For nearly 30 years, the  Fremont Bomber  has been serving time after being convicted of targeting the homes of the then-police chief and a retired police chief in 1998.

On Thursday, Rodney Blach, 80, will get his second chance to argue for parole.

 I know I'm going to be dead in 5 years…I want to go home and take care of my wife who's waited 27 years to have me home,  Blach told Bay Area News Group from prison in a phone interview.  My goal is to go home. I'm tired. I'm old. I'm decrepit. 

Authorities said that Blach's targets included law enforcement and personal acquaintances with whom he had issues. No one was hurt as a result of his six bomb attacks that spanned a period of three days.

In June 2001, a jury found Blach guilty of 11 felony charges of attempted murder, arson and possessing explosives after he planted six bombs in Fremont, which detonated across three days in March 1998.

Blach was responsible for what federal investigators at the time called the largest domestic pipe bombs ever detonated in the history of the U.S.

Dozens of federal investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and state and local authorities investigated the string of bombings.

According to previous reporting from this news organization, Blach was defiant at trial, maintaining his innocence and mocking authorities, saying he'd outsmart them in court.

In phone call interviews with this news organization this week, Blach suggested that he still possessed evidence that would  bury the whole damn system  and said he could reveal  where the political bodies are buried  if he is not granted parole.

He declined to elaborate on that supposed evidence, pending his parole hearing.

Blach was sentenced to 37 years to life in prison.

While he is eligible for a parole hearing as an elderly inmate, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data show eligible parolees in state prisons have seen a declining success rate in recent years. This year, to date, less than 10% of applications were approved.

The former Chicago Police Department forensic in

#thenewsherald   #CrimeInTheD ®