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Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259

November 28, 2018 / 01:03:08

This episode covers the tragic story of Wayne Gravette, who was killed by a bomb disguised as a flashlight in December 1996. The discussion includes details about the investigation, the bomb's construction, and the potential motives behind the attack.

Wayne Gravette, born in Ontario, Canada, worked in the bottling industry and had a tumultuous personal life. He was married to Diane and had two children, Justin and Danielle. The family lived a secluded lifestyle, and Wayne was known for his abrasive personality in business.

On December 12, 1996, Wayne received a package containing a bomb disguised as a flashlight. When he attempted to turn it on, it exploded, killing him instantly in front of his family. The investigation revealed that the bomb was carefully constructed to avoid detection and was sent through the mail.

Detective Paul Johnson led the investigation, which included examining Wayne's business associates and tracking the package's origins. The letter accompanying the bomb was typed and contained clues that hinted at the sender's identity, but ultimately led to no solid leads.

The episode highlights the complexities of the case, including the bomb's construction, the investigation's challenges, and the psychological profile of the potential perpetrator.

TLDR

Wayne Gravette was killed by a bomb disguised as a flashlight in 1996, leading to a complex investigation into the motive and sender.

Episode

1:03:08
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [Music] [Music] with the approaching holiday comes gifts
00:04:02
gifts handed out at work or pass from hand to hand sitting around a Christmas tree gifts wrapped with love and sent
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off mailed to an old friend or distant family member and who Among Us does not love a neatly wrapped package complete
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with decoration arriving at our homes and address to our name in December of 1996 in Ontario Canada Wayne grette
00:04:30
received a gift unexpectedly the package was neatly prepared delivered to his mailbox and
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brought into his home a letter accompanied the package Wayne opened the box with his family surrounding him and
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he discovered a large duracel flashlight Inside the Box Wayne took a look at it and tried
00:04:56
the on switch but nothing happened Wayne's son Justin then tried turning the flashlight on but again
00:05:04
nothing happened Wayne grabbed the flashlight from his son and walked over to the sofa
00:05:10
in the family room and sat down he tried the on switch one more time and boom the
00:05:17
flashlight exploded spraying the room with roofing nails shattering the window and knocking Justin and his mother to
00:05:25
the floor Justin got up and ran to the phone and he called 911 Poli fire ambulance my was a bomb on my dad blew
00:05:37
up me there was a bomb and my dad just blew up where about I'm in R1 Mor R1 okay stay on the line stay on the line
00:05:49
oh my God he's blowing up the flashlight bomb killed Wayne Gravette right there in front of his
00:05:56
family who would do something so coward artist to this man and his family was this the work of some type of assassin a
00:06:05
contract killer or simply someone that hated this man so much so that they sent an improvised exploding device through
00:06:13
the Canadian postal service to Wayne's home with the intent to kill this is the tragic story of Wayne
00:06:22
Gravette and the bomb that took his life [Music] Wayne was born on January 4th 1954 in
00:06:46
Ontario Canada now there's not a great amount of detail that is known about his early life but we do know Wayne started
00:06:54
working for the 7Up Bottling Company when he was just 18 he became an an expert in the mechanical side of the
00:07:01
bottling industry fixing and installing Machinery conveyor belts and assembly line equipment from there Wayne moved on
00:07:10
to Surge packaging and Machinery a company located in Acton onario the company sold installed and repaired
00:07:18
equipment for bottling businesses in both Canada and the US so this is a very large company Wayne worked there for
00:07:27
many years but was no longer with Serge when he was murdered now regarding his personal life Wayne met Diane when they
00:07:36
were young she was just 15 and he was 19 Diane's home life wasn't great and as Diane puts it Wayne got her out of a bad
00:07:45
situation so the two moved in together when Diane was just 16 and they got married the following year they ended up
00:07:52
having two kids Danielle and Justin Wayne's wife and kids tell the story of a man who was a great father he loved
00:08:01
his kids and Diane and Wayne seemed to embrace a secluded lifestyle Diane says they had a few friends and the rest of
00:08:09
the people in their lives were business acquaintances Diane says Wayne was controlling and domineering but she
00:08:16
loved him very much the two were a team but Wayne while an adoring father on the
00:08:22
home front he was abrasive and confrontational at times when it came to business Diane said quote Wayne was
00:08:29
mouthy and cocky end quote detective Paul Johnson says Wayne was the kind of person who told people what he thought
00:08:36
and he had altercations with several people Wayne was also a man's man he wrote a Harley and played poker the few
00:08:44
friends he did have were mostly hard drinking Blue Collar buddies that he met in the bottling industry Diane says
00:08:51
Wayne was away a lot for work and sometimes did not come home at night after drinking with the guys and he was
00:08:58
not the best husband he had affairs and Diane says they had fights sometimes bad ones he hadn't he
00:09:06
had a temper but she loved him he loved her and they were a family both Wayne and Diane were employees of Serge for
00:09:14
quite a while but in 1993 Wayne had a falling out with and left the company so Wayne and Diane started up his own
00:09:22
bottling equipment company a secretary Lisa from surge came to work with them they named the DNL after Diane and Lisa
00:09:32
this was depending on who you talk to Captain there's mixed reviews on this company so most of the reviews on this
00:09:40
seem like it was a fairly successful company while I have found others that state that the company had problems that
00:09:47
they were never really making a whole bunch of money and were having trouble staying afloat well there's also a lot
00:09:52
of rumors that he was taking jobs and taking payments for jobs and never completing them that he might might have
00:09:59
been conducting bad business right let's say in 1996 the gravettes bought a 104 Acre Farm in Moffet Ontario at this time
00:10:10
DNL wasn't doing very well this property has a natural spring large enough that they could use the spring as a source
00:10:18
for a bottled water business with Wayne's expertise and access to bottling equipment and supplies they decided to
