The Mad Bomber ///Part 1/// 213 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always ladies and gentlemen his real name is guy man dude
but I call him the captain what's happening it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening
thanks for telling a friend foreign by the bright and Brilliant Minds over at Grim Artisan ales garage grade let's
go with three and three quarter bottle caps out of five I love Grim ales and they make so many great beers it was
hard to choose one so expect to see them featured again but this week it is psychokinesis which is a dry hopped and
tart wild ale with notes of tropical fruits and this week's beer was brought to the garage by these bright and
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[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] this is a true story about absolute
Madness and how a paranoid schizophrenic serial bomber used gunpowder and homemade explosives to bring chaos and
fear to New York the following is an excerpt from the book incendiary by Michael canal
the NYPD certainly didn't understand it the famously tough-minded New York detectives stumbled and fumbled as a
harassing band of newspaper reporters detailed at every turn for more than a century the police had
relied on muscle and shoe leather to collar bad guys the street corner respected the billy
club and that was that but reliable strong arm methods proved useless in the face of a schizophrenic
serial bomber seldom in the history of New York wrote the Associated Press has a case proved
such torment to police [Music] the bombers Rampage came at a time when science was transforming the way
Americans thought about the world around them Jonas Salk came up with the polio vaccine eradicating a disease that
crippled hundreds of thousands Bell Labs paved the way for modern electronics and all that came with it by
inventing the Silicon transistor physicist Edward Teller created the hydrogen bomb
scientific advancements however did not Elevate policing at least not in New York
the nypd's corrupt Precinct captains and stubborn commanders resisted new methods
promoted by college-educated criminologists until a Serial bomber forced them to adapt
[Music] thank you foreign 1931 a 27 year old mechanic is working at a Consolidated Edison generating
plant in New York City while this man is going about his business a large boiler
near him misses ignition fumes start to collect building and building and then ignition occurs followed by a sudden
explosion the blast lifts the young man and throws him to the floor there is a large
discharge and a black cloud shoots from the boiler releasing a dark fog of hot gases
the man is unable to get up he lies there helplessly surrounded by the Heat and the gases as the black cloud
consumes him the hot gases and fumes begin to fill his lungs choking him not only can he not breathe but his
lungs and throat feel as though if they are on fire lit from within the Flames growing the
heat rising and the pain is unbearable the man thought surely the Blast has killed him and now he is burning in hell
finally the young man comes too and he sees what he thinks to be Angels cutting through the fog and coming to his Aid
the man was rushed to the hospital and though he was severely injured he would survive and recover although not
completely because the accident left him disabled and after collecting 26 weeks of sick pay the man was fired from his
job because he was no longer physically able to perform his job duties the accident had led to pneumonia
that in turn developed into tuberculosis he filed a workers compensation claim but it was denied because he waited too
long to file it he appealed the denial of the compensation three times but each time
it was rejected nine years later on November 16 1940 a worker at the Consolidated Edison power plant located
at 170 Street number on the busy West 64th Street in Manhattan found a wooden toolbox sitting unattended on a
windowsill thinking someone had forgotten their tools the worker decided to inspect the wooden toolbox
inside there were no tools but what was found caused the worker to panic and the
NYPD were notified the item and the toolbox were successfully located and removed and no one was hurt the police
had found what was described as a crude pipe bomb it was a short length of brass
pipe filled with gunpowder with an ignition mechanism made of sugar and Flashlight batteries it was a dud it
never exploded the bomb was wrapped in a note written in a distinctive block lettering the note stating Con Edison
Crooks this is for you and it was signed F period p period well this first bomb is kind of interesting because it's
wrapped in a note so a lot of people believe that this bomb was meant to be a dud because why would you wrap it in a
note that you want people to read and have the bomb blow up and then destroy the note yeah that's the investigators
looking into the matter that was their thought you know because the note would have been obliterated by the explosion
bringing up the obvious possibility that the intention of the bomb in its maker was to threaten someone or maybe even
everyone at this Con Edison location not actually to injure or kill right had the
intent been to injure or kill the maker would have made sure the bomb would have
exploded and then sent a letter later claiming responsibility for this action in September of 1941 a pipe bomb was
found lying in the street near Four Irving Place this is in New York City there were no casualties in this event
