By ANGELA GREGORY
Whether Wellington caretaker Ernie Abbott was the intended victim may never be known.
But whoever left the bomb rigged with an anti-handling device in a battered old school case in the foyer of the Wellington Trades Hall in March 1984 intended to kill.
Mr Abbott, aged 63, died instantly as the bomb ripped through the Vivian St building's passageway at 5.19 pm on Tuesday, March 27.
At the time, Storemen and Packers' Union secretary Phil Mansor described it as "an almighty cannon going off outside my first-floor office".
He and his research officer, David Butler, were the only people in the building besides Mr Abbott.
"I was shaking like a leaf. There was black smoke everywhere. The blast smashed my door to bits on the first floor and the lights went out."
The homemade bomb, which exploded directly behind Mr Abbott's office, was hidden in a worn, faded, light-green school case spotted earlier in the day by a number of witnesses.
The 40cm long case had a mottled black print over the green. Once common, the cases made by Flight were last produced in 1971.
An important clue was the discovery of fragments of a Rica banana sticker on the side. The sticker was unusual as most banana imports then were Bonita. Rica bananas were used during a shortage in the mid-1970s.
The man who led the investigation, Detective Inspector Ted Lines, told the Listener in August 1984 that a child who used the suitcase might remember sticking the label on. That person would probably be in his or her 40s now.
Unionists were convinced the attack was the result of what they described as confrontational tactics by the Government.
Labour Party leader David Lange called it murder directed at trade unionists.
Some suggested the motive was to disrupt meetings to discuss retaliatory action over the general wage order.
Police offered a $25,000 reward, later doubled and since lapsed. The United Food and Chemical Workers Union also offered $2000.
The police released a tape of a phone call to Radio Windy in Wellington two nights after the blast. The man said he was not fully involved but knew who was.
They profiled the bomber as a man in his late 40s to 60s who lived alone or in circumstances which afforded him privacy.
He could be a hoarder of old items, a handyman who was methodical and tidy, with a tendency to feelings of persecution.
Bomb meant to kill but motive puzzles
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