Milton "Skip" Ohlsen: Person of Interest in Clayton Bombing
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For the last few days my colleague Kristen Hinman and I had been working a rumor that Milton "Skip" Ohlsen -- the man at a the center of a federal investigation into state politicians Jeff Smith and Steve Brown -- was also a suspect in the bombing last October in a Clayton parking garage.
Like the daily paper, we'd heard that the intended target of the bomb may have been attorney Richard Eisen, who represented Ohlsen's ex-wife in the couple's divorce. Eisen also represented a man named Joel Hollenbeck who received a restraining order against Ohlsen last year.
At the time of the bombing, Eisen drove a similar Acura TL as retired attorney John Gillis. Both men routinely parked in the same Clayton garage. Last October 15, Gillis went to the garage and found a package placed near his vehicle. When he attempted to moved the package, he triggered a bomb that left him with severe burns.
On Sunday I called Gillis -- who's now recovered from the incident -- to ask him about the bombing and whether police had ever mentioned to him the name Skip Ohlsen.
Gillis told me the name didn't ring a bell. As far as he knew, the police never had a firm suspect or filed charges.
That's more or less what Gillis told the P-D when they reached him yesterday.
"I had heard a rumor there was a car similar to mine ... and that guy may have been the target," Gillis told the daily. "I never heard his name."
Hmm. Wonder if Gillis mentioned to the P-D reporters that I'd run this same scenario past him a day earlier?
Oh well, doesn't matter. The P-D got the story cause they obtained a search warrant of Ohlsen's apartment in which authorities explicity state that they were searching for "evidence related to the planning execution and/or cover-up of the bombing in Clayton, Missouri, on October 16, 2008."
So, like I said, I got to hand it to them. Click here to read their fantastic article in today's Post-Dispatch.
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