either the bomb had been dropped without the fuse being lit the bomb it had similar construction to
the one found at Con Edison in November and it this was found inside of an Old Sock there was no note with this bomb
however yeah it was a wool sock and police theorized that the bomber might have spotted a police officer or for
some reason got scared and dropped the bomb out of fear without setting its fuse
uh if this were true it is likely that the bomb was not dropped near its intended target
now here's an interesting thing Captain the bombs they did Scare some of the Consolidated Edison employees and some
of the people who would walk and travel near Irving Place right but there were much more scarier events going on around
the world World War II was well underway in many countries joining forces with others taking sides in the loss of life
due to war would never be greater in December of 1941 Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in
the Pacific Ocean the United States joined the war and shortly after the police received a letter The Source
cited here says the letter was all in Block capital letters now I've seen photos of this letter and it actually
appears to me to be letters cut from possibly newspapers and or magazines yeah this is the stereotypical you know
serial killer serial bomber you know clipping uh letters that that you'd see in all the old-time movies yeah and
regardless of how this letter was constructed it read as follows I will make no more bomb units for the duration
of the war my patriotic feelings have made me decide this later I will bring the Khan Edison to Justice they will pay
for their dastardly Deeds signed FP so he so we have one bomb planted one bomb accidentally planted neither bomb
go off and then we get a letter because this guy's so patriotic that he's just not going to bomb during the
war during the course of the war yeah and true to his words uh true to the bombers words there were no bombs that
showed up during the course of the war and in fact for five years after that was that well yeah but it's also a long
War I wonder I wonder if every year the guy just kind of sat around going damn War still going on well I can't
start my bombing until the war's over he didn't stay silent because instead he sent crank letters threatening letters
and postcards to uh police stations newspapers movie theaters to private citizens and to the Consolidated Edison
power company all signed from this FP yeah I mean at that point what this is not much of a threat
well we will never know the grand total number of of the amount of Correspondence the FP sent and where
they all went but what has been reported was that they were at least 16 of these
types of letters or cards that were sent during the course of this uh what I'm calling is wartime means peace time for
this bomber now investigators studying the penciled blocked lettered messages and they noted that the letters g and Y
had a very odd shape to them they believed that this is possibly indicating the FP had some type of
European education and I'd assume that they had actually think that this guy might have been military or or something
like that because he is not bombing during wartime yeah there was some consideration to that that possibly he
was gone during this time I wanted to find out more specifically when the 16 threatening letters or postcards were
sent and received because if he was off at War you know what I mean like was he were these not
received for five years the only information I could find was during this time that no bombs were sent there was
still threatening letters and cards that were sent right I couldn't find dates to
go with those threatening uh messages that he was sending but it was on 19 in 1951 on March 29th shortly after 5 PM a
hand grenade sized pipe bomb exploded and the landmark Grand Central Terminal at New York City the bomb had been
dropped into an ashtray you know one of those standing ashtrays with like the sand in it yeah we don't really have too
many of those anymore this would have this ashtray was located near the Grand Central Oyster Bar and restaurant on the
terminal's lower level as said the bomb did explode this startled passengers but
thankfully no one was killed and no one was injured police dismissed this event as as the work of quote boys or
Pranksters the New York Times reported the event in the following day's issue though only
with a three paragraph brief at the bottom of page 24. ordinarily the detonation of a pipe bomb in a busy
commuter terminal at rush hour would would be cause for grave public concern yet the local news immediately and
barely acknowledge this event well it seemed like they're trying to brush it off because one nobody was hurt and then
the explosion wasn't huge it didn't cause a lot of damage and I think the police stating that this is boys or
pranksters really kind of quiets down the alarm there right I mean you're not going to report on the front page that a
local Deli was egged by a bunch of high schoolers right weeks later in April another small bomb exploded inside a
phone booth this time it was in the basement of the New York Public Library a security guard on watch was leaning
against the phone booth when it exploded luckily he was somehow able to escape with his life the explosion nearly
destroyed the phone booth but no one including the security guard was injured during the investigation the NYPD bomb
