Episode 679: The Mad Bomber of New York (Part 2)
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Hey weirdos, before we unleash today's macabre mystery, we were wondering, have you ever heard of Wondery Plus? It's like a secret passage to an ad-free lair with early access to episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

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I have been ordering a little bit on Prime lately. I had to get some earplugs the other night because my husband was a snorey-snore-snoring, and I said, please send them to me the very next day. And they did. That was great. Loved that. Whether you're a total bookworm, a gaming fanatic, or you just really like trying new things or sleeping through the night without your husband snoring waking you up, Prime's got your back. Ebooks for days, free in-game goodies, and everything you need to make your next DIY project.

From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to get more out of whatever you're into. From the creator of Think Twice, Michael Jackson, listen to the new Audible original Final Thoughts, Jerry Springer. Once known as the king of trash TV, Springer was the notorious talk show host whose wild daytime program transfixed audiences everywhere.

Join Springer's personal and professional life as the ratings soared and the reviews soured. Hear revealing interviews about the choices we make and the regrets we may have. Listen to the new, trashy, and true Audible Original Final Thoughts, Jerry Springer, by going to audible.com slash Springer. Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. Morbid.

morbido. It's morbid with a cold and allergies. Ew! I don't think I sound super sick, but if I do, I'm sorry. Yeah. Just have a cold. You should be. And it's also, I think we talked about it last time, that it's crazy allergy season here. And I was right about the trees. They're all men. There you

They're all there. No, it's so funny. I was talking to my cousin's friend about it the other day because you and I had talked about it. And then she came over and she was talking about it. And I said, oh, my God. I said, I was just talking about that. I was right. And then I said, damn, life's a simulation. Damn. Yeah. That's there's the trees. The man trees are all shaking their shit all over the place. And it's.

It's on the cars. It's on the porches. It's on the sidewalks and the puddles. It's everywhere. It's just everywhere. I don't like when you said they were shaking their shit. I mean, that's what they're doing. No, you're not wrong. It just gave me a weird visual. As it should. I hope it unsettles you because this is an unsettling time in our lives. It is. It is.

It's also second winter here in New England, so that's fun. All right. So here's the thing. A lot of people are pissed off about it. Like my whole TikTok last night was New Englanders being like, what the fuck? I need the fucking summer, Ken.

I check my weather app every morning with glee. With pure glee. I say, oh, sweatshirt strikes again. Well, and I'm just not that shocked anymore by it. No. I think I'm like, is this just for like TikTok views that everyone's shocked by it? Because I'm like, have you lived here? No, I guess. Like, I'm like, it's.

Last year, I think it was like 90 degrees at this point. Hey, let's never know. I remember it being right before Memorial Day. It was literally like fucking blazing hot to the point where we were like on the sun. Yeah. So for it to be 40 degrees today...

It's fine. Of course it is. I guess it's like the coldest May on record in a long time, though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's colder than it normally is. But for it to be like a crazy slingshot one way or the other, I'm just not really moved by it. I'm not shocked. No, I agree. I'm happy. I have fuzzy socks on right now. I have my comfort sweatpants on and a crew neck. Yeah. And...

If I get to wear a crew neck longer. That's what Ash is wearing right now. That's what I'm wearing. You need to know, okay? The people need to know. Elaine is wearing flannel pajama pants. I am. And is that a comfort shirt? No, I think this is from Aerie. Oh, okay. It's cute. I'm pretty sure. And my mother-in-law got me it. Oh, she has good taste. She does. It's waffly. It is. And that's the fit check of the episode. But I was saying, I love this getup and I don't want to retire it for the summer. I know. And it is coming. It is coming.

That's why I'm like, everyone calm down. It's coming. It's on its way. When it hits, it's going to hit. It's going to punch us all in the face. I know. And then we're all going to be sweltering our asses off, helter-sweltering out here. And we're going to be wishing for fall. You're all going to be in my state of being, okay? It's true. And now that I like basketball, I can't wait for October. Exactly. I'm ready. I know. Everyone's ready now. I get it. Four episodes ago, I was like, let me have summer. And now I'm like, ooh.

See, she's a Gemini, very Gemini of her. I know. No, on the same token, very Gemini of me again. I'm still looking forward to summer, but I like having a little bit of extra winter. I'm just looking forward to the summer for the...

couple of ghost concerts there you go that I have lined up nice I'm very excited about I'm excited for you John and I were talking about one this morning and I said it's so close it's like in the beginning of July is that the first one yes love that very excited I gotta mark my calendar I got your kids I got your kids um but yeah it's it's you know it's cold out here all

Our outfits. Our outfits. And now we're going to finish up talking about this Mad Bomber guy. Oh, yes. He's...

Wild. Truly. We don't even... I don't even know who he is yet. Exactly. You're going to find out, though. Don't worry. That's good. A very strange ending to this tale. Yeah. I will tell you that. And it gets wilder. Like, this tale... Even when he's caught, like, what is said and the words exchanged and everything are so movie and cinematic. Okay. It's so... It's hard to believe this is real, but it is a real thing. So...

Now we've gone, we're back in like 1953 when we last left you, I believe, and nearly a year passed without any new bombs. And this is when he's been talking to the different editors at newspapers. He's been threatening things. He's been getting, and this is when, you know, they start kind of pulling back on reporting about it in too like intensive a way. Yeah. Because they're almost-

They think that's what he wants. He wants the big headlines. He wants all this fear and panic to be spread. So they're trying to like, the police are telling the press, like don't report it in such a sensational manner. That makes sense. Kind of make it seem like it's not a big deal. Because like that's, we want to like draw him out that way. So again, he wrote something to one of the papers being like, you fuckers.

you are acting like this is not a big deal. What the hell? But then a year passes with no new bombs. Okay. And again, when a year passes, you start to get comfortable. Yeah. And be like, okay, maybe this is gone. Yeah. But.

