00:00:06
Hey weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. [Music] This is more bad or bad?
00:00:28
I don't know. Uh my we had to run out of out of the we literally just ran out of
00:00:34
the house. We had to run out for a minute and when we came back Mikey had cleaned the entire studio and lit
00:00:42
candles and the vibe in here is just a zillion times better. So right. It was like the greatest thing in the entire
00:00:50
world. I feel so relaxed. No, I feel so much better. I'm ordering Panera as we speak and it's about to this this vibe
00:00:56
today is about to go crazy. It's immaculate. Immaculate. I'm also feeling I'm feeling
00:01:04
very much in the slasher summer vibe. Me, too. Because I want to live in it. I think it's been so like gloomy and a
00:01:12
little bit chilly, which is nice. Oh, yeah. And you've been wearing like we've all been wearing comfy sweatshirts and
00:01:17
yet we put our ys in our ye. And it just feels spooky. Yeah. Yeah. And I keep getting and I mean Tik Tok's always
00:01:25
feeding me my my vibes. Halfway to Halloween. The halfway to Halloween and like slasher summer kind of [ __ ] I'm
00:01:30
getting a lot of that. I think cuz you keep saying it in my presence. It's getting me in such a mood for it. Yeah.
00:01:38
Like I need it. I'm craving it. And now I want to watch all the things like the Summer Slasher things. I want to read
00:01:46
all the Summer Slasher things. I just watched a pretty good one actually at your recommendation for Scream. We're
00:01:52
going to be recording it today, so it'll be out in like a couple weeks. But, um,
00:01:55
it's called Hell of a Summer. It was really good. It's a 2025 one. I think there's a couple movies that are called
00:02:01
Hell of a Summer. Brand new, but it just came out in April. It was funny. It was
00:02:04
I thought it was fun. It looked fun when I saw it. That's why I haven't watched it yet. But it like that's why I
00:02:11
suggested it to you cuz when I saw it, I was like, "That's got the vibes. It feels like it's like campy." Literally,
00:02:17
it is campy in in every sense of the word. Yeah. campy like fun slasher where you can laugh and also just kind of like
00:02:24
bop along to it. I love those kind of things. Yeah, I suggest it. Definitely go to Scream and listen to our episode
00:02:30
to get our full opinion. Yeah, I'm excited to watch it. Let's go, girl. Um but yeah, I don't I'm trying to think if
00:02:37
there's any more fun. Um if you're looking to pre-order The Butcher Game in paperback, because paperbacks are great.
00:02:44
Who doesn't [ __ ] love a paperback? You know what I mean? You can put that [ __ ] anywhere. You can put it in your
00:02:48
back pocket. I love when you say that you can put a paperback anywhere. I don't know. It's just a crazy literally
00:02:53
put it anywhere. But you're not wrong. It's It's easier sometimes to carry in like a bag or people love to shove a
00:03:01
book in their back pocket. Do they? Yeah. I've seen it a lot. Jess Mariano used to do it in Gilmore Girls. They
00:03:07
just moved. I think that really laid the groundwork for me that people do that. I
00:03:11
think that I think that imprinted on your soul. I don't think anyone else does. I was like, I don't think I've
00:03:16
ever seen anyone put a book in their back pocket. And actually, I feel like that would make
00:03:21
I feel like that would make you pretty angry. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I can't even dog a page without you dogging on
00:03:26
me. Well, I'm also I'm a hard coverver girl. Okay. So, it's like this is this honestly I have no business commenting
00:03:34
on a paperback conversation. Um, but you can comment on your own, but I can give
00:03:38
you a paperback that I wrote. There you go. So, like there you go. There you go.
00:03:42
Take it. And you should definitely pre-order it and grab it. You can pre-order it anywhere you want to. you
00:03:48
feel in your soul that you want to buy a book. Whatever bookstore or book outlet
00:03:53
feels right to you. Yeah. And feels lovely to you, do that. I support it. Especially smaller indie bookstores.
00:04:01
They're like the best. I love a small indie bookstore. And if you need like a list of them, you can go to the
00:04:06
butcherame.com and there's like a little list of it'll bring you to different places. Um but yeah, go do that. Um
00:04:14
because you really want to catch up on the story because who knows why? Who knows what's coming
00:04:20
down the pike? Who knows why you might want to catch up on this story? I don't I don't know anything. Who can be sure?
00:04:28
You know, who knows? I don't know. Maybe maybe hang on to that information. Maybe, you know, I don't know. But go
00:04:36
catch up on it. And a paperback is a great way to do that. It's true. Um so so let's go, girls. Let's G O O boop
00:04:45
boop boop boop boop. So today we're gonna be we're gonna do a tupada here. Tupada. Um and it's just because there's
00:04:52
like a lot going on. Um this is a wild one. Um this is the mad bomber of New York. Okay. Uh it did happen in the
00:05:01
1940s, but like just because it happened in the 1940s doesn't mean it's not an insane story. Uh in fact, it might make
00:05:08
it more insane. It might make it and I think it does. Uh, this is a very interesting one. Any New Yorkers? I
00:05:14
wonder if you guys like know about this, have heard about it, maybe family members told you about it. It's seems
00:05:20
like New York was really put through it during this. Oh man. Um, so this started, it was in the fall of 1940, uh,
00:05:28
when an employee of the Consolidated Edison Company in Manhattan discovered a bomb in the company's main offices.