squad found fragments very similar to the bomb at Grand Central both were short lengths of well machined pipe with
threaded with a threaded cap at each end inside the pipe was 25 caliber a 25 caliber shell and explosive gunpowder
packed with nuts and bolts yeah while police believe this could be connected to the Grand Central bomb just weeks
prior they still kind of chalk this up to some boys or pranksters yeah but here's where
I have an issue with that because this one we have a phone booth and we remember what Old Time phone booths look
like this phone booth was destroyed so if somebody would have been inside the phone booth uh this person could be
seriously hurt or even killed and the other fact though too Captain is these are probably we know Grand Central's a
well-traveled area I would imagine the New York Public Library would have at most times of the day have lots of
people in there this is these are dangerous spots to be putting these explosives now police failed to make the
connection to the bombs that were back from 1941 and this you know because there's a huge yeah big gap rightfully
so it was like 10 years ago and you know but but however during the 10 years when
the mad bomber was inactive remember we said menacing letters were sent one of those did warn that a bomb would be
placed at Grand Central Station I don't remember the exact wording but it was a warning regarding that there would be an
explosion at Grand Central yeah in August of 51 the NYPD bomb squad combed through the rubble of another phone
booth and found fragments of yet another pipe bomb of the now familiar design this phone booth explosion was once
again at Grand Central and this attack no one was killed nor injured the police reported that they believed this to be
the result of a of sheer luck rather than a you know plan of the bomber right in the investigation police noted in
their report that the latest bomb showed quote considerable advancement in technique now police without a public
threat or letter from the bomber the investigators had no notion of the perpetrators or the nature uh of the
motive behind the attack well it seemed like the bomber was you know he's kind of DIY guy you know so he went down to
the Home Depot and he took a weekend class on how to make bombs so seems like he upped his game on this one yeah and
then he gets a wool sock that he no longer wants and puts it in the puts the bomb in the wool sock and carries it off
to wherever the the part is did they find a wool sock in any of these ones that I'm uncertain of Captain I know
that the wool sock would be a common thing that they would find from time to time uh regarding these bombs but in
these specific ones I don't know we have to keep in mind though the first time that a wool sock was found was in a
contained a bomb that didn't explode right these last these last ones exploded you you might not find any
fragments of something as flammable or easy to destroy as a wool sock on it at this point like you said they're not
really connecting the dots of the the two previous bombs and that and then also the mad bomber and all his threats
they're not connecting those dots there but one has to wonder with these class well I guess would be three right we
have one at the Grand Central Station then we have one back at the library and then we have one back at Grand Central
Station right so one would have to wonder okay are we just getting lucky here and
nobody's getting hurt or like you were saying or was this uh a plan from the bomber like hey I'm showing you that I
can't hurt people but I'm not going to and and and then what does the bomber want well and I keep doing these actions
and I think I think here with these latest bombs what my opinion would be is the same as
NYPD where they're saying look this was just sheer luck that nobody was injured because the placement of these bombs and
the fact that they did go off they were in such a public area that you would assume the intent was to harm or kill
right but it seems like these bombs are also if they go off they're gonna hurt people on our radius that's pretty small
yeah a couple feet where you think if this this bomber was more sophisticated or their intent was to hurt a lot of
people they're I mean the placement of the bombs they're doing a good job as far as they're being able to go into a
very public place um place a bomb somewhere and leave without being noticed and then
right and then have the bomb go off now if you really wanted to hurt people um on on a grand level to make some kind
of statement then you would think that the bomb would be a bigger bomb I guess well and to paint a better picture for
the listeners I I think everybody should think of a hand grenade you know the these were very small pipe bombs uh
almost the size of a hand grenade and you should expect the about the same size of explosion as you would with the
hand grenade now keep in mind when we see on TV and on in the movies is a dramatization of what a hand grenade
explosion looks like the super deadly thing or harmful thing here is one of the bombs that did not explode they said
was packed with nuts and bolts sending these items flying through the air and potentially into people as they pass by
yeah I'm no John Rambo but when I was a kid like you would pretend that you had the grenade and you'd throw it into that
that that room you know and then the whole room would blow up but but that's not the case With Grenades oh you've put
