Adding Up to an Epidemic

Acts of terrorism may be isolated, but sometimes they add up to an epidemic of violence. Last week assorted rebels were responsible for one sensational bombing and a rash of murders and kidnapings. Items:

> In London, a bomb believed to have been planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded outside the elegant town house where Caroline Kennedy, 17, had been visiting. The intended victim was her host, Tory M.P. Hugh Fraser, who has advocated stronger anti-I.R.A. measures in Northern Ireland. Fraser, a longtime friend of the Kennedy family, and the shaken daughter of the late President escaped injury, but a bystander, Dr. Gordon Hamilton Fairley, one of the world's leading cancer specialists, was killed in the blast.

> In Genoa, Italy, members of the Red Brigades, a revolutionary Marxist group, seized an official of a state-owned factory, Vincenzo Casabona, 47, shaved his head, chained his feet to a pole in a garbage dump, and released him six hours later after a vicious beating.

> In Vienna, three dark-complexioned English-speaking gunmen sauntered into the unguarded Turkish embassy and shot Ambassador Danis Tunaligil, 60, killing him instantly. Among the suspects sought by the Austrian police: Greek zealots who might be acting in retaliation for the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Armenians who might be taking belated revenge for the 1915 massacre of their countrymen in Turkey, and opium smugglers who believed they had been betrayed to the Austrian police by the Turkish authorities. Two days after the Vienna murder, gunmen in Paris opened fire on a car belonging to the Turkish ambassador to France, Ismail Erez, 56, who died along with his chauffeur. A clandestine Greek Cypriot group, the EOKA-B, quickly sought credit for the murder in Vienna, in retaliation for the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. EOKA-B also said that it was responsible for the Paris murders, but its claim was disputed by the "Secret Armenian Army for the Liberation of Armenia." Thousands of ethnic Armenians still live in Turkey. Police believe, however, that yet a third group may have been involved; it is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Turkey, which is known to be allied with Palestinian terrorists.

Rivaling those grim incidents in drama--and gruesome detail--was the continuing saga of Dutch Industrialist Tiede Herrema, 54, who was abducted near Limerick earlier this month by two I.R.A. extremists (TIME, Oct. 20). Since then, Herrema and his kidnapers have been the target of the biggest man hunt in recent Irish history. The Dublin government has steadfastly refused to meet the desperadoes' demand that three convicted Irish terrorists be released from prison. Kidnaper Eddie Gallagher, 27, and his woman companion, reported to be Marian Coyle, 19, sent police a tape-recorded message by Herrema, who said in a quavering voice: "If you ask for proof that I am alive again, they threaten to cut off my foot and send it to you."

Deadly Risk. "It's a standoff," said one police officer as the long siege of the kidnap hideout began. While a spotter plane kept the house under constant surveillance, armored cars were stationed outside the front door, and more than 200 soldiers and police surrounded the floodlit house. Loudspeaker appeals for the kidnapers' surrender were met with a broadside of obscene oaths from Gallagher. A psychologist was rushed to the scene to listen to conversations in the besieged bedroom that were monitored by sophisticated electronic equipment borrowed from Scotland Yard. Herrema was heard to call hoarsely for food and water. When police offered to send up milk and ham sandwiches, the woman believed to be Marian Coyle retorted: "Feed it to the mice!"

At week's end Gallagher offered to give himself up. But his partner, dubbed "Mad Marian" by the Dublin newspapers, refused to let him and their hostage go. As the deadly risk to Herrema mounted, Irish public opinion was increasingly divided. Initially, Prime Minister Liam Cosgrave's hard-line refusal to compromise was widely approved. Now it is feared that if the kidnapers were killed with their hostage after vain attempts to make a deal, they might become instant martyrs to the I.R.A. cause.

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