00:05:35
[ __ ] along with a note that said, "Con Edison Crooks, this is for you." Oh, damn. The bomb was discovered before it
00:05:42
detonated and no one was harmed. But a year later, the company received a second bomb, followed by a note to the
00:05:48
NYPD where the bomber announced that he was going to make no more bombs for the duration of World War II, but then he
00:05:55
would begin again after the war ended. So, this motherfucker's playing a long game. Oh, yeah. Playing a You don't call
00:06:01
him the mad bomber for nothing. No. um the Mad Bombers. It was literally a reign of terror on New York. Um it
00:06:10
lasted for a long time. Remember this is the fall of 1940. He was not He ends up
00:06:15
being captured luckily. So don't worry, New York. Good news. But he was captured
00:06:19
in 1957. Oh wow. Um it was a lot. And when they finally got him, he him as a person and his motives
00:06:28
didn't make a lot of sense to New York. It's always interesting when that happens. Yeah. Yeah, they'd lived in
00:06:34
fear of what was going on here. So, in the early afternoon of November 18th, 1940, the desk sergeant at the 20th
00:06:43
squad of the NYPD received a call from a very anxious employee of, like we mentioned before, the Consolidated
00:06:50
Edison Company, Coned, we'll call it. Oh, no. On West 64th Street. According to the caller, one of the ConEd
00:06:58
employees was on a break when he noticed a little, you know, wooden toolbox just
00:07:04
sitting unattended on a window ledge on the second floor. I'm glad he thought this was a little weird because if he
00:07:09
had just ignored it, it would have been a big problem. Can you imagine finding a
00:07:12
[ __ ] bomb on your break? You're just on lunch. You're just on lunch and you're just trying to get away from
00:07:16
everybody. Yeah. You're just trying to take a minute away from your [ __ ] job and then you have a bomb on your Now I
00:07:22
have to report a bomb. Yeah, that's a lot. I just wanted to have my egg salad sandwich, you know. That sounds good. It
00:07:27
does. So, when the man approached the toolbox, he saw that it contained a 4 and a half piece of iron pipe which was
00:07:34
capped in both ends, which like immediately not good. And when he looked closer at it, he found a small piece of
00:07:40
paper wrapped around it. So, this person unwrapped the paper. Damn. Which is brave as [ __ ] Pretty brave and like
00:07:48
ballsy. Don't do that. Like, don't do that. If ever you find a strange looking Don't touch it. just
00:07:54
and found a on that piece of paper he found that it was a note written in neat block print that read Con Edison crooks
00:08:02
this is for you. A second line of text underneath it um it was written in a coarse gray substance apparently and it
00:08:11
read shortage of powder boys and the note was simply signed FP. So, was he saying powder boys or was he
00:08:20
saying boys? There's no shortage of pow powder. I think powder boys. Powder boys. I think he's calling these bombs.
00:08:26
Maybe powder boys. Oh, like a pipe bomb. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. The implications of the note obviously sent
00:08:33
the employee into a full panic. And he carefully set the toolbox down on the window sill cuz remember this man is now
00:08:39
holding this pipe bomb. [ __ ] Uh, and he ran it. Luckily, it didn't detonate. And
00:08:43
he ran to the phone and called the police. Later, when the note was tested, it was discovered that the second line
00:08:49
of text was written in gunpowder. Oh. Which was the same substance that was packed into the pipe. Hate that. Powder
00:08:56
boys. At the time though, the NYPD officers who responded to the call had no idea what they were actually dealing
00:09:03
with here. Although bombings or threats of bombings had kind of increased across
00:09:07
the city throughout the first half of the 20th century just with like advancement of people knowing how to
00:09:13
make these things. Yeah. Those matters were handled by the bomb and forgery squad. Obviously, there's like a
00:09:18
specialized thing. Um, so it's like when you have a group that's specially trained to do this stuff, the regular
00:09:24
patrol officers are like, "I don't really know what to do with this bottle." Yeah. Call in the special guys.
00:09:28
Yeah. They had So when they were called in, they had to report this explosive device to that specialized squad and
00:09:35
they had to wait hours for the bomb and forgery squad to arrive, which I'm like,
00:09:40
I feel like that squad should be a bit more prompt. That's the thing. That's how I feel. I feel like they should be
00:09:45
maybe those like you got to have one foot out the door at all times kind of squad. Like you're an emergency
00:09:52
responder pretty much. So, and you're very I feel like timeliness is next to godliness in that scenario. When it
00:09:59
comes to bombs, I'd say when it comes to to bombs, you know, cuz like I you don't
00:10:05
know when that's going to go off. You don't. So, like you want to get there before it does. Yeah. So waiting hours
00:10:12
feels risky. Hours. I'd be pissed if it took them like 25 minutes. Hours? Yeah. I'd be pissed that just the regular
00:10:20
patrol officer showed up. I'd be like, I did say this is a bomb. Well, it's like
00:10:24
obviously you can evacuate and like hopefully they did. But then you also have a whole building on your hands.