me on the spot Captain I I'm no expert in grenades but my from my understanding with these particular bombs right you
know so what I think you're describing is if you threw a grenade into this garage like if you were like uh some
some army guy and you're trying to infiltrate this um this garage and you're worried about
the threat level in this garage you would kick in the door you would throw the grenade inside and assume that the
grenade would blow up and kind of incinerate everybody inside this small garage that we're sitting in and I think
with that may or may not be the case I've never thrown a grenade I've dreamed about it many times but these these
little pipe bombs uh they're only about a five inch piece of of pipe maybe six inches at the most but often described
as what one would expect to see with a grenade type explosion well you think that grenade technology would Advance
throughout the years too so what a grenade was capable of and the 50s is probably way different than what it's
capable of now well and I think the phone booth gives us a really good idea of what type of explosion to expect
meaning that I don't know how many phone boosts do you think you could fit in this garage and yet the the pipe bomb
only blew up that little phone booth you know phone booth is considerably smaller
than a room yeah and anytime I hear grenades I just think you know cabs are here
well back to the uh the August 51 bomb the one that exploded at Grand Central Station
um like the police said they they didn't really have an idea of who the perpetrator was or the motive behind the
attack because there was no letter found or letter sent to describe or claim responsibility for this attack but right
as our listeners know with each new attack not only do you have an increased Threat Level but you also have the
preponderance of evidence against the offender or at least to deduce who they are so with each new attack you should
have one if not both of the following either a new clue or Clues and or the same clue repeated adding to the
significance of that clue meaning maybe you found something at a previous crime scene and let's say that item falls into
the category of well maybe this is evidence or maybe it is not right but if you have multiple crime scenes and you
find a similar item well then this most likely has to fall into this is evidence
category so at some of these bomb sites among the scattered debris of pipe fragments shell casings plaster glass
nuts and bolts police found a partially consumed throat lozenge now of course finding a used cough drop in a public
place with a lot of foot traffic may seem like just a coincidence but all of these lozenges were in close proximity
to the bombs and they were all of the same brand foreign [Music] there we go I cheers you back but I
didn't even have my beer open yet I was kind of a fake I kind of limped in with that one huh that's the one that
you're the designated driver and everybody goes cheers and you just kind of hold up your hand in August of 1951
employees at the Consolidated Edison Company they arrived at work to find that a phone booth in the lobby of their
business of the main office had exploded so this happened overnight now no one was in the lobby during the explosion so
of course no one was hurt the person actually in the building at the only person actually at all in the building
was a security guard at night time now for safety precautions the building was evacuated and a thorough search was
conducted NYPD insisted that the building remain empty this would be for several days when they were able to
return employee employees in the mail room received a suspicious package and this was in a manila envelope and inside
a short pipe bomb with caps on both ends the letter was addressed to the company's Personnel director this is
Edwin Jennings yeah and the employees are going to evacuate the building they're going to call in the bomb scare
the bomb squad arrived on the scene the pipe was slowly but safely removed from the premises upon investigation they
discovered it was in fact a pipe bomb and the worksmanship and the materials used both suggested it was from the
serial bomber it's triggering mechanism was based on a 25 caliber bullet same as
the earlier bombs found in 1951 around New York and inside the pipe was a throat lozenge police dusted the pipe
they dusted the envelope and the stamps for fingerprints but found only smudges nothing of use well this also shows the
time period too because if it was today we'd find the throat lozenge and we'd run DNA and this would be solved yeah if
it were partially used right but regardless the the envelope could yield clues about the bomber a postmark was
from White Plains New York a return address was from Lehman and Lehman which is a fictionary entity right and address
is a work form you were the the company president that's how I became the captain an address written by hand was
in all caps providing police with a handwriting sample then on October 22nd the New York Herald Tribune received a
letter in penciled block letters stating bombs will continue until Consolidated Edison Company is brought to justice for
their dastardly acts against me I have exhausted all other means I intend with bombs to cause others to cry out for
justice for me if I don't get Justice I will continue but with bigger Bombs all right
dastardly deed right that's truly deed that's what you keep saying uh when you hear that what's the first then it comes
