Christmas Eve Bomb Linked To Man Who Committed Suicide

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. - Police believe a man seeking revenge for getting fired from a high-paying job made the package bomb that exploded in the face of a 10-year-old girl on Christmas Eve.

Christopher Gilson, who lived about two miles from Jude and Mary Reardon in this Albany suburb, delivered the bomb that burned the Reardons' daughter over 27 percent of her body, Maj. Peter Lawrence of the state police said yesterday.

Gilson, 58, committed suicide five days after the blast. He had worked for Jude Reardon's twin brother, John, who in 1991 fired Gilson from a sales job, police said.

Police Capt. Jeffry Hines said the malice was directed at the Reardon family and not necessarily at the girl.

Jordan Reardon was seriously injured when she opened the package that was addressed to her family and left in the Reardons' mailbox at the end of the driveway. She is recovering at home.

Gilson shot himself in the chest Dec. 29 in the nearby town of Halfmoon, N.Y. His body was found after his wife reported him missing after he had gone rabbit hunting.

Materials taken from Gilson's home Jan. 3 matched bomb fragments from the Reardon home, police said. Gilson apparently had worked on the bomb several months.