Weekly/
Family
February 21,1965
I DISARMED
A
A
stin
ESIDES
TENSE
THE
several persons
froze. The miner was
holding the-tip of the wire inches
from the battery. A slight move-
ment— the dynamite teould yo off!
The
man opposit me, there were
in the bar. Suddenl I was
desperate aware that their
depend on wha I was going
in the next few minute
lives
well
as
to say to this
as
mine
detective
foll
He
get
And
man
tran
of dynamite
I looked down at his hands. He had two sticks
partially concealed in his right pocke Two wires led from them
toa pair of flashlight batteries.in his left hand. He held one of
the wires against the bottom of one battery he pose the bare
tip of the other wire a coupl of inches away from the second
battery. If he had a blasting cap inserted in the dynamite,
shor
the wires would blow us all to eternity.
Don Runyon had inserted that blasting cap. He
with a miner&# knowledge of explosives
man
a desperat
was
In 14 years of polic work I had run into a lot of dangerous
situations, but nothing lke this. If somebody takes a shot at you,
“Ty
it
my
©
I
certain
was
think
you
from
a
a
between
contact
a
man
he
mayb
armed
miss.
with
you stand
But when
dynamite—
as
a
foot
wou
thre
time
“
away
mentioned, every-
ed
thing depende on what I said to him.
The story began about 3:30 p.m. last Oct. 9 when Runyon
telephone the polic station in Oroville, Calif. and asked for
Russ Bergman, a fello officer of mine, “I’m at a bar on
Montgomery Street,” Runyo said. “I want to talk to you about
and
my family. I’ve got a couple of sticks of dynamite ready,
if you pull anything I’ll kill mysel and everybod around me.”
Bergman knew Runyon’s proble Only the day before he had
talked to Mrs. Runyon, who told him her estranged husband
and
who had
the
chief
interviewed
his wife.
“Who else
knows
i
an
fron
of t
kne\
com:
spot
a
had obtained dynamite and had threatened to blow up her and
their three little
she- agree to.a reconciliation.
girls if
Capt Robert Phippe decided not to send Bergma to the
bar. Runyon, he reasoned, might hold a grudge agains the
officer
o
“
just
.
situ:
muc
“]
Runyon?”
I do
wou
asked.
oy
him,” I volunteered,
“Well, here’s what you do,” the captai said. “Try-to lure
him out of the bar and into the squa car. Fix the two-way
radio with -a-toothpick-or-something-so- mike_will:stay
rea you here. Then try to drive him into an
open, and we can
unpopulate area; stall until we get there—and try to grab that
dynamite! But take him-out. of downtown. N telling ho many
he& kill if something goes wrong there.”
I wasn& able to find a way to kee the radio open,
didn’t bother with it long. Every minute counte in getting
Runyon and the explosive away from innocent peopl
While driving to the bar, | kept telling myself that Runyon
was just bluffing. But as
apprdache him and saw him lift th
realized I was dealin with a
dynamite half out.of his pocket
had of-disarming him vanished when I
berserk man, Any-idea
‘vealized that the explosiv wa “60 percen dynamite,” a type
easy to detonate and extremely powerful. It might kill everybod
“I
know
kep
mar
_the
.
bu
in the
building.
Runyo -warily accepte
my
explanation
that
Bergman
was
busy transporting. prisoners and had been unable to come.
“I want to talk to you, Don,” I said, trying to sound calm.
“No tricks,” he
-
promise that. “Okay, but we&# going
some
plac your police buddies won know.” His eyes were alert
and his movements precise I tried to figure-out what was going
owin-his mind; He had said he wanted to die—yet he was willing
to
talk
to
me.
That
might set him off?
offered
What
hope—
innocent
for all
gesture
of
or
us.
word
But what
might
rest
fing
I th
-
“V
a
desperat
sticks
of prime
He was
t
4
Fanily“Wee
February 21,
man
jum
Run
wit
dynamit
pocket this detective’s
to tk
in
assign
sto him fro commit
suicide— mas murder
was
to
a
1965
reali
oe
hi
ny
with
Ther
talki
ther
appr
‘natu
ILLUSTRA