Loose Ends; a Knot Tied

The often abused agents of the FBI and the New York City police were basking last week in the spotlight of praise for their rescue of kidnaped Seagram Heir Samuel Bronfman II, the recovery of the record ransom of $2.3 million and the arrest of two confessed kidnapers. But TIME has learned that the investigation is still far from complete. There remains a possibility that a third accomplice, a woman, may have been involved. Investigators are also actively pursuing the theory that the amateurish conspirators may have intended to use the ransom to help finance activities of the Irish Republican Army.

The two arrested men, Mel Patrick Lynch, 37, a New York City fireman, and Dominic Byrne, 53, a Brooklyn limousine operator, have signed statements admitting their roles in the eight-day abduction of the 21-year-old Bronfman. Lynch's attorney has asked that his client undergo psychiatric tests, apparently to build a defense of mental incompetence at the time of the kidnaping. Byrne's attorney insists that his client acted out of fear--presumably of Lynch --for his safety, and actually helped Bronfman during his confinement. Although the two suspects have been friends for about ten years, their defense strategies are now clearly in conflict. Neither has implicated anyone else in the plot.

Yet young Bronfman has told investigators he is "sure" that one of his abductors was a woman. He recalls being pushed into the back seat of a car when the kidnapers seized him outside the unoccupied home of his mother, Ann Loeb Bronfman, in suburban Purchase, N.Y., in the early morning hours of Aug. 9. He is certain that Lynch sat beside him on the seat, and he believes a third person was seated next to Lynch. Bronfman thinks that it was a woman because at one point, the car stopped, someone got out, and he heard the rap of high-heeled shoes on the sidewalk. After the ransom was paid on Aug. 16, Bronfman said he heard his guard Byrne tell someone on the telephone hi Lynch's apartment, where he was being held: "She said the money has been delivered. Everything is going to be okay."

The possibility of an IRA connection stems from several findings: 1) Both Lynch and Byrne were born in Ireland; 2) Lynch had made several trips to England and Ireland in the past year, according to his passport; 3) Byrne spoke to friends about making a "big score" to help "the cause"; 4) the odd ransom sums, first $4.6 million, then $2.3 million, convert roughly into 2 million and 1 million English pounds.

High Bail. As the investigation proceeded, Byrne and Lynch were arraigned on federal extortion charges and held on bail totaling $700,000. They are also expected to be indicted on New York State kidnaping charges, which carry a minimum no-parole 15-year prison sentence. The bail was set so high because the prosecution claimed that either might flee to Ireland. Both have dual citizenship and the U.S. has no mutual extradition treaty with Ireland.

There was another item of unfinished business, postponed because of the kidnaping, and that was the third marriage of Edgar M. Bronfman, 46, chairman of Seagram Company Ltd. and father of Sam. The wedding took place last week at Bronfman's 174-acre estate in Yorktown, 35 miles north of New York City. His bride is Georgiana Eileen Webb, 25, whom he calls "George" and whose name was Rita until he asked her to change it. She is the daughter of a builder and country restaurant owner from Essex, outside of London.

The 70 or so guests strolling about the manicured lawns included a relaxed and casually dressed (no necktie) Sam, as well as Bronfman's first wife Ann and their other four children. The presiding judge flew in by helicopter just before the three-minute ceremony, and other helicopters hired by excluded newsmen continued to whir overhead. That prompted one of Bronfman's closest neighbors, former New York Governor Averell Harriman, to remark, "They really ought to be shot down." The bride ignored such interruptions. Wearing a striped chiffon dress and large white hat, she skipped spiritedly across the lawn after the ceremony. The guests sipped Perrier Jouet, a Seagram champagne. And amid all the display, a family spokesman described the bride's sapphire and diamond ring as "large but tasteful."

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