to your your brain comic books yeah me too I I think uh Batman I feel like this is yeah something that
like a criminal and in the early Batman with Adam West would say like uh I'm Gonna Get You Batman for your dastardly
Deeds well and I was going yeah I was going to be a little more specific with that but I couldn't really place you
know when I kept digging into this case and I kept hearing this over and over again dastardly Deeds I couldn't put my
finger on which one I would claim that to be from but that seems very it seems very 1930s in a way too like
comic bookie 1930s I'm gonna get you for the you know the dastardly Deeds the the
letter also listed two Targets one directed police to the Paramount Theater which is
in the very busy Times Square district there a live bomb was discovered hidden inside of an old wool sock and left in
the men's restroom luckily the bomb was located in time and it was disabled the other Target was a telephone booth at
Pennsylvania station there nothing was found either the bomber was unable to deliver on the
threat or he wanted to send the police on a wild goose chase back to the bomber's letters
so detectives made a surprising realization the first Grand Central device in March of 1951 right was not
the first and the evidence archives of the New York City Police housed in a Dusty box dating from before the war
there was another note written by the same handwriting in the same strange block letters and signed FP
so detectives started working under the premise that this serial bomber may be seeking Revenge and one of those the
more common threats was to Consolidated Edison so possibly an angry customer or disgruntled former employee yeah
detectives teamed up with Con Ed management that's what they call them there for short Con Ed and provided a
sample of the bombers handwriting asking the company to rummage through its employee archives seeking you know a
problematic ex-employee with handwriting resembling the unusual letter forms or somebody with the initials FP or
possibly both right right uh considering the thousands of people that the large utility company had employed over the
years reviewing these files would be quite the task they compared the handwriting sample with
old employee applications and tax forms so this was a very tedious process uh but what happened was it actually
produced a single person a a man who was a former employee he this man was once fired from
Consolidated Edison Company for theft and now at this time in the case he was the prime suspect in the serial bombing
case yeah this man's name is Frederick Eberhard so we got the F part yeah he was a 56
year old cable splicer who had worked for Con Ed until they fired him in 1948. um what was he caught stealing
I don't know what he was caught stealing But Not only was he fired for theft but
the police had arrested Eberhart for that crime for the theft it went to trial uh but what he was acquitted then
Eberhart in turn filed a lawsuit against Con Edison for 75 000. at this time back then that would have
been a lot of money oh he would probably not have to work again yeah uh at this time the lawsuit that he was seeking
against Consolidated Edison was still unresolved but police noted as a cable splicer he presumably had the mechanical
means to build these crude bombs and as a disgruntled employee he had a motive and the strange block handwriting was
spot on it matched his handwriting on Monday November 5th police went to Frederick everhard's home in Connecticut
police accused him of sending the bombs and threatening letters and they arrested him the interrogation process
well it did not bring a confession nor provide the police with any additional evidence against Eberhard
Eberhard was charged with sending threatening materials through the mail now the following Wednesday a disheveled
eberhardt stood handcuffed in court as the state district attorney explained to the judge and quote this defendant is a
particular source of annoyance to the New York City Police we are firmly convinced that he is not of sound mind
he has been sending simulated bombs around the city the past few months hundreds of police have been called out
at all hours of the day and night to investigate because of his actions the judge ruled that Eberhard be sent to
the psychiatric portion of Bellevue Hospital for evaluation eberhard's wife Louise insisted that the police had the
wrong man several months later the case was actually dismissed in court after eberhard's lawyer argued successfully
that the package that they actually arrested him for the the latest package right uh it was not so he's being
charged with sending threatening items through the mail yeah the problem with that charge is the bomb doesn't explode
it was actually I believe deemed that it could not physically explode so there is
no threat with the actual bomb and furthermore in that particular incident there was no
threatening note sent along with the bomb or later claiming responsibility so therefore uh the the arrest charge of
sending threatening materials through the mail well there was nothing actually threatening about it deemed by this
judge the the lawyer argued that successfully so this this guy is charged with it but then it's ultimately just
dismissed and thrown out of court on November 28th a bomb went off at the 14th Street subway station
the serial bomber had rented a coin operated Locker at the IRT 14th Street subway station there the bomber placed
