a second time so he could glance quickly and carefully again at the lock on the main entrance. He remembers feeling assured as he left the building.
The burglars decided that on the night of the burglary they would wear âproperâ clothing and carry suitcases instead of the large canvas mail bags that had been used during most of the draft board raids. Unlike the draft board raiders, these burglars would not wear jeans and sweats. They would dress up for the occasion. They did that because of the odd circumstance of burglarizing an office upstairs in a residential building. They thought they needed to look like they might be residents of the building, or friends of a resident, returning from or leaving for a trip, carrying large suitcases. Theirclassy clothes, they hoped, would make their presence not seem too strange if, as they walked out of the FBI office with suitcases, they happened all of a sudden to come upon, say, Mrs. Smith leaving her apartment to take her garbage to the garbage can behind the building.
After casing the immediate area, they homed in on the building where the FBI office was located. On brief casing visits inside the building during workdays, the burglars had learned there was only one way they could enter and leave the building: the front door, which was always unlocked and always well lit, inside and outside, at night. That was bad news. Late afternoon and evening observation of light patterns revealed good news: It was extremely rare for anyone to work after five oâclock in any of the commercial or government offices in the building.
One enormous challenge remained. About two weeks before the burglary, the burglars prepared for the most important casing they would do: firsthand inspection inside the FBI office. So far they had felt encouraged, but this casing could lead to discoveries that would force them to abandon the burglary.
Casing inside an FBI office was much more difficult than casing inside a draft board office. Draft board offices were open to the public. It was easy to walk in and look around, because people routinely went to them to ask questions about the draft and about their own records. Those offices were busy places. By contrast, not many people visited FBI offices, especially a small one like the Media office. The burglars had to assume that anyone visiting any office in the building might be noticed by the people in the other offices, especially the ones on the same floor. But they could not learn what they needed to know about the office from just dropping in briefly or by observing the office from outside the entrance, as Davidon, Smith, and Forsyth had done. Someone would have to go inside and get answers to very important questions:
Were the cabinets and desks locked? Was there carpeting? What was immediately inside the other door that opened into the office from the outside hall but always was closed when they observed it? And the biggest question: Was there an alarm system in the office?
The burglars agreed that Bonnie Raines would be the best person for this important job. She was twenty-nine, but with her long dark hair and bright smile, she easily looked the part of the college coed the other burglars suggested she pose as. Not only did the other burglars think that Bonnie looked very young, but they thought she was the member of the group most capable of looking totally innocent. When she called the office to ask for anappointment, she told Tom Lewis, the agent in charge there, that she was a student at a nearby college who was doing research for a class assignment and wanted to schedule an interview with someone at the Media FBI office about FBI hiring practices. She told him she already had talked with other employers in the Media area and she hoped an FBI agent would be able to give her about half an hour of his time. âHe was extremely accommodating,â she recalls. He agreed to see her at two oâclock a few days later.
This police
The burglars decided that on the night of the burglary they would wear âproperâ clothing and carry suitcases instead of the large canvas mail bags that had been used during most of the draft board raids. Unlike the draft board raiders, these burglars would not wear jeans and sweats. They would dress up for the occasion. They did that because of the odd circumstance of burglarizing an office upstairs in a residential building. They thought they needed to look like they might be residents of the building, or friends of a resident, returning from or leaving for a trip, carrying large suitcases. Theirclassy clothes, they hoped, would make their presence not seem too strange if, as they walked out of the FBI office with suitcases, they happened all of a sudden to come upon, say, Mrs. Smith leaving her apartment to take her garbage to the garbage can behind the building.
After casing the immediate area, they homed in on the building where the FBI office was located. On brief casing visits inside the building during workdays, the burglars had learned there was only one way they could enter and leave the building: the front door, which was always unlocked and always well lit, inside and outside, at night. That was bad news. Late afternoon and evening observation of light patterns revealed good news: It was extremely rare for anyone to work after five oâclock in any of the commercial or government offices in the building.
One enormous challenge remained. About two weeks before the burglary, the burglars prepared for the most important casing they would do: firsthand inspection inside the FBI office. So far they had felt encouraged, but this casing could lead to discoveries that would force them to abandon the burglary.
Casing inside an FBI office was much more difficult than casing inside a draft board office. Draft board offices were open to the public. It was easy to walk in and look around, because people routinely went to them to ask questions about the draft and about their own records. Those offices were busy places. By contrast, not many people visited FBI offices, especially a small one like the Media office. The burglars had to assume that anyone visiting any office in the building might be noticed by the people in the other offices, especially the ones on the same floor. But they could not learn what they needed to know about the office from just dropping in briefly or by observing the office from outside the entrance, as Davidon, Smith, and Forsyth had done. Someone would have to go inside and get answers to very important questions:
Were the cabinets and desks locked? Was there carpeting? What was immediately inside the other door that opened into the office from the outside hall but always was closed when they observed it? And the biggest question: Was there an alarm system in the office?
The burglars agreed that Bonnie Raines would be the best person for this important job. She was twenty-nine, but with her long dark hair and bright smile, she easily looked the part of the college coed the other burglars suggested she pose as. Not only did the other burglars think that Bonnie looked very young, but they thought she was the member of the group most capable of looking totally innocent. When she called the office to ask for anappointment, she told Tom Lewis, the agent in charge there, that she was a student at a nearby college who was doing research for a class assignment and wanted to schedule an interview with someone at the Media FBI office about FBI hiring practices. She told him she already had talked with other employers in the Media area and she hoped an FBI agent would be able to give her about half an hour of his time. âHe was extremely accommodating,â she recalls. He agreed to see her at two oâclock a few days later.
This police
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