But in early November 1954, F.P. returned as promised. Oh, not F.P. again. Because he said he was going to let the... He's very particular about his moral stances and his boundaries that he sets because he was saying he was going to let the holiday season, the Christmas season go by with no bombs. Oh, how thoughtful. And he did. He let it go. How thoughtful. So early November 1954, he returned a little past 7 p.m. on November 8th.

A crowd of more than 6,000 people had just settled into their seats at Radio City Music Hall for a screening of White Christmas when a bomb buried in one of the seats in the 15th row exploded. Okay, I would argue that that is the holiday season. I would also argue that. He let the 1953 holiday season go by. It sent stuffing, it sent shrapnel, pieces of chair everywhere in all directions, and it injured two women and two boys seated nearby. Aww.

Nobody died, but they were very injured. As usual, investigators on the bomb squad minimalized the damage, like minimized it to, you know, in their report to the press, telling reporters the device was, quote, so crudely made that its potential force was largely dissipated. I feel like even that tactic isn't super smart, though, because then it's just like, when somebody tells me I'm bad at something, I'm going to try to get better. Yeah, it's true. And it's like,

But clearly these devices are getting more and more sophisticated. It's just clear because among the wreckage near the seat, investigators found pieces of a timing device, a battery, and a wristwatch. Oh. So they are getting more sophisticated where he is able to set these off at certain times. Right.

On November 28th, just a few weeks after the Radio City bombing, a bomb detonated in a phone booth at the Port Authority bus terminal. It caused debris and shrapnel to explode across one of the pedestrian corridors, and it sent hundreds of travelers into a panic. But remarkably, no one was hurt. Strange. I know. Great, but so strange. The luck of these things is...

Remarkable really is the only word. Especially when you think about how heavily populated New York City is at all times. Yeah. And he's hitting populated areas. Right. You know, he's not like in an abandoned building somewhere. Right.

The bomb was quickly identified by investigators as, of course, one of FP's bombs. But by this time, even the press had noted that the device was placed by the same bomber who'd placed the explosive at Radio City a few weeks earlier. So now the press are starting to connect these for people.

Finally, after years of ignoring, downplaying the threat, trying to minimize the whole thing, and saying, of course there's no serial bomber. These are all just like pranks and hoaxes. Yeah. The local and national press could not ignore the danger anymore. Because it's been years. Yeah.

In his book about the bombings, Michael Greenberg said, by the start of 1955, the requested and hitherto honored police policy of secrecy would ultimately be sacrificed in the name of circulation. When a bomb exploded at Penn Station on January 11th, some members of the press did their best to still stay with the NYPD's requests. But I think it was like the New York Times that said,

were kind of trying to stay with that, what the New York Police Department was trying to do here. They were at least sticking with them for a little while. Like, the New York Times announced, Penn Station bomb blast is ignored by commuters. Like, very much like, whatever, poo-poo. Other papers, though, were not really willing to do that anymore. And they were only... And, like, this isn't... Like, it's not like they were suddenly being like, the people deserve to know, like, this moral thing. Yeah.

They just wanted to sell more papers. And they knew that they were holding their own circulation back by not being sensational about it. The front page of the New York Daily News, for example, led with, bomb goes off, panics rush our throng. So it's like those two headlines side by side with Penn Station bomb blast is ignored by commuters or bomb goes off, panics rush our throng. Like which one are you going to grab? Yeah, those are very opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah.

By May of 1955, the bomber had increased his productivity and the press were definitely taking notice. On May 2nd, the editor of the New York Herald Tribune received an anonymous phone call from a man who claimed to be the mad bomber. The man angrily repeated many of the incoherent statements included in FP's letters to the press, adding that the latest round of bombings was being carried out, quote, to get even with the consolidated Edison Company.

and warning the editor that a bomb had been placed at Radio City Music Hall that night. So a swarm of police and bomb squad members descended on Radio City. Very quickly, they evacuated the whole theater and they searched for this device. They found nothing. Okay. And they were forced to tell the audience, false alarm, sorry. Later that evening, though...

As one of the theater workers was cleaning up after the show, he found a strange object under one of the seats in the orchestra section of the theater. The device was wrapped in a woman's red wool sock, and it was similar to the other bombs. That's terrifying. The bomb squad was called, and the device was removed, but its discovery alone was proof that the bomber was still a few steps ahead of the investigators, creating...

chaos, panic with every single communication and act that he had. And the press, of course,

seized on the NYPD's failure to find that device during their search, which, yes, they should have. Rightfully so. Jump on that. Like, I would have jumped right down that. How do you not find a bomb? And also, it's under a chair, which all of them have been. Exactly. How is it that a theater worker found it? And they emphasize the fact that had the bomb gone off in the theater, there would have probably been, like, lethal consequences to this one. Like, this one was a... This would have been bad. Yeah.

It was clear that a panic was growing among residents of New York City. And, of course, the press were eagerly fanning those flames for sure. Yes.

A few days later on May 4th, a clerk at Macy's department store in Herald Square found a note. This note said that a bomb had been placed somewhere in the store and was set to go off at 5.30 p.m. Oh, God. No bomb was discovered in the store. That wouldn't make you feel better, though, at that point. The Associated Press, though, picked up on the story and sent it out to news outlets around the country, announcing, the mad bomber threatens Macy's.

The bomb at Macy's was quickly followed with announcements of bombs placed at several other locations around the city. Those included the Roxy Theater, Webster Hall, and the First National City Bank on Canal Street.

