In my ever present quest to determine whether the good old days were really all that good, I came across this heinous story about a string of hand-made explosives which were placed in the 6th ward section of Reading in 1973. For some context it is important to remember that Reading was demographically changing during this period, exasperated by displacement caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972. The 6th ward was a predominantly black and hispanic neighborhood in the city at that time. It should also be noted that the Klu Klux Klan was a present force locally, with one of its Pennsylvania Grand Dragon leaders, Roy Frankhauser, being a Berks County native and vocal member of the American Nazi Party.

This wasn’t the first time an explosive was used in an act of terror in the city. In 1969 the Temple Oheb Shalom on Perkiomen Avenue was a target for a late night blast that rocked the neighborhood. A Jewish Community Center was also targeted in a bombing in August 1973.

In the early morning hours of October 13th, 1973, Mrs. Dorothy Ortiz spotted what appeared to be a music box on top of car hood outside her home at 451 Schuylkill Avenue. She asked her housemate, 28-year-old Jose Gonzalez, to bring it inside the home. He sat down on the couch and failed to get the lid open. He turned the knob on the back, which prompted it to detonate; blowing off his right hand, left arm and exposing his abdomen. He died a few hours in Reading Hospital of his injuries. Dorothy Ortiz was also injured but survived along with 8 children who were upstairs in the home at the time it occurred.

Around the same time 22-year-old Larry McClary found a similar device on a car in the area of Front & Washington Streets. He was patronizing Dub & Lil’s Cafe in the area when someone reported that a box was on a car outside. When McClary investigated the bomb detonated and blew off his right hand and damaged his face.

A third bomb was found later that morning at the park in the Oakbrook housing projects. This one was found and detonated by police before any injuries could occur. There is no doubt that was the intention, as nails and other shrapnel were found inside.

The October 14th, 1973 Reading Eagle‘s front page was dedicated to the outrage and terror citizens felt. Mayor Eugene Shirk and Police Chief Bernard Doblinsky vowed to work around the clock to find the perpetrators, “We will leave no stone unturned, nor will any cost be too great to bring the individual of individuals responsible for these senseless and barbaric acts to justice“.

About 100 members of the black and hispanic community met at Barbey’s Playground to discuss the tragedy the following day. Some members of that group were sure that the bombings were perpetrated by the Klu Klux Klan, and specifically declared war on Roy Frankhouser. One woman pointed out that William Black had been gunned down at 5th and Walnut exactly five years ago to the day by a man wearing a white sheet, and “no one was ever arrested for that“. Two men had been arrested for that crime, but the charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.

Chaos and threats were abundant in the week after the bombings. Two more fake bombs would be found. City Council set a reward of $5000 for any information leading to a conviction. Reading High closed early due to bomb threats. Three people were apprehended for bomb threats called into Northwest and Southwest Junior High Schools. Molotov cocktails were thrown and lit three separate properties on fire. Someone siphoned gas out of five Penske trucks in their lot overnight and set them on fire.

Larry McClary survived after a month-long stay in the hospital. In addition to losing his arm he suffered a ruptured eardrum, damaged eye and burns. In May 1974 his fellow railroad co-workers at the Reading Co. raised $1520 toward his new prosthetic arm. He passed away in 2020 at age 68.

Frankhouser was quoted in the October 14th article, “I thoroughly disassociate myself from any of the atrocious attacks” and went on to claim that the Klan had always marched through the streets of Reading peacefully using the democratic process to preach their beliefs. Reading Detective Lt. Paul Goldberg mentioned that “the Klan would no longer be able to carry on such public demonstrations as they have in the past because the new crimes code allows the police to prevent any public gathering which they may deem inflammatory or potentially dangerous“.

“We’re going to get blamed regardless of whether we had anything to do with it or not” Frankhouser lamented and the article went on to declare, “Mr. Frankhouser feels that anyone could get explosives and create such a bomb, because many such devices are used in coal mines just north of the Reading area.”

Less than two years after that article published, Roy Frankhouser pled guilty to charges of receiving and concealing 139 pounds of explosives; 245 blasting caps and 10,000 feet of detonating cord with the intent to sell it. Frankhouser admitted to the explosive material being stolen from the Reading Anthracite Mining Company in July of 1973. Precisely the time and place he publicly suggested two years prior that one could obtain such material.

Frankhouser was also convicted of supplying dynamite used in the 1971 bombing of 10 school buses which were about to embark on their first trip of the school year in a desegregated district in Pontiac, Michigan. All five of the men convicted for perpetrating that crime were members of the KKK, one also being a Grand Dragon leader.

During this trial Frankhouser dropped a bombshell that he had been working for the past two years as United States Treasury Department informant to gather intel on a Canadian-based Arab extremist group. The government claimed he gathered little intel and was released in early summer 1973.

Frankhouser faced up to 20 years in prison, but ended up with only five years probation due to cutting a deal with prosecutors for information involving the Jewish Community Center and 6th Ward bombings. Despite this no one was ever charged with the murder of Jose Gonzalez or any of the injuries related to the 1973 bombings and Frankhouser would go on to cause more hate-based chaos until his own death in 2009.