Bombs in Books

Security for executives

United Air Lines President Percy Wood last month received, at his Lake Forest, Ill., home, a gift in the mail from an unknown admirer. After ripping open the package, he awkwardly pulled the book it contained out, away from his body. That move probably saved his life. Inside the hollowed-out copy of Sloan Wilson's novel Ice Brothers was a spring-activated pipe bomb filled with explosive black powder and pieces of shrapnel. Because the bomb exploded a few feet away, Wood survived, though suffering heavy lacerations on his legs and chest.

The United bombing sent shivers through executive suites across the country and stimulated the purchase of executive security equipment. FBI Director Philip Webster and other security specialists believe that as the U.S. recession deepens, disgruntled employees, psychopaths or terrorists will increasingly threaten industry leaders. Corporate security has now become a $7 billion to $10 billion business, and even the aging comic-strip crime fighter Dick Tracy last week was faced with the kidnaping of his old pal Millionaire Entrepreneur Diet Smith.

"Executives are a company's largest corporate asset," says Chicago Security Specialist Norman Kiven. "In the past few years, corporations have become much more concerned." As evidence, membership in the field's professional association, the American Society for Industrial Security, has increased 133% in the past five years. A New York State chemical firm uses helicopters to move officials in and out of headquarters, both for business trips and commuting. Security at Houston's United Gas Pipe Line Co. was beefed up this year after a former employee armed with a loaded gun and a hand grenade held two high executives hostage in their office for three hours.

A mind-boggling array of expensive protective instruments is now on the market, ranging from $375 bulletproof vests for executives conducting shareholders meetings to $16,000 electronic tracking systems that help trace a kidnap victim. A particularly nervous tycoon could buy from CCS Communication Control Inc. for $200,000 the security-studded 1979 silver-gray Cadillac that was once ordered by the Shah of Iran but never delivered. For $1,500 more, his chauffeur could take a four-day evasive-driving course in Summit Point, W. Va., that teaches high-speed handling and bootleg turns to escape terrorist blockades. The head of an East Coast steel firm spent $150,000 this spring to protect his house with electronic sensors on doors and windows, roof and carpet vibrator detectors and closed-circuit TV cameras.

Some companies are adopting a doomsday defense to guard executives and corporate secrets. A Chicago insurance company has built "strong rooms," stocked with food, water and radio transmitters, to protect key officials in the event of an attack. The Oreck Group of Orlando, Fla., a real estate development firm, is turning the old Federal Reserve bank in New Orleans, with its 6-ft.-thick walls and three-story vault, into a fortress office building. Prospective tenants are a diamond wholesaler, representatives of two foreign governments and an armaments-carrying steamship line. The array of protective devices at the building includes heavy bars, bulletproof glass and infra-red detection devices. This is the first of a chain of high-security office buildings that the Oreck Group is planning to develop around the U.S.

Despite all the protection instruments, security experts believe that a low profile is a businessman's best defense. Says former Chicago FBI Chief William Beane: "Anonymity is the executive's greatest ally, and his most formidable enemy is ego." Top corporate officers, for example, are advised to remove their names from mailboxes and Who's Who. Those conspicuous, armored, chauffeur-driven limousines are also discouraged. James Steinbeck, Houston vice president of ABM Security Services Inc., urges executives to drive in plain Fords and Chevrolets, vary the route to work and remove their names from executive parking spaces. The chairman of a large California savings and loan drives himself to work in a nondescript sedan only after radioing ahead to company security officers.

Some of those common-sense measures might have protected United's Wood. His phone number and address were publicly listed, and before opening the package, he should have examined it with a $10,000 electronic scanner now common in many companies. Since the attack, United has stiffened security at its suburban Chicago headquarters, and the U.S. Postal Service is offering a $25,000 reward for the book bomber.

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