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

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free [Music] welcome to True Crime 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
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talk some true [Music] crime [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 armed 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 the bombers Rampage came at a time when science was transforming the way
Americans thought about the world around them Jonas sulk 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 criminologist until a Serial bomber forced them to [Music] adapt [Music]
on September 5th 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 to 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 was rejected 9 years later on November 16th 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 window sill thinking someone had forgotten their tools the worker decided to inspect the wooden
toolbox inside there were no tools but what was found 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 then 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 um bringing
up the obvious possibility that the intention of the bomb and 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 sep member of 1941 a pipe bomb was
found lying in the street near for Irving Place uh 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 and 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 Andor 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 oldtime movies yeah and regardless of how this letter was
constructed it 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 Con 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 5 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 in 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 but I mean at 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 correspondents that 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 believe 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 uh because he is not bombing
during war time yeah there was some consideration to that that possibly he was gone during this time I wanted to
find out more specifically when these 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 5 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 5:00 p.m. a hand grenade sized pipe bomb exploded in 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 astray was located near the Grand Central Oyster Bar in
restaurant on the terminals lower level M 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 the work of quote boys or
pranksters the New York Times reported the event in the following days issue the 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
would would be caused for grave public concern yet the local news immediately uh in barely acknowledged this event
well it seemed like they're trying to brush it off cuz 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 uh 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 ship
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
chocked this up to some boys or pranksters yeah but the here's where I have an issue with that because this one
we have a phone booth and we remember what oldtime 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 or even killed and the other fact
though too Captain is these are probably we know Grand Central's 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 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 NY ypd 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 in 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 seems like the bomber was you know he's kind of DIY guy you know so he went
down to the Home Depot and he uh 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 did they find 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 well 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 last
well I guess it' 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 hurt people but I'm not going
to and and and then what does the bomber want well and I doing these actions and
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 going to hurt people in a 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 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 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 a 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 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 some AR I'm this garage and you're worried about the threat
level in this garage you would kick in the door you would throw the grenade inide side 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 dreamt about it many times but these these little pipe
bombs uh they're only about a 5 in piece of of pipe maybe 6 in 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 in 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 foam
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 a 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 Cas casings plaster
glass nuts and bolts police found a partially consumed throat lossing 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 lenes were in close proximity to the bombs and they were all of the same
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shopify.com slmp podcast free [Music] all right we're back cheers me cheers to you Captain there we go yeah I cheersed
you back but I didn't even have my beer open yet cheers Che you just it was kind
of a fake kind of limped in with that one huh that's when you're the designated driver and everybody goes
cheers and you just 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 nighttime 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 employees in the mail room received a suspicious package and this was in a manella 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 and 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 its 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 lossage 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 lossage and we'd run DNA and this would be solved yeah if if it were partially
uh used right um but regardless the the envelope could yield clues about the bomber a postmark was from White Plains
New York a return address was from Leman and Leman which was a fictionary entity
right and add dress I heed a work for you were the the company president that's how I became the captain and a
dress written by hand was in all caps providing police with a handwriting sample then on October 22nd the New York
heral 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 dly deed right dly deed that's what he keeps saying mhm uh when you hear that what's
the first thing that comes to your your brain comic books yeah me too I I think um Batman I feel like this is like
something that like a criminal and in the early Batman with Adam West would say like oh I'm going to 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 Booky 1930s I'm going to 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 is in the very busy Time 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 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 bombers letters so detectives made a surprising realization
the first Grand Central device in March of 1951 right was not the first in 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 at 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 ConEd management that's what they call them
there for short ConEd and provided a sample of the bomber handwriting asking the company to rumage 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 uh 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 eard H we got the F part yeah he was a
56-year-old cable splicer who had worked for ConEd 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 eart
for that crime for the theft it went to trial uh but what he was acquitted then eart in turn filed a lawsuit against KH
Edison for $75,000 at this time which 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 right and as a disgruntled
employee he had a motive and the strange block handwriting was spoton it it matched his handwriting on Monday
November 5th police went to Frederick ard's home in Connecticut police accused him of sending the bombs and threatening
letters and they arrested him the interrogation process says well it did not bring a confession nor provide the
police with any additional evidence against Ard Ard was charged with sending threatening materials through the mail
now the following Wednesday a disheveled eard 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 firm fir L
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 eard be sent to the psychiatric portion of Belleview hospital for evaluation ard's
wife Louise insisted that the police had the wrong man several months later the case was
actually dismissed in court after ard'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 eard 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 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 were mov 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
you'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 vest and these are like I'm guessing they're like Ironclad type vest 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 bble 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 Ironclad 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 cuz most of the time
they've removed it they it's not like right it's not like Mission Impossible where you see Tom Cruz zipline 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 Ironclad 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 at 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 2 and 1/2 3 and 1/2 ft 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 mhm but this you know
jack wagon is you know uh putting out bombs that aren't blowing up so then yeah it'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 he 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 a trash can or um 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 mess M 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 to the extent that maybe it only it only hurts the person that went
into the phone booth right and the contradicting part though of that is he's also putting bombs in very heavily
trafficked areas and very popular areas and 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 we have uh Travelers
people coming in from the area 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 like contradicts it 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 the 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 in in length
to half an inch to 2 in 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 think
that like it would improve like I mean wouldn't you just assume it it it would improve on some level technology and
materials that they could use well I 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 technology is concerned what what no but
I'm going off of what investigators are concerned with 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
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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 terrorizes New York, evading police while targeting Consolidated Edison with homemade explosives.

Key points

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The Mad Bomber's First Bomb. A crude pipe bomb was discovered at a power plant, marking the start of chaos.
A Letter of Threat. The bomber sent a letter stating he would bring Con Edison to justice.
The Bombing Begins. In August 1951, a phone booth explodes at Consolidated Edison Company, marking the start of a series of bomb threats.
The Threat Escalates. A letter reveals the bomber's intent to continue attacks until justice is served against Consolidated Edison.
The Wrong Man?. Frederick Eard, a former employee, becomes the prime suspect but is later dismissed in court.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a true story about absolute madness.

Introduction to the true crime story

4:24WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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