How New York’s Mad Bomber George Metesky was brought down by pioneer profiler
It took 16 years but the first bomb set by George Metesky, 75 years ago today, shaped crime’s first psychological profile that quickly led to the arrest of New York’s Mad Bomber.
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It took 16 years but the first bomb set by George Metesky, 75 years ago today, shaped crime’s first psychological profile which quickly led to the arrest of New York’s Mad Bomber.
Metesky’s terror campaign began when Consolidated Edison energy company workers on West 64th Street in Manhattan found a homemade pipe bomb on a windowsill on November 16, 1940.
Attached was a note in block-style handwriting saying: “Con Edison crooks, this is for you.”
The small, crudely made pipe bomb did not explode and police believed the note’s placement indicated it was never intended to detonate. Police investigated disgruntled employees and other possible suspects, then dropped the case.
A second unexploded bomb was found in September, 1941, on 19th St, a few blocks from Consolidated Edison’s Irving Plaza offices. The bomb, found in an old sock, had a similar to construction to the November, 1940, bomb, but no note.
In December, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, another letter, signed F.P. and written in block-style handwriting, arrived at New York police headquarters. It explained the bomber would desist for the duration of WWII, adding, “Later I will bring the Con Edison to justice. They will pay for their dastardly deeds.”
The next bomb was found on March 29, 1950, at Grand Central Station. In April a bomb exploded in a phone booth inside New York Public Library, followed by another at Grand Central Station. Over the next five years, nearly 30 bombs made of pipe, black powder and watch components were planted at New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal, Radio City Music Hall, in movie theatres and phone booths, and Penn Station where an elderly men’s-room attendant was seriously injured when a bomb exploded in a toilet bowl in February, 1956.
Nearly half the bombs exploded, causing more than a dozen injuries but no deaths.
An explosion just before 8pm on Sunday, December 2, 1956, at Brooklyn Paramount Theatre during a screening of War And Peace infuriated frustrated detectives. Planted at the back of the orchestra section, flying metal injured three patrons.
Detectives recognised the workmanship of the phantom they called the Mad Bomber. In desperation, New York Police Department Crime Laboratory Inspector Howard Finney and police captain John Cronin approached Cronin’s friend James Brussel, a criminologist, psychiatrist and assistant commissioner at New York State Commission for Mental Hygiene.
After studying crime scene photos and notes from FP, Brussel drew up a detailed description of the suspect. He predicted the bomber was unmarried, foreign-born, self-educated, in his 50s, lived in Connecticut and was paranoid, with a vendetta against Con Edison.
Although some of Brussel’s predictions were common sense, others such as the bomber’s age drew on psychological study. Bussel noted paranoia tended to peak around age 35, so 16 years after setting the first bomb put the bomber in his 50s.
The New York Times published Bussel’s profile on December 25, 1956, although it did not mention the bomber was likely of Slavic origin, and would be wearing a double-breasted suit, buttoned up.
The profile and a newspaper promise to achieve justice for the bomber induced him to send letters. On January 19, 1957, FP sent a letter explaining he developed pneumonia and later tuberculosis after laying unnoticed for hours on “cold concrete” following an accident at Con Edison.
The letter detailed his lost compensation case and the “perjury” of co-workers about events of September 5, 1931.
Con Edison clerk Alice Kelly had been scouring company workers’ compensation files for “troublesome” case files where threats were made or implied. On January 18, 1957, she found a file marked in red with the words “injustice” and “permanent disability”, as written in the bomber’s newspaper letters.
The file identified George Metesky, an employee injured after inhaling scalding boiler fumes in a plant accident on September 5, 1931. Disabled for 26 weeks, he was terminated by Edison then had compensation claims dismissed because he waited too long.
When police knocked on the door of a house in Waterbury, Connecticut, at 11pm on January 21, 1957, a smiling middle-aged man wearing pyjamas answered.
“I know why you fellows are here,” he told police.
“You think I’m the Mad Bomber.”
Asked to get dressed, Metesky returned with his hair neatly combed, his shoes newly shined and wearing a double-breasted suit — buttoned.
Metesky confessed but was declared a paranoid schizophrenic after psychiatric evaluations. Incompetent to stand trial, Metesky was committed to a New York hospital for the criminally insane.
Released in December 1973, he died at home in 1994.
Originally published as How New York’s Mad Bomber George Metesky was brought down by pioneer profiler
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