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Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259

November 16, 2023 / 59:53

This episode covers the tragic story of Wayne Gravette, who was killed by a bomb disguised as a flashlight in December 1996 in Ontario, Canada. The hosts discuss the details of the incident, the investigation, and the background of Wayne's life.

Wayne Gravette received a package containing a bomb that exploded when he attempted to turn on a flashlight. The explosion occurred in front of his family, resulting in his immediate death. The episode highlights the chaos and fear experienced by his family during this traumatic event.

The investigation into Wayne's murder involved examining his business dealings and personal relationships. The hosts discuss the potential motives behind the bombing and the various suspects that emerged, including disgruntled business associates.

Key discussions include the peculiarities of the bomb's construction, the significance of the letter included with the package, and the challenges faced by investigators in tracing the origins of the bomb.

The episode concludes with reflections on the impact of Wayne's death on his family and the ongoing mystery surrounding the identity of his killer.

TLDR

Wayne Gravette was killed by a bomb disguised as a flashlight in 1996, leading to an investigation into his life and business dealings.

Episode

59:53
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[Music] with the approaching holiday comes gifts gifts handed out at work or pass from
00:03:50
hand to hand sitting around a Christmas tree gifts wrapped with love and sent off mailed to an old friend or distant
00:03:58
family member and who Among Us does not love a neatly wrapped package complete with decoration
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arriving at our homes and address to our name in December of 1996 in Ontario Canada Wayne grette
00:04:16
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
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surrounding him and he discovered a large Duracell flashlight Inside the Box Wayne took a look at it and tried
00:04:41
the on switch but nothing happened Wayne's son Justin then tried turning the flashlight on but again
00:04:50
nothing happened Wayne grabbed the flashlight from his son and walked over to the sofa
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in the family room and sat down he tried the OD switch one more time and boom the
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flashlight exploded spraying the room with roofing nails shattering the window and knocking Justin and his mother to
00:05:10
the floor Justin got up and ran to the phone and he called 911 police fire ambulance my dad was a bomb and my dad
00:05:22
blew up me there was a bomb and my dad just blew up where I me all one Mor R1 M okay stay on the line stay on the line
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oh my God he's blowing up the flashlight bomb killed Wayne Gravette right there in front of his
00:05:42
family who would do something so cowardice to this man in his family was this the work of some type of assassin a
00:05:50
contract killer or simply someone that hated this man so much so that they sent an improvised exploding device through
00:05:58
the Canadian Postal Service to Wayne's home with the intent to kill this is the tragic story of Wayne
00:06:08
grette and the bomb that took his [Music] life Wayne was born on January 4th 1954
00:06:31
in Ontario Canada now there's not a great amount of detail that is known about his early life but we do know
00:06:39
Wayne started working for the 7Up Bottling Company when he was just 18 he became an expert in the mechanical side
00:06:46
of the bottling industry fixing and installing Machinery conveyor belts and assembly line equipment from there Wayne
00:06:55
moved on to Surge packaging and Machinery a company Loc located in Acton Ontario the company sold installed and
00:07:03
repaired equipment for bottling businesses in both Canada and the US so this is a very large company Wayne
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worked there for many years but was no longer with surge when he was murdered now regarding his personal life Wayne
00:07:20
met Diane when they were young she was just 15 and he was 19 Diane's home life wasn't great and as Diane puts it Wayne
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got her out of a bad situation so the two moved in together when Diane was just 16 and they got married the
00:07:36
following year they ended up having two kids Danielle and Justin Wayne's wife and kids tell the story of a man who was
00:07:45
a great father he loved his kids and Diane and Wayne seemed to embrace a secluded lifestyle Diane says they had a
00:07:53
few friends and the rest of the people in their lives were business acquaintances Diane says Wayne was
00:07:59
controlling and domineering but she loved him very much the two were a team but Wayne while an adoring father on the
00:08:07
home front he was abrasive and confrontational at times when it came to business Diane said quote Wayne was
00:08:14
mouthy and cocky end quote detective Paul Johnson says Wayne was the kind of person who told people what he thought
00:08:21
and he had altercations with several people Wayne was also a man's man he wrote a Harley and played poker the few
00:08:29
friends he did have were mostly hard drinking Blue Collar buddies that he met in the bottling industry Diane says
00:08:36
Wayne was away a lot for work and sometimes did not come home at night after drinking with the guys and he was
00:08:43
not the best husband he had affairs and Diane says they had fights sometimes bad
00:08:50
ones he hadn't a he had a temper but she loved him he loved her and they were a family both Wayne and Diane were
00:08:59
employees of surge for quite a while but in 1993 Wayne had a falling out with and
00:09:04
left the company so Wayne and Diane started up his own bottling equipment company a secretary Lisa from Serge came
00:09:12
to work with them they named the company DNL after Diane and Lisa this was depending on who you talk to Captain
00:09:21
there's mixed reviews on this company so most of the reviews on this seem like it
00:09:26
was a fairly successful company I have found others that state that the company had problems that they were never really
00:09:33
making a whole bunch of money and were having trouble staying afloat well there's also a lot of rumors that he was
00:09:39
taking jobs and taking payments for jobs and never completing them that he might
00:09:44
have been conducting bad business right let's say in 1996 the gravettes bought a
00:09:50
104 Acre Farm in mafit Ontario at this time DNL wasn't doing very well this property has a natural spring large
00:10:01
enough that they could use the spring as a source for a bottled water business with Wayne's expertise and access to
00:10:08
