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1950s New York City’s ‘Mad Bomber’
- pingou 9y agoWhy put nuts and bolts in the bomb if he didn't really intent to hurt somebody?
- coldtea 9y agoPerhaps he had too many and wanted to dispose them?
- IAmGarrett 9y agoI thought the same thing. A) The dude clearly had some loose screws. B) He was convinced his actions were just. After crossing that line, you can justify plenty of stuff to yourself.
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- GigabyteCoin 9y ago>Police dismissed the [bomb] as the work of “boys or pranksters.” My father tells me stories about how he witnessed people openly and actively "recruiting terrorists" in public in San Francisco in the 1970s. He said they were just standing around with signs and pamphlets, calling out and trying to get you to sign up to their terrorist campaign. Just as the religious zealots you see on the streets today that are mostly ignored. The world has really changed, and fast.
- DanBC 9y agoI mention this book a lot, but it's good. https://www.amazon.co.uk/BAMN-Any-Means-Necessary-Manifestos/dp/0140032673 https://www.amazon.co.uk/BAMN-Any-Means-Necessary-Manifestos... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/987215.BAMN https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/987215.BAMN
- schoen 9y agoThere is also this kind of amazing book https://www.amazon.com/Days-Rage-Underground-Forgotten-Revolutionary/dp/1594204292 https://www.amazon.com/Days-Rage-Underground-Forgotten-Revol... about the time in the early 1970s "when bombings by domestic underground groups were a daily occurrence".
- nyolfen 9y agothis review is also very good if reading a 500 page book isn't on the table for those interested: https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/ https://status451.com/2017/01/20/days-of-rage/ (though it has its own political perspective that some may find disagreeable)
- angersock 9y agoWhat's really interesting in that is looking at how those folks were integrated into later the later political diaspora.
- altotrees 9y agoAgreed. Days of Rage is an amazing look into groups I had never heard of prior to reading it. Got it for chapters on the Weather Underground and SLA, but thought the whole thing was very well done
- hu06 9y agoWell no big difference today. Its just moved online. If you want to find gullible people you cant really do that in secret I would think. Vids, tweets and gifs instead of pamphlets.
- honestoHeminway 9y agoIts partially what hollywood, games and news-media transport as terrorists image. The give them sort of a dark glamour, justifying the expensive military thrown at them. If they where depicting the screw ups- the prematurly exploding bombs, the wonky egos and stupid pride, the burning out flats destroying plans- the love-storys ruining suicidal bombers for the job. Al Quaida could make a comedy number, if it werent for the memorys of the hits outshadowing the many misses.
- fapjacks 9y agoFor many years I was in the infantry and spent a lot of time overseas in places fighting terrorists. "Fighting terrorists". We did occasionally fight, don't get me wrong, but I'd say 80% of the stuff that happened was just funny and the furthest thing from dangerous you could imagine. Just one example: One day, we received an intsum that told the story of how terrorists had finally been able to get a US visa for one of their people, a camel farmer in the far south of Iraq. The problem was that he was too much of a bedouin: He could not figure out how to operate calling cards to receive his instructions and they couldn't get his plane tickets to him. He had become marooned at the airport in Baghdad, where he was apprehended. And you want terrifying? The intelligence capabilities of the Five Eyes is what's terrifying. They had been involved with this story from the beginning. Snowden's revelations merely hint at the power of the Five Eyes, but if you knew half of the capabilities on display in a warzone, you'd shit your pants. That's truly the terrifying stuff.
- GigabyteCoin 9y ago>They had been involved with this story from the beginning. Which story are you referring to, the camel farmer getting a visa? >if you knew half of the capabilities on display in a warzone, you'd shit your pants Please, do tell!
- biofox 9y agoThere is a fantastic British film along those lines: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341167/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341167/
- Maskawanian 9y agoWouldn't police arresting those before they have committed violent acts be considered thought crime? Shouldn't we arrest those that do things not those who talk about things?
- cat199 9y agoThere is a point at which discussing some theoretical action and it's implications/legal limitations/ethical concerns becomes conspiring to actually commit it.. Thinking it would be 'cool' if someone $verbed evil $noun or whatever is different than actively actually finding people to actually do it...
- Larrikin 9y agoConspiracy to commit an act is already prosecuted on variety of crimes
- sillysaurus3 9y agoIt's interesting to see replies justifying the status quo. Yes, you're absolutely right. I want to say "arresting people for their words is a useful political tool," but it doesn't seem that clear-cut anymore. You see this when kids get arrested or expelled for some harmless thing they said on Twitter.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoYes, but in most cases we are arresting people for planning a crime, not just nonchalantly discussing it. Handing out recruitment flyers for an organisation that bombs others? Planning to murder your wife? Planning on defrauding x out of their life savings? You know, actual plans that meet the burden of proof for a criminal investigation. Yes. Please prevent this stuff that folks are planning.
- dzdt 9y agoOnly more often it is the police who pretend to plan a crime and recruit suspects to participate in that fiction. If the suspects show willingness to participate they get arrested. [1]http://www.npr.org/2014/07/18/332636882/newburgh-sting-terrorist-cell-or-group-sold-on-a-trap-by-fbi http://www.npr.org/2014/07/18/332636882/newburgh-sting-terro... [2]http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/was-fbi-grooming-portland-suspect-for-terror/ http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/was-fbi-grooming-po...
- jacquesm 9y agoJust imagine the pandemonium that would ensue if something like this would happen today. "Breaking News" 24/7 for as long as the campaign lasted.
- Spooky23 9y agoIt was a different era for media. Locally we had a week of hysteria when some nutjob crushed old mercury thermostat vials in a hospital cafeteria. A crank bomb threat at a community center brought a platoon of paramilitary police milling around smoking all day for two weeks.
- coldtea 9y ago>Another exception occurred in November 1954 when, 30 minutes into a screening of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas at Radio City Music Hall, in an auditorium with around 6,000 patrons, a seat exploded and injured two women and two boys. Apologetic theater ushers asked 50 or so patrons near the bomb site to watch the remainder of the film from alternate seats, allowing ushers to rope the area off so the police could investigate after the movie. Contrast this 50s crowd with the mass hysteria over the slightest disturbance today... Can you imagine people today sitting to watch a movie in a theatre where a seat had just exploded and hurt people -- not to mention the total hysteria from the authorities jumping in like it's the end of the world.
- soneca 9y agoCan you imagine a bomb in a crowded audience only injuring four people today?
- coldtea 9y agoMy point rather is, can you image an audience continuing as if nothing much have happened after even an ad-hoc indoor firework was blasted, much less an actual pipe bomb injuring 4-5 people.
- Larrikin 9y agoAre you trying to imply people shouldn't react to a bomb and stay near the site of an explosion? You evacuate because you don't know if there are more or if there is structural damage.
- ZoF 9y agoI dont think that was implied at all, he/she was just pointing out the contrast.
- stickfigure 9y agoThis question reinforces the parent's point. It seems totally obvious to us that everyone should GTFO of the theatre. And yet in the 1950s they didn't. What was different about the mindset of someone from the 50s? Were they inured to explosions coming out of WW2? Were "pranks" with pipe bombs a normal thing? Was it just that nobody had ever been killed by one so they didn't recognize the threat? Was the 50s mind somehow more stoic?
- kerkeslager 9y agoThe writing of this was incredibly twee--"booming side business" in particular inspired a groan. I think that added to my enjoyment of this article.
- rkuykendall-com 9y agoMy favorite line: > Mullen clearly had every intention of throwing the book at Metesky, picking it up, dusting it off, and throwing it again.
- sverige 9y agoGoogle maps street view shows that the house in Waterbury is nearly unchanged. The siding is different, the narrower boards of yesteryear having been replaced by wider boards at some point, but other than that it's the same. https://www.google.com/maps/place/17+4th+St,+Waterbury,+CT+06708/@41.540605,-73.0458198,3a,75y,309.78h,89.76t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sLQnGVnxPkDhPOh_RfhU94w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e7c1a183f73d83:0xff7ad6651f4d155e!8m2!3d41.540793!4d-73.046008 https://www.google.com/maps/place/17+4th+St,+Waterbury,+CT+0...