00:10:29
Exactly. And then that if that does explode and the building falls down, you got a whole mess to clean up and people
00:10:34
could get hurt. People could get hurt. Like so many things could happen. So when they did finally arrive at the
00:10:39
Coned building, the lead detective on the bomb squad confirmed that what they found was indeed a quote infernal
00:10:45
machine, which was a homemade explosive device, quote, maliciously designed to explode and destroy life or property,
00:10:53
but it still hadn't gone off yet. It still hadn't gone off. Now, unlike more sophisticated devices that, you know,
00:10:58
use electronic components, the a bomb that you're probably thinking in your head right now with the wires and [ __ ]
00:11:04
the infernal machine, which is one of the scariest names for something, great band name. I literally was just going to
00:11:12
say the there has to be I'm going to Google it. Infernal Machine has to be a Yeah.
00:11:19
Uh, it is a very crude, very volatile explosive that could be triggered by a number of things. Like this is not an
00:11:27
electronic explosive. So, it's not like somebody's just waiting or they, you know, set it to go off at a certain
00:11:33
point. It's like it gets triggered by random things. It's a band. It I knew it had to be a band. Good on you for for
00:11:41
picking that cuz that's a great band name. Yeah, absolutely is. Um, also the pipe bomb couldn't be deactivated in
00:11:48
like a traditional sense like a regular bomb, but instead it had to be just detonated in a controlled setting. Like
00:11:57
they just had to explode the bomb in a controlled area. The [ __ ] Cuz in like a
00:12:01
regular bomb there's way to detonate it or to like deactivate it with like electronically and [ __ ] Yeah. This
00:12:07
one's just like a very crude [ __ ] infernal machine. So where do you go? So, I don't really know. I think they
00:12:16
have to they go to like clearings to do these things because sometimes it still has to be done. Like they have to find
00:12:20
places to do these things. So, they really have to go to like places obviously where there's absolutely no
00:12:26
chance that somebody could be hurt by this. Damn. Um the squad knew that the bomb had already been handled by the
00:12:31
employee who had reported it. Um so they knew it wasn't triggered by, you know, moving it from its position. And after
00:12:38
clearing the building, one of the squad members dawned a suit of body armor and used a 5-ft grabbing pole. And he turned
00:12:45
the device over looking for any kind of timing device or other potential triggers. That's so scary. He Yeah, he
00:12:51
didn't find anything. And getting no result from poking at it and, you know, handling the device, they were fairly
00:12:57
certain it was not triggered by movement. And the pipe was retrieved, placed inside a bag. Uh the bag was made
00:13:03
of woven steel cable because that like that's how they transport bombs. Yeah. And it was taken out to the containment
00:13:10
truck and taken to a secluded area where it was inspected and ultimately submerged in motor oil.
00:13:18
Why? Apparently, and this is very interesting, motor oil was believed to clog up any moving parts that might
00:13:25
trigger the device. Oh, which I'm like, how did you guys figure that out? Yeah, that's interesting. was the test that
00:13:31
made that that a thing. I mean, it is very thick, so I guess that makes sense. Viscous. It is. So, once they were
00:13:37
confident that the bomb was a dud, um, investigators transported it back to headquarters for analysis. Now, inside
00:13:44
the pipe, technicians found a large amount of gunpowder and several typical bomb components, including a flashlight
00:13:51
bulb, a battery, and a steel spring, as well as a cough drop. What? which no one could explain why
00:13:59
that cough drop was there. Used or unused. I don't know if that was wrapped or unwrapped. I don't know if they could
00:14:06
tell if that was a used cough drop or not, but yeah. What a cough drop. Why? No one knows to this day. That's
00:14:15
bizarre. Despite having all the right parts and a cough drop to boot, it was clear it was a little bit of something
00:14:23
extra. Just a little spice. Maybe they wanted it to like smell good. Yeah, I guess. I don't know.
00:14:29
I have no idea. Uh, but despite having all the right parts, it was clear to experts that the bomb had been
00:14:34
incorrectly assembled by a very amateur person and was never in danger of exploding at all. Well, that's good
00:14:40
news. Yeah. But while there may have not been any imminent danger, the threat was
00:14:46
very real and investigators needed to identify the maker of the device before he improved on his technique. I was
00:14:53
going to say before he got better. Yeah. and and struck again because if they do
00:14:57
it once, of course they could do it again. Well, and especially if he knows it didn't go off. Yeah. Now he's going
00:15:01
to be pissed. Now, in 1940, Consolidated Edison was one of the largest employers
00:15:06
in Manhattan with thousands of employees, many of whom worked in the building where the bomb was found. Also,
00:15:13
as the primary supplier of electricity for the whole region, the company served millions of customers. That's basically
00:15:20
it was clear that whoever left the bomb had clearly a grudge with this company. But that fact alone didn't narrow the
00:15:27
pool of suspects down at all cuz remember we got thousands of employees and millions of customers. Yeah. Now
00:15:35
further complicating the whole thing was the fact that Coned was a conglomerate of several smaller companies operating
00:15:42
under like one umbrella all operating in different parts of the city. Okay. That
00:15:48
means that even if police did want to take the time to comb through all their administrative records, it could have
00:15:54
been literally years before they found anything that could help them, if they found anything at all. Right. Um, so
00:16:00
because of that, the incident report was written up and filed and no one really gave it a thought. The bomb incident
00:16:06
report. Yeah. They were just like, well, that happened. Now, in late September 1941, nearly a year after this first
00:16:13
bomb was discovered at the Coned building, passerbys noticed something strange lying in the road a few blocks
00:16:20
away from the Coned building at Fort Irving Place. It was stuffed inside a red wool sock with a 4-in length of pipe
00:16:28
with both ends capped. Okay. Just as they' done before, police officers called the bomb squad and the device was
00:16:34
removed and determined to be a dud. Damn, this guy sucks. Then it was taken back to headquarters for analysis.