bottling equipment and supplies they decided to make a go for it they moved to the farm sometime around June of 96
00:10:16
and apparently they loved it there Wayne set up a shop in the barn and started bottling and selling water now let's
00:10:24
talk about the events of December 12th 1996 the farm is in Moffet this area is about 35 miles from Toronto but while
00:10:35
Toronto is a huge city mafa is quite rural the farm had a long dirt driveway and a mailbox at the end of this
00:10:44
driveway for the family's mail Diane and Wayne's 21-year-old son Justin was home
00:10:50
on the farm that day his sister Danielle was not she was out with a boyfriend Justin went out around midday to get
00:10:58
diesel fuel for for one of the vehicles and on his way out he stopped at the mailbox there he found a package wrapped
00:11:05
in white paper decorated with ribbon and addressed to Mr Wayne Gravette RR number
00:11:11
one Moffet Ontario Lop 1j0 Justin put the package in his vehicle drove to town got gas and
00:11:22
returned home when he returned his dad was in the barn eventually Wayne joined the rest of the family in the house
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around 1 p.m. along with Justin and Diane there was also Wayne's brother I couldn't find the name of Wayne's
00:11:36
brother standing in the kitchen Wayne opened the package the first thing he saw was an envelope that said Merry
00:11:43
Christmas Wayne perused the letter it was a business proposal Inside the Box were crumpled up
00:11:51
flyers from various advertisers placed Inside the Box this was used as likely padding right after removing the papers
00:12:00
Wayne pulled out a large Duracell flashlight so this is a bulky flashlight with a handle on it yeah and we'll post
00:12:06
all these pictures on our Instagram at True Crime garage Dwayne flicked on the power switch but nothing happened so
00:12:13
Justin took the flashlight and tried the button as well but the light did not come on he tried to open up the battery
00:12:20
compartment but couldn't it seemed like it was glued or fastened shut Wayne took
00:12:25
the flashlight back moving into the family room and sitting down on the sofa he then tried the switch again and the
00:12:32
room exploded they called 911 immediately after the explosion you heard a portion of that call during our
00:12:39
trailer the trauma and fear in Diane's voice is palpable she's she's screaming the flashlight was a cleverly disguised
00:12:48
bomb the interior of the flashlight was filled with explosives that were sparked
00:12:53
by the activation of the on switch packed around the explosives were a large number of roofing nails the nails
00:13:00
did exactly what they were intended to do they sprayed Wayne in the area around him the front of Wayne's body including
00:13:08
his face basically blew up blood sprayed all over the walls Windows shattered Nails flew through the drywall and into
00:13:16
other rooms even embedding in the ceiling yeah he basically lost everything from his face down to his
00:13:23
thighs I hate to paint this unfortunate picture but you have to pick picture for
00:13:29
a second the man sitting there on the sofa the flashlight basically in his lap and he's looking down at the flashlight
00:13:38
when this bomb goes off so he absorbed almost all of the blast according to investigators he died instantly let's
00:13:48
talk about the investigation Captain so when the police arrived they found the family room covered in debris broken
00:13:55
furniture and glass were everywhere Wayne's body was still lying on the couch now covered with a blanket and his
00:14:02
family was in hysterics the Ontario Police they closed off the scene and sent the family Elsewhere for
00:14:10
questioning detective Paul Johnson of the homicide unit was put in charge of the
00:14:16
investigation processing the scene took several days police gathered the names of business associates and colleagues of
00:14:24
Wayne's and started looking through his business banking travel and phone records and the package that was holding
00:14:31
the bomb it was confirmed that was delivered through the mail but also the box was a wine box as well right mhm
00:14:37
yeah the mail carrier her name is Joyce said that her and her daughter and small
00:14:42
grandson were in her mail truck that day helping with packages and deliveries on
00:14:48
her route she remembered the package to Wayne because of a pretty ribbon that was on this package she also noted that
00:14:55
the package fitted it fit exactly into the mailbox Joyce was still out on her route when she heard the sirens but she
00:15:04
didn't discover what had actually happened until the following day when she arrived at the post office which was
00:15:10
now crawling with cops okay so Captain what kind of evidence can we collect from the packaging first it had a large
00:15:18
number of stamps on it amounting to extra postage so it would appear that someone wanted to make sure that this
00:15:25
wouldn't get returned that they put more than enough enough to guarantee that it
00:15:29
would be delivered of course you're not going to want a package that's a bomb to
00:15:33
be returned to you well and unfortunately no DNA was found on the stamps or the packaging well also
00:15:40
something with the packaging the box that it held in like I said was wine so you wonder he's in the Distributing
00:15:48
business is there somebody that distributes wine that would have access to this box to put the bomb in well this
00:15:55
is a red and cream colored cardboard box from a cheap brand of red wine a a Cabernet uh the box is sort of Flowery
00:16:05
with a vase and red blooms on it yeah but I believe there's some numbers that are scratched off the box to kind of
00:16:12
hide the identity of where the box came from or where this wine would come from well I don't know about scratched off
00:16:18
but the the UPC number or the barcode that would be on the box uh which could have likely told us where the wine was
00:16:27
purchased or maybe even to whom it was sold this was cut off okay uh it had been removed from the box so this
00:16:34
perpetrator was was smart enough to take the effort to do this uh police would ultimately comb through the purchase
00:16:42
history records of all of the liquor stores in the area close to the gretes farm to try to determine who bought this
00:16:49
wine but they came up with nothing so well this well this also makes it a lot more difficult too because since it's
00:16:57
mailed you got to figure out how far away was this mailed from right and you know here's another thought here though
00:17:05
too Captain this box simply could have been from a recycling bin or trash bin rather than a purchase right uh making
00:17:12
it even less traceable if not traceable you know not traceable at all well and I
00:17:17
wonder if there's some thing where if you cut off uh the UPC or whatever if there was some like collect your upcs
00:17:25
and you get free wine or whatever so like you said could have been found in the trash or found in a recycling bin