one of his small signature pipe bombs the bomb exploded destroying several lockers and adding much damage to the
immediate area no one was injured now if this latest bomb didn't indicate to NYPD that they had the wrong man when
they arrested Eberhard well then a note sent at the end of 1951 certainly would and this note read
have you noticed the bombs in your city if you are worried I am sorry and also if anyone is injured
but it cannot be helped for justice will be served I am not well and for this I will make the Con Edison sorry yes they
will regret their dastardly Deeds I will bring them before the bar of Justice public opinion will condemn them
for beware I will place more units under theater seats in the near future signed FP so even though there's not
there's not these huge explosions and a lot of people being injured this is costing the city a lot of money
yeah and the thing we have to understand here is much like today the bomb squad is a very specific unit
and even though even in a city as large as New York keep in mind this is the most of these bombs were in 1951 and so
these men are getting called out at all hours of the night there's not like it's
not like you constantly have a whole team of of bomb squad they're actually called bomb squad detectives back then
right uh on duty 24 7 around the clock and if you if anybody reads up on this case or or looks on the internet into
this case there's some fascinating pictures of the technology at the time the the way that they removed these
bombs with toothpicks well it's it's actually very strange looking it looks like from the black and white pictures
it almost looks like the bomb squad detectives are wearing um almost like a a wicker material or some
kind of basket over their head when really it's a have you seen these do you know what I'm
talking about yeah yeah okay and and actually the bomb squad vehicle that they removed the bomb in also looks like
it's this giant basket when really what it is is it's threaded steel I believe or some type of metal so they're
actually wearing it's like Man in the Iron Mask picture that they're wearing like a helmet this metal helmet that
almost looks somewhat like a basket it's got tiny little slits for the eyes so that they can get close to these bombs
and either diffuse them or remove them and they also wear these vests and these are like I'm guessing they're like iron
clad type vests so that if it were to go off that those items like the nuts and bolts that we talked about inside the
pipe that when they explode that they would they would be either caught or unable to penetrate and bounce off of
this metal vest that they wear and I could only imagine Captain the weight the weight of that that kind of Steel
helmet basically and that steel or iron-clad vest that they're wearing often what you would see these
detectives do is they would get close and they would approach this bomb you have to can you imagine the amount of
Bravery it would take for an individual to get to walk right up to a bomb especially after we've had some go off
and they're starting to look the same you're you've gotten to a point now in 1951 that you've had about a dozen bombs
and about half of them have gone off and so now you know that the threat level is certainly there and to have The
Bravery to approach this thing and pick it up and remove it because most of the time they've removed it they it's not
like right it's not like Mission Impossible where you see Tom Cruise zip line in and and
take the thing apart and decide which wire to cut it's these two detectives picking physically picking up this bomb
disrupting it sitting there which could in fact make it go off in your hand they
would place it in some type of bag purse or or basket type thing and they would place this thing in the center of a bar
like a Long Bar so that you could put one you could hoist one end of the bar up over your shoulder and I could hoist
one up over my shoulder and we could walk it out of there to the vehicle to that iron-clad vehicle to remove this
thing from the area keeping everyone else safe but in turn putting ourselves very much In Harm's Way the purpose of
the bar that we place the thing on the bar is so it at the very least if this thing goes off if this bomb explodes
while we are transporting it to the vehicle at least you and I are two and a half three and a half feet
from the thing when it when it explodes well and you get this jack wagon that is
sending bombs so often now that you now you have to put yourself in this situation over and over again and then
some of these bombs aren't going off so you wonder if that like you know you're in a job that you shouldn't ever let
your guard down but this you know jack wagon is you know uh putting out bombs that
aren't blowing up so then yeah I'd be a whole mental um game that wouldn't be fun in that job
well so roughly here Captain we have about a 10-year uh or more time span and through that course of time we have at
least uh 16 to 20 threatening letters that are sent out and received but we also have about a dozen Bombs
over the course of that time probably about half of them going off actually exploding the the strange mental thing
here is that we have in that letter at the end of 1951 that is sent it says if anyone was injured I he he's apologizing
the the bomber is apologizing should anyone be injured or if anyone is worried I think that's a little telling about
what we might be dealing with here and as to whom might be sending these bombs it doesn't help you zero in on anyone