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It's unclear at this point how many of those particular threats were sent by the actual mad bomber, but that didn't stop the increasing sense of unease over, you know, this serial bomber that could strike at any time, any place. Yeah. And was making more and more sophisticated bombs. Yeah.

But regardless of the sender, at least one of those threats proved real in August when a maintenance worker at the Roxy Theater removed a seat cushion for repair and found a bomb in the seat. By that time, the press had put the pieces together and they'd started establishing like a pattern and timeline for the bad bomber, which allowed them to confidently identify the device as the 23rd bomb in a 15-year period. Wow. Yeah.

A few months later in October, a bomb detonated at the Paramount Theater during a showing of Blood Alley, injuring one man who was seated near the device when it went off. The bomb at the Paramount was then followed in December by another explosion in Grand Central Station that caused damage to one of the bathrooms. Oh, damn. Now, over the course of 15 years, the Mad Bomber had placed nearly two dozen explosives at various locations in New York. But...

While the bombs had definitely caused a lot of structural damage to the locations they were placed, injuries from the bombs were pretty minimal at this point. Yeah, we keep saying how just shocking that is. Unfortunately, that did change in February 1956 when a bomb exploded in a bathroom at Penn Station. It seriously injured a 74-year-old attendant, Lloyd Hill. And it injured eight other people. But before this, all the injuries were...

kind of minimal compared to what they could be you know what i mean like there was no like very serious injuries lloyd did have serious injuries he did not die but he had serious injuries um

And again, eight other people getting injured with this one. This is the biggest. Right. You know, according to Hill, a young man informed him that there was, quote, an obstruction in one of the plumbing fixtures. And he tried to remove the blockage with a plunger. And that's when the device detonated. Oh, wow. When it detonated, it sent shrapnel and porcelain directly into Hill's face and head. Oh, God. Yeah. So this was, it's a...

It's a wonder that he didn't die on the spot. It is. But he was, I mean, I can't imagine the injuries he had. Once the press began providing, you know, heavier coverage of the bombs, the public started paying more attention to the story and now following what's going on here.

Following the explosion at the Paramount, the NYPD began publishing portions of the bomber's letters in the paper, hoping someone might recognize this weird block printing he was doing, but no one did. Instead, readers started writing to the editorial pages with their theories about the bomber and his motives. And we all know how that goes. Yeah, like one writer wrote, he is searching desperately for sympathy when what this man really needs is love. That'll help.

Just love. Just love. It's like Katy Perry feels so connected to love right now. That reader did too. She said if he just felt so connected to love, he would not be bombing. If he just paid millions of dollars to get shot into kind of space for a minute. Yeah. He would feel that love. Get him a Balenciaga space suit and it will solve all of his problems. He will feel connected to love. He will feel so connected to love. To like love. Yeah. Yeah.

But despite the efforts of the NYPD's best investigators, several well-respected psychiatrists, and countless readers of the New York Times and Herald Tribune, the bomb squad was literally no closer to identifying the bomber than they were when he placed that first bomb at the Con Ed building 15 years before. Not even slightly closer. The fact that this man has just been free to bomb for 15 years is absolutely bonkers. It's...

And it's not like they didn't know anything about who he could be, obviously, because the letters from FP, quote unquote, and the construction of each device were giving them at least some kind of insight into like the kind of person he was, you know, his level of education, you know, his animosity towards Con Ed, which led them to believe that he was most likely suffering some sort of workplace injury. Yeah. So there was that. Yeah.

The problem was, though, that didn't really lead them to like narrow down a lot because it's like Con Ed has a lot of employees and many of them suffered workplace injuries. So it's like there was a lot of disgruntled people there.

Now, while the NYPD bomb squad continued their desperate search for the mad bomber, the bombs continued showing up in various places in New York. In July, a bomb exploded in a phone booth on the first floor of the Macy's department store in downtown Manhattan. In early December, another one was placed on the first floor of the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn and exploded during a showing of the film War and Peace, which had nearly 1,500 people in attendance. Wow.

Following the explosion, the manager instructed the ushers to, quote, spread out and tell the people to sit down. It was only a firecracker. By doing this, they did manage to avoid causing a panic in the theater. That's good. But six moviegoers did sustain serious injuries and were taken to the hospital. Wow. But they did, like, were able to keep it from being like an absolute stampede.

By the end of 1956, a major citywide search for the Mad Bomber was underway with the New York City Board of Estimate and the Patrolman's Benevolent Association offering a $26,000 reward. Wow. And this is in 1956. Yeah, did you do the thing? I did, because I always rely on you to do that. How much was it again? $26,000. And that's in 1956. And this is just for information leading to his arrest. That would be equivalent to...

$306,184 today. Damn. That is a lot of money. That's a big old reward. A chunk of change. But I mean, it makes sense because this was being touted as one of the greatest manhunts in New York history. I mean, yeah, he's been bombing for 15 years. Yeah. Now, the reward and increased pressure to make an arrest

obviously is great because we want this done, but it's also prompting a large wave of hoaxes and pranksters who... Of course. Well, you know, because people, people go to people. People go to people. Just go to people. And they're all claiming to be the mad bomber because I...

There's that whole weird subset of humanity that likes to take credit for the worst shit. For terrible things. I will just like never understand that. Question mark, question mark, question mark. Yeah. All the while, New Yorkers are now becoming increasingly uncomfortable spending too much time in public places like train stations. Yeah.

using public bathrooms, using public pay phones. Yeah, I'd be terrified. After more than a decade of terror, I mean, we're over 15 years at this point. We're headed for two decades. Yeah, the mad bomber had finally received that attention that he was looking for.

And he was looking to cause chaos and panic, and he was getting it. Right. But he wasn't going to be able to enjoy it for much longer. Good. So through the later months of 1956, the NYPD had been consulting with New York psychiatrist Dr. James Brussel.

He was a criminologist with the New York State Commission for Mental Hygiene, which is a very funny way of describing that to me. Mental hygiene. I like that. Yeah. Weirdly. I got it. You know what I mean? It's like part of personal hygiene. Yeah. I don't know why. I've never heard it described like that. So it's just like a very unique way of describing it to me. Keep your mind clean. Yeah. Mental hygiene, you know?

Although it wasn't the first time detectives had consulted with psychiatrists to try to catch a killer or a criminal of this variety, it was...

It was far from common, and Brussel didn't think there was really a lot that they were going to get out of it. Even the doctor, Brussel, was like, okay, I'll give you what I got. I'll do what I can do. Sure. But he was like, yeah, I'll help you. I'm going to write up a profile of the type of man that I think would be capable of this, and from what he has written in, take some of that, and I'll come up with some profile for you. According to Brussel, the bomber suffered from a, quote, textbook case of paranoia. Okay. Yeah.

He said, and I quote, these are the people who eventually go on to become God. They feel they are omnipotent. The paranoiac, which is like what, I've never heard of this word, but the paranoiac, is the world's champion grudge holder. Once he gets the idea that somebody has wronged him or is out to hurt him, the idea just stays in his mind. Nothing you can say will make the paranoiac change his mind. He can marshal all kinds of compelling evidence against

to support his central premise. His delusion is rooted in reality in such a way that it baffles efforts to dispel it. The paranoiac is pathologically self-centered. His delusion is essentially a defense of his love object, himself. It's the cornerstone of his being. Without it, he'd collapse. Instead of admitting failings or weakness in himself,

He attributes all his troubles to the machinations of some powerful agency that is out to destroy him. A paranoiac doesn't believe he has a mental disorder. He knows he is intellectually superior. Why does that sound like several people I know? As soon as I read that, I went, oh. Yeah.

Oh, no. I know some people like that. That's scary. I said, oh, okay. Interessante. The whole time I'm sitting here, I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. Oh, I said that about so-and-so. Oh, yeah. My favorite part is his delusion is essentially a defense of his love object himself. Yeah. And it's the cornerstone of his being. Without it, he'd collapse. Like that is shocking. Shocking. Yeah.

So, and it does sound very on point here. The profile included a basic physical description of the bomber, describing him as a pretty much, you know, ordinary man, even unassuming, they said. I mean, he's got to be unassuming. He's been doing this for 15 fucking years. Exactly. He was the kind of person you wouldn't notice in a crowd. He'd just float by. Because you haven't noticed him in a crowd. Exactly. And I love how they're like, he's like, using my, my expertise. And it's like,

I mean, that's a pretty safe one to put up. Hey, sir. Facts. Yeah, facts. You got it. For sure. And equally important, he was middle-aged or older, which Brussels concluded due to the bomber's use of antiquated phrases like dastardly deeds and frustrated ghouls when referring to Con Ed. He said he speaks kind of cringe. He speaks kind of boomer, you know?

Like any criminal profile, Bressel's report on the Mad Bomber contained a number of assumptions and presumptions that if directed at a specific individual, especially a narcissistic individual, it would likely be pretty offensive, if not outrageous to them.

Because of this, Brussels said, hey, detectives, you should probably publish portions of this report in the papers. And he said, by putting these theories of mine in the papers, you might prod the bomber out of hiding. He'll read what I've said about him and it'll challenge him. That makes sense. Which is pretty smart. Yeah. On December 25th, 1956. Kermis. Large portions of the profile were published in papers across the city. It said, Merry Christmas, you bomber. Merry Christmas, you dick.

followed by an open letter to the bomber published in the New York Journal-American urging him to turn himself in. Just as Russell predicted, the strategically placed profile and open letter worked because on January 10th, the editor at the New York Journal-American received a reply.

According to the letter, which was postmarked from Mount Vernon, New York on December 27th, the bomber was, quote, keeping a Christmas truce, but fully intended to continue his campaign. Okay. He said, before I am finished, the Con Edison Company will wish that they had brought to me in their teeth what they had cheated me out of. Oh. As for turning himself in to the police, he said, fuck no.

He said, From the grave? Yeah.

The first letter from FP revealed more potentially identifying information about the bomber. Like, this really revealed a little bit. I think publishing that report was brilliant because it made him spill. He got sloppy with his response. But the second letter received by the Journal American four days later provided even more revealing shit. Yeah.

In it, the bomber claimed he'd, quote, decided on bombs after he was repeatedly denied compensation from Con Ed for an injury suffered on the job 20 years earlier. He said, I did not get a single penny for a lifetime of misery and suffering. That's sad. Which is sad. Yeah. But you're like, dude, but that's not the way to handle it.

He probably didn't realize it at the time, but he had inadvertently given investigators a great deal of information about his circumstances. And it helped them narrow down the pool of suspects from millions to just a handful of people. Yeah.

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Using that information in the letters, Alice Kelly, a clerk with Con Ed's personnel department, started combing through the company's work compensation files. We love a Kelly. There she is. Within a few days, she had discovered a file containing many of the unusual phrases and words frequently used by the bomber, including, you know, the injustice thing and the permanent disability, like things he had used to describe what his situation was. Right. Right here.

To Kelly, the file appeared no different from the hundreds of others she had seen. The employee had been injured in an accident at the, and this is a real thing, the Hellgate powerhouse. Yo. Hellgate.

Wow. Yeah. I love that. In 1931, scary. Imagine being injured there. Exactly. That's fucked up. And this employee was ultimately, was formally cut off from payroll in early 1932, a year later. Okay. He filed a claim with the company, which was ultimately denied, then appealed and denied again in 1936.

The more she read through the correspondence between the employee and the company, the more Kelly started noticing a, quote, biting style and an oddly familiar stiff and stilted tone in the writing. Moments later, Kelly came across a letter they received from the man, the same employee, after his second appeal was denied. And this is what drives me crazy. I'm like, so she's reading this right now? If you hear what he says, you're like, why did no one take that seriously at the time? Oh, God.

Because he wrote to them after his second appeal was denied that he would, quote, take justice into his own hands. Oh, that's terrifying. Quote, unquote. Why did everyone ignore that? Yeah.

If someone's writing you a threat, maybe take that serious. 100%. I don't know. And he said he would take justice in his own hands if they would not attempt to right the wrongs committed against him. They were just like, all right, sounds good. Yeah. And Kelly said, the word injustices sort of remained seared in my mind. Ooh, that's so spooky. The more she read, the more the language and tone started sounding familiar. Phrases like dastardly deeds and treachery jumped off the pages. Yeah.

By the time she finished reading, Alice and the other clerks were pretty fucking confident they'd found the employee file for the man previously known only as the Mad Bomber. George Metesky was born George Peter Malauskas Jr. on November 2nd, 1903 in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was born to George Sr. and Anna Malauskas. You're probably wondering why he has a different name now. We'll get to that. And why he signs F.P.,

You'll get to that too, don't you worry. Okie doke. George Sr. worked as a teamster, then later as a night watchman at a lumber yard. And he was remembered, his father, he was remembered very fondly as a hardworking, very dedicated man.

As a child, George Jr. was awkward and shy in school. He had difficulty making friends. A former classmate said, he was a meticulous boy, always dressed well. He wouldn't talk to you unless you made the first advances. I would say he was quiet to the point of eccentricity. It was during this early period when his name changed from Malauskas to Metesky. I'm like, we got to get together. Oh, no. A teacher...

In Connecticut. Had trouble spelling. Now, his parents are Lithuanian. She had trouble remembering his last name or how to spell it. So she just changed it. The teacher? Yep. Changed the whole family's name? Just said, I'm changing your last name.

What? Yeah, just his last name. What? Yeah. He doesn't belong to his family anymore? She converted it to something that she could remember. Oh, okay. Because that's the, that's important. Wait, and what did she change it to? Metesky. Like, even that's like a different last name, you know? But also it's just like, yeah, just, you know, erase this heritage. That's fine. Because you can't be bothered to remember it. I'm like, just write a, like, what? God damn it. Write his initial fucking together. Like, are you kidding me? God damn.

The name eventually stuck, I guess, because he used it all through school. And when you use it all through school, it's just, you know. Yeah, it's your name. But it also was a pretty big source of confusion for people who knew him well, because, like, he went by kind of both. Like, legally, his name was Malauskas. Yeah. Yeah.

So I don't, I don't, it's wild to me. So things changed for George when he reached high school. He was very intelligent, very capable, a quick learner. But to those around him, apparently he appeared to have a sense of superiority.

Oh, so that guy was right, the profiler. Yeah. And he didn't take much of an interest in the actual schoolwork. He was very capable, but didn't do the work. He was above it. Yeah. After just one year in high school, he dropped out in 1918 and went on to work several low-paying jobs, like a theater usher, an apprentice machinist.

His former boss told a reporter after he was arrested, well, he was a strange one. He came to work all dressed up in a suit and collar and necktie. He tried to learn the machine business dressed like that, and he hated to get his hands dirty.

I don't know if I suggest working in machines, though. After leaving the apprenticeship at the foundry, he continued just drifting around. He completed a correspondence course in electrical engineering. Then, again, very smart. Yeah, that's incredible. And then he served two years in the Marine Corps, stationed in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and earned an honorable discharge in the spring of 1922. He was only out of the Marines for like three years, but...

But he loved the structure and order of the military. Okay. Which I feel like that makes sense with what we know about him. And he was just like craving it. He didn't like drifting around. So he reenlisted in the summer of 1925. Okay.

and was sent to China, and he received further training as an electrician. Oh, cool. So he had a second honorable discharge in 1929, and he moved back to the family home in Waterbury, and shortly after that, his parents died within a couple of years of one another. They left their moderate estate to split between their fourth children.

He had three siblings. Yeah. He was unmarried. He was like kind of barely employed at this point. So he kept living in the house with his two sisters and they rented out the top floor to boarders.

According to Greenberg, following the death of their parents, George's sisters, quote, had taken on a maternal role and had set about to shelter, support, and pamper their younger brother. That's sweet. In time, George found work at the Consolidated Edison Company, working as a generator wiper at the company's Hellgate plant between Queens and Manhattan. I'm like, did you guys like consciously name that? Yeah, did you guys think that one through? Or was that a nickname?

It's a wild one. Now, in early September 1931, George was working through the rows of generators in the plant's boiler room when one of the generators blew a gasket. Oh, fuck. Spewing toxic soot and gases directly into George's face. Holy shit. And filled up his lungs with all that shit. Oh, my God. He staggered around trying to stay up.

But moments later, he fell to the floor gasping for air and coughing blood. So he drew, obviously, attention of two nearby workmen who ran to help him. And they dismissed his claim. Yeah. And Metesky later said, after being arrested, apparently the coughing and blood were normal occurrences at Con Edison. Because when I told these guys, they weren't a bit surprised. What the fuck? Yeah.

In the days that followed, George could do little more than lay in bed. And he was in like a rented boarding house nearby work. His illness was getting worse and worse. After about a week, George sent for a doctor who was unable to diagnose what was going on, but actually suggested that he go home to Waterbury, Connecticut, where he could get like proper treatment. Right.

So he took the doctor's advice and he went home and was admitted to a local hospital and they diagnosed him with an aggressive form of pneumonia, explaining that, quote, the pain, exhaustion and bleeding had been caused by a series of pulmonary hemorrhages. Holy shit. Yeah. Over the course of the next year, his condition did not improve. After 11 months of aggressive treatment, his doctors started suspecting that he was evolving into tuberculosis. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

So following his injury at Con Ed, he collected 26 weeks of sick pay. And when that ran out and he was unable to go back to work in early 1932, he lost his job at Con Ed. That's so fucked up. For reasons that we can't figure out, they're very unclear. He waited two years before filing a workers' compensation claim with the company. Okay. But he was told he'd waited too long to file it and it was denied.

Okay. Which like, yeah, that's a long time and I don't understand the wait, but I'm also like he was dealing with tuberculosis. Yeah, that's fair. So I don't know if that was, but I'm like somebody should have helped him do that. You're like, I wonder why that lag happened. Yeah. In the years after that, he filed one appeal after another, growing increasingly angry and increasingly bitter as each one was denied. Okay.

In between his appeals, he received ongoing treatment for his condition, including a long stay in Arizona, which was paid for by his sisters who were financially supporting him. Um...

May Mateski, one of his sisters, told a reporter, we've given up everything for ourselves to provide for him and give him everything he wants and needs. When it was clear the executives at Con Ed had no intention of paying out his claim or taking any responsibility for his injuries or the emotional suffering he'd endured since losing his job. That's crazy.

George decided to take matters into his own hands and punish them. Also crazy. Also crazy. He later said, That's awful. Yeah.

And that's what his letters to the State Industrial Commission, the governor's office, and Con Ed, they all went unacknowledged as well. Wow. So everyone was just ignoring him, which again, not a reason to do what he did at all. No. Because he's also...

He's already dealing with mental illness. Clearly. It was very clear that this was happening already. Just set it off. There's something simmering under the surface for a while. Yeah. But being ignored, it only exacerbated his anger, which sent him deeper into the paranoia and the mental illness that was brewing. And he started believing his only course of action was to force the executives at Con Ed and everyone else who ignored him to take notice and acknowledge what he had suffered.

Which, again, not cool. No. Not cool of Con Ed. No. At fucking all. No. But not cool of George Metesky to start punishing people for it. You can't take those things and that kind of thing is like you're making people, innocent people suffer. Yeah. You know what I mean? And it's like this whole thing is just a series of injustices. And you're making innocent people suffer similarly to how you suffered. That's the thing. You know, like that's like.

This is a series of injustices. It is. Because when you hear about the con ed stuff, you're like, that's fucked up. Absolutely. Like, real fucked up. But it goes back to the very simple thing of two wrongs don't make a right. Yeah. And this is just, you're making, again, innocent people suffer. You don't know. Like, there's children in those theaters. Right. You know, like, they don't have anything to do with con ed being a corrupt, you know, organization here. Right.

Having found the file that she believed she was looking for, Alice Kelly, that clerk that found that file. Queen Kelly. Yeah, you know, our girl Kelly, took the material to her supervisor who delivered it to Herbert Schrank, who was the supervisor of the Con Ed task force. And then it was turned over to the NYPD.

investigators contacted the Waterbury police, but because they were looking for George Mateski instead of George Malauskas... Oh, that fucking teacher. That fucking teacher. The detectives in Waterbury had no record of this suspect. Oh, no. Fortunately, one of the veteran detectives thought the request was worth following up on, so he did some digging and discovered...

Which like, hell yeah to that detective. For real. I'm like, what even digging do you do there? He discovered that it was the same name, like the name of the employee and the name of the man who lived at the address that was on the file were the same. Yes. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird.

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On the afternoon of January 21st, 1957, the first groups of NYPD bomb squad investigators left the city and headed for Waterbury, Connecticut. Once they had all arrived at the police department in Waterbury, the large group of officers traveled to Metesky's house and arrived a little before midnight.

At the house, most of the officers stayed back while a small group went to the steps on the wooden porch and rang the bell. And they all had hands on guns ready for anything to happen. They didn't really need to because they didn't open to some raving, you know, the raving maniac that they thought they were going to see or some armed assassin, you

The door opened and they were met by a middle-aged, ordinary man dressed in pajamas and a bathrobe. The fuck? Detective Lehane later said, it was almost like the guy was waiting for us. His hair was neatly combed. His eyeglasses were spotless, sparkling even. Damn. Well, everybody said he was meticulous. They said, your fucking glasses are clean. They said, damn, bitch. They sparkled to clean lights. What do you mean?

Like, damn. Sparkling even. I've never heard somebody describe somebody else's glasses as sparkling even. Like, wow. The lead detective from Waterbury confirmed that the man was indeed George Metesky. Then he explained that the other officers were from New York City. And...

And he said, Lehane said, we're checking on an auto accident. Do you own an automobile? And Mateski confirmed he did not own a car. And when presented with the search warrant for the house, he said, oh, that won't be necessary. If you say you have a warrant, I believe you. Come on inside. The fuck? Just invited them inside.

So inside the house, the detectives noted that it was small, but appeared very well ordered, very well cared for. Sparkling even. Sparkling even. And so two detectives kept Metesky occupied with questions and the others were searching the home.

In one of the drawers in the bedroom, they discovered a notebook with George's name boldly printed on the cover, and inside they recognized the very same block printing that was from the bomber's letters. After finding the notebook, the detectives asked to see the garage, and they said, you should probably get dressed before we go out there.

Um, and when they said you should probably get dressed before joining us in the garage, he said, this is not then about that auto accident, is it? And he said, and one of the detectives said, you know why we're here, don't you, George? And George shrugged his shoulders and they just surrounded him. And finally, with everyone staring at him like silently, he just said, maybe you suspect that I'm the mad bomber?

And Detective Michael Lynch was a little shocked at this response. He was like, wow. That came out of nowhere. And then said, maybe you're not so mad. And he said, tell me, George, what does FP stand for? And Metesky looked at him super calm and said, fair play. What the fuck? Which is like...

just the most in a weird but also the most nonchalant arrest i think we've ever heard of yeah and they just were like tell me what that stands for they didn't even have to coax it out of him he was just like fair play again it's like a movie that's like a line in a movie where you're like that would never fucking happen literally that's the one that was so cinematic to me just like tell me george what does that stand for fair play fair play damn yeah

At the Waterbury police station, George was led into one of the small interrogation rooms and he spent several hours talking to investigators. To their surprise, he was very calm, almost pleased about being arrested, to be honest. He made no attempt to deny any of the charges. He spoke softly. He was very, very polite.

And he just worked with them to create a timeline of events going back to the first bomb planted at Con Ed building in 1940. Like, Brody, you know, you're going to jail for like a really long time. Prison, in fact. Yeah. The following morning, the front pages of all the papers in New York and many others around the country proudly announced Metesky's arrest.

Over the years, several people had claimed, either in letters or calls, to be the bomber, only to turn out to be assholes. Not the bomber. Although they found no evidence of explosive devices in George's home, the detectives on the bomb squad were pretty convinced they had the right person. One of the investigators told the New York Times, it looks good, but he has to be checked out. All things indicate he is the man.

After years of ranting and outrage, George Metesky was finally getting the attention he so desperately wanted. But not everyone was convinced of his guilt. Huh. His sister Anna, of which I think his sisters really do just love him. Yeah. Took care of him. His sister Anna told a reporter from the Associated Press, he wouldn't think of doing anything like that. He's one of the best fellows you ever saw. Oh, break my heart. I know.

Whether his sisters believed it or not, George never wavered in his admission of guilt for at least 30 bombs placed around New York City. And he knew what FP meant. After his interrogation in Waterbury, he was transferred back to New York, where he was arraigned on one charge of felonious assault for the Penn Station bomb that injured the porter, one count of malicious mischief, and one count of violating the Sullivan Law for possession of bombs as dangerous weapons.

If convicted of all three of these charges, he would face 42 years in prison. But it was possible he was going to face many additional charges other than just bombs. And he would face significantly more time for that. During the arraignment, George's court-appointed lawyer, Benjamin Schmeer, argued that before any dates were set for hearings, he should be evaluated by psychiatrists at Bellevue Hospital. Agreed.

He said, the defendant speaks fluently and speaks very well. He is a man who can easily pass for your next door neighbor. But in speaking with this defendant and with all the thousands of cases in my background, I see a man with a psychosis, with a persecution complex. He tells me that all his grievment against the public is satiated only by bombings.

The defendant justifies himself against the general public with bombings. This indicates a schizophrenic personality. I'm not sure that the defendant can differentiate between right and wrong. I think he doesn't understand the charges against him. Interesting. Which kind of makes sense with how calm and controlled he is with, like, admitting this and helping them with the timeline. He just doesn't see this as something he did wrong. Right. He's like, yeah. It's just something he did, period. This is justice. Right.

So the district attorney, Carl Grabeau, was inclined to agree with this assessment, and he didn't object to him being committed to Bellevue for observation. He said, My feeling is that the defendant's actions are indicative of an ostensibly deranged mind, and this led the judge to order the commitment. On January 30th, while George was still being held at Bellevue, a grand jury was convened to review the evidence and hear testimony from 35 witnesses.

After hearing the prosecution's case, Metesky was indicted on 47 counts, including attempted murder, damaging a building by explosion, and endangering life by maliciously placing an explosive in a building. Yeah. If you are found guilty of all the charges against him, he faced a maximum sentence of 815 years in prison. Oh. A lot of years. I don't know if we'll see the end of that.

Fortunately for George, he would never face a jury. On April 18th, after two hearings on the matter of his sanity, Judge Samuel Leibowitz declared George legally insane and ordered that he be committed to Matawan State Hospital. Wow. He said, "...one would be less than human not to be sympathetically moved by this pitiful condition of this hopeless, incurable man."

In the months since his arrest, he had been evaluated several times by the doctors at Bellevue, who diagnosed him with schizophrenia of the paranoid type. Oh, that's very sad. And they did confirm that George, quote, does not properly comprehend the gravity of his offenses and is not capable of conferring with his lawyer to draw up a legal defense. Okay. In the months after, Judge Leibowitz ordered George to Matawan Hospital in...

And they just like weighed their options with how, if at all, they should move forward with the case. He's being committed now. Right. Ultimately, in September 1957, the prosecutor's office announced that given the severity of his mental illness and the unlikeliness that he was going to improve, they were declining to prosecute George and the case against him was closed. I mean, he's going to be in the hospital forever, right? You would think that. I don't agree with this.

I think they should have prosecuted him and just hold him at the hospital. It's fine. He doesn't need to go to prison. I agree with that. Yeah. He needs help and like to be, I think they should have prosecuted him to safeguard themselves. Okay. The next day, one of George's unexploded bombs was discovered in one of the seats at the Lowe's Lexington Theater in Manhattan. Oh no. And it was almost like this was like, I feel like that was the universe being like, I told you so. You made a mistake. Okay.

So following the judge's order, George was in such poor health from his tuberculosis that he had to be carried from the car into the hospital. And he was given just a few weeks to live. Wow. So he had like ongoing tuberculosis. Oh, yeah. It's crazy that he lived as long as he did with it. Yeah. And what's crazy is despite these odds where they're saying you have literally weeks to live, he persisted and his health improved. What the fuck?

What the fuck? In 1958, he filed suit against Con Edison in New York court, arguing that their actions had led directly to his reign of bombings over the years and they should bear some responsibility. The judge, on the other hand, disagreed and denied Metesky's claim. Those two things don't necessarily correlate. In 1956, nearly 10 years after he was committed to the state hospital, he successfully petitioned the New York appeals court to have his mental health re-evaluated.

and pending a positive report, gain his freedom. Oh. In his appeal request, he claimed that he was, quote, not given an opportunity to present evidence in support of his petition or to cross-examine a medical witness. Unfortunately for George, after reviewing that case, he was deemed incompetent in order to remain there until he was deemed well enough to be released. Several years later, in 1973, he again petitioned the court for reevaluation, and this time, he was successful.

On December 13th, 1973, after 17 years of incarceration, he was released. During his hearing, he insisted he had foresworn violence, but the grudge he held against Con Ed remained. He said, I have no bitterness, but I wanted to show up what was done to me.

Which to me says, like, you're still not really taking responsibility. Yeah, you're putting it on Con Ed. You're still saying that, like, ooh. I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for Con Ed. Which very well may be true that he would never have done anything had he not been so gravely injured. But it doesn't excuse it. Yeah.

Following his release, he returned to his family home in Waterbury, where he spent most of his time caring for his aging sister, May. Aw. I know, it really does like their relationship. Their sweet family. At 70, he said, or later, he told a reporter in 1977, at 73, you don't make the rounds looking for work. Things are at a standstill for now.

Years later, when he reflected on his life, I will say this, George seemed to regret most of his choices. That's good. He did remain angry about the way he was treated by Con Ed, which I can understand that. He said, my life has been a series of shattered dreams. He said that in 1981.

Despite the passage of time and his ongoing mental health treatment, George Metesky never really took full responsibility for the damage he'd done. Which is not cool. And the fear that he caused. Choosing instead to blame his problems on other people.

He said, every promise made to me has been broken. But still, when it came to his interests in bombs and mom making, George said he had put that behind him. He said, you can forget all about that. That's all over. I don't know if anybody will ever forget that. I don't know if we can do that. On May 23, 1994, George Metesky died of natural causes in his home in Waterbury, Connecticut at 90 years old. Wow, he lived a long time. He was very ill for most of his life. Yeah.

Which is almost even sadder that he had to live so long so ill. But then you think of what he did. Well, it's just like... What a layered case. It's a very layered case because it's like there's no... I don't know what the justice is here. I really don't. Yeah. Because there's a lot of different pieces. Well, and with the whole mental illness piece, it's...

It's hard because it's like, did he ever even understand that he should have taken responsibility? I know that's the thing. It's like, I don't know. Like, was his mind capable of that?

schizophrenia with paranoid tendencies is like that's pretty serious. It is very serious. And I don't know. Because like what Con Ed did by not taking responsibility for the injuries and suffering that happened on the job there is fucked up. It's really just a cautionary tale of not taking responsibility for anything on any part. And then the part in the middle with the bombings is just insanity. Because it's like

You can't cause innocent people harm because of something that was done to you by a corporation. Like an isolated event. You know what I mean? Like, I can understand the grudge against the company that treated you that awful, but going down that road is just, it's really... Not the way to go. You're punishing the wrong people. Yeah, truly. But he clearly did not comprehend that. No. Which is interesting. That's crazy.

And again, I wonder what it was like to live in New York at this time. I know. Yeah. Like you said last episode, if anybody has like grandparents or anything who were around during that time, it'd be interesting to hear. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. That was a really interesting case. It's hard to figure out how to feel about that case. Truly. Like truly, truly hard to figure out how to feel. Because what he did was so incredibly wrong. Oh, yeah. No matter what. Horrific. I can't imagine living in New York.

But then you weirdly also feel bad for him at the same time. Well, you feel bad for what happened to him. Exactly. You know, you don't like... Well, and then he's suffering mental illness. You don't support the actions later. You support his feelings of bitterness. Yeah. But again, you gotta... There's gotta be a different way, man. And I do agree with you. You can't cause innocent people...

and injuries. Yeah. Well, and I wanted to hear the rest of the story before I decided if I agreed or not that he should have been prosecuted. I agree with you. They should have safeguarded themselves. Yeah. I just, I don't know. I think luckily he didn't get out and continue to offend. Yeah. Thank God. But it's like, that's,

That's a gamble. Yeah. That's what I felt like. Yeah. Wow. I'd never heard that before. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That's the bad bomber of New York. Well, write in with your stories and let us know if we can share them because that would be fun to update on. Yeah, I would love to hear them. And with that being said, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it.

But not somewhere that you take one isolated event and take it out on an entire city that's densely populated for many, many years and never say you're sorry. Yeah. Don't do that. Don't do that. And be good to your employees. Yeah, exactly. We love Mikey. We love Mikey. And Dave. And Dave! And Debbie! And Debbie! We love our employees! ... ... ...

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Hey, weirdos, if Ash and Elena's episode on Ken McElroy left you wondering how someone could become so cruel, manipulative and untouchable, you'll want to hear my psychological breakdown of this case on my podcast, Killer Psyche. I examined the twisted mindset behind McElroy's reign of terror, how he exploited fear, used charm as a weapon and turned an entire town into his victims.

Understanding what made him tick is exactly the kind of insight I bring on Killer Psyche, where I use my experience profiling criminals for the FBI to uncover what drives people like Ken McElroy to become predators. So if you're curious about the mind behind the mayhem, join me for an inside look at the psychology of a man who got away with everything until he didn't. Follow Killer Psyche on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.