00:17:32
and it was the actual owner of the box that cut off the UPC and not some clever way to disguise where it came from
00:17:39
possible possible I think it I think it shows the um thoroughness of the person that mailed the bomb they did find two
00:17:48
hairs under the packaging tape but no root on them and even after mitochondrial DNA testing was conducted
00:17:55
by the FBI no DNA profile was able to to be put together investigators theorized
00:18:02
that the per deliberately avoided licking the stamps uh and used excess number of stamps to ensure delivery and
00:18:08
stamped it themselves to avoid taking the package to the post office so putting this into a mailbox and then
00:18:17
having it delivered by the postal service so they could remain anonymous and the package was wrapped in inside
00:18:25
out Christmas paper meaning that the decoration part was facing the box and not to the people opening the box yeah
00:18:33
so it's it's hunter green in color but the white part of the paper is on the outside of the package is what's visible
00:18:40
and the address was typed so now on the inside of that box we talked about the flyers that were crumpled up and used
00:18:49
likely for padding yeah these advertisements yeah so these are crumpled up and they're packed around
00:18:55
the flashlight these came from a wide distribution area in Southern Ontario but one one of these advertisements came
00:19:04
from Copeland lumber at 700 Main Street in nearby Milton and it was only distributed locally yeah but let's
00:19:12
Ponder this for a minute is this a mistake is this a mistake by the person sending the bomb or we're dealing with
00:19:21
uh people that do packaging right and and they do a lot of traveling was this deliberate like I could grab the ads
00:19:30
from here I'll package the bomb I'll mail it from somewhere else and that will throw them off could be so the
00:19:38
situation here though is if somebody's just grabbing them you know if they're grabbing a
00:19:44
bunch of them a big stack of these this is this is the thought that the majority
00:19:51
of that stack would be advertisements from all over the place and then we have this one in the batch that was only
00:19:57
distributed in a very small location so it would mean that this person had some kind of could have had
00:20:05
some kind of connection to this nearby town of Milton right but what I'm saying is this is a business where people
00:20:13
travel often so all I'm saying is if you don't live in Milton but you travel there let's say every two weeks pick up
00:20:20
some ads while you're there what do you mean this is a business where we travel often Wayne is in the business where
00:20:27
they right our our victim is in the business of traveling often we don't know who sent this bomb or or what
00:20:33
business the Killer is in right but I right but my point is is that that if you look at the suspects as far as
00:20:41
business-wise goes He they're in the same business as Wayne one thing I've wondered about and I would wager or at
00:20:48
least hope that they did look at this Captain is that you know checking Cumberland Lumber checking that business
00:20:55
to try to determine if the nails or even the flashlight were purchased there right and we should note that Wayne did
00:21:03
work in the town of Milton for many years at uh several companies but I believe that is exactly where that large
00:21:11
company surge is located as well right to me like I said to me it's it's deliberate or it's a mistake and my gut
00:21:19
filling thinks this is a mistake me too because we have one out of many uh that were placed in that and only one
00:21:28
the other thing I wonder too well then we'll Agree to Agree well but the other the other part of that though too is I
00:21:35
would think that the individual using this as padding likely might not know about the distribution or circulation of
00:21:42
these flyers yeah that's a very good point um the flashlight of course was obliterated in the blast but it was
00:21:49
determined to be a gray plastic Duracell floating Lantern about 23 cm long and 15
00:21:56
C cm tall they call a lantern cuz it doesn't look like a lantern to me it just looks like a big flashlight it was
00:22:04
packed with plastic explosives uh a blasting cap and the nails uh that we talked about so turning it into a
00:22:12
powerful concentrated bomb containing super Frack this is an explosive used in the mining industry for breaking apart
00:22:21
rocks or or large rock this is not a bomb that would go off if you hit it with a hammer or dropped it it requires
00:22:30
a trigger which is why it was wired to the on switch police determined the super Frack was readily available within
00:22:39
the mining industry it could have been purchased through a manufacturer or stolen from a gravel pit or any
00:22:46
distributor so I don't think they were able to track down the source of this explosive now there is debate about the
00:22:54
experience level needed to construct the bomb most investigators uh think that someone
00:23:01
could have learned how to put this together from the Internet or a magazine or a book right so let's talk about the
00:23:10
letter because inside uh along with the flashlight bomb was this envelope and inside was a letter on the envelope was
00:23:20
handwritten label of Mary Christmas um it's a typed letter inside on simple 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of white paper yeah how
00:23:29
about you start by just reading it straight through okay it says Mr Wayne Gravette Dear Sir my partners and I are
00:23:38
opening a new business sometime early in the new year called acting Home Products
00:23:43
and would be very interested in having you give us a price on rebuilding some equipment you did some work for a
00:23:51
company I was with a few years ago and although you won't remember me Lisa and your delivery man Joe most likely will
00:24:00
we don't plan on doing anything until after the New Year but would be most anxious to proceed at that time we have
00:24:07
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
00:24:16
I'll look forward to hearing from you sometime early in the New Year sincerely William J French acting Home Products RR
00:24:26
number one un number six Acton Ontario l7g 2n1 PS didn't realize you had moved had
00:24:38
some trouble finding you have a very Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another
00:24:51
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00:27:04
all right we're back cheers mates cheers now the letter that we just discussed it
00:27:10
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
00:27:18
typed on a Smith Corona electric typewriter which from what I've read is a fairly common typewriter it would not
00:27:26
be easy to identify this as it's too common right well this is also for home use and
00:27:34
office use but the font in the letters was significant yeah the the letter was typed in all caps and experts identified