00:10:26
make a go for it they moved to the farm sometime around June of 96 and apparently they loved it there Wayne set
00:10:34
up a shop in the barn and started bottling and selling water now let's talk about the events of December 12th
00:10:42
1996 the farm is in mafit this area is about 35 miles from Toronto but while Toronto is a huge city mfet is quite
00:10:53
rural the farm had a long dirt driveway and a mailbox at the end of this drive driveway for the family's mail Diane and
00:11:01
Wayne's 21-year-old son Justin was home on the farm that day his sister Danielle
00:11:07
was not she was out with a boyfriend Justin went out around midday to get diesel fuel for one of the vehicles and
00:11:15
on his way out he stopped at the mailbox there he found a package wrapped in white paper decorated with ribbon and
00:11:22
address to Mr Wayne grette RR number one Moffet Ontario Lop 1j0 Justin put the package in his
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vehicle drove to town got gas and returned home when he returned his dad was in the barn eventually Wayne joined
00:11:41
the rest of the family in the house around 1: p.m. along with Justin and Diane there was also Wayne's brother I
00:11:48
couldn't find the name of Wayne's brother standing in the kitchen Wayne opened the package the first thing he
00:11:55
saw was an envelope that said Merry Christmas Wayne perused the letter it was a business
00:12:03
proposal Inside the Box were crumpled up flyers from various advertisers placed Inside the Box this was used as likely
00:12:12
padding right after removing the papers Wayne pulled out a large Duracell flashlight so this is a bulky flashlight
00:12:19
with a handle on it yeah and we'll post all these pictures on our Instagram at True Crime garage Dwayne flicked on the
00:12:26
power switch but nothing happened so Justin took the flashlight and tried the button as well but the light did not
00:12:32
come on he tried to open up the battery compartment but couldn't it seemed like it was glued or fastened shut Wayne took
00:12:40
the flashlight back moving into the family room and sitting down on the sofa he then tried the switch again and the
00:12:46
room exploded they called 911 immediately after the explosion you heard a portion of that call during our
00:12:54
trailer the trauma and fear in Diane's voice is palpable she's she's screaming the flashlight was a cleverly disguised
00:13:02
bomb the interior of the flashlight was filled with explosives that were sparked
00:13:07
by the activation of the on switch packed around the explosives were a large number of roofing nails the nails
00:13:15
did exactly what they were intended to do they sprayed Wayne in the area around him the front of Wayne's body including
00:13:23
his face basically blew up blood sprayed all over the walls Windows shattered Nails flew through the drywall and into
00:13:31
other rooms even embedding in the ceiling yeah he basically lost everything from his face down to his
00:13:38
thighs I hate to paint this unfortunate picture but you have to picture for a second the man sitting there on the sofa
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the flashlight basically in his lap and he's looking down at the flashlight when
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this bomb goes off so he absorbed almost all of the blast according to investigators he died
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instantly let's talk about the investigation Captain so when the police arrived they found the family room
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covered in debris broken furniture and glass were everywhere Wayne's body was still lying on the couch now covered
00:14:15
with a blanket and his family was in hysterics the Ontario Police they closed off the scene and sent the family
00:14:24
Elsewhere for questioning detective Paul Johnson of the homicide unit was put in
00:14:29
charge of the investigation processing the scene took several days police gathered the names
00:14:36
of business associates and colleagues of Wayne's and started looking through his
00:14:40
business banking travel and phone records and the package that was holding the bomb it was confirmed that was
00:14:47
delivered through the mail but also the box was a wine box as well right mhm yeah the mail carrier her name is Joyce
00:14:54
said that her and her daughter and small grandson were in her her mail truck that
00:15:00
day helping with packages and deliveries on her route she remembered the package
00:15:04
to Wayne because of a pretty ribbon that was on this package she also noted that
00:15:09
the package fitted it fit exactly into the mailbox Joyce was still out on her route when she heard the sirens but she
00:15:19
didn't discover what had actually happened until the following day when she arrived at the post office which was
00:15:24
now crawling with cops okay so captain what kind of evidence can we collect from the packaging first it had a large
00:15:33
number of stamps on it amounting to extra postage so it would appear that someone wanted to make sure that this
00:15:40
wouldn't get returned that they put more than enough to guarantee that it would be delivered of course you're not going
00:15:46
to want a package that's a bomb to be returned to you well and unfortunately no DNA was found on the stamps or the
00:15:53
packaging well also something with the packaging the box that it held in like I said was was wine so you wonder he's in
00:16:01
the Distributing business is there somebody that distributes wine that would have access to this box to put the
00:16:08
bomb in well this is a red and cream colored cardboard box from a cheap brand of red wine a a Cabernet uh the box is
00:16:18
sort of Flowery with a vase and red blooms on it yeah but I believe there's some numbers that are scratched off the
00:16:25
box to kind of hide the identity of where the box came from or where this wine would come from well I don't know
00:16:32
about scratched off but the the UPC number or the barcode that would be on the box uh which could have likely told
00:16:40
us where the wine was purchased or maybe even to whom it was sold this was cut off okay uh it had been removed from the
00:16:48
box so this perpetrator was was smart enough to take the effort to do this uh police would ultimately comb through the
00:16:56
purchase history records of all of the liquor stores in the area close to the gretes farm to try to determine who
00:17:03
bought this wine but they came up with nothing so well this well this also makes it a lot more difficult too
00:17:10
because since it's mailed you got to figure out how far away was this mailed from right and you know here's another
00:17:19
thought here though too Captain this box simply could have been from a recycling
00:17:23
bin or trash bin rather than a purchase right uh making it even less Trace if not traceable you know not traceable at
00:17:31
all well and I wonder if there's some thing where if you cut off uh the UPC or whatever if there was some like collect
00:17:38