but it puts you in their mindset in a sense that we have half the bombs didn't go off one wasn't even lit because it
was probably scared when he got spotted by police or somebody caught on to what he was doing and the bomb was dropped
without even being lit right now some of the the bombs that did go off think about where those ones were placed most
of them were inside a phone booth and the one was inside of a trash can or a ashtray that's kind of shaped like a
trash can right right but the thing my thought there that I immediately go to is
even though you're creating this thing that's supposed to harm and hurt people to get your your revenge message across
about these Con Edison dastardly Deeds you're not really trying to hurt anybody you're almost containing your own bomb
aren't you by putting it in a phone booth to to the extent that maybe it only it only hurts the person that went into
the phone booth well right and the contradicting part though of that is he's also putting bombs in very heavily
trafficked areas and very popular areas I think maybe with like the train station not so much of the library but
especially with the train station and theaters and stuff like that maybe it's some idea that also that we have uh
Travelers people coming in from the area and maybe that if there we have bombs going off that the police are going to
take this a little more serious um but so it's it's very weird because it contradicts its you know he almost
contradicts himself like well I'm going to put this bomb in a heavily trafficked
area but I'm going to place it in such a way that it possibly won't hurt anybody
well to give to paint a better picture of what these bombs are okay so these bombs were all filled with gunpowder
they were pipe bombs filled with gunpowder they ranged in size from 4 to 10 inches in length
to half an inch to two inches in diameter now most of these bombs that used timers
were constructed from Flashlight batteries or cheap pocket watches and we know on at least one occasion that a
wool sock was used to transport the bomb the other thing here too captain that you pointed out earlier was that in 1951
when the mad bomber reappeared you know he said I'm going to take off this time due to the war when he reappeared the
long Hiatus since the last bomb this and mind you at the same time they've discovered that the the construction
techniques of the new bombs found in 1951 had improved right so well obviously I mean there was time there
was a time Gap yeah right so you'd think that like it would improve like I mean why don't you just assume it it would
improve on some level technology and materials that they could use well I mean we're talking about we're talking
about 10 years not a great length of time what I mean by that could be a lot that's quite a bit of time as far as
like no biology is concerned what what no but I'm going off of what investigators are concerned with right
investigators are specifically saying not the materials used they're talking about the long Hiatus since the last
bomb plus the improved construction techniques right of the bomb is what led investigators to believe that the bomber
had served in the military foreign [Music] for a test drive do what just just what
the captain said go to Stitcher premium.com True Crime garage and use the promo code garage and you'll get a
free month of listening all right we'll see you back in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't
litter [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music]

The Mad Bomber ///Part 1/// 213

Part 1 of 2

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Taken from Michael Cannell’s amazing book titled - Incendiary... The NYPD certainly didn’t understand it. The famously tough-minded New York Detectives stumbled and fumbled, as a harassing band of news-paper reporters detailed every turn. For more than a century the police had relied on muscle and shoe leather to collar bad guys. The street corner respected the billy club and that was that. But reliable strong-arm methods proved useless in the face of a schizophrenic serial bomber. The NYPD’s corrupt precinct Captains and stubborn Commanders resisted the new methods promoted by college-educated criminologist until a serial bomber forced them to adapt. Beer of the Week - Psychokinesis by Grimm Artisanal Ales Garage Grade - 3 and 3/4 bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

A paranoid schizophrenic serial bomber terrorized New York City with homemade explosives, challenging police methods and public safety.

Key points

A Story of Absolute Madness. This episode dives into the chaos caused by a paranoid schizophrenic serial bomber in New York.
The NYPD's Struggle. The police faced unprecedented challenges as they dealt with a serial bomber's chaos.
A Near-Death Experience. A mechanic survives a horrific explosion that leaves him disabled.
The Bomb's True Intention. Investigators ponder whether the bomb was meant to injure or merely threaten.
The Serial Bomber's Threats. A letter reveals the bomber's intent to continue attacks until justice is served.
Eberhard's Court Appearance. Frederick Eberhard is accused of sending bombs but is deemed not of sound mind.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The NYPD certainly didn't understand it.

Describing the police's struggle with the case.

3:44WatchNov 25, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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