00:27:44
it as script 1012 font this is not an all business font like you know like Times New Roman or something like this
00:27:55
this is more like a a yeah it's almost like a handwritten font yes the font was created by inserting a daisy wheel
00:28:05
essentially a round disc with letters numbers and symbols on spokes into the typewriter experts were able to tell
00:28:12
police that this Daisy wheel was sold under the model number 59543 police were optimistic about this
00:28:20
Daisy wheel for two reasons one according to statistics at the time only 2% of people who had this kind of
00:28:28
typewriter owned that particular type of Daisy wheel right two police saw that it
00:28:35
contains what appears to be an imperfection in the periods in the letter so each period is followed by a
00:28:43
small slash so it kind of like resembles a comma this flaw is likely specific to
00:28:50
this single one Daisy wheel right so if the writer of the letter used this Daisy
00:28:57
wheel in any other correspondence it it should be able to be identified because it would have the same imperfection now
00:29:05
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
00:29:14
extra Daisy wheels so where it gets a little more complicated is this could have been I mean they would had to have
00:29:23
some knowledge of their electric typewriter but let's say their original font was you know Times New Roman right
00:29:32
mhm and they Ed that for everything but for this one they used just that Daisy wheel just for this letter that's where
00:29:41
it could be a little more complex as far as if they never typed anybody else a letter using this Daisy wheel then yeah
00:29:48
yeah yeah if they were smart enough to just use it this one time and then toss it yeah cuz when you go to buy these
00:29:54
back in the day you you wouldd have the option like it'd be like okay I'll take this you know electric typewriter and
00:30:02
then the person would go but you can have all these different fonts and so people would buy extra Daisy Wheels I
00:30:09
wonder if you could buy them at anytime like if you don't have to buy it when you're making the purchase of the
00:30:15
typewriter I would think you could buy it at any time I'm I'm assuming you can and then they're just looking at the
00:30:20
straight up statistics of sales and going okay well x x number of people own this typewriter or X number of these
00:30:28
typewriters have been sold and then X number of these Daisy Wheels have been sold throughout the year so somebody
00:30:34
essentially could have went somewhere and purchased it with cash right um and not with the actual typewriter and like
00:30:42
you said using it once if you were smart enough or sneaky enough to use it only that one time and then toss it um see I
00:30:52
this to me is is the essence of a lot of these cases that we discuss you have something here that you're like holy
00:31:01
crap that's it that's to be everything that's the thing we've been looking for this is what we can tie our rope to and
00:31:07
where we can find our perpetrator and then at some point you go it just didn't get us there it just didn't get us there
00:31:15
could be everything or it could be nothing yeah I mean for example it's typed in all caps right M so law
00:31:25
enforcement said hey well do we know anybody that you know worked with Wayne or or knew Wayne that just typed this
00:31:34
way that threw on all caps and that's how they sent letters mhm again was this something they did on purpose or was
00:31:44
this machine for whatever reason was the Cap's lock broke and they had to type this way right was was this something
00:31:51
that was deliberate or just a happen stance yes so police did they parsed through all of Wayne's correspondence
00:32:00
and they did ask everyone in the area who conducted business with Wayne or within the bottling industry to examine
00:32:06
their correspondents to look for this abnor abnormality uh but nothing came of this
00:32:14
could the killer have been you know smart enough to just use it once that's the thing that we we'll
00:32:20
never be able to wrap our heads around until this case is solved now the letter was signed using the name William J
00:32:27
French of course there was no such person and acting Home Products the company name also did not exist the
00:32:36
address RR number one unit number six in Acton also was not a business address it
00:32:43
actually was a postal code for a residence now I don't know who lived there um who lived at this address but
00:32:52
it's very safe to say I'm assuming that the OPP yeah you know me me the police checked out the resident thoroughly mhm
00:33:02
we just don't know whether the killer selected this address at random or if it holds again if it means anything does it
00:33:11
hold any significance yeah and see I wonder if the act and Home Products was okay like the first part of
00:33:21
the letter right was that set up to let Wayne know who this is coming from you see what I mean oh yeah like what
00:33:35
were the clues because at one point he they also said uh something about uh Lisa and Joe Lisa Lisa being uh Wayne's
00:33:45
basically secretary and business lady and then Joe was a delivery guy they would know us but you probably don't
00:33:53
remember us yeah they the Joe and Lisa might remember remember me or remember us yeah and I wonder if that was like a
00:34:01
hint at uh you might be having a hard time placing who's sending you this letter but that's because we gave you
00:34:11
money so Lisa knows us and Joe Knows us but you never came to do the job MH I wonder if that's some some kind of clue
00:34:20
there yeah or is it a taunt right and what I mean by that is is a couple things and it and here it's such a petty
00:34:29
thing to do because if your intent is to instantaneously blow this guy up then then it's what is the taunt I don't
00:34:40
understand because you're you're cluing him in that so and so might know me or know us right but then you're signing
00:34:46
this with a fictitious name so immediately Wayne if he made it to the end of the letter is going to go I don't
00:34:53
know William J French and we know he wouldn't know that because it's not a real person well he was a real person we
00:34:59
have just no clue if if Wayne knew of this guy if you look up William J French all it comes to or all I could find is a
00:35:08
grave site that was buried he was buried in Toronto right and someone that passed
00:35:15
away well before this incident right so we we could assume I mean way way before
00:35:21
the bombing we could assume that he doesn't know him but is it like some kind of clue because if you're sending
00:35:27
this bomb it's almost like you sent this letter to get this message across to Wayne so what in this letter would be a
00:35:35
clue for Wayne to go oh [ __ ] I know who sent this and that's what I mean if it's
00:35:41
a taunt it's like a super it's super Petty is what I mean by this because of a couple of reasons if Wayne reads this
