A gunman took a 74-year-old woman hostage after he was foiled in an attempt to steal $1 million in jewelry belonging to the late Liberace, but police shot and killed the man outside the entertainer's museum. ``I just tried to stay cool,'' said hostage Margaret Bloomberg, who sat down to give police a clear shot at the man and escaped unharmed in Sunday evening's incident at the Liberace Museum. ``The man had a bag of tools, including a crowbar, and was going to smash into the jewelry case,'' said Dora Liberace, administrator of the museum and sister-in-law of the late entertainer. ``He wanted the jewelry and he came prepared to take it.'' Mrs. Bloomberg, who has worked at the museum 10 years, was closing the office when the man appeared, saying he wanted to deliver a plant, Mrs. Liberace said. The man produced a gun, forced his way inside and refused offers of money, Mrs. Bloomberg said. ``Margaret offered him the day's receipts, even offered him the money in her purse, but he wasn't interested,'' Mrs. Liberace said. ``He said `I don't want the cash. I want the jewelry.' He obviously had been in there before and checked out the place. He seemed to know where everything was.'' Mrs. Bloomberg was able to warn a cleaning woman, who slipped out a back door and called police. The gunman tied Mrs. Bloomberg's hands and feet, taped her mouth, then untied her, moved her to another part of the museum and tied her again. ``He was getting ready to pop the jewelry case when he heard a noise outside,'' Mrs. Bloomberg said. ``He went and saw the police. I told him I'd get him out the back door. When we tried that, police were there, too.'' The gunman walked out the front door with a gun pointed at the bound hostage. ``He told police he would shoot me if they didn't let him get to his car,'' she recalled. ``I just tried to stay cool.'' ``She just sat down on the sidewalk, pretending her legs had collapsed under her,'' Mrs. Liberace said. ``He tried to lift her in the car but couldn't. He leaned back for a minute and the police shot him.'' ``When I sat down I figured the police would pick him off, maybe,'' Mrs. Bloomberg said. Mrs. Bloomberg, somewhat shaken and her hands still bearing marks from the ropes, was back at work Monday. ``I thought I was better off working than staying at home and dwelling on it,'' she said. The gunman, identified as Hugh Perry, 47, of Las Vegas, had a lengthy arrest record dating back to the 1960s, said Metro Police Lt. Kyle Edwards. The museum is one of the city's top tourist attractions, featuring memorabilia of the entertainer who gained fame here and retained a home not far away. Mrs. Liberace said the museum has one of the most sophisticated security systems in the city but will now add guards. Liberace, who died in February 1987 of complications due to AIDS, founded the museum 10 years ago to fund the Liberace Foundation for the Performing Arts, which provides scholarships for music and art students at 27 colleges and universities across the United States.
