On this day, Dec. 21, in 1994, an unemployed computer analyst, firebombed a subway train at the crowded Fulton Street station in Manhattan’s financial district. At 1:35 p.m., the device went off with a loud pop in the sixth car of the No. 4 train, which was crammed with passengers. Flames shot to the ceiling and swept through the car.
Passengers panicked, and 48 people were injured, including Edward Leary. Police realized Leary was the culprit after he went in for medical treatment in Brooklyn.
Leary had also planted a bomb on another subway car that exploded prematurely on Dec. 15, 1994, injuring two teenagers in Harlem.
Leary blamed the combination of prescriptions drugs he was taking for depression. He was sentenced to 94 years for the attacks.
Scott McCabe