00:35:49
letter you know first of all the the killer the person sending it he's sending it with the intention that Wayne
00:35:55
will read it if he if he wants to taunt him before killing him but then the thought then too is well what kind of
00:36:02
taunt is this if if your thought your plan your hopes are that he reads it and then he flips on the switch and boom the
00:36:10
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
00:36:19
Wayne before you kill him I guess are you hoping to that you put just enough in this letter that somebody's name or
00:36:30
face is going to pop into his mind before he turns on the flashlight right you know and because the old [ __ ] I know
00:36:38
this who this letter is from is not necessarily an old [ __ ] moment because you don't know that the flashlights a
00:36:45
bomb yet you know what I mean like um unless you have some severely bad blood with this individual now of course we
00:36:54
know that it's a bomb so you would think there was some bad blood there there but
00:36:57
sometimes bad blood is one-sided yeah where it's like uh I hate you you don't even know I hate you yet there are some
00:37:04
interesting things in the letter though because we have we have a couple of things right so it is addressed
00:37:11
specifically to Wayne so this is not uh we know he is the intended target of the
00:37:17
bomb it's not just some random act you know we also know that the the killer knew enough about Wayne to know what
00:37:25
kind of business he was in and that he had recently moved you know and that he knew employees of Wayne's right and the
00:37:33
police beli that that it's likely that the killer was not someone who was close to Wayne at the time of his death
00:37:42
because whoever sent the bomb didn't seem to know Wayne's new address now the thought here is that this seems likely
00:37:50
because one thing that was uncovered was that two men were seen at the Acton Ontario branch of the post office about
00:37:58
a month earlier one man went inside the post office and inquired about where Wayne lived and oddly the other man
00:38:06
asked people outside of the post office this is a a small town so it's not I guess that strange to ask strangers
00:38:15
where someone lives but in order to send something through the mail in Canada you
00:38:20
need the exact postal code for the address and there are over 855 thousand different postal codes in
00:38:30
Canada 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
00:38:39
these like little things that make you think that this is like a clue to him for example um had a hard time finding
00:38:48
you right because of the new address and there was these reports that he was getting phone calls and and Wayne was
00:38:54
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
00:39:02
payment for a job and he took off and went missing and and then that that person had to track him down to even
00:39:10
figure out where he was at yeah so the the gettes moved from Acton away to the farm in mafa in June of 1996 this is 19
00:39:19
kilm away so you have to wonder there they the gravettes once lived in Acton and these two men were seen at the Acton
00:39:29
Ontario Branch so did these two men assume that Wayne still lived in acting or never knew his address and only knew
00:39:38
that he lived in that town right so sketches were made of the two men but they have not been able to identify them
00:39:44
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
00:39:51
sketch thrown out there that the police end up getting receive and receiving a lot of lookalike calls right hey I know
00:39:58
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
00:40:04
look at the guy they talk to him and find out he has absolutely no connection to anything who knows how reliable these
00:40:11
sketches are in the first place you have to wonder because these are composite sketches made using eyewitnesses who had
00:40:18
an unremarkable conversation or conversations with two people inquiring about an address a month before this
00:40:25
happened right all right back to the letter the writer actually knew Wayne's business fairly well and I say this
00:40:33
because in the letter naming Lisa and Joe So Lisa Irvin was the secretary from from surge you had already mentioned her
00:40:43
but she was from The Surge company and she ultimately left the company and started DNL with him and his wife yeah
00:40:51
like I said even though I think the title was more secretary I think she knew the books and knew the business
00:40:57
very well oh yeah the interesting thing here though too Captain is Lisa's name is actually spelled
00:41:04
Lea yeah so we don't know if the letter writer actually didn't know this and what I mean by that because in the
00:41:11
letter it's spelled l IA you know the more common way I actually never had seen the name Lisa
00:41:18
spelled l EA is it l l EA or is it l e e z a or something weird I thought well I
00:41:28
I have her name as as technically being spelled LSA and in the letter it's spelled the
00:41:34
more common spelling of L IA so that makes you wonder a couple of things yeah yeah sa you have that right
00:41:43
sorry what it doesn't make you wonder it doesn't there's no way that somebody just has just connects that unless they
00:41:51
know that specifically about Wayne or his company you don't just r randomly picked two names and they actually had
00:41:58
something to do with one of his companies and the crazy thing though is if I had only heard that name out loud
00:42:07
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
00:42:14
it in my taunting letter that I'm sending along with my bomb right and then the thing with Joe there he was
00:42:21
actually uh joseppi ZK zachik I yeah I think he's technically the delivery driver it sounds like he held several
00:42:31
different roles with this company but but mostly was a delivery man and he did go by Joe so again you have to wonder
00:42:40
like is this just a red herring designed to throw investigators onto the scent of
00:42:45
a a business associate you know someone that would have heard these names aloud Joe Lisa or is this somebody that was
00:42:53
even tighter with Wayne and actually knew these people a little bit you okay this let's just Ponder this for a minute
00:43:01
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
00:43:11
the letter is to get it into Wayne's head you know who sent this or you send a letter because this has nothing to do
00:43:23
with business but you know waying enough where you can make it seem like oh well
00:43:30
Wayne would take money for jobs and not do them and we we have a history of that
00:43:36
so if I make this seem like it's connected to Wayne's business then they're not going to look at me because
00:43:42
this is a personal matter so I I went through some old uh bombing cases that were later solved and trying to add some
00:43:51
psychology to even the packaging and you know this letter of of course you know a