00:16:41
There was no note with this one, but to the members of the bomb squad, the device was immediately recognizable as
00:16:47
being the work of whoever had left the bomb at Coned the previous year. Was there another cough drop? Inside, they
00:16:52
found the same ingredients as the previous bomb. All assembled in the same way. And another cough drop. Called it
00:17:01
cough drop. What? Cough drop number two. Does he ever say why? We're at a loss. God damn. Now, given
00:17:10
that the bomb was assembled the same exact way as the previous one, including the weird [ __ ] cough drop. I was
00:17:16
going to say random ingredients and all. Like, that's the thing that's really nailing it. And then it was discovered
00:17:21
around the corner of the ConEd building. Investigators were like, "Yeah, this is
00:17:25
the same guy." Equally disturbing was the fact that a year had passed and the bomber still appeared intent on bombing
00:17:32
the Coned building. That's commitment. Yeah. This time though, they theorized that he had been on his way to the
00:17:38
building and was interrupted or maybe diverted and chose to drop the explosive in the street and abandoned his plan.
00:17:45
Okay. Within days of finding the explosive in the street, letters started arriving at the Coned headquarters as
00:17:51
well as newspaper editorial desks, hotels, and department stores around the city. The letters were pretty short,
00:17:59
pretty vague, mostly alluding to um you know quote dastardly deeds and ghoulish acts that the power uh power company had
00:18:09
committed and uh demanding quote justice for wrongs perpetrated against the writer of the notes and others. Uh these
00:18:17
notes were mostly handprinted in that same like very blocky handwriting. Mh. Um, but that some were typewritten
00:18:25
though, like there wasn't it wasn't consistent throughout. Okay. And the clauses were all separated by dashes
00:18:31
rather than commas or periods. Okay. All the notes were written on the same plain
00:18:36
white paper. There was no identifying information about the sender other than the initials FP. Huh. And many contained
00:18:44
illusions to or outright threats of another bomb coming. A few months later, on December 7th, 1941, the Japanese
00:18:53
attacked the Pearl Harbor military base in Honolulu, Hawaii. I'm sure we all know about that. That's where I was
00:18:58
born. This effectively drew the American military into World War II. Not long after that attack on Pearl Harbor, the
00:19:06
usual round of recipients of FP letters received a new note. Although the latest
00:19:11
letter included the usual vague threats and you know claims of injustice, the sender also seemed to understand that
00:19:17
with the entire country preoccupied with the nation's you know now forceful entry
00:19:22
into a world war, there was very little chance that he was going to get the kind
00:19:27
of attention that he was so craving here. Um so he was like, you know what, I'm going to let somebody else have
00:19:33
their moment right now. He said, "I will make no more bombs units for the duration of the war. My patriotic
00:19:41
feelings have made me decide this. Later, I will bring the Coned to justice. They will pay for their
00:19:46
dastardly deeds." Like, that doesn't feel very patriotic. Yeah, that feels pretty rough. It's killing your fellow
00:19:51
man. To everyone's surprise, though, he remained true to his word, and there were no other bombs or letters from FP
00:19:58
in the years that followed. Interesting. The war raged on across Europe and the nation's attention was obviously he was
00:20:05
right. They were consumed by fighting. Yeah. And New York forgot kind of all about FP and his grudge against you know
00:20:13
the whole Coned building and employees and company as a whole. But FP, he was not giving up on this mission. He was
00:20:20
lurking. Yeah. And he did not have any intention of being forgotten. Just before 5:30 p.m. on the afternoon
00:20:27
of March 29th, 1951, the peak of rush hour at Grand Central Station, an explosive device detonated.
00:20:36
Oh no. In a cigarette urn placed outside the entrance to the Grand Central Oyster
00:20:41
Bar. It sent sand, cigarette butts, and other debris flying in all directions. Oh. Despite being placed on one of the
00:20:48
lower levels by track 27, there were no passerbys when the bomb went off. Wow. That's and no one was hit. That's
00:20:55
amazing. Inside this pipe bomb, he had packed nuts and bolts in there, too. Oh wow. Which is what like some of these
00:21:02
[ __ ] do. Like the Boston bombing is one of the ones that obviously very much sticks out to us. They put all
00:21:10
this like [ __ ] horrific shrapnel in it. Damage. Yeah. So since the bomb had already detonated by the time the police
00:21:19
came to Grand Central Station, there was no need for the bomb squad. But investigators still had little evidence
00:21:25
to work with and initially attributed the incident to boys or pranksters. Y'all, I'm sorry.
00:21:33
Bomb is not pranksters. Yeah, I was I don't know about all that. Yeah, the remains of the device were turned over
00:21:38
to the bomb squad for analysis, but nearly a decade had passed since the bombs were discovered at the Coned
00:21:44
building at this point. Wow. And this time, no one recognized the pipes and their various components because it had
00:21:50
kind of gone out of everyone's minds. Even if someone had recalled the bomb discoveries back in 1941, it's unlikely
00:21:57
they would have made, you know, the connection here because this latest bomb, one, it went off. So that's
00:22:03
different from the other two. It also contained no gunpowder, but instead contained just one 25 caliber round that
00:22:11
was rigged to a mechanism that would discharge at a predetermined time and it would send the shrapnel out in all
00:22:18
directions. So, he has obviously upped his game, right? It is a remarkable event that nobody was walking by,
00:22:26
especially like you said, like peak traffic time at Grand Central Station. Amazing. Right next to track 27. I can't
00:22:32
believe that nobody was hit. Veterans on the bomb squad, however, would likely have recognized one thing. A cough drop.