your upcs and you get free wine or whatever so like you said could have been found in the trash or found in a
00:17:45
recycling bin and it was the actual owner of the box that cut off the UPC and not some clever way to disguise
00:17:52
where it came from possible possible I think it I think it shows the um thorough of the person that mailed the
00:18:00
bomb they did find two hairs under the packaging tape but no root on them and even after mitochondrial DNA testing was
00:18:09
conducted by the FBI no DNA profile was able to be put together investigators theorized that the per deliberately
00:18:17
avoided licking the stamps uh and used excess number of stamps to ensure delivery and stamped it themselves to
00:18:25
avoid taking the package to the post office so putting this into a mailbox and then having it delivered by the
00:18:33
postal service so they could remain anonymous and the package was wrapped in inside out Christmas paper meaning that
00:18:41
the decoration part was facing the box and not to the people opening the box yeah so it's it's hunter green in color
00:18:50
but the white part of the paper is on the outside of the package is what's visible and the address was typed so
00:18:58
now on the inside of that box we talked about the flyers that were crumpled up and used likely for padding yeah these
00:19:06
advertisements yeah so these are crumpled up and they're packed around the flashlight these came from a wide
00:19:13
distribution area in Southern Ontario but one one of these advertisements came from Copeland lumber at 700 Main Street
00:19:22
in nearby Milton and it was only distributed locally yeah but let's Ponder this for a minute is this a
00:19:29
mistake is this a mistake by the person sending the bomb or we're dealing with people that do packaging right and and
00:19:39
they do a lot of traveling was this deliberate like I could grab the ads from here I'll package the bomb I'll
00:19:47
mail it from somewhere else and that will throw them off could be so the situation here though is if somebody's
00:19:55
just grabbing them uh you know if they're grabbing a bunch of them a big stack of these this is this is the
00:20:04
thought that the majority of that stack would be advertisements from all over the place and then we have this one in
00:20:10
the batch that was only distributed in a very small location so it would mean that this
00:20:17
person had some kind of could have had some kind of connection to this nearby town of Milton right but what I'm saying
00:20:25
is this is a business where people travel often so all I'm saying is if you don't live in Milton but you travel
00:20:32
there let's say every two weeks pick up some ads while you're there what do you mean this is a business where we travel
00:20:39
often Wayne is in the business where they right our victim our victim is in the business of traveling often we don't
00:20:45
know who sent this bomb or or what business the Killer is in right but I right but my point is is that that if
00:20:53
you look at the suspects as far as business-wise goes he they're in the same business as Wayne one thing I've
00:21:00
wondered about and I would wager or at least hope that they did look at this Captain is that you know checking
00:21:06
Cumberland Lumber checking that business to try to determine if the nails or even
00:21:12
the flashlight were purchased there right and we should note that Wayne did work in the town of Milton for many
00:21:20
years at uh several companies but I believe that is exactly where that large company surge is located as well right
00:21:28
to me like I said to me it's it's deliberate or it's a mistake and my gut filling thinks this is a mistake me too
00:21:37
because we have one out of many uh that were placed in that and only one the other thing I wonder too well then we'll
00:21:45
Agree to Agree well but the other the other part of that though too is I would think that the individual using this is
00:21:52
padding likely might not know about the distribution or circulation of these fers yeah that's a very good point um
00:22:00
the flashlight of course was obliterated in the blast but it was determined to be
00:22:04
a gray plastic duracel floating Lantern about 23 cm long and 15 C cm tall they call it a lantern because it doesn't
00:22:14
look like a lantern to me it just looks like a big flashlight it was packed with
00:22:20
plastic explosives uh a blasting cap and the nails uh that we talked about so turning it into a powerful concentrated
00:22:28
bomb containing super Frack this is an explosive used in the mining industry for breaking apart rocks or or large
00:22:38
rock this is not a bomb that would go off if you hit it with a hammer or dropped it it requires a trigger which
00:22:46
is why it was wired to the on switch police determined the super Frack was readily available within the mining
00:22:54
industry it could have been purchased through a manufacturer or stolen from a gravel pit or any distributor so I don't
00:23:02
think they were able to track down the source of this explosive now there is debate about the experience level needed
00:23:10
to construct the bomb most investigators uh think that someone could have learned how to put this
00:23:19
together from the Internet or a magazine or a book right so let's talk about the
00:23:25
letter because inside uh a along with the flashlight bomb was this envelope and inside was a letter on the envelope
00:23:34
was handwritten label of Merry Christmas um it's a typed letter inside on simple 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of white
00:23:43
paper yeah how about you start by just reading it straight through okay it says Mr Wayne Gravette Dear Sir my partners
00:23:52
and I are opening a new business sometime early in the new year called act and Home Products
00:23:58
and would be very interested in having you give us a price on rebuilding some equipment you did some work for a
00:24:05
company I was with a few years ago and although you won't remember me Lisa and your delivery man Joe most likely will
00:24:14
we don't plan on doing anything until after the New Year but would be most anxious to proceed at that time we have
00:24:21
no staff or office in place just yet but you can reach us by mail at our new address below thanks for your time and
00:24:30
I'll look forward to hearing from you sometime early in the New Year sincerely William J French acting Home Products RR
00:24:41
number one unit number six Acton Ontario l7g 2n1 PS didn't realize you had moved had
00:24:53
some trouble finding you have a very Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another
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information [Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers now the letter that we just discussed it
00:29:41
was left intact after the blast that's why we know what it said right and there were no fingerprints found on it it was
00:29:49
typed on a Smith Corona electric typewriter which from what I've read is a fairly common
00:29:56
typewriter it would not be easy to identify this as it's too common right well this is also for home use and
00:30:05