00:43:58
lot of times when when people will attach a note to a bomb there have most of the time it's almost an assumption by
00:44:06
the creator of the bomb that the the letter or the note will be destroyed in the blast and that no one will ever have
00:44:14
read that letter other than the Target right but see here I kind of I'm kind of more with you I think I think with what
00:44:23
you're saying here is is it just to throw them off the scent I don't know I don't know either but I think that that
00:44:31
might be the case and what I mean by that is that I see actions being taken with the
00:44:38
the packaging of this bomb that indicate to me that they didn't whoever packaged
00:44:44
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
00:44:51
for the packaging to blow up with the bomb or or be destroyed in the blast that they took precautions that they
00:44:58
thought that the packaging would likely survive the blast think about this way I mean I kind
00:45:04
of carry that over to the letter as well like assuming that the letter would survive the blast right and you think
00:45:12
though with a gift most the time when you grab it maybe you don't turn it on right away I mean that's that's the
00:45:17
other thing too it wasn't like this um the trigger wasn't Once you pull it out of the box it blows up it was you have
00:45:26
to turn this on so I mean you don't know that's what if he was like I know how a
00:45:33
flashlight works I don't need to test it you know what I mean right like so he just puts it over to the side
00:45:40
so again that's a tough thing cuz yes you would think most bombers would assume if I write a little note it's on
00:45:46
the package it blows up the note's going to blow up too but uh in this case it's
00:45:52
like because the trigger is turning it on who knows where that package is going to be once the the bomb is away from
00:46:01
that package well and that's that's something any sense no I I see what you're saying what B essentially what
00:46:07
you're saying is this okay if if I'm killing someone if I'm going to go out and kill someone if I if I'm looking at
00:46:15
them through across a field through the scope of a rifle yes even if there are people around them I could put them in
00:46:22
the crosshairs and choose that that's the individual that I'm going to shoot at when you send a bomb a flashlight
00:46:29
bomb that is triggered through the action of the on switch through the maale you are then hoping that your
00:46:37
target is the one that flicks that switch and it ignites the bomb yeah cuz if I'm if I'm not wrong I believe his
00:46:43
son said that he tried to turn it on his son did try to turn it on and we also noted that his wife and his brother were
00:46:51
in the room with him or in a nearby room when the when the flashlight exploded so
00:46:57
it's almost here here's what I wonder is the letter itself not a taunt is it is it in some way meant to throw them on
00:47:07
the scent of somebody else I don't know I actually lean toward the thought of this if I'm the killer I'm thinking the
00:47:15
the letter will survive the blast the packaging survives the blast but the purpose of my letter is to increase the
00:47:22
likelihood that Wayne is the one that flicks the switch and not someone that is just an innocent
00:47:28
bystander interesting what I mean by that he he says things that are familiar to Wayne to to drop his guard to let his
00:47:36
guard down and go I mean you can almost picture it in your head where he's reading it's an unexpected package right
00:47:43
we have heard rumors that people thought that Wayne might have been paranoid uh about one thing or another so what if
00:47:50
this letter accompanied this thing just for the sole purpose of increasing the likelihood that the target flicks the
00:47:56
switch and you can picture him reading the letter and identifi you know recognizing the names in it oh you did
00:48:02
business with me before picking up the flashlight with his other hand and just flicking the switch and boom yeah yeah
00:48:08
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
00:48:16
so he's you know reading with one hand and just messing with the you know flashlight and then flips it on yeah and
00:48:23
and I think a lot of this too is the uh you know the PS didn't realize you had moved had some trouble finding you I
00:48:32
don't know it have a very Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another flashlight there that to me is
00:48:39
the is the taunt kind of at the end yeah I don't know that if there was any intention for this letter to make Wayne
00:48:47
picture somebody or think of someone before he ended up being killed I don't think that that was actually the purpose
00:48:55
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
00:49:02
you think it's a decoy what's Your Gut telling you again I really ultim maybe it's not telling you anything I
00:49:09
ultimately think that it was the sole purpose of the letter was to increase the chances that Wayne would be the one
00:49:15
to flick the switch of the power switch to to ignite the bomb causing it to explode hoping that he would be by
00:49:23
himself in part of that is the psychology behind um who would have sent this the perpetrator that okay so the
00:49:33
police believe that this individual would have held a deep-seated grudge or deep-seated hatred for Wayne right and
00:49:42
then here's the other thought though too if they are correct now this is not a 100% etched in stone statement by the
00:49:50
police but they did they did say in an interview that look we actually believe that it it's more likely that the
00:49:59
individual wasn't close to Wayne in the months leading up to his death because we think that there are actions made to
00:50:09
lead us to believe that they believe that Wayne still lived in Acton and didn't live at this Farm in in Moffet so
00:50:17
their thought is if they are right about this that if this means that something happened between this individual and
00:50:25
Wayne months before before the actual death because he moved almost 6 months before the bomb
00:50:33
was sent to the house so somebody had a grudge against him and they were patient
00:50:38
enough to sit on this Grudge for at least months could have been years right so and then on top of that police
00:50:46
profiled the sender of the letter and and stated that the person likely had a deep-seated hatred for Wayne but also
00:50:52
wasn't comfortable with confrontation and prer referred to retaliate from a distance now that goes along with just
00:51:01
about most every other bomber case that we've ever seen that's the psychology Behind These bombers the thought is that
00:51:09
it on the Spectrum on ways to attack and kill another individual that sending a bomb to
00:51:17
someone especially through the male is one of the most cowardice ways to to attack and kill them and what they mean
00:51:26
by that is just the the actual Simplicity of it's not upfront and in close in your face this is not someone