00:22:40
One cough drop contained in the pipe. [ __ ] I just Googled it and I couldn't find anything about why he did that.
00:22:46
Why? No one knows why. But by that time it had been disintegrated with the rest of the internal components. So they
00:22:53
wouldn't have been able to see it anyways. Oh yeah. But we know that it was there because we know it's the same
00:22:59
guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the bomb at Grand Central failed to achieve much notice by the police or the press
00:23:05
because they were kind of chalking it up to like which I'm like what kind of [ __ ] team running around New York
00:23:10
back then for real. Um, and the second bomb that detonated after this one, because there was another one, didn't
00:23:18
receive a lot of attention either. It detonated inside a phone booth in the basement of the New York Public Library.
00:23:25
I would call that a big deal. Yeah. Like the one at Grand Central Station, the second bomb caused no injuries, luckily,
00:23:31
and barely registered with anyone, earning a few paragraphs pretty deep in the pages of the New York Times that
00:23:37
day. But wouldn't everybody be like, "Hey, it seems like two bombings like could be related." But still, this time
00:23:45
the bombings were different. They didn't cause much damage or harm to anyone, but
00:23:49
that was only because no one had been unfortunate enough to be around when they went off. If they were, it would
00:23:54
cause massive damage. Had anyone been near either when they detonated, they would have I don't think they would have
00:24:01
survived. I really don't. They would it would be very lethal. That meant that although the police didn't know it at
00:24:07
the time, FP had become, like we were just talking about, more skilled and sophisticated as a bomb maker in the
00:24:14
decades since he had started doing this, which makes sense. He's obviously been studying how to do this for years, which
00:24:19
like why the [ __ ] is he still doing this? And in August, FP struck again with another bomb at Grand Central
00:24:27
Station. A little past 900 p.m. on the night of August 27th, a bomb went off in a phone booth on the west concourse.
00:24:35
Like the earlier bombs, this one caused some damage, but no injuries. This is remarkable. It is remarkable.
00:24:43
The Grand Central bomb was followed a few weeks later by another bomb. This one placed in a phone booth in the lobby
00:24:50
of the Coned offices at Fort Irving Place. If that doesn't raise some eyebrows. Yeah. The bomb exploded and
00:24:57
caused some damage to the lobby, but because it was detonated at 6:15 a.m., the only person in the building was a
00:25:04
night watchman and he wasn't in the lobby when it went off. So, it's missing like any per It's like really remarkable
00:25:11
cuz it's not like he's doing that on purpose. Like you were the first one when he came back again was high traffic
00:25:16
time. He's putting them in phone booths. Like, yeah, it's not like he's going out
00:25:20
of his way to Yeah, that's the thing. He's also putting shrapnel in them. So obviously he does want to hurt damage
00:25:27
and and like you said he's putting them in places where people would be. They just happen to not be there. It's like
00:25:32
really wild. Um so yeah, in fact the damage had been so minimal and mostly confined to the phone booth, the night
00:25:40
watchmen didn't even bother to call the police right away and waited several hours before even reporting it. Okay,
00:25:46
that's a bad plan because there could be more. Yeah, that's wild. Where there's one bomb, as we find out, there's many.
00:25:52
So the bombs all were pretty similar in their construction. So one investigator or a few investigators were believing
00:25:59
that they probably were in constructed and placed by the same individual. But because the bombs at Grand Central, the
00:26:05
public library, and Coned appeared to have been detonated at the at a time when they were like cuz that's the
00:26:12
thing. It's like he put them in places where people would be but he detonates them at times where people won't be
00:26:19
there or not a lot of people will be there. like 6:15 a.m. But what about the hight traffic one? That's the one that
00:26:25
it's like that one, you know, that stands out. Yeah, that one stands out. But a few of the other ones, it almost
00:26:31
looked like they were almost put to cause cuz they there's like conflicting ideas here because it's like there's
00:26:38
shrapnel in them. It looks like there's clearly a they're wanting to hurt someone, but then the times that a lot
00:26:44
of them are placed or detonated, I should say, are interesting. Okay. you know. Yeah, cuz it's it is crazy that
00:26:53
they're not getting anyone, like they're not hurting anyone. Um, investigators assumed because of this that maybe it
00:27:01
was like a prank and they were detonating it on purpose when people wouldn't be there to cause damage and
00:27:07
like chaos, but not hurt anyone. Okay. So, they were so convinced that the bombs were the work of an quote adult
00:27:14
prankster that they were reluctant to provide any details to the press, saying it would just build up the ego of the
00:27:21
nut who did it. Okay, I guess I sort of get that. I can kind of see where they're coming from. And again, this is
00:27:27
like the 1950s, so like, you know, yeah, a little different. Regardless of what they told the press in private,
00:27:33
investigators on the bomb squad were at least somewhat concerned on of the bombs. like investigators
00:27:40
are kind of like they're at odds a little bit of what this actually is. Mhm. In each case, the bombs did get
00:27:46
slightly larger and more sophisticated. So again, this is kind of showing or suggesting that like the bomber who is
00:27:53
doing this is really learning as he goes and he's like keeping up with his, you know, telage of trying to figure out how
00:28:02
to do this better and better. Uh-huh. Um, and he's getting better at it. And in the report on the second bomb at
00:28:08
Grand Central Station, the technician wrote, quote, "This is a well- constructed mechanism. It shows
00:28:14
considerable advance in technique as compared with the earlier bombs. Also, because the bombs were clearly created
00:28:21
in place by the same person, it was impossible for the bomb squad to ignore the reality that they were dealing with
00:28:26
a serial bomber, and it was only a matter of time before someone was going to get hurt. Regardless of whether
00:28:32
that's the intention or not, it's going to happen. It's just the way that this all works. A month later on October
00:28:38
22nd, the bomber struck again. This time in a bathroom at the Paramount Theater.
