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Ex-USF Professor Jailed; Bomb Threat Alleged

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

Updated: 12/11/2007 11:44 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - A former University of South Florida geography instructor was arrested on charges he made bomb threats against the American Red Cross, which he blamed for failing to pay his medical bills during a relief effort in Thailand.

Henry Anthony Aruffo, 58, arrested Friday evening, was being held at Pinellas County Jail on $50,000 bail. He is charged with threatening to detonate a destructive device.

Aruffo was in Thailand on Dec. 26, 2004, when an earthquake in the Indian Ocean set off a series of tsunamis that killed more than 225,000 people in 11 countries. It was considered among the worst natural disasters ever, and Aruffo dived off the shores of Phuket to help retrieve bodies.

In a letter USF reprinted in a January 2005 news release, Aruffo gave the university an update on the recovery effort, what he had done and how it was affecting him.

Dealing With Tsunamis' Aftermath

"I have a massive ear infection today. 48 hours after retrieving bodies from fetid water," he wrote. "After diving, I scrubbed my body with bleach for an hour after getting out of the water - I even gargled with diluted bleach. The water was high in bacteria. I should have known it was dangerous but I was only diving in standard equipment and not any specialized 'body safe' suit."

Speaking from the Pinellas County Jail on Monday, Aruffo said he got Dengue fever twice, contracted hepatitis C and returned to the United States in January with post-traumatic stress disorder, the last the result of seeing so much horror in the tsunamis' wake.

He also described himself as suicidal and said he was taking anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication, along with a sedative. St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said Aruffo claimed to have incurred $65,000 in medical bills.

The issue, according to Aruffo, was not so much the medical bills as the Red Cross' alleged failure to distribute millions of dollars from Americans for the tsunami relief effort. He planned to protest outside the Red Cross in St. Petersburg on Dec. 26, the anniversary of the tsunami, he said.

Photos Sparked Investigation

Court records unsealed Monday say Aruffo photographed the Red Cross building at 818 Fourth St. N. on Nov. 29. After he was asked what he was doing, he said "he was going to blow the building up on Dec. 26," a criminal affidavit says.

When a detective visited him later, Aruffo told him he planned to chain himself to the building during the protest, the documents say. But after the detective left, he called the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., complained about the tsunami money he was owed, and threatened to blow up the St. Petersburg chapter, the documents say.

Speaking from the jail, Aruffo denied he ever threatened to blow anything up.

"I never said bomb. I never said blast. I never said kill. I would never kill anyone," he said. "Two years of living around that and seeing that," he said, referring to the disaster's aftermath, "it catches up with you sometime. But to blow somebody up? Me? I'm not that kind of person."

Aruffo worked as a member of USF's adjunct faculty in 1995 and was later a visiting instructor, according to the university. He last worked for USF in 2003, a university spokesman said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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