On this day, 52 years ago, New York City police arrested the “Mad Bomber,” George P. Metesky, whose explosives terrorized the city over two decades.
Metesky planted at least 33 bombs, of which 22 exploded, injuring 15 people, but took a break during World War II for patriotic reasons.
Bombs were left in phone booths, lockers and restrooms in public buildings, including Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station, Radio City Music Hall and the New York Public Library.
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Detectives finally were able to apprehend Metesky through the early use of criminal profiling and clues in letters that he wrote to a newspaper. Metesky, who had been injured in a factory explosion but denied workers compensation because he filed his claim too late, confessed to setting the pipe bombs because he had been given “a bum deal.”
Metesky was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital. He was eventually returned to his home in Waterbury, where he died 20 years later at the age of 90.