00:28:44
Fortunately, the bomb was discovered before it was detonated. Oh, that's good. And the bomb squad was able to
00:28:50
disassemble it without much trouble. But that right there, that there was intent.
00:28:54
Feels like there was Well, once you realize who he is, you're like, "Okay." Uh like the other devices, the bomb was
00:29:00
constructed with a roughly 4 inch long pipe containing a 25 caliber shell with that mechanism. Small amount of
00:29:07
gunpowder. At the time, roughly 3,500 patrons were in the theater one floor above watching a show. Wow. So this
00:29:16
would have caused massive casualties or at least massive damage. Yeah. And so like that one was like, oh [ __ ] So,
00:29:24
just as police were investigating the scene at the Paramount, the editor of the New York Herald Tribune received a
00:29:30
letter by Special Delivery. Inside was a letter written in block lettering that said, "Bombs will continue until the
00:29:37
Consolidated Edison Company is brought to justice for their dastardly acts against me. I have exhausted all other
00:29:44
means. I intend with bombs to cause others to cry out for justice for me." But you're not telling anybody what
00:29:50
happened. You're not telling anyone what happened. You're going to hurt someone.
00:29:55
So, no one's going to speak. And now you want these people that you're trying to
00:29:57
harm or inconvenience at the very least to cry out for you. Your That's what I mean. Your thinking is a little
00:30:05
scattered. Motive isn't making a lot of sense. The note confirmed that FP had planted the bomb at the Paramount, but
00:30:11
it also made reference to a second bomb in a telephone booth at Penn Station. Oh
00:30:16
[ __ ] It said, "If I don't get justice, I will continue, but with bigger bombs."
00:30:20
Okay. Police spent hours searching Penn Station, but found no sign of a bomb anywhere on the premises and eventually
00:30:28
abandoned the search in the early morning hours. While they may not have discovered a second bomb, the bomber had
00:30:33
made their intentions and motivation pretty clear in the letter, which was published in the Herald Tribune the next
00:30:39
day. With the publication of the letter, the NYPD had to end that whole theory of like
00:30:46
maybe these are just pranksters and we don't want to feed their ego. like they had to end that whole thing. Uh the ser
00:30:51
the city clearly had a serial bomber on their hands and he was clear that he intended to continue this reign of
00:30:58
terror until he got what he wanted which no one really knows how to give him that
00:31:04
cuz nobody knows what happened. Like I want them held I want justice for their dastardly deeds against me which were
00:31:10
what? And you're like cool cool. Can you tell us what those were so we can uh bring them to justice for it? Name them.
00:31:17
Name them. Name them. Name them. Uh, so the letter made clear at least that the bomber had some connection to Coned, but
00:31:26
again, who the [ __ ] are you? Like the it didn't help to identify the sender. If
00:31:32
anything, police found themselves right back to where they were a decade earlier
00:31:35
with a suspect list of millions of employees, former employees, and customers. In the absence of facts,
00:31:42
evidence, anything concrete that they could use, wild theories started to emerge, including the suggestion that
00:31:49
the bomber was operating on a lunar calendar, which led the NYPD to increase manpower
00:31:55
during the full moon. They said it's witches. They said it's werewolf. They said them witches be out here. Them
00:32:02
werewolves are who in Holland. They said, "Oh, that's just Jacob Black. Don't worry about that." They said,
00:32:06
"Bella, where you been, loca? They said, "Bella, where the hell you been, Loca?"
00:32:13
That is one of the most diabolical lines in literary history. Or is it the most genius? I said diabolical. I didn't
00:32:22
say bad. I just said diabolical. Also, there's just quick little side cuz we are who we are and that reminded me
00:32:32
of it. If you're looking for a really funny Tik Tok to watch, let me bring it up. Have you just made me think of it?
00:32:39
Uh, no I haven't. And I meant to tell you you're telling the masses before you tell your sister. Uh, you should all
00:32:45
follow this person because she is belly bunny punny. And what she's doing is she
00:32:52
does um recreations of what it's like to be in the boardroom during the making of
00:32:58
all the Twilight movies. Oh my god, that's iconic. Her name is Ellie Collins following right now. Um, and it's uh her
00:33:05
like thing on Tik Tok is E L L I E Collins, like C O L L I N with four S's. She is so [ __ ] funny. And all the
00:33:16
things that they go through with those movies, you you will just sit there and be like, "What the [ __ ] were we doing?"
