At Weapons Trial of Philadelphia Artist, Investigator Describes Encounter With Bomb Materials
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There was gruesome and disturbing testimony today in the trial of a well-known Germantown artist who blew off part of his right hand last May while playing with homemade explosives outside his home.
Detective Timothy Brooks, an explosives expert, described the bloody scene near where a device exploded in the hand of defendant Douglas Ferrin. And Brooks testified he found two other explosive devices, and bomb-making materials, inside Ferrin's home.
Brooks says there was also a cabinet in the home with what he called an "unfinished booby trap device."
Ferrin, 55, is charged with arson, possession of weapons of mass destruction, and other offenses. The prosecution says Ferrin endangered himself and his neighbors. But the defense contends he was only playing with homemade firecrackers or fireworks, and there was no real danger, other than to Ferrin, who paid a very high price with the loss of part of his drawing hand.
The artworks of Ferrin, who attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts decades ago as a student, has been collected by such diverse notables as Gianni Versace and Sting.