00:51:35
looking you in the eyes and choking you to death or stabbing you to death or even shooting you from a distance so
00:51:43
you're saying the Cowardly Lion is still a suspect what I'm saying is that this individual is probably not comfortable
00:51:51
with some kind of physical confrontation with Wayne or more likely with anyone okay so the the next question then would
00:52:01
be do you think this is coming from male or female typically if you're going to play the numbers game typically um males
00:52:10
are bombers um well if you play the numbers games males are murderers and and and Shooters and and mass explosions
00:52:20
and terrorists more so than females are right but but I mean when you're talking
00:52:25
about this specific type of attack that's typically a male uh more times than not it's committed by a male where
00:52:33
like so on the same spectrum of being a coward um typically you would see like with poisonings that's often conducted
00:52:43
by a female right and there's a little more poisonings are a little more sadistic in the sense that a lot of
00:52:51
times with with uh poisoning a it usually comes from a woman that is close to the individual because what we find
00:52:58
in the long run is they prefer to watch the individual suffer evil well they prefer to watch
00:53:07
the individual suffer where think about the person mailing the bomb their whole intent is to kill they're not they're
00:53:13
they're they have no intention they have no intention of watching the person suffer or watching the person die right
00:53:19
because they they mailed the bomb that's the now is that right all of the time 100% of the time no you know like I like
00:53:26
I was talking to somebody the other day and they were saying well you know it's it's never this until it is this one
00:53:35
time 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
00:53:44
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
00:53:52
send this thing that could explode and kill some someone else I'm not directing the bullet I'm not steering the
00:53:58
bullet I'm sending this this this murderous weapon this murderous item out into out into the universe hoping that
00:54:08
it reaches my target right and we and we also heard from his family stating that
00:54:12
Wayne was gone a lot traveling so you almost again like you were going back to your point this kind of just
00:54:22
popped up into my head with him traveling so much that what if his wife opened the letter
00:54:28
and then she read it and was like oh well this is not for me right I'm not going to explore this package anymore
00:54:34
right and then we do have his name on the outside of the package that's another preventative measure to hope
00:54:40
that Wayne's the only one that opens it up furthermore the thing here too is as the police and investigators stated the
00:54:48
these are not explosives this thing was not constructed in a manner that you could slam it against a table hit it
00:54:54
with a hammer uhhuh toss it out a window and it will explode it was constructed this device was constructed in a manner
00:55:02
that it has to be triggered by the on switch of the flashlight therefore again really pinpointing your target I mean we
00:55:11
have the mail carrier who drove around with this thing for half a day in her in her vehicle along with her uh son or
00:55:20
daughter or grandson in the vehicle with her and then we have Wayne's son who picks it up he's actually the one that
00:55:26
picked it up at the mailbox right he puts it in his vehicle drives into town to get gas and then brings it back to
00:55:33
the house so you have all these instances where it could have blown someone else up the other thing that's
00:55:39
crazy too is that remember we have the remark of of uh I believe her name was Joyce the um the mail carrier yeah so
00:55:50
she says of the things that she remembered about the package she specifically remembered this package for
00:55:56
two reasons one it was decorative it had some kind of bow or ribbon on the front
00:56:00
of it two it fit almost exactly inside the mailbox now I've I've read a lot of things where people have discussed the
00:56:09
possibility of does this mean something again was this deliberate or was it just happen
00:56:16
stance some people to the extent of saying well would this individual have gone to the grette home and figured out
00:56:25
the the dimensions of their mailbox right which is interesting to me on on for several different reasons one like
00:56:34
I've never lived in Canada nor have I received a package while living in Canada but going off of what we know
00:56:41
here it's not that complicated of a system if the package doesn't fit in the mailbox it's placed in a location where
00:56:49
the recipient will pick it up you know at their doorstep on their Drive driveway something right right so I
00:56:58
don't know that necessarily anyone had to go to the mailbox to know the dimensions of such well it could have
00:57:05
been as simple as they went to the post office and and question H how big of a box can I ship in this certain
00:57:13
situation just like when we ship merchandise I mean that's one of the things that we have to figure out what
00:57:18
kind of box can we use for a mug what can we use for a t-shirt mhm but back to that same thought I also wonder I not
00:57:25
seen pictures of the Gravette mailbox but I mean here aren't most mailboxes generally about the same size yeah
00:57:34
there's probably a standard size yeah and then on top of that the the one thing that I think is is uh significant
00:57:42
is the extra postage to to ensure that this thing is absolutely delivered and you said well of course
00:57:51
you don't want this explosive device returning to you no well no no and that that's that's a very you know reasonable
00:57:59
thing to say but at the same time we've also gone through the construction of the bomb it's not a bomb that's that's
00:58:06
highly unstable and it's also not going to be returned to you it's going to be returned to this address where these
00:58:11
other people live right right right you know what I mean it's not going to return to
00:58:15
you it's going to return to these innocent people that live at that that address that that address that you
00:58:22
attach to William J friend [Music] all right thanks everybody for chilling with us here in the garage today if you
00:58:38
want to check out our full archive you can get that on the Stitcher app and if you want to check out our other show off
00:58:44
the Record it's available at Stitcher premium and so much more to get to in this case tomorrow until then be good be
00:58:51
kind and don't litter [Music] Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of I about why I thought it
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Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 75
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most dramatic
  • 70
    Most intense