office use but the font in the letters was significant yeah the the letter was typed in all caps and experts identified
00:30:15
it as script 1012 font this is not an all business font like you know like Times New Roman
00:30:25
or something like this this is more like a a yeah it's almost like a handwritten
00:30:31
font yes the font was created by inserting a daisy wheel essentially a round disc with letters numbers and
00:30:39
symbols on spokes into the typewriter experts were able to tell police that this Daisy wheel was sold under the
00:30:46
model number 59543 police were optimistic about this Daisy wheel for two reasons one
00:30:54
according to statistics at the time only 2% of people who had this kind of typewriter owned that particular type of
00:31:02
Daisy wheel right two police saw that it contains what appears to be an imperfection in the periods in the
00:31:10
letter so each period is followed by a small slash so it kind of like resembles a
00:31:18
comma this flaw is likely specific to this single one Daisy wheel right so if the writer of the letter use this Daisy
00:31:28
wheel in any other correspondence it it should be able to be identified because it would have the same imperfection now
00:31:36
here here's some some tricky things okay so when you buy like this model of the Smith and Corona right that you can buy
00:31:45
extra Daisy wheels so where it gets a little more complicated is this could have been I
00:31:53
mean they would had to have some knowledge of their electric type writer but uh let's say their original font was
00:32:01
you know Times New Roman right M and they used that for everything but for this one they used just that Daisy wheel
00:32:09
just for this letter that's where it could be a little more complex as far as if they never typed anybody else a
00:32:15
letter using this Daisy wheel then yeah yeah yeah if they were smart enough to just use it this one time and then toss
00:32:23
it yeah CU When you go to buy these back in the day you you would have the option
00:32:29
like it'd be like okay I'll take this you know electric typewriter and then the person would go but you can have all
00:32:35
these different fonts and so people would buy extra Daisy Wheels I wonder if you could buy them anytime like if you
00:32:44
don't have to buy it when you're making the purchase of the typewriter I would think you could buy it at any time I'm
00:32:49
I'm assuming you can and then they're just looking at the straight up statistics of sales and going okay well
00:32:54
x x number of people own the this typewriter or X number of these typewriters have been sold and then X
00:33:01
number of these Daisy Wheels have been sold throughout the year so somebody essentially could have went somewhere
00:33:07
and purchased it with cash right um and not with the actual typewriter and like you said using it once if you were smart
00:33:16
enough or sneaky enough to use it only that one time and then toss it um see I this to me is is the essence of a lot of
00:33:27
these cases that we discuss you have something here that you're like holy crap that's it that's should be
00:33:34
everything that's the thing we've been looking for this is what we can tie our rope to and where we can find our
00:33:39
perpetrator and then at some point you go it just didn't get us there it just didn't get us there could be everything
00:33:47
or it could be nothing yeah I mean for example it's typed in all caps right mhm so law enforcement says said hey well do
00:33:58
we know anybody that you know worked with Wayne or or knew Wayne that just typed this way that threw on all caps
00:34:07
and that's how they sent letters mhm again was this something they did on purpose or was this machine for whatever
00:34:16
reason was the Cap's lock broke and they had to type this way right was was this
00:34:22
something that was deliberate or just a happen stance yes so police did they parsed through all of Wayne's
00:34:30
correspondents and they did ask everyone in the area who conducted business with
00:34:34
Wayne or within the bottling industry to examine their correspondents to look for
00:34:40
this abnor abnormality uh but nothing came of this could the killer have been you know
00:34:46
smart enough to just use it once that's the thing that we we'll never be able to wrap our heads around
00:34:53
until this case is solved now the letter was signed using the name William J French of course there was no such
00:35:01
person and acting Home Products the company name also did not exist the address RR number one unit number six in
00:35:11
Acton also was not a business address it actually was a postal code for a residence now I don't know who lived
00:35:20
there um who lived at this address but it's very safe to say I'm assuming that the op P yeah you know me the police
00:35:29
checked out the resident thoroughly mhm we just don't know whether the killer selected this address at random or if it
00:35:39
holds again if it means anything does it hold any significance yeah and see I wonder if the Acton Home
00:35:48
Products was okay like the first part of the letter right was that set up to let Wayne know who this is coming
00:36:01
from you see what I mean oh yeah like what were the clues because at one point he they also said uh something about uh
00:36:11
Lisa and Joe Lisa Lisa being uh Wayne's basically secretary and business lady and then Joe was a delivery guy they
00:36:22
would know us but you probably don't remember us yeah they the and Lisa might remember me or remember us yeah and I
00:36:30
wonder if that was like a hint at uh you might be having a hard time placing who's sending you this letter but that's
00:36:40
because we gave you money so Lisa knows us and Joe Knows us but you never came to do the job MH I wonder if that's some
00:36:50
some kind of clue there yeah or is it a taunt right and what I mean by that is is a couple
00:36:57
things and and here it's such a petty thing to do because if your intent is to instantaneously blow this guy up then
00:37:08
then it's what is the taunt I don't understand because you're you're cluing him in that so and so might know me or
00:37:15
know us right but then you're signing this with a fictitious name so immediately Wayne if he made it to the
00:37:22
end of the letter is going to go I don't know William J French and we know he wouldn't know that because it's not a
00:37:27
real person well he was a real person we have just no clue if if Wayne knew of this guy if you look up William J French
00:37:37
all it comes to or all I could find is a grave site that was buried he was buried
00:37:42
in Toronto right and someone that passed away well before this incident right so
00:37:48
we we could assume I mean way way before the bombing we could assume that he doesn't know him but is it like some
00:37:55
kind of Clue because if you're sending this bomb it's almost like you sent this letter to get
00:38:01
this message across to Wayne so what in this letter would be a clue for Wayne to
00:38:07
go oh [ __ ] I know who sent this and that's what I mean if it's a taunt it's like a super it's super Petty is what I
00:38:15
