BLOWHARD OR BOMBER? COURT WILL DECIDE.

Byline: Michael Gougis Staff Writer

The hillside mansion and the limo are long gone, and Frank Boyd Cockrell - self-styled movie bigwig and millionaire financial adviser - faces a long stretch in prison if convicted of bizarrely plotting bombings, arson and murders.

The target of his wrath was longtime Ventura County District Attorney Michael D. Bradbury, who had filed theft, fraud and other charges against him.

To Cockrell, who is expected to testify this week at his trial in Van Nuys Superior Court, Bradbury was a high-level drug dealer at the head of a wide conspiracy against him. So prosecutors say he went looking for a team to pull off a series of murders, arsons and bombings of highways and government buildings to destroy evidence and exact revenge against Bradbury and others.

But those who know Cockrell say he's a blowhard, not a bomber.

``He goes off on these flights of imagination, and he talks a good game,'' said attorney James Farley, who represented Cockrell briefly in criminal proceedings in Ventura. ``I think he's seen too many movies. But is he capable of murder? Absolutely not. I can't say that strongly enough.''

Cockrell, now 55, balding and wearing oversize glasses, faces four counts of solicitation of murder in connection with what prosecutors say was a plot to slash a path of devastation throughout the Southland.

He has pleaded not guilty.

According to prosecutors, the plot took shape early one afternoon in 1997, when Cockrell met with two men in a Denny's restaurant on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

Trusting neither of them, he patted them down and waved a radio-frequency detector over them.

One man was a bouncer and karate instructor. The other introduced himself as Chuck, a member of a violent right-wing anti-government militia, but was actually an undercover federal agent. When the bouncer later warned Cockrell that Chuck was extremely dangerous, Cockrell is said to have replied: ``I'm not looking for Mary Poppins.''

At the time of the meeting, Cockrell was facing financial fraud charges in Ventura, and he blamed Bradbury for his troubles.

Prosecutors said he tried to hire a team of combat veterans to destroy the 101 Freeway north and south of Ventura, isolating the city from outside assistance. They said he wanted the team to blow up an oil refinery and a pumping station, and then the Ventura County courthouse, killing as many judges and prosecutors as possible and destroying the evidence in the fraud case against Cockrell, which was quickly coming to trial.

``A combination of all these activities would cause police and firefighters to be stretched beyond their limits, and that's when we could destroy the courthouse,'' said Charles Pratt, the undercover agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who posed as Chuck.

According to Pratt, Cockrell said he wanted it done on credit when he was told it would cost $500,000 to carry out the plan.

Prosecutors said Cockrell proposed financing the operation by robbing a string of gun and jewelry stores, kidnapping the wife of a man he described as a Nazi from South Africa, extorting cash from the couple, killing them and sharing the money with the militia.

At the end, the militia would issue a communique claiming the attacks were protesting the conviction of Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Authorities said Cockrell envisioned writing a book about the whole thing, turning it into a movie and making a mint.

``My expertise ... is money,'' Cockrell would later say in one of several tape-recorded conversations he had with Pratt.

Over the years, Cockrell has told people he worked for former Gov. Ronald Reagan as an inspector of mental facilities. He reportedly said he was an actor, a movie producer and a member of the state Republican Central Committee.

Later, Cockrell began a career as an investment adviser and dabbled in the sales of artwork. He lived in a multimillion-dollar home in the Hollywood Hills, had a second wife who came from Paris - ``a real babe,'' Farley recalled - and a limousine and a chauffeur.

``But he was all show and no dough,'' said Farley. ``He never had anything to back that stuff up.''

What he did have was legal trouble.

In 1993, prosecutors say, he incorporated a business known as First American Contractors Bonding Association, a Georgia-based operation with a post office box in Studio City. Cockrell sold stock in the company, which was supposed to sell surety bonds to minority contractors involved with the Olympic Games in Atlanta. A surety bond guarantees that the contractors will perform their task.

In 1994, court records show, he became involved in a legal dispute with his ex-wife and Susan Forward, author of the best-selling book ``Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them.'' Forward was one of those who would later testify that Cockrell had bilked her out of her investment.

A Ventura County grand jury indicted Cockrell and others in December 1995 on charges of grand theft, fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion. Prosecutors said the money investors had sunk into First American Contractors was funneled through Ventura County banks to Cockrell, his wife and others.

His accountant pleaded guilty of grand theft and securities fraud. His wife sought a temporary restraining order for domestic violence, sued him for divorce, then left the country. And a group of investors sued Cockrell and First American Contractors Bonding.

He blamed Bradbury and other officials for his troubles, according to court records and former friends.

``You've got the authorities involved. Most of the cocaine and heroin goes through that county,'' Cockrell told Pratt in one of several tape-recorded conversations.

On Aug. 14, 1997, a Los Angeles court issued a default judgment against First American Contractors Bonding.

Three days later, Cockrell - by then living in an apartment on Willis Avenue in Sherman Oaks, which he referred to as ``corporate headquarters'' - met with the bouncer and Pratt to plan the attacks.

At a later meeting, Pratt asked for $10,000 to $15,000 to start buying materials.

``It's kind of tight,'' Cockrell said on a tape. ``My ex-wife ... extorted the money from me. And those guys want me pretty bad up there.''

Pratt said Cockrell gave him photos on Aug. 27, 1997, of the targets he wanted destroyed, a down payment of $2,000 followed a week later, and then came an envelope with photos of the homes and people he wanted killed.

On Sept. 24, 1997, agents arrested Cockrell at his Sherman Oaks apartment and seized four rifles. He was ordered held on $12 million bail.

In April 1998, Cockrell was found guilty in the original case of 13 charges, including grand theft, money-laundering and tax evasion. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In court last week, Cockrell was animated, frequently whispering to his attorney, Robert Schwartz, who insists his client was just playing along with Pratt.

``He did not believe that the person he was speaking to was who he said he was,'' Schwartz said.

``He did not believe that this person was capable of killing anyone. He had no intent to kill anyone. He believed that the Ventura County D.A. had it in for him and was trying to set him up, and this was his way of exposing that.''

Michael Gougis, [phone]

michael.gougis(at)dailynews.com

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