Lane

Have they disassembled it and dusted for prints?

--Len

Ah..Im sure they have, but when its used to hold, then detonate an explosive charge, while around the neck of the wearer, it will tend to cover the device with all manner of goop and blood and brains and bone and gore and bodily fluids, not to mention the byproducts of the explosive itself. You notice the absense of any of the above substances? There is a reason. They washed it off. Not to mention that blood has an acidic component that tends to remove fingerprints that it may have covered. If the finger prints are dipped in blood, then pressed against something, the blood acts as ink.

All things considered however, it couldnt have been a particulary big charge of high explosives, else the collar would have been more damaged than it was. Probably a low velocity explosive or even perhaps a charge of black powder, which is much easier to work with, or even obtain.

Im sure the deceadent however, probably never felt a thing as his cerebral cortex, along with most of the tattered remains of his skull, was scattered to the four winds in a millisecond.

Thank G-d for some small favors.

RIP

Gunner

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

- John Stewart Mill

I've seen typewritten documents from the 40's through the 60's that used this sytle of "Equal Sign" delineation for numbering figures, particularly photos. The equal signs are different enough to indicate that they were drawn freehand, but the numbers look like a typewritten font. It's possble they were cut out of a manual from that period to foil tracing the source printing machine. It might even have been the manual on the item.

Is someone collecting all of this and submitting a summary of it to the feds? My guess is that none of the investigators read RCM.

Except ath I've never seem a bike or suitcase lock whose numbers were oriented this way. This is pretty distinctive.

-- mailto: snipped-for-privacy@Osman.com

If you receive something that says "Send this to everyone you know," PLEASE pretend you don't know me.

Maybe the FBI knows about such things but is desperate to find ANOTHER explanation?

I know one thing for sure, the wire, One ringy dingy, 2 ringy dingy. ;o) Stil trying to figure out what the clamp is.

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb protesting the vote."

Look like a very early type of combination time lock. That's likey how it was detonated. Think of it as a mechanical timer lock.

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb protesting the vote."

Looks loke a cable clamp for a radio tower. I once worked for a tower co. and nade 10000's of these.

Robert

That's a lead they were checking out in depth!

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Could the four keys have originally been used as part of a safety lockout, like the ones electricians use to keep a disconnect swith OFF while they are working on things?

Maybe it was part of our ICBM/nuke arsenal, requiring several persons with keys to all agree before Dr. Strangelove got his way?

Jeff

-- Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."