Episode Highlights

  • A Christmas Package Turns Deadly
    A seemingly innocent flashlight gift turned into a deadly bomb, killing Wayne Gravette instantly.
    “The flashlight exploded, spraying the room with roofing nails.”
    @ 05m 02s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Tragic Story of Wayne Gravette
    In December 1996, Wayne Gravette received a bomb disguised as a gift, leading to his tragic death.
    “Who would do something so cowardice?”
    @ 05m 44s
    November 16, 2023
  • A New Business Venture
    William J French reaches out about rebuilding equipment for a new company, Acting Home Products.
    “We don't plan on doing anything until after the New Year.”
    @ 24m 00s
    November 16, 2023
  • Mental Health Awareness
    BetterHelp offers therapy as a way to combat seasonal blues during the holidays.
    “Adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those feelings.”
    @ 25m 08s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Mystery of the Letter
    A letter typed on a common typewriter holds significant clues for the investigation.
    “The font was significant; it was typed in all caps.”
    @ 31m 20s
    November 16, 2023
  • Identifying the Killer
    Police believe the killer knew Wayne's business but not his new address.
    “The killer was not someone who was close to Wayne at the time of his death.”
    @ 37m 38s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Letter's True Purpose
    The letter was likely designed to ensure Wayne would be the one to trigger the bomb.
    “The sole purpose of the letter was to increase the chances that Wayne would flick the switch.”
    @ 49m 11s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Psychology of a Bomber
    The perpetrator likely had a deep-seated grudge against Wayne, preferring distance over confrontation.
    “This is not someone looking you in the eyes and choking you to death.”
    @ 51m 01s
    November 16, 2023
  • Cowardice in Attack
    Mailing a bomb is considered one of the most cowardly methods of attack.
    “Sending a bomb through the mail is one of the most cowardice ways to attack.”
    @ 51m 20s
    November 16, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • The flashlight exploded, spraying the room with roofing nails.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • He absorbed almost all of the blast.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • Merry Christmas and may you never have to buy another flashlight.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • Therapy can be a bright spot, something to look forward to.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • I could put them in the crosshairs and choose that that's the individual.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259
  • The intent is to kill; they have no intention of watching the person suffer.
    Wayne Greavette /// Part 1 /// 259

Key Moments

  • Language Learning00:33
  • True Crime Introduction01:41
  • The Bombing06:16
  • Mental Health25:08
  • Letter Investigation31:20
  • Crosshairs Decision46:22
  • Letter's Intent47:22
  • Psychological Profile51:01

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown