October 30, 2005
Infernal devices
In 1942, a madman sent a note to the Manhattan police. In the cut-and-paste letters of bad kidnapping comedies across the world, it read: "I will make no more bomb units for the duration of the war -- my patriotic feelings made me decide this -- later I will bring the Con Edison to justice". He'd delivered a dud pipe bomb to Con Ed in 1940, left an bomb with an unwound alarm clock as a defanged trigger a few blocks from Con Ed's offices in 1941. No one payed much attention, and George Metesky, the Mad Bomber of New York, was as good as his word; he didn't plant another bomb until 1950. Then he began planting bombs that detonated, targeting Con Ed for their dastardly deeds, and other targets for no apparent reason at all: the New York Public Library, Grand Central Station, movie theaters throughout the city. Dr. James Brussel, the state's director of mental hygiene, eventually helped crack the case with what may have been America's first psychological profile of an unknown criminal. Among his conclusions about the Mad Bomber's grievances, background, and education, he noted that F.P., as the Bomber signed himself, was probably a Slav. He was right. Everyone knew that Eastern Europeans used bombs as their weapon of choice.
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