00:33:22
I just followed her. I love it. I love it so much. So, go check her out. She's really funny. Um, she also did a whole
00:33:29
series of all of Taylor Swift's exes listening to her new songs as they came out. Oh, I think those have come up on
00:33:36
my page before. She did look familiar. She's real funny. Uh, but yeah. So, Bella, where the hell you been, Loca?
00:33:41
Uh, so, well, they so they they put more people on on the full moon because you got to try everything, you know? You
00:33:48
should just have more people on the full moon all the time, which is be crazy. People be wild on We're a huge percent
00:33:53
water. It's true. There you go. We're a huge percent. We're a huge percent water. It's like 86 or something. I
00:33:59
don't know. It's pretty impressive. It's pretty impressive how water we are. You
00:34:03
know, we do be a lot of water. Are we the ocean? I don't know. So, the tides are within. While they while they seemed
00:34:10
willing to entertain any theory at this point, regardless of how serious it seemed, investigators in the NYPD and on
00:34:18
the bomb squad knew the type of panic that a serial bomber was going to instill in the public and they just
00:34:24
wanted to stop him because now people are it's going to be hard for people to live their lives normally here,
00:34:30
especially in New York City. And they didn't care what the method was. They just wanted to stop this guy. That's not
00:34:34
great. In early November, police arrested 56-year-old former Coned employee Frederick Eberhart in
00:34:41
connection with a hoax bomb that was sent to Coned a few weeks earlier. Okay. Based on his employee file, um Frederick
00:34:49
fit the profile of the man investigators were looking for. Uh the district attorney told reporters he had been
00:34:55
sending simulated bombs around the city the past few months. Rude. Yeah. During his arraignment on November 7th, the
00:35:01
prosecution alleged that Frederick had sent a package to Edwin Jennings, the head of personnel at Coned, which
00:35:08
contained what Jennings believed was another pipe bomb. But when they inspected it, the pipe contained nothing
00:35:14
more than white sugar. Oh. According to company records, Frederick was fired by Coned in 1948 for quote stealing
00:35:22
material and was tried and ultimately acquitted. Following his acquitt, Frederick sued
00:35:28
Coned for $75,000 in damages, alleging false arrest, and the case was still pending trial at the time. Despite him
00:35:37
being a very strong suspect, his wife loudly protested his arrest and was very against him be admitted to Belleview for
00:35:45
AD evaluation, saying, quote, "This arrest is an outrage. He never sent those things. He couldn't hurt a fly."
00:35:51
Oh. If the NYPD hoped Frederick's arrest would put an end to the bomb threats of
00:35:56
the recent months, they were very disappointed very quickly. So, were they scapegoating him a bit? Just a few days
00:36:01
after Frederick's arrest was announced in the papers, the bomb squad received an anonymous call reporting that bombs
00:36:07
had been planted at the Capitol Theater on Broadway and a Roman Catholic church on East 28th Street. Oh no. While the
00:36:15
bomb squad found no bombs in either location, later that evening, a pipe bomb was detonated at the subway station
00:36:23
in Union Square, sending shrapnel through a row of metal lockers. Once again, no one was hurt.
00:36:33
This is bizarre, isn't it? It's incredible. Wonderfully bizarre that no one's getting hurt here, but like
00:36:39
bizarre. Yeah. Wild. And FP, he wasted no time claiming credit. sending a letter to the editor of the Herald
00:36:46
Tribune. He said, "To Herald Tribune editors, have you noticed the bombs in your city? If you are worried, I am
00:36:52
sorry. And also, if anyone is injured, but it cannot be helped, for justice will be served. I am not well, and for
00:36:59
this I will make the Con Edison sorry. Yes, they will regret their dastardly deeds. I will bring them before the bar
00:37:05
of justice. Public opinion will condemn them. For beware, I will place more units under theater seats in the near
00:37:12
future." Oh. It was clear from the recent bombings that Frederick Eberhard was not the
00:37:17
bomber. And on May 15th, 1952, a court dismissed the charges against him, which forced the NYPD to admit that there was
00:37:25
still very much a serial bomber loose somewhere in the city. Mhm. So, the bomber struck three times in 1952. Once
00:37:33
in a phone booth at the Port Authority bus terminal and twice at the Lexington Theater. That at the Lexington Theater,
00:37:40
it was bombs left under random seats. It was in the second bombing at the Lexington on December 8th that someone
00:37:47
was finally injured. Oh no. A woman sitting in the same row where the bombs were placed during a showing of
00:37:53
everything I have is yours was struck by flying shards of metal shrapnel and it caused several laugh lacerations on her
00:38:00
feet and legs. Oh. Uh but she did live. That's good. But like what a horrible thing to happen. You're just sitting in
00:38:06
a movie theater. Yeah. During this period, the NYPD and the investigators on the bomb squad were releasing little
00:38:11
if any information to the public about the bombings. So, which it's like maybe they should have and maybe people
00:38:17
wouldn't have gone to the movies. Exactly. So, the details of the bombings between 1952 and 1954 are kind of
00:38:23
limited. Okay. On March 10th, 1953, smack dab in the middle, a bomb was planted in one of the seat cushions in
00:38:30
the 16 6,000 seat Radio City Music Hall. Oh [ __ ] Ever heard of it? Yeah, Paige
00:38:37
and Hannah sold that [ __ ] out, [ __ ] Yeah, the same one. The spectators were about halfway through the movie when the
00:38:43
bomb went off. Oh my. Causing panic and chaos among this very large crowd. At the request of the NYPD, the incident
00:38:50
was minimized by the press the following day with several papers ignoring it altogether. Uh, Radio City Musical. The
00:38:58
[ __ ] How do you ignore that? The Herald Tribune, who had received many of the bombers letters, referred to the bomb as
00:39:04
quote, "the work of a psychopath." Fair. While others used like very dismissive language to kind of minimize the danger.
00:39:11
Uh, I would say that was pretty [ __ ] dangerous. A few months later, when a bomb exploded in a luggage locker at
00:39:17
Grand Central Station in early May, a police spokesperson was similarly dismissive, telling the press, quote,
00:39:23
"The culprit was a mental case in search of publicity." It's like, yeah, but bombs keep going off in various
00:39:29
locations, so maybe we should do something and find that person. It's like, my friends, I'm not here debating
00:39:35
what's happening in his noggin. Yeah. I'm here saying that like he's setting off bombs around the city, so like maybe
00:39:42
just stop that, right? Instead of just being like, he's just a nut. He's just cry cry. Yeah, he's he's a [ __ ]
00:39:47
brilliant nut who's making scary, dangerous bombs that have hurt at least one person, right? And it's shocking
00:39:53
that they haven't hurt anybody else. The minimal press coverage was an offense to
00:39:58
the bomber, too. And it's like they should have thought of that this guy is looking for attention clearly. And I
00:40:05
know that it's like it's a hard line to walk. That's the thing. It's kind of like, you know, Zodiac and, you know,
00:40:11
Jack the Ripper. It's like when they're looking for the attention, you don't want to give it to them. But you also
00:40:16
don't want to set it off anymore. So it's like I can't say that I would know how to handle this, you know, as like an
00:40:24
investigator and what to tell the press and especially again during this time period. Exactly. This is a very new type
00:40:30
of mind they're dealing with. Exactly. And he so he started sending outraged letters to the editorial departments of
00:40:36
the city's major papers. That's scary. In a letter to the editor and staff of New York Herald Tribune, "Unless sloppy
00:40:43
or no reporting is corrected about bombings, public will get information by way of Moscow." Get this into your
00:40:50
heads. The Consolidated Edison Company will be brought to justice. All of my physical, mental, and financial
00:40:56
sufferings will be paid for in full. You know that bombs are getting bigger. So far, the hand of God has spared everyone
00:41:03
from death or serious injury. Believe me, I know. In the press now and then I am called a bad name. Just what name
00:41:11
fits you people who denied me the purchase of space to tell my story? You who are too yellow to print the facts
00:41:18
which concern the safety of so many. I'm bewildered by your attitude. I can only
00:41:23
respond with more and larger bombs. Every day that passes means a day closer to another bomb. Yikes.
00:41:31
He's scary. It's very scary. And upping the ante. and again is not telling anyone what the [ __ ] happened and how
00:41:39
they can fix it. Yeah. And he's literally saying like the hand of God has spared people from not getting hurt.
00:41:46
That wasn't my intention, right? Which like he was kind of alluding not to that before, but now he's just being like,
00:41:51
"Oh, that's that's just happen stance." Yeah. Which is scary. And it almost sounds like he like he went to them and
00:41:59
tried to get his story about what happened at at the con place out and they said no. Yeah. Which is like
00:42:05
strange cuz I'm like what the [ __ ] Do we find out what happened to him? We find out the So we'll find we'll we'll
00:42:11
find out more in part two. We're actually going to stop there because if there's going to be buttad after that
00:42:16
that uh letter to the New York uh Tribune there, the Herald Tribune, it's another year that passes without any new
00:42:23
bombs. Interesting. Yeah. And then it does return. Oh no. So we're going to talk about that in part two. All right.
00:42:32
Yeah. in this is an interesting case. I've never heard anything about this one before. Yeah, this is a very very
00:42:39
interesting. It's strange and yeah, it's so strange like and it's like it almost
00:42:46
seems like the plot of a movie instead of like a real thing that happened. But I I really am curious if like any of you
00:42:52
are from New York or like you know have are like native New Yorkers who have like family that were around at this
00:42:57
time. I'd be curious to hear if they they'll tell you like what it was like Yeah. to be around because it's like my
00:43:05
mom was like living in Boston with girlfriends when the Boston strangler was tooting around like an apartment
00:43:11
together like on his route and they had like things in place. I think we talked about it in the episode too him like tin
00:43:19
cans like aluminum cans on top of each other in front of the door so that if it opened it would fall over and alert them
00:43:25
cuz their apartment door she said you could open with like a credit card. Credit card. Yeah. It was like that
00:43:29
janky. It's crazy. So, I'd be I'm curious to see if any of you can get any like cool stories out of family members.
00:43:36
Let us know. Yeah. And um if you want to write them in, we would love to share them. So, just let us know if we have
00:43:40
permission. Yeah, definitely. Um wow. I'm very interested to hear part two. Very interesting story. So, with that
00:43:46
being said, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But that's weird that you don't write in
00:43:52
your stories if you have them because now I'm so into Asante. Do it. Bye bye. [Music]
00:44:11
[Music] [Music]