"IT SOUNDED LIKE A CANNON"

By BRUCE HANDY

The rules of argument generally hold that you need three examples to prove your point. When yet another bomb exploded in Atlanta late last Friday night, this time in a crowded gay and lesbian bar, it was the third such incident in the past seven months. A particularly hateful and frightening point may have been made.

The explosion, which injured at least five people, follows the deadly Centennial Park bombing during last summer's Olympics and the January bombings at a suburban family-planning clinic. As federal investigators began looking at evidence from the latest explosion, similarities with the earlier incidents were striking. When police arrived at the Otherside Lounge on Friday night, they discovered a second bomb in the parking lot. That was the same m.o. as in the abortion-clinic attack, when a second explosion injured rescue workers responding to the first blast, apparently by design. This time police were able to detonate the second bomb harmlessly. The bomb that did go off inside the club had been stuffed with nails to serve as shrapnel, as was the Centennial Park weapon. And the bomb found last week in the lounge's parking lot was hidden in a backpack, as was the Olympic bomb. While the parallels were hardly conclusive, Atlantans awoke Saturday morning to face the possibility that their city harbored a serial bomber.

"This is eerily reminiscent of last summer and last month," Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell told a press conference. "We clearly believe we are dealing with a deranged killer, but one who is very clever." Investigators were somewhat more guarded. "We're not ruling out the possibility of a serial bomber," an FBI spokesman told TIME, "but it's just too early to tell."

With 150 or so patrons, the Otherside Lounge was half full when the latest bomb went off, without warning, shortly after 10 p.m. "Everybody just froze," bartender Rhonda Armstrong told CNN. "It sounded like a cannon in a circus." A rescue worker reported treating a woman with a nail driven into her shoulder, leaving a wound "as big as a nickel." One victim underwent surgery at a nearby hospital and was said to be in stable condition.

Investigations into the earlier bombings don't appear to be close to a resolution. Just two weeks ago, Jamie Gorelick, the Justice Department's second-ranking official, told reporters that in the case of the Centennial Park bombing, "many leads that seemed hot...have for one reason or another not panned out." Investigators have reportedly been checking out a rumored link with a trio of Idaho men who were arrested for bombings in the Northwest, but no decisive evidence has been produced, at least publicly. To solicit more help, the FBI opened a toll-free phone line so potential tipsters can hear the 911 warning call that preceded the bombing. For now, separate teams of investigators from the FBI and the ATF will be looking into the nightclub and abortion-clinic explosions.

The bombings have one other thing in common: no one has claimed responsibility for any of them. "Maybe this was something to scare us, to put us in our place," said Lynn Cothren, an Atlanta gay activist. Until investigators have a breakthrough or someone speaks up, Atlanta citizens can only wonder what kind of awful message is being sent to them.

--By Bruce Handy. Reported by Leslie Everton Brice/Atlanta

With reporting by LESLIE EVERTON BRICE/ATLANTA