mean by this because of a couple of reasons if Wayne reads this letter you know first of all the the
00:38:23
killer the person sending it he's sending it with the intention that will read it if he wants if he wants to taunt
00:38:28
him before killing him but then the thought then too is well what kind of taunt is this if if your thought your
00:38:35
plan your hopes are that he reads it and then he flips on the switch and boom the
00:38:41
flashlight explodes then the taunt is is kind of lost you know what I mean it's almost like if you set out to taunt
00:38:50
Wayne before you kill him I guess are you hoping to that you put just enough in this letter that somebody's name or
00:39:01
face is going to pop into his mind before he turns on the flashlight right you know and because the old [ __ ] I know
00:39:09
this who this Letter's from is not necessarily an old [ __ ] moment because you don't know that the flashlights a
00:39:16
bomb yet you know what I mean like um unless you have some severely bad blood with this individual now of course we
00:39:25
know that it's a bomb so you would think there was some bad blood there but sometimes bad blood is one-sided yeah
00:39:30
where it's like uh I hate you you don't even know I hate you yet there are some interesting things in the letter though
00:39:37
because we have we have a couple of things right so it is addressed specifically to Wayne so this is not uh
00:39:46
we know he is the intended target of the bomb it's not just some random act you know we also know that the the killer
00:39:53
knew enough about Wayne to know what kind of business he was in and that he had recently moved you know and that he
00:40:01
knew employees of Wayne's right and the police believe that that it's likely that the killer was not someone who was
00:40:09
close to Wayne at the time of his death because whoever sent the bomb didn't seem to know Wayne's new address now the
00:40:18
thought here is that this seems likely because one thing that was uncovered was that two men were seen at the Acton
00:40:26
Ontario branch of the post office about a month earlier one man went inside the post office and inquired about where
00:40:34
Wayne lived and oddly the other man asked people outside of the post office this is a a small town so it's not I
00:40:44
guess that strange to ask strangers where someone lives but in order to send something through the mail in Canada you
00:40:51
need the exact postal code for the address and there are over 800 55,000 different postal codes in Canada
00:41:01
yeah well that's compared to the US uh where we have like 42,000 is zip codes yeah well again it's like there's these
00:41:10
like little things that make you think that this is like a clue to him for example um had a hard time finding you
00:41:19
right because of the new address and there was these reports that he was getting phone calls and and Wayne was
00:41:25
telling people hey uh just tell him I'm not here so again was this a situation where he promised to do a job took
00:41:33
payment for a job and he took off and went missing and and then that that person had to track him down to even
00:41:41
figure out where he was at yeah so the the gravettes moved from Acton away to the farm in mafa in June of 1996 this is
00:41:50
19 km away so you have to wonder there they the gravettes once lived in act and these two men were seen at the Acton
00:42:00
Ontario Branch so did these two men assume that Wayne still lived in Acton or never knew his address and only knew
00:42:09
that he lived in that town right so sketches were made of the two men but they have not been able to identify them
00:42:15
so the sketches have led to really nothing I'm sure like we know with most cases a lot of times when you have a
00:42:22
sketch thrown out there that the police end up getting receive and receiving a lot of lookalike calls right hey I know
00:42:29
so and so and you should talk to him well how's he connected to the case well he looks like the guy yeah and then they
00:42:35
look at the guy they talk to him and find out he has absolutely no connection to anything who knows how reliable the
00:42:42
sketches are in the first place you have to wonder because these are composite sketches made using eyewitnesses who had
00:42:49
an unremarkable conversation or conversations with two people inquiring about an address a month before the
00:42:56
happened right all right back to the letter the writer actually knew Wayne's business fairly well and I say this
00:43:05
because in the letter naming Lisa and Joe So Lisa Irvin was the secretary from from surge you had already mentioned her
00:43:14
but she was from The Surge company and she ultimately left the company and started DNL with him and his wife Diane
00:43:22
like I said even though I think the title was more secretary I think knew the books and knew the business very
00:43:28
well oh yeah the interesting thing here though too Captain is Lisa's name is actually spelled
00:43:35
leesa yeah so we don't know if the letter writer actually didn't know this and what I mean by that because in the
00:43:42
letter it's spelled l IA you know the more common way I actually never had seen the name Lisa
00:43:49
spelled l EA is it l l e EA or is it l e e z a or something weird I thought well
00:43:59
I I have her name as as technically being spelled l EA and in the letter it spelled the more common spelling of L
00:44:08
IA so that makes you wonder a couple of things yeah yeah say that you have that right sorry what it doesn't make you
00:44:16
wonder it doesn't there's no way that somebody just has just connects that unless they know that specifically about
00:44:24
Wayne or his company you don't just randomly pick two names and they actually had something to do
00:44:30
with one of his companies and the crazy thing though is if I had only heard that name out loud
00:44:38
you know only heard that name spoken never seen it written never seen it yeah yeah then that's how I'm going to spell
00:44:45
it in my taunting letter that I'm sending along with my bomb right and then the thing with Joe there he was
00:44:52
actually uh joseppi zatic zachik I yeah I think he's technically the delivery driver it sounds like he held several
00:45:02
different roles with this company but but mostly was a delivery man and he did go by Joe so again you have to wonder
00:45:11
like is this just a red herring designed to throw investigators onto the scent of
00:45:16
a a business associate you know someone that would have heard these names aloud Joe Lisa or is this somebody that was
00:45:24
even tighter with Wayne and actually knew these people a little bit you okay this let's just Ponder this for a minute
00:45:32
and try to help me you help me right why send a letter at all it's it's almost like the only point of sending
00:45:43
the letter is to get it into Wayne's head you know who sent this or you send a letter cuz this has nothing to do with
00:45:54
business but you know when Wayne enough where you can make it seem like oh well Wayne would take money for jobs and not
00:46:04
do them and we we have a history of that so if I make this seem like it's connected to Wayne's business then