- mstade 9y agoThis was a great read, I enjoyed it very much – thanks for sharing! It's also the first time I see this site. I've read a couple more articles on it and it looks nice, I like it. The writing is good and the material is interesting, and it's ad free on purpose. I pitched in a few dollars while I consider whether to subscribe. Again, thanks for sharing this nugget of gold! Edit: fixed fat finger typos.
- Hasknewbie 9y agoDamn Interesting is, as far as I know, the original "collection of historical anecdotes" Web site in the vein of Atlas Obscura or Mental Floss. They've always favoured long-form, well-sourced articles, and they started doing it before it was cool and/or profitable -- the site was at one point left unmaintained for well over a year if I remember correctly. So yes, hats off to them for playing the long game, sticking to their formula, and not devolving into yet another ads-plagued list-icles Web site.
- MBCook 9y agoYep. At this point they also have a podcast which is the author reading the article and is a great lesson if you'd prefer to get it that way.
- rkuykendall-com 9y ago> the site was at one point left unmaintained for well over a year if I remember correctly Yes, once the book writing started, the site articles completely stopped. It felt like years to me, but have no evidence of that.
- vinnyglennon 9y agoIt's an excellent resource, one of my favourites. The facts, just the facts, well told.
- Kenji 9y agoBack when newspapers actually did good, valuable work.
- necessity 9y ago>anti-communist red scare McCarthism was as much anti-fascist as it was anti-communist, but of course commies would rewrite history to play the victims. Read the actual laws, it never mentions communism without mentioning fascism in the same sentence.
- carsongross 9y agoApparently the "shrillest" moment of the "red scare" was correctly convicting two communist spies of treason.
- tptacek 9y agoNeither of them were convicted for "treason".
- carsongross 9y agoQuoting the judge, when handing down the death sentences: I consider your crime worse than murder... I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason.
- tptacek 9y agoFascinating. Neither were convicted of "treason", the requirements of which are, alone among crimes, spelled out in the main text of the Constitution.
- dang 9y agoWould you please stop using HN for ideological battle? We ban accounts that do this because it violates HN's mandate. And we've asked you many times before.
- rdiddly 9y agoOne nitpick: Con Ed's plant was located near an actual thing called Hell Gate, not nicknamed that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate Also see its namesake bridge, under which seemingly every "dangerous meeting" scene of every movie ever, was shot.
- ezconnect 9y agoThe police and the community seems to be more respectful of each other. The serving of warrant and how they arrested him would be the total opposite in our current society. The only thing that has not changed is the ruthless corporations treatment of their employees.
- Hasknewbie 9y agoOn the other end, they detained their first suspect with next to no evidence, then locked him up in a mental ward for over 6 months despite new bombings happenings while he was in there. Remember Serpico (not just the movie, but what the real guy uncovered): the New York police used to be hugely corrupt, until his testimony brought about changes.
- bogomipz 9y agoThere's also this which occurred in NYC in the 70s and remains unsolved: http://observer.com/2016/01/why-hasnt-washington-explained-the-1975-laguardia-airport-bombing/ http://observer.com/2016/01/why-hasnt-washington-explained-t...
- sitkack 9y agoI miss the good old days when cops could be cops. Locking people in mental institutions for 6 months, arresting people and killing them with heart attacks. > Also, it was Friday.
- fattire 9y agoDamn interesting. Though I didn't quite get the whole dissolving-lozenge-as-a-timer thing. How would that work?
- have_faith 9y agoI'm imagining a broken circuit that is connected once the lozenge melts and connects two parts?
- Pinckney 9y agoProbably a spring-loaded striker which is released once the lozenge has dissolved sufficiently. British WWII limpet mines used a similar system.
- waiseristy 9y agoThe quality of the audio narration is really surprising!! Foley and music!