00:46:11
they're not going to look at me because this is a personal matter so I I went through some old uh bombing cases that
00:46:19
were later solved and trying to add some psychology to even the packaging and you
00:46:26
know this letter of course you know a lot of times when when people will attach a note to a bomb there have most
00:46:35
of the time it's almost an assumption by the creator of the bomb that the the letter or the note will be destroyed in
00:46:41
the blast and that no one will ever have read that letter other than the Target right but see here I kind of I'm kind of
00:46:51
more with you I think I think with what you're saying here is is just to throw them off the scent I don't know I don't
00:46:59
know either but I think that that might be the case and what I mean by that is that I see actions being taken with the
00:47:09
the packaging of this bomb that indicate to me that they didn't whoever packaged
00:47:15
this up you know like the removal of the barcode the zip of the uh UPC symbol that shows to me that they didn't intend
00:47:22
for the packaging to blow up with the bomb or be destroyed in the blast that they took precautions that they thought
00:47:29
that the packaging would likely survive the blast so therefore think about this way I mean I kind of carry that over to
00:47:36
the letter as well like assuming that the letter would survive the blast right and you'd think though with a gift most
00:47:44
the time when you grab it maybe you don't turn it on right away I mean that's that's the other thing too it
00:47:49
wasn't like this um the trigger wasn't Once you pull it out of the box it blows up it was you have to turn this on so I
00:47:59
mean you don't know this what if he was like I know how a flashlight works I don't need to test it you know what I
00:48:07
mean right like so he just puts it over to the side so again that's a tough thing cuz yes
00:48:14
you would think most bombers would assume if I write a little note it's on the package it blows up the notes going
00:48:20
to blow up too but uh in this case it's like because the trigger is turning it on who knows where that package is going
00:48:28
to be once the the bomb is away from that package well and that's that's something makes any sense no I I see
00:48:36
what you're saying what B essentially what you're saying is this okay if if I'm killing someone if I'm going to go
00:48:43
out and kill someone if I if I'm looking at them through across a field through the scope of a rifle yes even if there
00:48:51
are people around them I could put them in the crosshairs and choose that that's
00:48:55
the individual that I'm going to shoot at when you send a bomb a flashlight bomb that is triggered through the
00:49:02
action of the on switch through the mail you are then hoping that your target is
00:49:08
the one that flicks that switch and ignites the bomb yeah cuz if I'm if I'm not wrong I believe his son said that he
00:49:15
tried to turn it on his son did try to turn it on and we also noted that his wife and his brother were in the room
00:49:23
with him or in a nearby room when the when the flashlight exploded so it's almost here here's what I wonder is the
00:49:32
letter itself not a taunt is it is it in some way meant to throw them on the scent of somebody else I don't know I
00:49:40
actually lean toward the thought of this if I'm the killer I'm thinking the the letter will survive the blast the
00:49:48
packaging survives the blast but the purpose of my letter is to increase the likelihood that Wayne is the one that f
00:49:55
the switch and not someone that is just an innocent bystander interesting what I mean by
00:50:02
that he he says things that are familiar to Wayne to to drop his guard to let his
00:50:07
guard down and go I mean you can almost picture it in your head where he's reading it's an unexpected package right
00:50:14
we have heard rumors that people thought that Wayne might have been paranoid uh about one thing or another so what if
00:50:21
this letter accompanied this thing just for the sole purpose of increasing the likelihood that the target flicks the
00:50:27
switch and you can picture him reading the letter and identifi you know recognizing the names in it oh you did
00:50:33
business with me before picking up the flashlight with his other hand and just flicking the switch and boom yeah yeah
00:50:39
yeah and that's also the length of the letter how it's a little bit longer than it you know really needs to be is that
00:50:47
so he's you know reading with one hand and just messing with the you know flashlight and then flips it on yeah and
00:50:54
and I think a lot lot of this too is the uh you know the PS didn't realize you had moved had some trouble finding you I
00:51:03
don't know it have a very Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another flashlight there that to me is
00:51:10
the is the taunt kind of at the end I don't know that if there was any intention for this letter to make Wayne
00:51:18
picture somebody or think of someone before he ended up being killed I don't think that that was actually the purpose
00:51:26
of this okay a couple questions for you I'll start off with do you think the letter was to get his attention or do
00:51:33
you think it's a decoy what's Your Gut telling you again I really ultim or maybe it's not telling you anything I
00:51:40
ultimately think that it was the sole purpose of the letter was to increase the chances that Wayne would be the one
00:51:47
to flick the switch of the power switch to to ignite the bomb causing it to explode hoping that he would be by
00:51:54
himself and and part of that is the psychology behind um who would have sent this the perpetrator that okay so the
00:52:04
police believe that this individual would have held a deep-seated grudge or deep-seated hatred for Wayne right and
00:52:13
then here's the other thought though too if they are correct now this is not a 100% etched in stone statement by the
00:52:21
police but they did they did say in an interview that look we actually believe that it it's more likely that the
00:52:30
individual wasn't close to Wayne in the months leading up to his death because we think that there are actions made to
00:52:40
lead us to believe that they believe that Wayne still lived in Acton and didn't live at this Farm in in Moffet so
00:52:48
their thought is if they are right about this that if this means that something happened between this IND individual and
00:52:56
Wayne months before before the actual death because he moved almost 6 months before the bomb
00:53:04
was sent to the house so somebody had a grudge against him and they were patient
00:53:09
enough to sit on this Grudge for at least months could have been years right so and then on top of that police
00:53:17
profiled the sender of the letter and and stated that the person likely had a deep-seated hatred for Wayne but also
00:53:23
wasn't comfortable with conf ation and preferred to retaliate from a distance now that goes along with just about most
00:53:33
every other bomber case that we've ever seen that's the psychology Behind These bombers the thought is that it on the
00:53:41
Spectrum on ways to attack and kill another individual that sending a bomb to someone especially through the male is
00:53:51
one of the most cowardice ways to to attack and kill them and what they mean by that is just the the actual
00:54:00
Simplicity of it's not upfront and close in your face this is not someone looking
00:54:06
you in the eyes and choking you to death or stabbing you to death or even shooting you from a distance so you're
00:54:14
saying the Cowardly Lion is still a suspect what I'm saying is that this individual is probably not comfortable
00:54:22
with some kind of physical confrontation with Wayne or likely with anyone okay so
00:54:28
the the next question then would be do you think this is coming from male or female typically if you're going to play
00:54:38
the numbers game typically um males are bombers um well if you play the numbers games males are murderers and and and
00:54:48
Shooters and and mass explosions and terrorists more so than females are right but but I mean when you're talking
00:54:56
about this specific type of attack that's typically a male uh more times than not it's committed by a male where
00:55:04
like so on the same spectrum of being a coward um typically you would see like with poisonings that's often conducted
00:55:14
by a female right and there's a little more poisonings are a little more sadistic in the sense that a lot of
00:55:22
times with with uh poisoning a usually comes from a woman that is close to the individual because what we find in the
00:55:29
long run is they prefer to watch the individual suffer evil well they prefer to watch
00:55:38
the individual suffer where think about the person mailing the bomb their whole intent is to kill they're not they're
00:55:44
they're they have no intention they have no intention of watching the person suffer or watching the person die right
00:55:50
because they they mail the bomb that's the now is that right all of the time 100% time no you know like I like I was
00:55:57
talking to somebody the other day and they were saying well you know it's it's never this until it is this one time
00:56:06
that it is this so but playing the numbers game it it would be a male who is coward who who's a coward that
00:56:15
decided to mail and the other thing too that's that's the recklessness of it right is that knowing that I'm going to
00:56:23
send this thing that could EXP explode and kill someone else I'm not directing the bullet I'm not steering the
00:56:29
bullet I'm sending this this this murderous weapon this murderous item out into out into the universe hoping that
00:56:39
it reaches my target right and we and we also heard from his family stating that
00:56:43
Wayne was gone a lot traveling so you almost again like you were going back to your point this kind of just
00:56:53
popped up into my head with him traveling so much that what if his wife opened the letter and then she read it
00:57:00
and was like oh well this is not for me right I'm not going to explore this package anymore right and then we do
00:57:06
have his name on the outside of the package that's another preventative measure to hope that Wayne's the only
00:57:12
one that opens it up furthermore the thing here too is as the police and investigators stated the these are not
00:57:19
explosives this thing was not constructed in a manner that you could slam it against a table hit it with a
00:57:25
hammer toss it out a window and it will explode it was constructed this device was constructed in a manner that it has
00:57:33
to be triggered by the on switch of the flashlight therefore again really pinpointing your target I mean we had
00:57:42
the mail carrier who drove around with this thing for half a day in her in her vehicle along with her uh son or
00:57:51
daughter or grandson in the vehicle with her and then we have Wayne's son Justin
00:57:56
who picks it up he's actually the one that picked it up at the mailbox right he puts it in his vehicle drives into
00:58:01
town to get gas and then brings it back to the house so you have all these instances where it could have blown
00:58:08
someone else up the other thing that's crazy too is that remember we have the remark of of uh I believe her name was
00:58:17
Joyce the um the mail carrier yeah so she says of the things that she remembered about the package she
00:58:25
specifically remembered this package for two reasons one it was decorative it had
00:58:29
some kind of bow or ribbon on the front of it two it fit almost exactly inside the mailbox now I've I've read a lot of
00:58:38
things where people have discussed the possibility of does this mean something again was
00:58:44
this deliberate or was it just happen stance some people to the extent of saying well would this individual have
00:58:52
gone to the grette home and figured out the the dimensions of their mailbox right which is interesting
00:59:01
to me on on for several different reasons one like I've never lived in Canada nor have I received a package
00:59:08
while living in Canada but it going off of what we know here it's not that complicated of a system if the package
00:59:17
doesn't fit in the mailbox it's placed in a location where the recipient will pick it up you know at their doorstep
00:59:25
on their driveway something right right so I don't know that necessarily anyone had
00:59:31
to go to the mailbox to know the dimensions of such well it could have been as simple as they went to the post
00:59:37
office and and question H how big of a box can I ship in this certain situation just like when we ship
00:59:46
merchandise I mean that's one of the things that we have to figure out what kind of box can we use for a mug what
00:59:51
can we use for a t-shirt mhm but back to that same thought I also wonder I I've not seen pictures of the Gravette
00:59:59
mailbox but I mean here aren't most mailboxes generally about the same size yeah there's probably a standard size
01:00:07
yeah and then on top of that the the one thing that I think is is uh significant
01:00:13
is the extra postage to to ensure that this thing is absolutely delivered and you said well of course you don't want
01:00:23
this explosive device return to you no well no no and that that's that's a very you know reasonable thing to say but at
01:00:31
the same time we've also gone through the construction of the bomb it's not a bomb that's that's highly unstable and
01:00:38
it's also not going to be returned to you it's going to be returned to this address where these other people live
01:00:43
right right right you know what I mean it's not going to return to you it's going to return to these
01:00:49
innocent people that live at that that address that that address that you attach to William
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the garage today if you want to check out our full archive you can get that on the Stitcher app and if you want to
01:02:17
check out our other show off the Record it's available at Stitcher premium and so much more to get to and in this case
01:02:25
tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't [Music] [Applause] litter [Music]

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This episode stands out for the following:

  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 80
    Most surprising
  • 75
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • The Christmas Bombing
    In December 1996, Wayne Gravette received a deadly package disguised as a Christmas gift.
    “The flashlight exploded spraying the room with roofing nails.”
    @ 05m 17s
    November 28, 2018
  • Wayne Gravette's Life
    Wayne was a family man with a complicated personal life, known for his abrasive nature.
    “Wayne was mouthy and cocky.”
    @ 08m 29s
    November 28, 2018
  • The Investigation Begins
    After the explosion, police launched an extensive investigation into Wayne's business connections.
    “The Ontario Police closed off the scene and sent the family elsewhere for questioning.”
    @ 14m 22s
    November 28, 2018
  • The Mysterious Letter
    A typed letter reveals intriguing details about a new business and its sender.
    “Mr. Wayne Gravette, Dear Sir, my partners and I are opening a new business...”
    @ 23m 45s
    November 28, 2018
  • The Typewriter Clue
    Experts identify the typewriter used for the letter, leading to potential suspects.
    “The letter was typed on a Smith Corona electric typewriter.”
    @ 29m 41s
    November 28, 2018
  • The Killer's Knowledge
    The letter indicates the killer knew Wayne's business and personal details.
    “The writer actually knew Wayne's business fairly well.”
    @ 43m 02s
    November 28, 2018
  • The Role of the Letter
    Analyzing whether the letter was a taunt or a decoy to mislead the target.
    “The purpose of my letter is to increase the likelihood that Wayne is the one that flicks the switch.”
    @ 49m 48s
    November 28, 2018
  • The Psychology of Bombing
    Exploring the mindset of a bomber who prefers distance over confrontation.
    “Sending a bomb through the mail is one of the most cowardice ways to attack.”
    @ 53m 44s
    November 28, 2018
  • A Dangerous Package
    The package was designed to fit perfectly in the mailbox, raising questions about intent.
    “Was this deliberate or just happenstance?”
    @ 58m 41s
    November 28, 2018

Episode Quotes

  • The flashlight exploded spraying the room with roofing nails.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • Have a very Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • This is the simplest way to cut back on your expenses and save money.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • The letter will survive the blast.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • I mean, you can almost picture it in your head.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • This is not someone looking you in the eyes and choking you to death.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259

Key Moments

  • Tragic Gift04:39
  • Family Explosion05:17
  • Investigation Launched14:22
  • Christmas Letter24:58
  • Typewriter Evidence29:41
  • Surviving the Blast49:46
  • Psychological Manipulation49:48
  • Cowardly Attack53:44

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown